Trivia

[neilm]

Aug 12, 2016 12:09:44 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Aug 12, 2016 12:05:53 GMT LDCaerdydd said:

Can someone help me out?

There used to be a seat (I want to say City of London) who's MP was traditionally allowed to sit on the front bench during the budget for some bizarre historical reason.

Anyone know where and why?

I'm sure I haven't made this up!

It was a tradition that the MPs for the City of London used to be able to sit on the Treasury Bench, regardless of their party allegiance or whether they were in government.

Here's a reference from the Gentleman's Magazine for January 1819.

When did this practice end?

[greenhert]

Aug 12, 2016 5:28:30 GMT neilm said:

I thought Mildred Gordon stood down, or was that connected with boundary changes?

It was connected with boundary changes that split her Bow & Poplar seat between Bethnal Green & Bow and Poplar & Canning Town.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Aug 13, 2016 9:30:47 GMT greenhert said:

Aug 12, 2016 5:28:30 GMT neilm said:

I thought Mildred Gordon stood down, or was that connected with boundary changes?

It was connected with boundary changes that split her Bow & Poplar seat between Bethnal Green & Bow and Poplar & Canning Town.

From memory both Nigel Spearing and Mildred Gordon applied for the selection in Poplar and Canning Town, but both lost out badly to Jim Fitz who was very well known to activists from his position as GLLP chair.

I think the tradition of the City of London's MPs sitting on the Treasury bench died out because they stopped exercising it.

[hullenedge]

Report about the German Locals 1946:-

www.dropbox.com/sh/f1a76wu2alojb6i/AACHaNHHzvXtCs8kEzInirhta?dl=0

[hullenedge]

Redrawn Sheffield wards, 1929:-

www.dropbox.com/s/1hkhydoz52cv7ul/Sheffield%20wards%201929%20i.png?dl=0
www.dropbox.com/s/i82eoo9t09fto8v/Sheffield%20wards%201929%20ii.png?dl=0
www.dropbox.com/s/6jowwiokxwn9rny/Sheffield%20wards%201929%20iii.png?dl=0

[David Ashforth]

Aug 24, 2016 9:25:53 GMT hullenedge said:

Redrawn Sheffield wards, 1929:-

www.dropbox.com/s/1hkhydoz52cv7ul/Sheffield%20wards%201929%20i.png?dl=0
www.dropbox.com/s/i82eoo9t09fto8v/Sheffield%20wards%201929%20ii.png?dl=0
www.dropbox.com/s/6jowwiokxwn9rny/Sheffield%20wards%201929%20iii.png?dl=0

Thank you for this. Sheffield Libraries has a guide to boundary changes but it focuses on extensions to the city's boundary rather than ward boundary changes.

Some of the councillors mentioned in your documents are pictured here on May Day 1925.

[John Chanin]

Aug 13, 2016 10:07:00 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Aug 13, 2016 9:30:47 GMT greenhert said:

It was connected with boundary changes that split her Bow & Poplar seat between Bethnal Green & Bow and Poplar & Canning Town.

From memory both Nigel Spearing and Mildred Gordon applied for the selection in Poplar and Canning Town, but both lost out badly to Jim Fitz who was very well known to activists from his position as GLLP chair.

This is correct, as someone living and working in the area at the time.  Mildred Gordon was considered too old and slightly batty.  Nigel Spearing had lost the confidence of Labour members who were pleased to have an excuse to get rid of him. 

[hullenedge]

Amongst the really old stuff there's some good photos of Morley locals in the 60s and 1972:-

www.leodis.net/searchResults.aspx?LOCID=52&DECADE=0&YEAR=&KEYWORDS=election&KEYWORDS2=&ANDOR2=&KEYWORDS3=&ANDOR3=&RECSPAGE=5&IMG=0&VIEW=1&RESID=&PUBID=&CURRPAGE=1

[greenhert]

The shortest-lived parliamentary constituencies ever to be created in the UK lasted just five years, from 1945 to 1950 in some cases and from 1950 to 1955 in others. They were:

1945-50:

Bucklow, Cheshire (its most prominent parts formed Cheadle)
Birmingham Acock's Green (split from Birmingham Moseley; later itself split in two)
Ealing East
Ealing West

1950-55:

Midlothian & Peebles
Blackburn East
Blackburn West
Droylsden, Lancashire
Croydon East
Croydon West
Stroud & Thornbury, Gloucestershire
Sheffield Neepsend
Nottingham North West

[hullenedge]

Ealing East lasted until 1974. It was renamed Ealing South from 1950.

[Pete Whitehead]

There weren't full boundary changes in 1945. There was just something like 20 seats which had become hugely oversized (mainly in the suburbs of London and a couple of other large cities) which were broken up. 1950 was a full boundary review and the intention was then to run them more frequently but this didn't happen after 1955

[The Bishop]

Even after the changes referred to, the 1945-50 period saw a vastly greater disparity in constituency sizes than we have seen in more recent years.

[greenhert]

The 1979-83 period saw a very large disparity in constituency sizes as well. According to the 1979 Times Guide to the House of Commons, of which I have a copy, Glasgow Central's electorate was only 19,816 in 1979, but Bromsgrove & Redditch's electorate was 104,375 in 1979 (more than quintuple the size of Glasgow Central, and more than treble the size of some inner-city seats in England!)

[neilm]

Newcastle Central was very small as well IIRC, whereas Shirley Williams' seat was huge.

[hullenedge]

Whilst waiting for Wednesday...a link to the 1973 'mini report':-

www.dropbox.com/sh/3xxqi029py24e6v/AADwIHo9rWKbf9ilCkM4Nexea?dl=0

[hullenedge]

A Liberal devolution scheme (Power to the Provinces, 1968):-

www.dropbox.com/s/q9h8plgrrxeznxy/1968%20i.jpg?dl=0
www.dropbox.com/s/su11chr5sce69rs/1968%20ii.jpg?dl=0
www.dropbox.com/s/z4k3ci42zdonqs2/1968%20iii.jpg?dl=0

Also, photo taken at The Adelphi, Liverpool:-

www.dropbox.com/s/orlcomzo27zgq2k/JHW%20Adelphi.jpg?dl=0

[J.G.Harston]

Sept 24, 2016 23:15:50 GMT hullenedge said:

A Liberal devolution scheme (Power to the Provinces, 1968):-

www.dropbox.com/s/q9h8plgrrxeznxy/1968%20i.jpg?dl=0
www.dropbox.com/s/su11chr5sce69rs/1968%20ii.jpg?dl=0
www.dropbox.com/s/z4k3ci42zdonqs2/1968%20iii.jpg?dl=0

Why do these schemes seem to always tear Whitby out of Yorkshire?

[hullenedge]

Probably because these schemes are drawn up by people who don't live in nor understand Yorkshire? Parallels with the current Metro Mayor proposals?

[warofdreams]

Sept 6, 2016 21:10:23 GMT greenhert said:

The shortest-lived parliamentary constituencies ever to be created in the UK lasted just five years, from 1945 to 1950 in some cases and from 1950 to 1955 in others. They were:

1945-50:

Bucklow, Cheshire (its most prominent parts formed Cheadle)
Birmingham Acock's Green (split from Birmingham Moseley; later itself split in two)
Ealing East
Ealing West

1950-55:

Midlothian & Peebles
Blackburn East
Blackburn West
Droylsden, Lancashire
Croydon East
Croydon West
Stroud & Thornbury, Gloucestershire
Sheffield Neepsend
Nottingham North West

Not quite the shortest-lived; many constituencies in Ireland were created in 1918, but in 1922 those south of the border ceased to be part of the UK (almost all were never represented anyway, as Sinn Fein won them in 1918), while almost all of those north of the border were merged into much larger seats in 1922.

[Foggy]

Sept 7, 2016 13:35:14 GMT neilm said:

Newcastle Central was very small as well IIRC, whereas Shirley Williams' seat was huge.

Hertford and Stevenage had about 87,620 electors in 1979. Certainly oversized, but probably seemed even larger as it had a turnout above 80%. Both the top two candidates received in excess of 30,000 votes.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central had an electorate around the 23,680 mark. Preposterously small, but not as bad as Glasgow Central at the time.