Alex Richards
Donor
Chapter 7: The Election of 1999
1999 was to be quite an eventual year for the Liberal Party- both local and national- and indeed for the country as a whole. For starters, the Treaty of Liége had finally been negotiated after separate referendum defeats in France, the Netherlands and the Denmark back in '94 had killed off Maastricht and this meant the election season was starting early as Kinnock had been forced to offer a national vote on the matter by the Euroskeptic left of the Labour Party. Being the parties of Europe, we in the Alliance naturally swung in behind the 'Yes' campaign and I ended up spending most of April running the boards for the campaign in Nottingham Road, my decade of experience in local elections now being put to use with managing the new volunteers. While Long Eaton narrowly voted 'No'[1], the country as a whole approved the new treaty, in retrospect probably because of the somewhat looser federalism proposed than had been seen in Maastricht.
Buoyed by the result, we were going into the UDC election with something of a spring in our step. The Euroskeptics within both the major parties had their blood up, leading to division and a perception of weakness with the public, and we had new campaigners who had joined during or after the vote and were eager to do their bit on the local side as well. Meanwhile the mood towards the Alliance in Long Eaton was generally positive- our councillors had been doing good work on local issues, the resolution of the boundary issue played well with our policy of 'moderate, concrete reform' among the few people who would vote on that sort of issue, and Colin Hayes had gotten some good publicity in the campaign to save Long Eaton Stadium which had had managed to secure its purchase by a local charity with council backing the previous year[2]. On the flip side, the concerns over local government were fading as Kinnocks 'Supercouncils' kept being delayed, which acted to slightly depress our voteshare.
For the first time in many years, I was spending my time in Nottingham Road ward- the early returns for Rodney were looking very good, Ian and Martin had plentiful troops in Derby Road and Colin looked to be with a strong chance at getting a seat if we worked the place hard enough. Walking the streets, I was struck by the changes that had occurred over the last 10 years- the population was slightly smaller and somewhat older, the Wagon Repair works on Main Street was gone and an extension to Fields Farm Road linked into a new roundabout, the Vida Elastics factory was clearly on its last legs and the Gas Works was being demolished in what had to be the biggest change to the town's skyline since Orchard Mill had burnt down in the great Teabag Factory Fire of 1971[3]. Several years of neglect had worn down our voter base in the ward, but with the Conservatives in a much worse position we were able to pull out the bar-charts and get the old two-horse race narrative running. This was, perhaps, secondary in effect to that of the collapse of voter turnout which on slipping down to 25% caused the Long Eaton Advertiser to pull out some headlines surprisingly similar to those of the 30s and disproportionately affected the main parties.
The results were notable for a number of reasons. For starters, both the Conservatives and Labour lost seats in different areas- Nancy Gough narrowly failing to keep the last Tory seat in Nottingham Road, while Valerie Durow dropped off the bottom of the elected list in New Sawley in a situation that only characterised the increasing polarisation of the town. Secondly it was the first appearance of the Ecology Party in our local elections, Ian Hollas standing in Derby Road and acting as a spoiler on the right-wing vote. And finally, it was the best result we in the Alliance had had in a long time, doubling our council representation overnight. In Derby Road, Ian and Martin swept to the top of the list, aided by the Ecologist, and Fred Davis only came short by a dozen votes. Colin took his seat in Nottingham Road, and Rodney was joined by Craig France in New Sawley. The most surprising results was in Sawley Road however. Rachel Allen- Rodney's wife- had decided to stand there to ensure we had a reasonably strong candidate in every ward, and because despite the earlier plans the move out to Sawley had eventually fallen through. There was also a candidate for the National Front- Steven Belshaw- standing in that ward and much to everyone's dismay he was able to pick up some of the anti-Europe voteshare that was particularly strong in that ward due to having seen the worst of the mill closures. With both Labour and the conservatives in the doldrums, and their voters either not turning out or being tempted by the Front, we received a call through that there might be an opening to pick up a seat in the ward. Colin by that point was doing well enough that it was felt a small reallocation of resources could be done, and Derby Road contributed a slightly larger amount - which led to a bit of grumbling that it may have cost Fred that last seat. My own contribution was an afternoon's campaign in the north after a morning's canvass of the nearby part of Nottingham Road, memorable mainly for the impromptu Liberal-SDP poker match in Brennan's that evening. On the day itself, Rachel managed, just, to get the last seat in Sawley Road and for the first time since the early 80s the Alliance had councillors in all four wards of the council.
