stb12
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Post by stb12 on May 21, 2023 18:50:51 GMT
Michael Cowan, as mentioned in the "MPs who never were" thread, Labour candidate for Ashfield in its 1977 by-election. Lost one of the safest Labour seats at the time to the Conservatives with a 22% swing against him. During that same parliament David Winnick also lost Walsall North on a similar big swing against in the aftermath of the John Stonehouse fiasco. But as we know he won the seat back at the next election and held it for a while longer… |
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Post by mattbewilson on May 21, 2023 19:00:31 GMT
The canonically correct answer is surely the unfortunate Arthur Griffith-Boscawen. Somewhat different circumstances, but there's also the unfortunate Patrick Gordon-Walker isn't there. I thought that |
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Post by finsobruce on May 21, 2023 19:03:24 GMT
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Post by heslingtonian on May 21, 2023 19:46:27 GMT
Lived to be 85. A good age for a male Glasweigan of his generation. |
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Post by timrollpickering on May 21, 2023 19:52:46 GMT
Personally, I would exclude Gerry Malone from the nominations for the worst mainstream by-election candidate. The Returning Officer's staff, through their acts and omissions, denied Malone victory in Winchester at the general election. He was quite right to bring the petition and was unfairly portrayed as a 'sore loser'. His defeat at the by-election was inevitable given the strength of the anti-Tory tsunami which continued throughout 1997 and into 1998. The problem is that this was an election where a fair vote would have elected one candidate and a fair administration would have elected the other. And unfortunately the election court could only hear one of the complaints (the other was already covered by precedent involving the same person). Malone certainly had a reasonable complaint that omissions by staff had denied citizens the vote they cast. However it was clear that Oaten would have won had the ballot paper not included Richard Huggett as a spoiler "Liberal Democrat Top Choice For Parliament" candidate (and a previous Huggett candidacy had generated the very case law that meant the Winchester Returning Officer could not prevent this). So in effect Malone was the intended loser in May 1997 and most in Winchester probably took the view that the failure to stamp had only just cancelled out the spoiler effect and so delivered the right result. |
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Post by timrollpickering on May 21, 2023 19:56:55 GMT
Tamsin Dunwoody says hi. (Note to party organizers: If you're planning an insurgent campaign with a '(wo)man of the people' type of candidate, make sure your nominee isn't the daughter, granddaughter and niece of peers.) And don't run a smear campaign on the poshness of the Tory candidate when his family has fostered over a hundred kids and are arguably the best employer in the nation, up to and including giving released criminals a second chance in life. A crap campaign certainly but to what extent was Dunwoody actually running the campaign and personally deciding that approach? There are a few cases mentioned above where the candidate had a contentious campaign (Ben Abbotts in Bromley 2006 springs to mind - I recall a just-stepped-down Lib Dem councillor in next door Lewisham publicly commenting that Abbotts did not deserve to win with his approach) but how many mainstream parties let the candidate make such decisions? |
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Post by heslingtonian on May 21, 2023 20:25:35 GMT
I distinctly recall Ben Abbotts behaving really rudely at the declaration for Bromley & Chislehurst and being very disrespectful in a way I've not seen from many mainstream candidates before or since. He appears to have sunk without trace in recent years thankfully.
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Post by finsobruce on May 21, 2023 20:38:48 GMT
I distinctly recall Ben Abbotts behaving really rudely at the declaration for Bromley & Chislehurst and being very disrespectful in a way I've not seen from many mainstream candidates before or since. He appears to have sunk without trace in recent years thankfully. Paul Bishop who stood for Labour in South Suffolk in 1997 was the rudest I ever saw, but that was at a Colchester election count rather than at the parliamentary. |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on May 21, 2023 20:40:41 GMT
I distinctly recall Ben Abbotts behaving really rudely at the declaration for Bromley & Chislehurst and being very disrespectful in a way I've not seen from many mainstream candidates before or since. He appears to have sunk without trace in recent years thankfully. Refresh your memory here: |
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Post by heslingtonian on May 21, 2023 21:08:04 GMT
I distinctly recall Ben Abbotts behaving really rudely at the declaration for Bromley & Chislehurst and being very disrespectful in a way I've not seen from many mainstream candidates before or since. He appears to have sunk without trace in recent years thankfully. Refresh your memory here: Watching that back, several well known faces in that line up. |
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Post by heslingtonian on May 21, 2023 21:11:50 GMT
Refresh your memory here: Watching that back, several well known faces in that line up. In hindsight, it was six of one and half a dozen of the other between Abbotts and Neil who clearly despised one another. |
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maxque
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Post by maxque on May 21, 2023 21:50:35 GMT
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Post by johnloony on May 21, 2023 22:59:09 GMT
