Thoughts on politics and life from a liberal perspective

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Can you list all your MPs?

I spent some time yesterday evening trying to work out every MP who had represented me throughout my entire life. Because I have lived in quite a lot of places this was not straightforward. I did not know all my postcodes but with a bit of interwebbing I was able to track them all down and I then used a combination of "They Work For You" with its postcode finder facility and Wikipedia to track the former MPs for the constituencies to see who was MP whilst I lived there. It is also complicated by the fact that one of the places I lived in was affected by boundary changes in 1983 and it proved a bit fiddly to track down who the MP had been when I first moved there in 1982. I got there in the end though.

It threw up a few surprises such as the fact that Runcorn used to have a Tory MP from 1950 - 1983. I had no idea and does not seem to fit the profile of the town. Also I had no idea that from the time I was born until the age of 8 I was represented by Mr Permatan!

Here is my list of MPs (with the constituency in brackets and the party afterwards) in chronological order:

Robert Kilroy-Silk (Ormskirk) - Labour
Mark Carlisle (Runcorn) - Conservative
Gordon Oakes (Halton) - Labour
Robert Litherland (Manchester Central) - Labour
Gerald Kaufman (Manchester Gorton) - Labour
Keith Bradley (Manchester Withington) - Labour
Jane Kennedy (Liverpool Broadgreen / Liverpool Wavertree) - Labour
Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) - Conservative
John Redwood (Wokingham) - Conservative
Jane Griffiths (Reading East) - Labour
John Redwood (Wokingham) - Conservative
Andrew Mackay (Bracknell) - Conservative

Right, well I guess that this is only one for hardcore political obsessives (or those who have not moved very much) but if anyone else who reads this wants to have a crack then please consider yourself tagged for the "My MPs meme"!



UPDATE 1: 7th July 2009 - I originally posted this in April 2009 but having Tweeted about it today it has got a a fair bit of interest so I have decided to bump it seeing as it has got far more interest today than it ever did originally and it is not really topical!


UPDATE 2: Well a few people have taken up this meme. There are some in the comments below and also ones I have come across on other people's blogs:
- Caron's had a crack here (and also Norfolk Blogger has slipped his list into her comments)
- Pete from off of Pete's Politics presents his here
- Stephen Glenn had a quick go here, and a much more detailed go here where in an excellent post he fleshes out each MP's career and life as well as explaining how he has met most of them.
- Jennie Rigg has listed hers here as well.
- Steve Pugh has done his here and has a fair few famous MPs in there including a former Chancellor and Home Secretary. Makes my list look like political pygmies!
- Anders Hanson has also done his here although the fact he lived in another country for a few years complicated things although the fact that it was Sweden with multi-member constituencies gives us a glimpse of what we could have in some utopian future!

9 comments:

Alan Smart said...

a sad exercise, but nevertheless interesting.

Would i be mischievous in suggesting you seem to have spent your life avoiding lib dem MPs?

Mark Thompson said...

I wouldn't necessarily say it's mischievous. It's a reflection on how unrepresentative our electoral system is!

James said...

1987: Harriet Harman - Peckham
1987-1992: John Maples (Lewisham West, Conservative)
1992-2006: Jim Dowd (Lewisham West, Labour)
2006-2007: Doug Naysmith (Bristol North West, Labour Co-Operative)
2007-2009: Stephen Williams (Bristol West, Lib Dem)
2009-: Jim Dowd (Lewisham West, Labour)

So in effect I've been represented by MPs from all the three main parties.

The worst? Stephen Williams, by far, what an awful MP he was. He was especially bad for the student population, perhaps surprisingly.

Hadleigh Roberts said...

1989-1992: Don't Know
1992-1997: John Biffen, Con
1997-2007: Owen Paterson, Con
2007-2009: Don Foster, Lib Dem

Easy. Then again, I'm only 20!

Pete B - Pete's Politics Blog said...

Here's my one: http://tinyurl.com/nxp2fw

asquith said...

Born on 14 April, 1985 :)

I have lived in the constituencies of the following:

1985-87- John Forrester (Stoke-on-Trent North)
1987-2003- Joan Walley (John Forrester's successor in the same seat)
2003-2006 Paul Farrelley (Newcastle under Lyme) in term time, Joan Walley in holidays
2006-2007: Joan Walley
2007-present: Rob Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South)

It is of course one uninterrupted parade of Labour.

Mark Thompson said...

Asquith. You were born on my mother's 34th birthday!

You don't win a prize though.

Anonymous said...

Mine are:

Austin Mitchell - Labour (Great Grimsby)
Charles Irving - Cons (Cheltenham)
Tom Cox - Labour - Tooting(e)
Richard Allan - Lib Dem (Sheffield Hallam)
Nick Clegg - Lib Dem (Sheffield Hallam)

Fair mix, enjoyed that exercise. glad i moved now.

Stephen Glenn said...

Mine is up and blogged here