This was not to be the last bit of good news for me that year for, after enjoying the delights of what turned out to be only the first of the Harrington Arms beer festivals[4] I found myself heading off to a conference where the biggest issue on the agenda was that, after long consultation, we were finally to vote on a national policy for local government reform. The debate was, as is typical in the Alliance, long, detailed, exhausting and full of both reasonable amendments and slightly nutty speakers. Beyond an affirmation of the policy to adopt STV for local councils, 4 concrete policies emerged from the end of it however- the creation of new devolved legislatures for Scotland and Wales to follow that which the Good Friday Agreement had established for Northern Ireland, devolution of powers to County councils or associations of County Councils as appropriate, the establishment of a new boundary commission to deal with electorate disparities in wards within councils and (the most contentious point) a policy that boundary reform should be a process of Parliamentary action opening the door to local decision making but with the general suggestion that the Scandinavian County and Municipality system represented a suitable framework for this to take place within[5].
[1] To get a vote otherwise would require an entirely different TL frankly.
[2] As opposed to being torched by arsonists and left derelict for a decade before being built over IOTL. The slower industrial decline means there's a bit more money in Long Eaton compared to OTL.
[3] This is a real thing. More widely, Vida Elastics went in the mid 90s IOTL but otherwise it's broadly the same.
[4] Started in 1999 OTL as well. Always enjoyable I must say.
[5] i.e. boundary reform should take the form of new central-place based municipalities but defining the municipal borders should be driven from below rather than dictated to from above.
1999 was to be quite an eventual year for the Liberal Party- both local and national- and indeed for the country as a whole. For starters, the Treaty of Liége had finally been negotiated after separate referendum defeats in France, the Netherlands and the Denmark back in '94 had killed off Maastricht and this meant the election season was starting early as Kinnock had been forced to offer a national vote on the matter by the Euroskeptic left of the Labour Party. Being the parties of Europe, we in the Alliance naturally swung in behind the 'Yes' campaign and I ended up spending most of April running the boards for the campaign in Nottingham Road, my decade of experience in local elections now being put to use with managing the new volunteers. While Long Eaton narrowly voted 'No'[1], the country as a whole approved the new treaty, in retrospect probably because of the somewhat looser federalism proposed than had been seen in Maastricht.
Buoyed by the result, we were going into the UDC election with something of a spring in our step. The Euroskeptics within both the major parties had their blood up, leading to division and a perception of weakness with the public, and we had new campaigners who had joined during or after the vote and were eager to do their bit on the local side as well. Meanwhile the mood towards the Alliance in Long Eaton was generally positive- our councillors had been doing good work on local issues, the resolution of the boundary issue played well with our policy of 'moderate, concrete reform' among the few people who would vote on that sort of issue, and Colin Hayes had gotten some good publicity in the campaign to save Long Eaton Stadium which had had managed to secure its purchase by a local charity with council backing the previous year[2]. On the flip side, the concerns over local government were fading as Kinnocks 'Supercouncils' kept being delayed, which acted to slightly depress our voteshare.
