Bootle (Parliamentary Constituency)

[thevaliant]

To celebrate my move to the safest seat in the country here is a challenge right up there with a successful Sealion:

With a POD of after 1950, have Bootle return at either a by-election or general election a non-Labour Member of Parliament.

Massive bonus points if you can get it to be a Conservative.
Points lost if you cheat and have a Labour member go independent and then win......

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Easy. Have Labour go more radical and the SDP-Liberal Alliance become the new party of the left. Bootle going NDP* is the final nail in the Labour coffin.

* NDP: New Democratic Party. SDP-Lib Alliance became this.

 

[amphibulous]

"Bootle" might sound like a moderately silly name to give to a place to live, but the same area (the Borth of England) has much worse:

- Penistone (often causes problems with spam filters!)

- Goosnargh (originally settled by Orcs)

- Tickle Cock Bridge

- The Hole of Horcum

 

[Nicola]

"Bootle" might sound like a moderately silly name to give to a place to live, but the same area (the Borth of England) has much worse:

- Penistone (often causes problems with spam filters!)

- Goosnargh (originally settled by Orcs)

- Tickle Cock Bridge

- The Hole of Horcum

Scunthorpe has it;s issues with spam filters and net nannying as well.

 

[Alex Richards]

As does the Greek island of Lesbos.

 

[Æsir]

After a quick look at Wikipedia...

Easy enough; 1955, Simon Mahon defeated Conservative H.W. Jones by 1,438 votes (3.9% of total). So, Tories somehow do better that year, 750 votes (roughly 2% of the total, doesn't seem insurmountable) swing, Conservatives win the seat by a hair.

 

[Thande]

The Blaenau Gwent thing proved that even the safest Labour seats can temporarily fall to a local insurgent group if the party effs up hard enough and the local insurgents are well enough organised.

 

[Thoresby]

Well as I understand it Bootle and the North-West in general historically had Irish Catholic/English Protestant sectarian issues and it's one of the few areas outside Scotland and Glasgow where the Orange Order was successful so maybe you can do something with that.