A tweet from the Labour leader of Newcastle City Council won the internet yesterday. It shows the candidates for North West Durham in the 1992 election. Labour’s Hilary Armstrong represented the seat from 1987-2010, but her opponents in 1992 were interesting. There was one Theresa May for the Conservatives looking like she was about to leap out of the photograph and eat you if you disagreed with her and a very youthful Tim Farron.
He was just a month shy of his 22nd birthday when he stood in that election.
Thanks to my dad's pile of old newspapers, here are the candidates for the first election I voted in! pic.twitter.com/GTlLh0v87G
— Nick Forbes (@nick_forbes) July 10, 2015
In the interests of balance, if anyone has old pictures of Norman Lamb that they wish to share, do send them to us.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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13 Comments
Bless! I hope May and Farron put hair gel on their election expenses.
A truly passionate Tim was on sensational form in last night’s Any Questions. Repeat 1.00 this afternoon. Essential listening.
One day I shall share how Hilary Armstrong provided essential help and support to enable the Liberal Democrats to take control of Liverpool CC for the first and only time in 1998.
Finally, last year I heard Michael Steed essay an answer to his own question – Did the Great War really kill the Liberal Party? He has published an article on this in the latest edition of the Journal of Liberal History.
He starts from the Trevor Wilson thesis published in ‘The Downfall of the Liberal Party 1914-35’, which uses the metaphor of a ‘a rampant omnibus which mounted the pavement and ran over him (the Party)’. Steed sees signs of Liberal decline in election results before 1914.
In a subsequent exchange with Michael, when I asked him if he had detected any similar decline before the Clegg leadership, asked me what I thought might be the Trevor Wilson metaphor for our present situation.
The answer came to me this morning. It has to be the bus carrying the gold in the Italian Job hanging over the cliff with the gold at one end and Messers Farron and Lamb in the front seats.
What happens next?
What happens next is a sequel/remake with modern (BMW) MINIs instead of Morris Mini-Minors.
Something similar has allegedly happened to the Labour Party in Scotland, as evidenced by a by-election win for Scottish Liberal Democrats in a constituency adjacent to Gordon Brown’s. Not held, regrettably.
The Political Secretary to former Prime Minister Ted Heath wrote about something similar happening to the Conservative Party during 1970-1974. (Douglas Hurd “sitting on window-sills).
Julian Critchley, then Tory MP for Aldershot, wrote about some thing similar happening to the Conservative Party during the premiership of the Great She Elephant (a compliment if you live in Swaziland).
A relentless drive for efficiency was undermining the little monopolies and oligopolies of Tory Party members.
It may be best to record the radio programme and analyse it using a pause button.
Also ask could a black woman such as Serena Williams,win Wimbledon? (or a gay woman such as Martina Navratilova?)
Bill – Altogether now: “We’re the Lib Dem Preservation Society…..”
I’m sorry you felt the need to post this. The period after Tim and Theresa’s Eurythmics tribute band split up was a very difficult time for all involved.
Hilary essentially inherited her seat from her father, Ernest Armstrong. A few years before this, I was pleased to assist Phil Hanmer to defeat her in the Thornholme ward (Sunderland) of Tyne & Wear County Council.
Ruth, brilliant. Big Hug.
James, that had me howling with laughter:-)
The first time I met Tim Farron was when he came to Union of Liberal Students Spring Conference in March 1987 at the London School of Economics when I was National Secretary (oh so grand!) of ULS. He was at Runshaw Tertiary College at the time and accompanied much more senior and experienced ULS member from the same College (i.e. he had been to the previous Conference), Tim Pickstone. From memory he looked quite a lot like this picture at 16 also.
Tim’s current haircut is fractionally more similar to the 1992 model today than Theresa’s is!
Incidentally, googel fans, Theresa May is not to be confused with Teresa May!!!
Historical query: Was there ever really a hyphen in “Liberal-Democrat,” or was that just a typographical error by the newspaper?