For the first time in many years, I was spending my time in Nottingham Road ward- the early returns for Rodney were looking very good, Ian and Martin had plentiful troops in Derby Road and Colin looked to be with a strong chance at getting a seat if we worked the place hard enough. Walking the streets, I was struck by the changes that had occurred over the last 10 years- the population was slightly smaller and somewhat older, the Wagon Repair works on Main Street was gone and an extension to Fields Farm Road linked into a new roundabout, the Vida Elastics factory was clearly on its last legs and the Gas Works was being demolished in what had to be the biggest change to the town's skyline since Orchard Mill had burnt down in the great Teabag Factory Fire of 1971[3]. Several years of neglect had worn down our voter base in the ward, but with the Conservatives in a much worse position we were able to pull out the bar-charts and get the old two-horse race narrative running. This was, perhaps, secondary in effect to that of the collapse of voter turnout which on slipping down to 25% caused the Long Eaton Advertiser to pull out some headlines surprisingly similar to those of the 30s and disproportionately affected the main parties.
The results were notable for a number of reasons. For starters, both the Conservatives and Labour lost seats in different areas- Nancy Gough narrowly failing to keep the last Tory seat in Nottingham Road, while Valerie Durow dropped off the bottom of the elected list in New Sawley in a situation that only characterised the increasing polarisation of the town. Secondly it was the first appearance of the Ecology Party in our local elections, Ian Hollas standing in Derby Road and acting as a spoiler on the right-wing vote. And finally, it was the best result we in the Alliance had had in a long time, doubling our council representation overnight. In Derby Road, Ian and Martin swept to the top of the list, aided by the Ecologist, and Fred Davis only came short by a dozen votes. Colin took his seat in Nottingham Road, and Rodney was joined by Craig France in New Sawley. The most surprising results was in Sawley Road however. Rachel Allen- Rodney's wife- had decided to stand there to ensure we had a reasonably strong candidate in every ward, and because despite the earlier plans the move out to Sawley had eventually fallen through. There was also a candidate for the National Front- Steven Belshaw- standing in that ward and much to everyone's dismay he was able to pick up some of the anti-Europe voteshare that was particularly strong in that ward due to having seen the worst of the mill closures. With both Labour and the conservatives in the doldrums, and their voters either not turning out or being tempted by the Front, we received a call through that there might be an opening to pick up a seat in the ward. Colin by that point was doing well enough that it was felt a small reallocation of resources could be done, and Derby Road contributed a slightly larger amount - which led to a bit of grumbling that it may have cost Fred that last seat. My own contribution was an afternoon's campaign in the north after a morning's canvass of the nearby part of Nottingham Road, memorable mainly for the impromptu Liberal-SDP poker match in Brennan's that evening. On the day itself, Rachel managed, just, to get the last seat in Sawley Road and for the first time since the early 80s the Alliance had councillors in all four wards of the council.
This was not to be the last bit of good news for me that year for, after enjoying the delights of what turned out to be only the first of the Harrington Arms beer festivals[4] I found myself heading off to a conference where the biggest issue on the agenda was that, after long consultation, we were finally to vote on a national policy for local government reform. The debate was, as is typical in the Alliance, long, detailed, exhausting and full of both reasonable amendments and slightly nutty speakers. Beyond an affirmation of the policy to adopt STV for local councils, 4 concrete policies emerged from the end of it however- the creation of new devolved legislatures for Scotland and Wales to follow that which the Good Friday Agreement had established for Northern Ireland, devolution of powers to County councils or associations of County Councils as appropriate, the establishment of a new boundary commission to deal with electorate disparities in wards within councils and (the most contentious point) a policy that boundary reform should be a process of Parliamentary action opening the door to local decision making but with the general suggestion that the Scandinavian County and Municipality system represented a suitable framework for this to take place within[5].
[1] To get a vote otherwise would require an entirely different TL frankly.
[2] As opposed to being torched by arsonists and left derelict for a decade before being built over IOTL. The slower industrial decline means there's a bit more money in Long Eaton compared to OTL.
[3] This is a real thing. More widely, Vida Elastics went in the mid 90s IOTL but otherwise it's broadly the same.
[4] Started in 1999 OTL as well. Always enjoyable I must say.
[5] i.e. boundary reform should take the form of new central-place based municipalities but defining the municipal borders should be driven from below rather than dictated to from above.
