Talk:Patrick Hastings

Fixes
Fixed the part on Joss Ross Campbell - he had published the article in question, not written it.
 * Quite right! Thanks for spotting it. David | Talk 15:51, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Also It was the Worker's Weekly Not the Daily Worker. Fixed. 83.104.171.111 16:48, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Wallsend candidacy
Montgomery Hyde fell into error on several aspects of his judgment of Hastings' political career. He makes a howler in stating that Wallsend was held by a Liberal: Matt Simm was actually a member of the National Democratic Party, a right-wing Labour Party substitute which was generally supportive of the Lloyd George coalition. When planning the 1918 election the Coalition tried, if it could, to target its coupons at the candidate thought most suited to a constituency - so the fact that a ' Coalition Labour' candidate was preferred in Wallsend indicates that it was generally thought a good seat for Labour. Also the 1918 election was not the walkover seen in most other seats as Simm only scraped 50% against the third placed incumbent left-wing Liberal MP - but with Labour in a strong second. Hence Hyde was also in error in implying that Hastings achieved a surprising feat in winning in 1922. He was one of the most prominent Labour candidates, and was in a strong seat. Before the election The Times expected him to be elected.

I regret the loss of a brief note explaining that the sincerity of Hastings' commitment to the Labour Party was seriously doubted before he was elected, with many thinking he had chosen to get involved in left-wing politics purely because he had worked out that it might bring him high office. Whether true or not, people believed it, and it affected Hastings' reputation never more than when he bungled the Campbell case. Sam Blacketer (talk) 23:53, 11 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Such a statement was removed primarily because it was unreferenced. If you can provide reliable sources for both the Wallsend and sincerity problems, go ahead and add them. Ironholds (talk) 00:05, 12 September 2009 (UTC)