Trivia

[J.G.Harston]

May 13, 2024 10:37:47 GMT David Ashforth said:

Apr 13, 2024 11:37:19 GMT David Ashforth said:

Barnsley Archives and Local Studies: "We're celebrating 50 years of Barnsley Council with a small display in our reception area.

The council was formally established on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. The act brought major changes to the local government system and reduced the number of councils from 1245 to 412."

Oooo I remember that style of artwork and typeface.

[gwynthegriff]

May 13, 2024 14:33:28 GMT J.G.Harston said:

May 13, 2024 10:37:47 GMT David Ashforth said:

Oooo I remember that style of artwork and typeface.

Very widely used on bus timetables for a while.

[johnloony]

I’m not sure of we’ve had this one before: general election results in Ebbw Vale constituency:

1950
Aneurin Bevan (Lab) 28,245 (80.72306%)
G. B. Finley (Con) 6,745

1951
Aneurin Bevan (Lab) 28,283 (80.72323%)
J. E. Bowan (Con) 6,754

a swing from Conservative to Labour of 0.00017%

[johnloony]

1979 general election: two neighbouring constituencies:

Holland with Boston
Richard Body (Conservative) 35,440 (55.52%)
M. Fox (Labour) 17,908 (28.06%)
J. Wright (Liberal) 10,480 (16.42%)

Grantham
Douglas Hogg (Conservative) 36,697 (55.52%)
V. Bell (Labour) 18,547 (28.06%)
W.T. Bailey (Liberal) 10,852 (16.42%)

[johnloony]

The President of Italy is older than the President of France and the Prime Minister of France added together. If all three continue in office, it will continue until 14th August 2025.

[hullenedge]

Take a quiz and discover which type (out of six groups) you belong to:-

[🏴‍☠️ Neath West 🏴‍☠️]

Jun 21, 2024 8:55:09 GMT hullenedge said:

Take a quiz and discover which type (out of six groups) you belong to:-

Apparently there's a seventh type on there. I got this:

natcen.ac.uk/you-have-unusual-combination-views

My "unusual combination":

• Generally speaking, do you think of yourself as a supporter of any political party? Yes
  
• How much interest do you generally have in what is going on in politics? Quite a lot
  
• Young people today don’t have enough respect for traditional British values Agree strongly
• People who break the law should be given stiffer sentences Agree
  
• The law should always be obeyed, even if a particular law is wrong Agree
  
• Censorship of films and magazines is necessary to uphold moral standards Strongly disagree
  
• Immigrants increase crime rates Agree
  
• For some crimes, the death penalty is the most appropriate sentence Agree
  
• Big business benefits owners at the expense of workers Disagree
  
• Ordinary working people do not get their fair share of the nation’s wealth Agree
  
• There is one law for the rich and one for the poor Agree
  
• Government should redistribute income from the better-off to those who are less well off Disagree
  

[jamesdoyle]

Jun 21, 2024 8:55:09 GMT hullenedge said:

Take a quiz and discover which type (out of six groups) you belong to:-

Obviously I was going to be either a Soft Left Liberal or an Urban Progressive. It's the former. Surprise!

[Defenestrated Fipplebox]

I got soft left liberal which is probably correct for my class background and my social views. Less so for my economic point of view.

[aargauer]

Jun 21, 2024 8:55:09 GMT hullenedge said:

Take a quiz and discover which type (out of six groups) you belong to:-

"Oooh interesting. You have an unusual combination of views. 
We're not able to assign you to a voter type."

That just about says it all doesn't it. Apparently not wanting to use the state to stuff over people you don't like is so unusual so as to be unassignable.

[The Bishop]

Arguably they deserve a little credit for recognising that not everyone fits into neat little boxes.

[J.G.Harston]

Jun 21, 2024 9:23:03 GMT jamesdoyle said:

Jun 21, 2024 8:55:09 GMT hullenedge said:

Take a quiz and discover which type (out of six groups) you belong to:-

Obviously I was going to be either a Soft Left Liberal or an Urban Progressive. It's the former. Surprise!

I also got the "can't be classified" result.

[aargauer]

Jun 21, 2024 11:24:50 GMT The Bishop said:

Arguably they deserve a little credit for recognising that not everyone fits into neat little boxes.

My views are reasonably consistent and box fitting. It's just they aren't well catered for by those 6 groups, nor, by any of main political parties even with a lot of compromise .

At present, I feel about equidistant from all of the lib dems, reform and the tories, but quite a lot way from each. Both the tories and the lib dems have moved away from me.

[john07]

I didn't take the test as I got rid of Twitter as soon as Musk started sniffing around and have no intention of joining.

I find such exercises rather superficial anyway.

