Strange Death of Tory England
May 28, 2003 12:00 AM
By Stephen Williams in Bristol West End News
By Stephen Williams in Bristol West End News
The National Trust has just opened the doors of Tyntesfield, the house in North Somerset saved by a public appeal last year. As one of the donors, I look forward to a visit. The house and the Wraxhall Estate were owned by the Gibbs family who as I'm sure most readers know, made their fortune from the conversion of bird mess to fertiliser.
The first Lord Wraxhall, George Abraham Gibbs, was the Tory MP for Bristol West from 1906 - 1928. I've been actively involved in Bristol politics for over 15 years and have a degree in History from Bristol University but to my shame, knew very little about the city's political history. Unfortunately no book has ever been published on the subject so last year I did some research on Gibbs and the city's other political luminaries. In those days in the future when I have lots of time on my hands, Parliamentary recesses maybe...I'll write the book!
The Bristol West constituency was created in 1885. Since then the seat has returned an unbroken line of seven Conservative MPs, until 1997 when the Labour landslide swept the Tories away in their worst ever defeat. Of course, in 2001 it got worse for them when I came second, pushing the eighth Tory standard bearer into a humiliating third place.
Is there a way back for the Tories in Bristol West? I think not. When I came to Bristol in 1985 eight of the ten city council wards that now make up the constituency had Conservative councillors. Now eight wards have Liberal Democrat councillors and in this year's elections the Tories secured a derisory 16% of the vote. My Lib Dem colleagues got just under 50% of the vote in Bristol West.
The decline and fall of the Tory party in Bristol has been replicated in most of the country's cities and large towns. There are no Conservative MPs in Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Southampton or Plymouth. In most of those places they also have few, if any, city councillors. It is the Liberal Democrats who are now the major challengers to Labour across urban England, which is where most of the electorate live.
In my student days one political history book I came across was about the 1930s and was called the 'Strange Death of Liberal England'. In the 21st century it is quite possible to see the Tory party remaining out of power for a generation or more. Maybe a visit to Tyntesfield will soon be the only local reminder of Tory England and how the world of money and politics used to be.
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