Comments on: Hornsey and Wood Green

By: Joe James B

Joe James B — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:36:05 +0000

This is the seat where Pete Whitehead complimented Gloy Plopwell, saying he/she was for once talking some sense.

I suspect the result here will be close at the next election though.

By: Barnaby Marder

Barnaby Marder — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:23:57 +0000

The seat was seen as winnable Pete, and the CLP was left-wing enough to select him at the time. He may have gone for Vauxhall but they selected the more mainstream left-winger Stuart Holland. In Norwood which was his own constituency there wasn’t a vacancy as John Fraser (always a popular figure locally) stood for re-election and won, for what proved to be the last time as the seat was abolished in 1983. It’s also possible he might have gone for Lambeth Central when there was a by-election in 1978, but by then I guess he’d already been selected in Hornsey. Ken Livingstone as you correctly say stood in Hampstead and had a similar result to Knight, if anything rather better. The seat included areas of Kilburn which were to become close to his stamping ground.

By: Pete Whitehead

Pete Whitehead — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 22:26:44 +0000

I never noticed that ted Knight stood in Hornsey in 1979 – following his friend Ken north of the river. Seeems strange but maybe he figures he’d prove less unpopular.
I think Richard and Barnaby are clearly right that the trend in Hornsey started way before 1987 (actually Hornsey had been trending Labout since the 1950s). There is some evidence (from local elections) that the Conservatives may have done relatively better in 1987 in more working class areas such as Noel Park and Woodside. This would also be consistent with the swings that year next door in Tottenham and in Edmonton and for similar reasons. These areas would have swung heavily back to Labour in 1992 just liek those two constituencies – partly as traditional Labour supporters returned to the fold, and in the long term as the old WWc voters were replaced by ethnic minorities.

By: Barnaby Marder

Barnaby Marder — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:38:17 +0000

Indeed, and in 1979 Labour did slightly better than the national average even with a very attackable candidate in Ted Knight (for it was he). Labour did come quite close to winning in 1966 as well as October 1974, but nowhere near at all in 1945, when there was a huge Communist vote which split the left vote completely.

By: richard

richard — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:36:05 +0000

The process must have started much earlier than 1987 because there were swings to Labour here in 1983 and 1987 while Hornsey was won by Labour in the 1981 GLC elections but not in 1973 (which was a better Labour year).

By: H.Hemmelig

H.Hemmelig — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:11:37 +0000

Nevertheless the swing was so violent in the 1990s that there must have been quite a lot of people here who voted Tory in 1987 but Labour in 1997.

I agree that by now many/most of the 1987 Tory voters here will have moved out or died.

By: H.Hemmelig

H.Hemmelig — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:09:32 +0000

Yes that’s true.

And the voters who moved in to replace them are not going to be voting Tory.

By: Pete Whitehead

Pete Whitehead — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:17:48 +0000

“all the Tory voters who kept this seat Conservative for so long up until the 90s switched to Labour never to vote Tory again”

They didn’t. Most of them moved out to Barnet or Hertfordshire or further afield. Or they died

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:06:45 +0000

Sorry Barnaby, but I think you picked me up on my use of ‘ilk’ in the past and it rather grated. As I said then, in England ‘ilk’ means of the same, class, kind, etc. Only in Scotland does it mean of a specific place or family. AKMD was not wrong in the slightest. No offence, I just had to point that out.

Dictionaries online attest to this, as does my and my family’s long usage of the word in its non-Scottish context.

Check here: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ilk

By: LBernard

LBernard — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:00:49 +0000

Thanks HH for answering!

It seems really suprising that all the Tory voters who kept this seat Conservative for so long up until the 90s switched to Labour never to vote Tory again.