This Conservative leaflet is from the February 1974 election, where 27 year old Tom Arnold failed to defeat the Liberal Michael Winstanley in Hazel Grove. Arnold had more success in the October General Election, becoming one of the youngest MPs in the Commons and  holding Hazel Grove until 1997. The leaflet is good quality, though [...]

This Conservative leaflet from the February 1974 General election in Cheadle constituency would hardly look out of place today.   It’s a good quality glossy leaflet stressing the local credentials of the sitting MP: he lives in the constituency, comes home every weekend and deals with thousands of pieces of casework. Normanton first won the seat [...]

This newspaper was put out by the Liberals in the October 1974 General Election, where Michael Winstanley, who’d won in February, was defeated by the Conservative Tom Arnold in Hazel Grove. Arnold would hold the seat until replaced by Lib Dem Andrew Stunell in 1997. It’s interesting that the paper openly discusses the possibilities of [...]

There’s little new in the world.  Although the Liberals would be supporting the Labour government just a few years later, Labour in Cheadle were keen to portray the Liberals and Conservatives as one and the same in the February 1974 election. In this leaflet from the Hazel Grove constituency, Manchester councillor Allan Roberts lays out [...]

In 1974 there were two General Elections.  This is a Conservative leaflet from the first of those – Feb 1974.  It went out in the Hazel Grove constituency – which was marginal between the Liberals and Conservatives at that time (the Liberals won in the February election, the Conservatives took the seat in the October [...]

Most people remember the Greater London Council (GLC), abolished by Maggie Thatcher back in the 1980s.  Greater Manchester had one too.  When it was abolished in 1985, the ten local authorities in the area started working together. Today we have AGMA – the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities.  And, in almost a full circle, we’re [...]

Over the last few months I’ve been publishing the local election results for Stockport from the first ever election to the new metropolitan authority in 1973 up to 2004. Stockport Borough has 63 seats, 3 in each of the 21 wards.  In a normal four year cycle, one seat in each ward is up for [...]

2004 is the last in my series of election results from 1973 onwards. Following significant boundary changes, all 63 Stockport council seats were up for grabs. 10/06/04                   2004         Stockport                   Bramhall North     [...]

A shout out to Lib Dem blogger John Abrams who was elected in Cale Green this year. You’ll see below that I’ve also got the results for Tameside borough for this year.  Not sure why – they just turned up in the file the Council sent me, so they get published.  Enjoy. 01/05/03 2003 Stockport [...]

The Lib Dems took control of Stockport Council again in 2002, and have held it since. Pam King won in Cheadle, defeating Ian Roberts (not me, but my Conservative namesake who’s currently the chair of governors at Kingsway school).  Patsy Calton, by now MP for Cheadle, stood in her Bramhall council seat but came second. [...]