Pontefract And Castleford (UK Parliament Constituency)
Pontefract and Castleford was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until the 2010 general election. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Boundaries 1974–1983: The Municipal Boroughs of Castleford and Pontefract, and the Urban District of Featherstone. 1983–2010: The City of Wakefield wards of Castleford Ferry Fryston, Castleford Glasshoughton, Castleford Whitwood, Knottingley, Pontefract North, and Pontefract South. The constituency covered the West Yorkshire towns of Pontefract and Castleford. It was a very safe Labour seat, made up of former mining towns and villages. The MP from 1997 until its abolition in 2010, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, is married to former fellow Labour MP, former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls. Boundary review Following their review of parliamentary representation in West Yorkshire, the number of seats in West Yorkshire were reduced by o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pontefract (UK Parliament Constituency)
Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wakefield District and had a population of 30,881 at the 2011 Census. Pontefract's motto is , Latin for "After the death of the father, support the son", a reference to the town's Royalist sympathies in the English Civil War. Etymology At the end of the 11th century, the modern Township#United Kingdom, township of Pontefract consisted of two distinct and separate localities known as Tanshelf and Kirkby.Eric Houlder, Ancient Roots North: When Pontefract Stood on the Great North Road, (Pontefract: Pontefract Groups Together, 2012) p.7. The 11th-century historian, Orderic Vitalis, recorded that, in 1069, William the Conqueror travelled across Yorkshire to put down an uprising which had sacked York, but that, upo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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February 1974 United Kingdom General Election
February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years or 29 in leap years, with the 29th day being called the ''leap day''. It is the first of five months not to have 31 days (the other four being April, June, September, and November) and the only one to have fewer than 30 days. February is the third and last month of meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, February is the third and last month of meteorological summer (being the seasonal equivalent of what is August in the Northern Hemisphere). Pronunciation "February" is pronounced in several different ways. The beginning of the word is commonly pronounced either as or ; many people drop the first "r", replacing it with , as if it were spelled "Febuary". This comes about by analogy with "January" (), as well as by a dissimilation effect whereby having two "r"s close to each other causes one to change. The ending of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Geoffrey Lofthouse
Geoffrey Lofthouse, Baron Lofthouse of Pontefract, JP (18 December 1925 – 1 November 2012), popularly known in his former constituency as Geoff Lofthouse, was a British Labour politician, MP and life peer. Early life He was born in Featherstone, West Riding of Yorkshire, the son of Ernest Lofthouse, a farm labourer in Micklefield, and Emma (née Fellows). His father died at the age of 35. At the age of 14, Geoff Lofthouse went to work at Ackton Hall Colliery in Featherstone. At age 29, he was the president of the local branch of the NUM. He went to the University of Leeds, gaining a BA in Political Studies in 1957, when he was 32 years old. In 1962, he became a councillor on Pontefract Borough Council. He was mayor of Pontefract in 1967, and leader of the council from 1969 to 1973. Parliamentary career He was MP for Pontefract and Castleford from a 1978 by-election until his retirement at the 1997 general election. In the House of Commons, he served from 1992 until his ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1987 United Kingdom General Election
The 1987 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive general election victory for the Conservative Party, and second landslide under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1820 to lead a party into three successive electoral victories. The Conservatives ran a campaign focusing on lower taxes, a strong economy and strong defence. They also emphasised that unemployment had just fallen below the 3 million mark for the first time since 1981, and inflation was standing at 4%, its lowest level since the 1960s. National newspapers also continued to largely back the Conservative Government, particularly '' The Sun'', which ran anti-Labour articles with headlines such as "Why I'm backing Kinnock, by Stalin". The Labour Party, led by Neil Kinnock following Michael Foot's resignation in the aftermath of their l ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wakefield Council
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, also known as Wakefield Council, is the local authority of the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council and provides a full range of local government services including Council Tax billing, libraries, social services, processing planning applications, waste collection and disposal, and it is a local education authority. Wakefield is divided into 21 wards, electing 63 councillors. A third of the council is elected for three of every four years. The council was created by the Local Government Act 1972 and replaced the Wakefield City Council of the County Borough of Wakefield and several other authorities. Since 1974 Wakefield has held borough and city status and from this time would use the full title of the authority on all publications, signage, council vehicle fleet and documents, however from around 2005, like many other local authorities doing so at the time, the authority dropped the full title ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1992 United Kingdom General Election
The 1992 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 April 1992, to elect 651 members to the House of Commons. The election resulted in the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party since 1979 and would be the last time that the Conservatives would win an overall majority at a general election until 2015. It was also the last general election to be held on a day which did not coincide with any local elections until 2017. This election result took many by surprise, as opinion polling leading up to the election day had shown the Labour Party, under leader Neil Kinnock, consistently, if narrowly, ahead. John Major had won the Conservative Party leadership election in November 1990 following the resignation of Margaret Thatcher. During his first term leading up to the 1992 election he oversaw the British involvement in the Gulf War, introduced legislation to replace the unpopular Community Charge with Council Tax, and signed the Maastricht Treaty. Brita ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Adrian Flook
