I can't resist correcting Martin Bright on a point of fact in the aformentioned interview with Huhne.
He writes that 'in the two elections held in the 1960s, the Liberal vote collapsed to around two million, and the Parliamentary party was almost wiped out.'
This just isn't so. In fact the two elections held in the 1960s, saw the Liberals increase their number of seats for the first time in a generation, from seven to nine in 1964 and then to 12 in 1966. The two million plus votes achieved in 1966 was considerably higher than in the elections of 1951, '55 or '59.
Martin Bright may be thinking of the 1970 election, when the party did indeed see its vote share and number of seats collapse. But to regard 1970 as being part of the 1960s would be a different order of pedantry.
1 comment:
Talking of pedants.....
Every decade there are always some who say that it begins with the year ending 1 not 0.
So by that definition 1970 would indeed belong to the 1960s.
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