[greenhert]

Jul 9, 2019 22:49:15 GMT greenhert said:

One-termers: MPs who stood down after only one term (not counting those who had served previous terms in Parliament) or who never completed a full term of Parliament after being elected at a general election (list is since 1979):

1979-1983:

Labour:

Andy McMahon (forced out by boundary changes)
Helen McElhone (forced out by boundary changes)
Reg Race (forced out by boundary changes)
Sheila Wright

Conservative:

Tom Benyon (forced out by boundary changes)
Sheila Faith (tried and failed to migrate to another constituency after boundary changes made her seat notionally Labour)
Jocelyn Cadbury (committed suicide in 1982)
Keith Wickenden

DUP:

John McQuade (67 when elected in 1979)

Anti H-Block:

Bobby Sands (died on hunger strike in 1981)

1983-1987:

UUP:

Jim Nicholson (sought re-election over opposition to Anglo-Irish agreement and lost to the SDLP)

1987-1992:

Labour:

Michael Carr (died in 1990 after only 47 days in office)
Pat Wall (died in 1990)

Conservative:

Alan Amos (resigned after an alleged act of indecency)

1992-1997:

Labour:

Jimmy Boyce (died of cancer in 1994)

Conservative:

Hartley Booth (forced out by boundary changes)
Michael Stephen (forced out by boundary changes ipso facto)
Roy Thomason (stood down over financial problems regarding his nursing home companies)
Judith Chaplin (died from surgery complications in 1993)
Stephen Milligan (died from autoerotic asphyxiation in 1994)

1997-2001:

Labour:

Tess Kingham
Jenny Jones

Liberal Democrats:

Donald Gorrie (64 when elected in 1997)

SNP:

Alasdair Morgan (to avoid dual mandate)
John Swinney (to avoid dual mandate)

2001-2005:

Labour:

Paul Daisley (died of cancer in 2003)

2005-2010:

Labour:

Kitty Ussher
Jim Devine (due to expenses fraud for which he was later jailed)

Liberal Democrats:

David Howarth

Independent:

Peter Law (died of cancer in 2006)

2010-15:

Conservative:

Aidan Burley (after a scandal)
Chris Kelly
Dan Byles
Lorraine Fullbrook
Mike Weatherley
Laura Sandys
Jessica Lee
Louise Mensch (resigned in 2012)

Liberal Democrats:

Ian Swales

2015-17:

Labour:

Harry Harpham (died of cancer in 2016)
Jo Cox (murdered in 2016)

Conservative:

David Mackintosh (regarding investigations into Northampton FC)

(ex) SNP:

Natalie McGarry (over embezzlement of Women for Independence funds)
Michelle Thomson (see above)

Current Parliament (2017-present):

Labour:

Fiona Onasanya (recalled in 2019 after being convicted of perverting the course of justice in 2018; did not stand in by-election caused by successful recall petition)

Sinn Fein:

Barry McElduff (resigned after suspension of Sinn Fein whip following "Kingsmill" stunt)

2017-19 (in addition to the above)

Conservative:

Ross Thomson

Independent:

Jared O'Mara (elected as Labour)

2019-24:

Conservative:

Dehenna Davison
Nicola Richards (tried and failed to get selected in a safer seat)
Jamie Wallis (tried and failed to get selected in a safer seat)
Jo Gideon
Nickie Aiken
James Grundy
Aaron Bell
Mark Logan (defected to Labour but after Parliament had dissolved)
Scott Benton (recalled after being suspended from Parliament over breaching lobbying rules)
Imran Ahmad Khan (resigned after being convicted of sexual assault)

Labour:

Mick Whitley (forced out by boundary changes)
Beth Winter (forced out by boundary changes)
Sam Tarry (deselected)
Natalie Elphicke (elected as Conservative)

[hullenedge]

Was not aware that the Danish Greens are pink:-

[YL]

Jun 30, 2024 13:21:36 GMT hullenedge said:

Was not aware that the Danish Greens are pink

I presume this refers to the party which in Danish is called the Socialistisk Folkeparti (Socialist People's Party), for whom pink is not so surprising. They are often regarded as effectively a Green party (and are an affiliate of the European Greens) and have now adopted the official English name (Danish parties having official English names is a thing, apparently) "Green Left".

[YL]

Also I would map the Lib Dems to Radikale not to Venstre.

[manchesterman]

If a number of the opinion polls are correct, there is a real possibility Labour could win all 27 seats in the North East region of England.

Since the concept of segmenting (for convenience) various parts of England - which has existed for as long as I've been following such matters (NW, YH, WM, EM, London etc) - I'm pretty sure that no party has ever before won every seat in any region (unless you know different of course).

[john07]

Jun 6, 2024 13:25:39 GMT johnloony said:

The President of Italy is older than the President of France and the Prime Minister of France added together. If all three continue in office, it will continue until 14th August 2025.

The President of Italy is three months younger than the Predidentnof Ireland.