Adrian John Flook (born 9 July 1963) is a British Conservative politician, and a former Member of Parliament (MP). Early life Flook was educated at King Edward School, Bath and Mansfield College, Oxford where he studied (BA) Modern History. He was a stockbroker from 1985 to 1998, working first for UBS Warburg and then for Société Générale. From 1998 to 2002 he worked as a consultant for Financial Dynamics. Parliamentary career At the 1997 general election, he stood unsuccessfully in the safe Labour Party constituency of Pontefract and Castleford. At the 2001 general election, he was elected as MP for Taunton, taking the traditionally Conservative seat that had been captured by the Liberal Democrat Jackie Ballard at the 1997 election. Flook's victory in Taunton was one of just nine total gains made by the Conservative Party at the 2001 General Election where, under William Hague's leadership, the Party made a net gain of just one seat in the House of Commons. The seat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2001 United Kingdom General Election
The 2001 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 7 June 2001, four years after the previous election on 1 May 1997, to elect 659 members to the House of Commons. The governing Labour Party was re-elected to serve a second term in government with another landslide victory with a 167 majority, returning 413 members of Parliament versus 419 from the 1997 general election, a net loss of six seats, though with a significantly lower turnout than before—59.4%, compared to 71.6% at the previous election. The number of votes Labour received fell by nearly three million. Tony Blair went on to become the only Labour Prime Minister to serve two consecutive full terms in office. As Labour retained almost all of their seats won in the 1997 landslide victory, the media dubbed the 2001 election "the quiet landslide". There was little change outside Northern Ireland, with 620 out of the 641 seats in Great Britain electing candidates from the same party as they did in 1997. Fa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Electoral Calculus
Electoral Calculus is a political forecasting web site which attempts to predict future United Kingdom general election results. It considers national factors but excludes local issues. Main features The site was developed by Martin Baxter, who was a financial analyst specialising in mathematical modelling. The site includes maps, predictions and analysis articles. It has separate sections for elections in Scotland and Northern Ireland. From April 2019, the headline prediction covered the Brexit Party and Change UK – The Independent Group. Change UK was later removed from the headline prediction ahead of the 2019 general election as their poll scores were not statistically significant. Methodology The site is based around the employment of scientific techniques on data about the United Kingdom's electoral geography, which can be used to calculate the uniform national swing. It takes account of national polls and trends but excludes local issues. The calculations were ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2005 United Kingdom General Election
The 2005 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 5 May 2005, to elect List of MPs elected in the 2005 United Kingdom general election, 646 members to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, Leader of the Labour Party (UK), led by Tony Blair, won its third consecutive victory, with Blair becoming the second Labour leader after Harold Wilson to form three majority governments. However, its Majority government, majority fell to 66 seats compared to the 167-seat majority it had won 2001 United Kingdom general election, four years before. This was the first time the Labour Party had won a third consecutive election, and remains the party's most recent general election victory. The Labour campaign emphasised a strong economy; however, Blair had suffered a decline in popularity, which was exacerbated by the decision to send British troops to Iraq War, invade Iraq in 2003. Despite this, Labour mostly retained its le ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1997 United Kingdom General Election
The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a landslide by the Labour Party led by Tony Blair, achieving a 179 seat majority. The political backdrop of campaigning focused on public opinion towards a change in government. Blair, as Labour Leader, focused on transforming his party through a more centrist policy platform, entitled 'New Labour', with promises of devolution referendums for Scotland and Wales, fiscal responsibility, and a decision to nominate more female politicians for election through the use of all-women shortlists from which to choose candidates. Major sought to rebuild public trust in the Conservatives following a series of scandals, including the events of Black Wednesday in 1992, through campaigning on the strength of the economic recovery following the early 1990s recession, but faced divisions within the party over the UK's membership of the Eur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Geoffrey Lofthouse, Baron Lofthouse Of Pontefract
Geoffrey Lofthouse, Baron Lofthouse of Pontefract, JP (18 December 1925 – 1 November 2012), popularly known in his former constituency as Geoff Lofthouse, was a British Labour politician, MP and life peer. Early life He was born in Featherstone, West Riding of Yorkshire, the son of Ernest Lofthouse, a farm labourer in Micklefield, and Emma (née Fellows). His father died at the age of 35. At the age of 14, Geoff Lofthouse went to work at Ackton Hall Colliery in Featherstone. At age 29, he was the president of the local branch of the NUM. He went to the University of Leeds, gaining a BA in Political Studies in 1957, when he was 32 years old. In 1962, he became a councillor on Pontefract Borough Council. He was mayor of Pontefract in 1967, and leader of the council from 1969 to 1973. Parliamentary career He was MP for Pontefract and Castleford from a 1978 by-election until his retirement at the 1997 general election. In the House of Commons, he served from 1992 until hi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |