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British Vernians and their MP's

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2010 16:17:12 -0000
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Three months from today, Britain will have had a general election. Unlike
the United States where elections are held on fixed dates, the British Prime
Minister can call a general election anytime he likes but must call it for
no longer than five years after the current Parliament first sat. The
current Parliament first convened in June 2005 and so a general election
must be held before June 3rd 2010. Now, as we know, Jules wrote several
books that featured British characters and looking at the ones that most
people would recognise as Vernian works, I have chosen six British
characters and using a map on Google Earth have been able to identify which
parliamentary constituency they were residing in and how that character
might consider voting in the General Election. The characters I have chosen
(and their views on the election) are:

Phileas Fogg (Around the World in Eighty Days) resident in Cities of London
and Westminster
Result 2005: Conservative 48% Labour 25% Liberal Democrat 19% Green 4%
United Kingdom Independence Party 1% Others 3%

Now, as we know, Phileas was a member of the Reform Club and in those days
you could only be a member of the Reform if you were a member of the Liberal
Party, so it's no stretch of the imagination to suggest that if Phileas
found himself in 2010, he would make a beeline for Cowley Street
(headquarters of the Liberal Democrats) and present himself to them saying
"Sir, my name is Phileas Fogg, and I wish to seek nomination as the Liberal
Democrat candidate for the upcoming election in the Cities of London and
Westminster constituency". To with they would probably welcome him with open
arms, give him loads of materials and then say behind him as he was leaving,
"What a shame, all that unbridled enthusiasm and the best he can hope for is
a distant second!" This is because London has changed radically since Fogg's
Day. In the 1874 general election (the first after the events of "Around the
World in Eighty Days") London elected 34 MP's of which 19 were Conservative
and 15 were Liberal. In 2005, London elected 73 MP's of which 44 were
Labour, 21 were Conservative, 7 were Liberal and 1 belonged to Respect. The
introduction of the Labour Party into British politics split the Liberal
vote into those who believed in a Liberal Britain and those who supported a
Socialist Liberal Britain with Labour taking the lion's share of the support
which saw them elect Baldwin as Labour's first Prime Minister in 1923 and
has seen the Liberals reduced to as few as 6 MP's since the Second World
War. So Fogg would never become an MP for his own area of Saville Row
(located in Cities of London and Westminster) and would have to move to the
South of England in order to take his place in the Commons chamber.

Dick Kennedy (Five Weeks in a Balloon) resident in Edinburgh North and Leith
Result 2005: Labour 34% Liberal Democrats 29% Conservatives 19% Scottish
National Party 10% Green 6% Scottish Socialists 2%

Dick may be just an unassuming member of Doctor Ferguson's band, but if he
found himself in 2010, he would find himself the centre of attention.
Edinburgh North and Leith is one of Labour's defence seats (in other words a
seat that Labour cannot afford to lose if Gordon Brown wishes to remain
Prime Minister) and as a result he would not be able to go anywhere in Leith
without being besieged by Labour and Liberal Democrat canvassers trying to
get his support, which considering Leith's electoral history is quite
astounding. Edinburgh Leith first appeared in the 1983 general election when
Labour won the seat with a 5,000 majority over the then Liberal / SDP
Alliance, despite that initial challenge Labour held the seat in 1987 (with
a majority of 11,000) and looked fairly comfortable thereafter (regularly
racking up majorities of 8,000 or more) except in 1992 when the sitting
Labour MP was deselected and stood as an Independent and secured 10% of the
vote. However in 2005, the Boundary Commission ruled that thanks to the
Scottish Parliament, Scotland should lose 13 MP's and it was decided that
Leith should merge with Edinburgh Central to create a new Edinburgh North
and Leith constituency. The effect of those changes (plus the massive
increase in the Scottish Liberal Democrat vote) turned the seat from a rock
solid Labour constituency into a Labour / Liberal Democrat marginal making
people like Dick (who would be unsure about who to vote for) like gold dust.

Lord and Lady Glenarvan (In Search of the Castaways) resident in Argyll and
Bute
Result 2005: Liberal Democrat 37% Conservatives 23% Labour 22% Scottish
National Party 16%

Being "one of the sixteen Scottish lairds sitting in the House of Peers"
Lord Glenarvan would never sully himself with the idea of taking part in a
general election. That was until 1999, when Tony Blair stripped the right of
hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords. Nowadays only 92 of these
peers are allowed to sit (and every time one dies, a by-election is held to
appoint one of those peers who were ejected to retake their seat), however
Lord Glenarvan could follow the idea of John Thurso MP (Lib Dem, Caithness
and Sutherland) or to give him his full title "The Viscount Thurso of
Caithness". When he was forced out of the Lords in 1999, he piloted
legalisation through saying that if any ejected peer wanted to take a seat
in the Commons, they could and also have the right to vote in a general
election. The bill was passed and in 2001, he was elected as the MP for
Caithness and Sutherland. So, could Lord Glenarvan follow the same route? In
theory, yes, as Argyll and Bute has elected a Liberal Democrat MP since
1987, however in the Scottish Parliamentary elections in 2007, Argyll and
Bute elected an SNP Member of the Scottish Parliament (for the first time
since the 1970's), so although Lord Glenarvan should be able to win in
Argyll, he might find the SNP breathing down his neck!

William Flasten (The Survivors of the Chancellor) resident in Stretford and
Urmston
Result 2005: Labour 51% Conservatives 30% Liberal Democrats 14% Respect 2%
United Kingdom Independence Party 2%

Now, I am playing with fire here a bit as all it says about Mr. Flasten is
that "he worked in Manchester as an engineer" so using a bit of common sense
I looked at the census returns for 2001 and located the constituency in
Manchester with the greatest concentration of engineering jobs and that
constituency was Stretford and Urmston (located between Altrincham and
Worsley). If I am mistaken in this location, then by all means do tell me
and I will locate Mr. Flasten in the right part of Manchester.

Stretford has an interesting electoral history since 1997 when the
constituency was created. Prior to that it had been part of the Davyhulme
constituency represented by Winston Churchill MP (the grandson of the
wartime leader) who decided to stand down in 1997 when the constituency was
changed and so Beverley Hughes was elected as the Labour MP. In 2001, the
electors of the constituency were invited to cast their votes for "The
Glamour Party" candidate who was labelled as "Miss. Katie Price" on the
ballot paper. However, it wasn't until the day after nominations closed that
people realised who she was, namely the glamour model "Jordan". Now, I do
not want to cast aspersions on Mr. Flasten's view on women, but seeing as
she made regular appearances in the Sun newspaper as "the top choice for
Page 3", it is perhaps surprising that she only polled 713 votes compared to
Mrs. Hughes 23,804 votes. However, with a majority of 8,000 at the last
election, Mrs Hughes (who resigned as an immigration minister before the
2005 election) should be returned to Westminster and could probably count on
Mr. Flasten's support in that election

John Ruby (The Survivors of the Chancellor) resident in Cardiff South and
Penarth
Result 2005: Labour 47% Conservatives 24% Liberal Democrats 20% Plaid Cymru
5% Green 2% United Kingdom Independence Party 1% Others 1%

Again, another tricky one to place, but seeing as he is a sailor it seems
sensible to place in the constituency covered by Cardiff Docks and if that
location is correct than Mr. Ruby has had some very important names
represent him through the years. Most recently, the current MP is Alun
Michael (Secretary of State for Wales, First Minister of Wales and Secretary
of State for Agriculture) and with a majority of 9,000 should be safely
returned to Westminster, before him came James Callaghan (Chancellor of the
Exchequer and Prime Minister) who won the seat in the Labour landslide of
1945. Cardiff South has, just like Argyll and Edinburgh, a nationalist
candidate in the form of Plaid Cymru (which translates as Party of Wales) a
party that Jules would never have heard of as they formed in 1925, and only
won their first MP in 1966. Therefore I think it is fair to assume that Mr.
Ruby would cast his vote for the sitting MP

John Silas Huntly (The Survivors of the Chancellor) resident in Dundee East
Result 2005: Scottish National Party 37% Labour 36% Conservatives 13%
Liberal Democrat 11% Scottish Socialists 1% United Kingdom Independence
Party 1% Independent 0%

Again, using common sense Mr. Huntly was a docker and the main docks in
Dundee are in the eastern constituency, and just like Dick in Edinburgh
North and Leith, Mr. Huntly would also be chased down every street this time
by the SNP as well as Labour canvassers, although this is not the first time
that Dundee East voted SNP. Between February 1974 and 1987, Gordon Wilson MP
(leader of the SNP) was the MP for this constituency, but in 1987 the SNP's
support shifted north and east. This meant that although they lost the
Western Isles and Dundee East to Labour, they gained Angus East, Banff and
Buchan and Moray from the Conservatives (which became their bedrock of
support for many years) before breaking through into Perthshire and Galloway
in 1997. Just like Labour they were affected by the boundary changes in
2005, but managed to bring Dundee East and the Western Isles back into the
SNP (before winning the seats again in the 2007 Scottish Parliamentary
elections). So would Mr. Huntly follow his socialist tendencies and vote for
Labour, or would he be tempted into an SNP vote (based on the performance of
the current MP and MSP for Dundee East), I have to say I simply have no
idea!

Received on Wed 03 Mar 2010 - 18:17:21 IST

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