That is a convoluted way of crow-barring in an immodest mention of this fact: I have now helped the Liberal Democrats at three by-elections in Oldham:
- Littleborough and Saddleworth, which had a slice of East Oldham in it I believe, in 1995. Now that was a gorgeous by-election – seeing the beautiful countryside bathed in sunshine was bliss.
- Oldham East and Saddleworth in 2011, which was in the middle of winter. There is a photographic evidence above of me stuffing envelopes with the then Party President Tim Farron in the campaign HQ just after New Year 2011.
- Oldham West and Royton last weekend. More lovely brisk weather to canvass in!
Unfortunately, I was just a bit too young for the 1899 Oldham by-election when the Liberals pasted the Tories, including one Winston Churchill.
All this brought to mind the two by-elections I’ve helped at in Eastleigh also.
I realize that the Oldham by-elections mentioned didn’t necessarily include common turf on all those occasions.
So, allowing for constituency name changes and boundary alterations, here’s a question for the highly knowledgeable brains’ trust which reads and comments on Liberal Democrat Voice:
Which piece of ground in the UK has had the most parliamentary by-elections fought on it, ever?
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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4 Comments
Go on. Tell us 🙂
When I wrote the post above I genuinely didn’t know., Tim. Thanks for the enquiry. A post is going up around 1pm which attempts to answer the question.
Since 1980 there have been 6 UK Parliament by-elections and 2 Scottish Parliament by-elections in Glasgow. Glasgow I accept is far bigger that Oldham, but it’s worth a mention.
Eastleigh was a constituency we had hoped to retain because all the councillors
were Lib Dems. Our former President (above) humbly worked his socks off. Tories disliked coming third. Their candidate was in tears.
Preparing for the following general election the local agent offered to pay expenses to out of area helpers. I went on a Sunday but did not claim. The MP told me that he could not stay because he had been given duties, presumably by the then leader, and flew off to do them. We did not retain the seat.