Comments on: Finchley and Golders Green

By: Barnaby Marder

Barnaby Marder — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:40:14 +0000

Yes in 1945 it elected the Soviet apologist D.N.Pritt as “Labour Independent” (as opposed to the ILP which still existed & elected 3 Glasgow MPs at that time) before it reverted to official Labour in 1950. My father has had some slides digitally remastered on his computer & Pritt was shown with a delegation of “Democratic” (i.e.Communist) lawyers of which they were both part, to Sofia in the 60s.
I also have somewhere have a copy of the 1955 Times Guide & noticed that the Labour candidate here in Finchley that year was Terry Lancaster, later to become well-known as the Political Editor of the Daily Mirror. Labour were weak in this area then.

By: Pete Whitehead

Pete Whitehead — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:33:33 +0000

Unique I think rather than unusual. You would have to go back to 1945 when Hammersmith North was a non Labour seat (though Independent Labour) completely surrounded by Labour seats, or 1931 when it was a Conservative seat surrounded by Conservative seats. But it has never been a Labour seat completely surrounded by non-Labour seats

By: Barnaby Marder

Barnaby Marder — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:13:29 +0000

That’s true (though of course I wouldn’t use the word “mar”). Hammersmith at the moment, most unusually for that area, is completely surrounded by non-Labour seats, because of Teather’s win in Brent Central.

By: richard

richard — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:57:21 +0000

There are 3 separate blocks of Conservative constituencies in London:

An outer northern running from Uxbridge to Upminster.

An outer southern running from Crayford to Croydon.

A West-Central running from the City to Ealing, Brentford, Richmond and Wimbldeon.

The demographics of the outer two are similar to each other but both differ from the west-central.

The two constituencies which somewhat mar these blocks are this one and Hammersmith. If an electoral swap could be arranged the geography would be much nicer.

By: Joe James B

Joe James B — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:36:10 +0000

The Liberals didn’t do nearly aswell in 1983 as in 1974.

By: swanarcadian

swanarcadian — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:32:07 +0000

Liberals, not SDP…

By: swanarcadian

swanarcadian — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:30:26 +0000

Yes, the SDP were unable to take second place in 1983. That might have had something to do with gradual demographic changes.

By: Joe James B

Joe James B — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:34:21 +0000

That’s right.
The Liberals had been a presence in this the Finchley seat in 1959 and 1964.
They ran the old Finchley council for a while around that time.

Mrs Thatcher mentioned the Liberals had exploited some issue where Jews had been excluded from the local golf club – I think I remember correctly.

In 1966, Labour emerged as the main opposition, and kept that position even at low points subsequently.

By: Harry Porter

Harry Porter — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:01:27 +0000

John Pardoe ran against Mrs Thatcher in the old Finchley constituency in 1964, and succeeded in significantly reducing her majority from 1959.

By: Pete Whitehead

Pete Whitehead — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:27:38 +0000

Yes I think you answer your own question. I had a feeling this subject had been discussed before, and sure enough here is a post I made a several years ago:

“There are pockets in eg. the Strawberry Vale estate in East Finhley ….but this is one of the most middle class seats. I was discussing East Finchley witha friend last night as it happens, noting the strong loyalty of that ward to Labour (it was the only ward in this constituency to vote for Ken Livingstone) despite it being in many parts quite a good area. I think the reason is that it resembles the western wards of Haringey which it borders in that it is prime ‘Guardianista’ territory and it is therefore a left leaning middle class from professions such as the law and media that provide the Labour vote more than the working class. The ethnic minority population would indeed be the other main source which here also includes a substantial Greek Cypriot population who do seem to incline quite sttrongly to Labour.”
May 17th, 2008 at 12:58 pm