Themes: Elections
The language of elections
Review of Luke Blaxill, The War of Words: The Language of British Elections, 1880–1914 (Royal Historical Society, Boydell Press, 2020).
Analysing the 2015 and 2017 elections
Review of Philip Cowley and Dennis Kavanagh, The British General Election of 2015 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016); Philip Cowley and Dennis Kavanagh, The British General Election of 2017 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
The shock of coalition
Review of Edward Fieldhouse, Jane Green, Geoffrey Evans, Jonathan Mellon, Christopher Prosser, Hermann Schmitt, and Cees van der Eijk, Electoral Shocks: The volatile voter in a turbulent world (OUP, 2020).
General Election 2019: Disappointment for the Liberal Democrats
Report of online meeting 8 July 2020, with with Professor Sir John Curtice and James Gurling; chair Wendy Chamberlain MP.
The 1979 general election
Report of evening meeting, 3 February 2020 with David (Lord) Steel and Professor Sir John Curtice. Chair: Lord Wallace.
Asquith’s return to parliament at the 1920 Paisley by-election
Analysis of the by-election that returned the Liberal leader to the Commons.
On this day 10-1-1916
The by-election was caused by the elevation to the peerage of the sitting Liberal MP, Captain Cecil Norton. Although a relatively marginal seat, the Unionists abided by the wartime political truce and gave the Liberals a free run. However, the new Liberal candidate, J.D. Gilbert, was opposed by a militant trade unionist and socialist, Joe…
On this day 17-1-1906
In a foretaste of Bottomley’s controversial career, his campaign included issuing writs for libel against several of his opponent’s supporters. Bottomley was to hold the seat in both 1910 elections but eventually had to leave the Commons in May 1912 when he resigned due to bankruptcy. He returned to parliament at the 1918 ‘coupon’ election,…
On this day 9-12-1915
The by-election was triggered by Herbert Samuel’s appointment to ‘an office of profit under the crown’ when he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster following the resignation of Winston Churchill. Ironically, Samuel was not going to take the salary as he was already Postmaster-General. Samuel was opposed by Reginald Knight, standing as a candidate…
On this day 29-3-1916
In a rare wartime contest, Liberal and coalition candidate, T.O. Jacobson, fought off a strong campaign by the Independent, D.P. Davies who polled 44%. The by-election was caused by the resignation of the previous, controversial Liberal MP, Francis Neilsen. Neilsen had been absent in the United States for almost a year due to ill-health and,…