One of my other interests is elections

and seeing as this is the section for politics, I was wondering if I may be permitted to post a series of posts about the 1935 UK General Election, the myriad of by-elections that occured between 1935 and 1945 and the 1945 UK General Election (detailing not only which parties won) but also indidivual constituency results (if members have a constituency they are interested in)?

 

The Stump is more for currnet political discussion. A thread about the 1935 and 1945 UK elections is more than exceptable. I will move this thread to the pre-war section for you so it gets a bit more traffic.

 

It could be interesting! Let her rip!

 

General Election 1935
National Government 11,755,654 votes (53.3%) winning 429 seats
made up of
Conservatives 10,496,300 votes (47.8%) winning 387 seats
National Party 53,189 votes (0.3%) winning 1 seat
National Liberals 866,354 votes (3.7%) winning 33 seats
National Labour 339,811 votes (1.5%) winning 8 seats

Labour 8,325,941 votes (38.0%) winning 154 seats
Liberals 1,443,093 votes (6.7%) winning 21 seats
Other Parties 472,816 votes (2.0%) winning 12 seats

National Government majority of 242 seats on a popular vote lead of 3,429,713 votes (15.3%)

 

Great Britain Election Map 1935
Colour Key: Conservatives and Allies Labour Liberals Independents
Source: Wikipedia

 

So with the exception of Wales and Northern scotland the Conservatives won it all. I suppose the other red spots are industrial towns in northern England. Which party was Mosley's?

 

He was originally a Tory, fell out with them over Ireland and stood as an independent Tory, joined the Labour party, fell out with them too and founded the New Party, then finally the British Union of Fascists-
Oswald Mosley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

It gets even more interesting if you look at the results for Scotland, which hadn't yet become as polarised as it is now-
Page 14-
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp2004/rp04-061.pdf​

 

very interesting,but something is missing:something that never happened:the results of the 1939(or 1940) elections .Were there any forecasts ? Was there a risk that the national government would loose its majority ? The 1935 majority of the conservatives is irrelevant,irrelevant is the number of marginal constituencies,and the swing,Labour needed to win . The question is important,because,IMHO,the British foreign policy-appeasement or not- was dominated by the nearing elections :the British guarantee to Poland from march 1939 was,IMHO,a guarantee that the Tories would win enough marginal constituencies to have the majority in the Commons.

 

Hopefully the by-elections (between 1935 and 1945 done by year) will give you an indication of the mood music in the country

 

I know some of the Gallup polls cover Britain from early in the war. Not sure about prewar. Might be worth looking up.

 

If Labour won the elections in 1939,or Churchill became PM,or Chamberlain would retire(with as successor Halifax?),all these things were important,and,could IMHO,explain some of Hitler's actions .
We know a lot about Chamberlain,the man of appeasement (IMHO ,the thing is exagerated,but,that's another topic),but ,Halifax,who was this Lord,who was acceptable for Labour as PM? Whas he an appeaser,had he any conviction,any backbone?I don't think he was suitable as PM,I suspect he didn't have the killer instinct,necessary to become,and to remain PM .

 

If you don't mind me asking, how do the majority of The British see Lord Halifax in the scope of history? Is he seen more positive, negative, or at times both? How is his legacy treated when dealing with wanting to compromise with the Germans to make a peace, and disagreeing with Churchill over fighting till the end?

 

Combined Scottish Universities (January 31st 1936)
Caused by: the death of the sitting Conservative MP Noel Skelton

Gibb, Andrew Dewar (Scottish National Party) 9,034 votes (31% +17%)
McDonald, Ramsay (National Laboour) 16,393 votes (57%)
Thompson, David Cleghorn (Labour) 3,597 votes (12%)

National Labour GAIN from Conservative with a majority of 7,359 votes (37%) on a swing from Conservative to National Labour of 29%

 

Unless your a history buff no one will have heated of him..my view is negative..as was it seems churchills even if not stated..he soon had him packed off when his own power base was secure..imho halifax could have turned our history upside down in may 1940 and winston was fighting on two fronts..halifax lost his main chance in a roomwith chamberlain and churchill..thank god. search halifax on forum to see some of our previous discussions on the man.