A more gentle age of electioneering, the Moss Side By election July 1978

Now I said some time ago that the political history of Chorlton has yet to be written.  True some of the stories of what went on here in the early 19^th century will appear in my book* and over the years Lawrence Beedle has published articles on the public meetings held on the green in the 20^th century while a few more can be found on the blog at http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Alternative%20histories

So over the next few months I will run an occasional series about who could vote in the early 19^th century, some of the radical politicians who lived in Chorlton and the politics and people of the early part of the last century.

During the 1970s we were part of the Moss Side Consitiuency and in the May of 1978 the sitting MP died.  Frank Hatton was just 56 and his death triggered a by-election.  It was perhaps one of the last times that such an election would be run more or less by the people who lived in the area.  The era of the spin doctor, the image conscious campaign and the carefully vetted list of hopeful candidates was still in the future.

And it made for an enjoyable campaign.  The Labour Party selected George Morton who had been both a city and county councillor.  His agent was an official from the Regional Party but after that much of the work and the decisions about the campaign were made on the ground.

It led to some delightful adventures where myself and close friend Tom who were both on holiday were casually asked if we would accompany George, Neil Kinnock and Peter Archer who was then the Solicitor General around the shopping precinct one Monday morning.

I doubt today whether a leading member of the Government, a rising MP and the candidate in a by- election would be left to wander an inner city area accompanied only by two young party workers.  But that was what happened, and in the process we lost all three as they disappeared into a shop and remained inside for over 20 minutes.

Canvassing was also a more gentle affair and from memory most of it occureed without the glare of the media or of photo shots organised from London.

And despite a low turnout and the presence of Vanessa Redgrave and a National Front candidate George won with a majority of 1,558.

Pictures; from the Lloyd collection

*Chorlton-cum-Hardy A Society Transformed due out in September http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20new%20book%20for%20Chorlton