Talk:2023 Mid Bedfordshire by-election

This article was nominated for deletion on 28 June 2023. The result of the discussion was keep.

Politics of the United Kingdom Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Politics of the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Politics of the United KingdomWikipedia:WikiProject Politics of the United KingdomTemplate:WikiProject Politics of the United KingdomPolitics of the United Kingdom articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Bedfordshire Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Bedfordshire, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Bedfordshire on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BedfordshireWikipedia:WikiProject BedfordshireTemplate:WikiProject BedfordshireBedfordshire articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Elections and Referendums

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Elections and Referendums, an ongoing effort to improve the quality of, expand upon and create new articles relating to elections, electoral reform and other aspects of democratic decision-making. For more information, visit our project page.Elections and ReferendumsWikipedia:WikiProject Elections and ReferendumsTemplate:WikiProject Elections and ReferendumsElections and Referendums articles

No Official Resignation Yet[edit]

Wondering how long before it should be noted that Dorries has not actually resigned. Until she is officially appointed to one of the roles which ends her time as an MP the by-election is not official. The appointment will be listed here when it happens: HM Treasury Announcements

It is odd that Johnson and Adams have been done, but not Dorries yet, but I don't think we can comment on it, for that would be WP:OR. We need reliable sources to comment on it. It's probably nothing and Dorries's name will turn up shortly. Bondegezou (talk) 12:24, 13 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This is Robert Peston saying Dorries is delaying: [1] If he writes that up as an article rather than a tweet, then I'd say we'd have something we can use. Bondegezou (talk) 19:19, 13 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Not deleted, but what should we do?[edit]

The AfD proposing deletion of this article has failed, but it raised a number of questions. I suggest we should do two things. First, can we better discuss the uncertainty around Dorries' intentions within the article? Has anyone seen some good reliable source coverage we can use?

Second, the AfD discussion mooted renaming this article to Potential Mid Bedfordshire by-election or Possible Mid Bedfordshire by-election or Future Mid Bedfordshire by-election. Should we do that? Bondegezou (talk) 10:21, 7 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

My preference would be 'Future' - Dorries has said several times she is resigning, and to not take her at her word (cynicism aside and all that) would potentially be crystal ball-ing, no? OGBC1992 (talk) 10:38, 7 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

A vote for "Future" here. doktorb _words^deeds 11:57, 7 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

A vote to keep the title as it is for now, she's indicated she's going, so for now lets hold fire. Seems silly to change it to "Future" or something similar only to change it back if she goes this year. Kalamikid (talk) 12:26, 7 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Turns out everyone is a lot more trusting of Dorries than I am! My (cynical?) interpretation is this: When she "resigned with immediate effect" she thought she's be walking into the Lords in short order. Since it turns out that's not occuring, she's not going to give up the money and status of being an MP. The demand for information about her peerage denial is something that, convieniently, is unlikely to be fufilled meaning she'll may well ride out rest of the Parliment on that excuse. She's not particularly concerned about the people of Mid Bedfordshire having representaton, she reportedly hasn't done any MP work for months [2], but an MP doesn't need to do any work or even attend the Commons at all to keep the job (c.f. Jared O'Mara).

ANYWAY, enough of my political cynicism. As we're keeping the article I'd push for "Potential" as it doesn't imply it's a certainty. WP:CRYSTAL states Individual scheduled or expected future events should be included only if the event is notable and almost certain to take place. and I don't think a 2023 date is "almost certain". --LukeSurl^t c 12:35, 7 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I’d be happy with Potential - happier than 2023, for now. OGBC1992 (talk) 13:26, 7 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Year in article title[edit]

Why are we keeping the year 2023 in the article title? Surely it would be more appropriate to rename it Future Mid Bedfordshire by-election? Nadine Dorries, despite having announced she will be resigning, has not yet done so; any date as to when she might (and thus when the subsequent by-election would be) is pure guesswork and speculation. 2A00:23C6:6F1D:CB01:6597:1E4D:7E9E:A1CC (talk) 13:47, 12 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Have a look at the discussion in the section above. LukeSurl^t c 23:30, 12 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Shall we move to Potential...[edit]

Discussion above and on the prior AfD seems to support a move to "Potential..." or "Future..." with slightly more support for "Potential...". Unless anyone has additional comments, I suggest we make that change. Bondegezou (talk) 09:54, 13 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Potential works for me. Go for it! OGBC1992 (talk) 10:07, 13 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]