Bermondsey 1983

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Time for a general discussion on the most notorius British by-election since...

[JohnFKennedy]

Most people don't know what/where Bermondsey is, let alone about the by-election of '83 where Simon Hughes got in, Al. You won't get much talk except from yourself, a few other Brits and myself.

[Peter]

Whilst I know that it put Simon Hughes into Parliament on one of the largest by-electoral swings in history, I know very little else about it. Consider, I wasn't even alive at the time of this election (and neither was JFK).

[Tory]

I know that Simon Hughes represents North Southwark & Bermondsey(name change?).

What was so notorious about the election?

[cwelsch]

This was an outrage!  A horrible scandal!  A prime example of the shocking brand of politics that plagues our culture!

[minionofmidas]

I know that Simon Hughes represents North Southwark & Bermondsey(name change?).

What was so notorious about the election?

Labour deludedly nominated Peter Tatchell, who was and still is a raging extreme new leftist, and worse, a flamboyant homosexual, and, even worse than that, audibly an Australian. The campaign got pretty vicious.

[JohnFKennedy]

What was so notorious about the election?

To put it in a nutshell, the Labour MP resigned to take a job for some company, I forget which and the Labour party nominated a very militant gay guy called Peter Tatchell in Bermondsey, big mistake and there was a huge smear campaign against him, including from the former Labour MP, these campaigners told people to vote Simon Hughes. I believe the national Labour party went in, pulled this guy out and put a new person in instead but the damage was done and Hughes won it by a long way I think. He has been re-elected ever since on personal popularity, rather than support for the Lib Dems.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Nah... they didn't replace Tatchell. They were going to but didn't. Pity.

[minionofmidas]

I say my synapsis was best.

[JohnFKennedy]

Nah... they didn't replace Tatchell. They were going to but didn't. Pity.

Really? I know that the national party placed pressure on the local party, I thought they did drop him in the end.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Nah... they didn't replace Tatchell. They were going to but didn't. Pity.

Really? I know that the national party placed pressure on the local party, I thought they did drop him in the end.

Sadly not.
I think I found a site with some leaflets from that by-election...

[Tory]

http://www.petertatchell.net/

The guy is a lunatic.

[freek]

http://www.election.demon.co.uk/by1979.html

[Filuwaúrdjan]

In that by-election I would probably have spoiled my ballot... let's see; we have a Labour candidate who's a far-left loon... the Liberal candidate, the Tory candidate and the Independent Labour candidate all used homophobia (mostly "disguised homophobia"... I'll find some examples)

Here we are:

Simon Hughes Leaflet (a lot of his other leaflets used the phrase "ordinary, decent people" rather a lot... and featured some... er... interesting cartoons of a snivelling Tatchell...)

O'Grady Leaflet (a lot of his other leaflets used words like "tradition" and "values". You get the idea...) and another one mentioning Tatchell being an aussie: O'Rady Leaflet

Sadly the site only has one Tory leaflet (involving a picture of a bridge), but it's generally acknowledged that the Tory candidate circulated the infamous "Which Queen are you going to vote for" leaflet.
---
Something no-one else has mentioned: the Bermondsey CLP had been taken over by "Loony Leftists". At GLC level they de-selected former GLC Leader, Sir Reg Goodwin.

[Silent Hunter]

Which was the by-election where the ethnic minority candidate was described as 'exotic'?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Which was the by-election where the ethnic minority candidate was described as 'exotic'?

I can't rememeber one... (something like that probably happend in Cheltenham in the '92 General Election)

But in the 2001 General Election, the Labour candidate in the Rhondda, Chris Bryant (who is openly gay) was described by Plaid Cymru as being an "exotic candidate". I remember other bigoted statements by the Plaid candidate... not just homophobic but xenophobic/racist (she described Labour as a "British Nationalist" party etc. etc).
Very, very vicious campaign. The "exotic" (even Hughes and O'Grady didn't go *that* far...) won 67% of the vote...

[Silent Hunter]

That's the one.