PS in the 1988 leadership contest, Beith was the centrist candidate and Ashdown campaigned from the centre left. Ditto Steel who was well to the left of the SDP and David Owen in particular.

Right. Forgive me but I remember Paddy being rather pompous in tone, kind of what you would expect from an ex military, centre right Tory MP in the shires. Not necessarily a bad thing, overall.

Talking about this seat- Labour have started the process of selecting their candidate for the next election. It will be an all women shortlist.

Also, Ashdown ran for the leadership with a very Left-wing pitch, arguing the Lib Dems should seek to replace Labour as the official opposition to the Conservatives

Whilst I’ll concede that Ashdown did come across as a kind of shire Tory and as leader he was fairly centrist – he opposed the reintroduction of the minimum wage in the 92 manifesto (scarcely seems believable now) – but the Parliamentary party was considerably more social democratic back then and prior to the Lid Dem breakthrough in 97 you just didn’t get centre right Lib Dem MPs like David Laws, Jeremy Browne and Danny Alexander

Aside from supporting the bedroom tax (a really nasty right wing policy) and going along with the hike in tuition fees which went against everything they had said, I thought the Lib Dems played their expected role as moderators to the Tories fairly well and deserved better than the drubbing they always looked likely to receive the moment they established the coalition government

Tbf David Owen wanted to replace Labour on the left

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/latest-news/disabled-sheffield-mp-jared-o-mara-opens-up-on-his-battle-to-adjust-to-life-in-westminster-1-9625585

Kind of late in the game to speak up about all this and how he’s now *ready* to take the reins as an MP. This comes a week after he sacked his staff.

Not to discount those with additional needs but O’Mara’s behaviour has been unbelievably deplorable. The Lib Dem candidate Laura Gordon has seemingly been putting in the work around Sheffield Hallam to make up for the lack of support.

While he’s now Independent, I can’t see Labour getting another chance here in a very very long time. Whenever a GE is, I can expect to see a massive swing back to the LD. Backlash against Labour for not vetting this one and presumably much of the Conservative support dropping over Brexit.

I’ve been out in Hallam. Impression I got are voters are going to Greens not Liberals

I agree with Neil. O’Hara has been an absolute disgrace…beyond useless. Some of the Lab candidates in the 2017 GE were dreadful selections…one assumes that both Onasanya and O’Hara were exercises in right on box ticking.

Labour hold with a reduced majority on the council.

In Dore and Totley the Conservatives were just about pushed into 3rd place by the Greens.

Very strong results for the Lib Dems. The Greens did well where they normally do and appear to be challenging Labour’s 2nd place quite a fair bit in some of the leafier suburban wards. They also took Gledless Valley, a reliable Labour ward in the south of the city with a pretty visible campaign. Stretches from Meersbrook which has a mixture of longer term residents and young professionals to large council estates.

Seems like Labour’s fate increasingly depends on the east of Sheffield but even parts of that could be vulnerable in time. Aside from the most ethnically diverse wards, WWC ones still have a considerable UKIP presence with them coming in 2nd place.