I distinctly recall Ben Abbotts behaving really rudely at the declaration for Bromley & Chislehurst and being very disrespectful in a way I've not seen from many mainstream candidates before or since. He appears to have sunk without trace in recent years thankfully. Refresh your memory here: When I happened to meet Ben Abbotts by chance in the street during th campaign, i went ot introduce myself and to shake hands, as one does as a matter of routine courtesy on such occasions. He completely ignored me, and one of his minders physically manhandled me to stop me getting near. A few days later I met him again, and managed to shake hands with Charles Kennedy who was with him - but again Abbotts ignored me. At the count there was so much heckling and shouting that i could hardly hear what was being said by Bob Neill during his acceptance speech. I heard more from watching the TV video recording afterwards than from what I could actually hear on stage. I met Rachel Reeves in the middle of Bromley High Street - she was a lone forlorn person on her own (very much the minor candidate on that occasion). Steve Uncles of the English Democrats (who later went to prison for faking electoral registrations of fake voters, and forging nomination signatures in local elections) was a bit thick. He organised a press conference to launch his campaign, and had a room set up with 15 or 20 chairs. The only people who turned up to it were himself, his agent, and me (just out of curiosity). There were a lot of England flags on display in people’s houses and gardens (because of the World Cup happening) and I got the impression that he thought they were showing support for him. Many years later he tried to start an argument with me on Twitter when he belatedly noticed that I’m gay, and accused me of flaunting my sexuality by declaring it in my Twitter biography (claiming that heterosexual people don’t put “straight” in theirs) and asking me why. The National Front candidate didn’t want to come on stage for the declaration. During the count, he chatted with his agent rather than mingling with other parties, and I wasn’t even sure which of the two men was the candidate and which was the agent. |
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Crimson King
Lib Dem
Be nice to each other and sing in tune
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Post by Crimson King on May 22, 2023 8:00:33 GMT
Can I put in a bid for Tony Cook, SDP candidate for Darlington in 1983? Was probably heading for victory until it became clear what a chump he was. Julian Davidson, Conservative candidate for Newbury, was a dud - I think it was him who claimed a local connection to the seat on the basis of having driven through it quite often. Manuela Sykes was an impressive Liberal byelection candidate in Ipswich turned to a terrible Labour byelection candidate in Uxbridge. I’d second the nomination of Tony Cook. Accepting that it was a long time ago my impression was that it was his personal failings, rather than a misplaced or inadequate campaign that led to his loss, but also because it seemed to be the beginning of the end of the SDP momentum, so arguably had a longer term effect on the fortunes of his party, making him the worse candidate for a party mentioned so far |
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Post by batman on May 22, 2023 8:08:28 GMT
I distinctly recall Ben Abbotts behaving really rudely at the declaration for Bromley & Chislehurst and being very disrespectful in a way I've not seen from many mainstream candidates before or since. He appears to have sunk without trace in recent years thankfully. Paul Bishop who stood for Labour in South Suffolk in 1997 was the rudest I ever saw, but that was at a Colchester election count rather than at the parliamentary. and we're talking specifically by-elections anyway (says he extremely rudely - sorry finso) |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on May 22, 2023 8:14:38 GMT
Can I put in a bid for Tony Cook, SDP candidate for Darlington in 1983? Was probably heading for victory until it became clear what a chump he was. Julian Davidson, Conservative candidate for Newbury, was a dud - I think it was him who claimed a local connection to the seat on the basis of having driven through it quite often. Manuela Sykes was an impressive Liberal byelection candidate in Ipswich turned to a terrible Labour byelection candidate in Uxbridge. I’d second the nomination of Tony Cook. Accepting that it was a long time ago my impression was that it was his personal failings, rather than a misplaced or inadequate campaign that led to his loss, but also because it seemed to be the beginning of the end of the SDP momentum, so arguably had a longer term effect on the fortunes of his party, making him the worse candidate for a party mentioned so far There's a fascinating long internal memo from Bill Rodgers (a neighbouring MP) written just after the Darlington byelection, which was published in the Journal of Liberal History in 2015 which lays out the problems with Tony Cook: liberalhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/39-Rodgers-Rennard-Darlington.pdf |
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Crimson King
Lib Dem
Be nice to each other and sing in tune
Posts: 9,842
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Post by Crimson King on May 22, 2023 8:39:43 GMT
I’d second the nomination of Tony Cook. Accepting that it was a long time ago my impression was that it was his personal failings, rather than a misplaced or inadequate campaign that led to his loss, but also because it seemed to be the beginning of the end of the SDP momentum, so arguably had a longer term effect on the fortunes of his party, making him the worse candidate for a party mentioned so far There's a fascinating long internal memo from Bill Rodgers (a neighbouring MP) written just after the Darlington byelection, which was published in the Journal of Liberal History in 2015 which lays out the problems with Tony Cook: liberalhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/39-Rodgers-Rennard-Darlington.pdfThank you, that puts much better my gut feeling and hazy memories |
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Post by Pete Whitehead on May 22, 2023 9:30:59 GMT
Were they anticipating a by-election in Cardiff?
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Post by finsobruce on May 22, 2023 9:38:44 GMT
Were they anticipating a by-election in Cardiff? Michael Roberts, the Conservative MP for Cardiff North West had collapsed and died in the Commons in February, but a by election was being avoided as the general election was (sort of) imminent and the constituency was being abolished (having only been created for the Feb 1974 election).
Dafydd Wigley asked a question about it in the Commons on the 11th of April and the Speaker said it was nothing to do with him, unless he received an application for a writ. |
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Post by finsobruce on May 22, 2023 9:46:42 GMT
Paul Bishop who stood for Labour in South Suffolk in 1997 was the rudest I ever saw, but that was at a Colchester election count rather than at the parliamentary. and we're talking specifically by-elections anyway (says he extremely rudely - sorry finso) Won't anybody think of the thread drift?  |
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