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![]() | On 20 December 2023, it was proposed that this article be moved to Referendum Party (United Kingdom). The result of the discussion was not moved. |
I seem to remember a Conservative mp joined the Referendum party a few weeks before the 1997 election, which meant that they had representation in parliment without anyone ever voting for them. Don't remember his name though. Saul Taylor 11:03, 4 Jan 2004 (UTC)
Why did the referendum party, which was strongly opposed to the EU on every scale, assist with ousting so many Conservative MPs, who generally were the most Eurosceptic of the big three? Why was James Goldsmith cheering in Putney, when he had just helped put a new Blairite into Westminster, who would also vote on all that the Referendum party hated, such as the Social Chapter of the Maastrict Treaty for instance.
Anyone have any thoughts?
I think you have missed the point of what we did in the election of 97. Irrespective of who lost and gained seats the whole point of the exercise was to promote a referendum and candidates were put in constituencies where the sitting MP would not support that idea. This therefore gave his constituents the opportunity to register their protest at not being offered the opportunity to have a vote on some crucial issues affecting the country. I don't think many Referendum candidates actually expected to win a seat and, at the time, didn't really care who won the seat. The important thing for me was that we helped to stimulate the debate and forced Blair to concede that we would not go into the single currency without a referendum. If my memory serves me well this was an announcement made during the election campaign to try to deflect our demand for a full referendum on Britain's relationship with the EU. I know this was only a small part of our objectives but a small victory non the less. Secondly I would just like to refer to the main article which states "Goldsmith vowed that the party would continue after the 1997 election...". I feel sure I can remember him catergorically stating that he had no intention of continuing as a party after the election. I am happy to be corrected but I am sure this was not the case.
That was my point Tim. We were calling for the wider referendum, but all the parties announced referendums on the single currency after the Referendum Party was formed to deflect from our wider aims and give the impression that what we were doing was pintless. The party was formed more than a year before the 1997 election. I was working with them for at least 18 months before the election. I suppose the main achievement was that even now we still have that promise from all the main parties however much I'm sure they would love to take us in. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.111.233.129 ( talk) 20:54, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
The plural used across Wikipedia is "referendums" - see Category:Referendums, the sub-categories Category:Referendums by year, Category:Referendums by country, and the related article Referendums related to the European Union. The plural form has been made consistent across Wikipedia.
Referendum#Terminology says the following:
"Referendums" is in no way inaccurate usage. Timrollpickering 10:32, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
"called for referendums on aspects of the UK's relationship with the European Union" - this implies different referenda on separate issues with the UK's relationship with the EU, i.e. a plurality of issues - hence, referenda is the correct term. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ray gillespie ( talk • contribs) 22:08, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
This is also posted on the Talk:United Kingdom general election, 1997 page. Please respond there.
There is a discrepancy between figures given on this page and the Referendum Party page for the number of votes received and the nuber of seats contested, i.e.:
External sources give other figures, e.g.:
Anyone have anything definitive? (I suspect the 547 seats is the most likely.) I do seem to remember that one seat had a delayed election because of the death of a candidate - was that 1997? - and that could explain some of the discrepancy (only 846 results announced on election day, and lower total votes) but this would not explain at leasy three voting total. Emeraude ( talk) 12:23, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
GA toolbox |
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Reviewing |
Reviewer: Vanamonde93 ( talk · contribs) 05:32, 28 June 2017 (UTC)
GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria
I have tried once to reform the lead section. May we accept my edits? These are:
Clearly whoever has given this article featured status has not considered these points... They may have been caught up in Brexit hysteria!- Adam37 Talk 16:41, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
This article says that the Referendum Party was active from 1994 to 1997. I would question whether this is accurate, as I am sure that they contested seats in the 1992 election in the United Kingdom. Vorbee ( talk) 18:12, 22 December 2017 (UTC)
The article said, "Although not offering party membership, it claimed to have 160,000 registered "supporters", an exaggerated number." A editor has recently deleted the last three words, with the comment "according to whom?" Fair point, but where does the figure of 160,000 itself come from. I cannot find it anywhere, and while it is almost certainly the case that Goldsmith exaggerated the number of "supporters" I have not been able to find a reliable number. For example:
And, from his son and totally unreliably,
The only reference to members/supporters which makes much sense is that:
Can anyone come up with a reliably sourced and consistent figure, either for how many it claimed or, better yet, how many it actually had? Emeraude ( talk) 08:15, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
The result of the move request was: not moved. ( non-admin closure) Mattdaviesfsic ( talk) 22:08, 28 December 2023 (UTC)
Referendum Party → Referendum Party (United Kingdom) – Reasonable potential for confusion with the wikipage for the currently active political party in South Africa also called "Referendum Party”. Disambiguation is hence necessary for users searching “Referendum Party”. Suffy69 ( talk) 15:27, 20 December 2023 (UTC)
![]() | Referendum Party is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so. | ||||||||||||
![]() | This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on March 29, 2019. | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Current status: Featured article |
![]() | This article is rated FA-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
![]() | On 20 December 2023, it was proposed that this article be moved to Referendum Party (United Kingdom). The result of the discussion was not moved. |
I seem to remember a Conservative mp joined the Referendum party a few weeks before the 1997 election, which meant that they had representation in parliment without anyone ever voting for them. Don't remember his name though. Saul Taylor 11:03, 4 Jan 2004 (UTC)
Why did the referendum party, which was strongly opposed to the EU on every scale, assist with ousting so many Conservative MPs, who generally were the most Eurosceptic of the big three? Why was James Goldsmith cheering in Putney, when he had just helped put a new Blairite into Westminster, who would also vote on all that the Referendum party hated, such as the Social Chapter of the Maastrict Treaty for instance.
Anyone have any thoughts?
I think you have missed the point of what we did in the election of 97. Irrespective of who lost and gained seats the whole point of the exercise was to promote a referendum and candidates were put in constituencies where the sitting MP would not support that idea. This therefore gave his constituents the opportunity to register their protest at not being offered the opportunity to have a vote on some crucial issues affecting the country. I don't think many Referendum candidates actually expected to win a seat and, at the time, didn't really care who won the seat. The important thing for me was that we helped to stimulate the debate and forced Blair to concede that we would not go into the single currency without a referendum. If my memory serves me well this was an announcement made during the election campaign to try to deflect our demand for a full referendum on Britain's relationship with the EU. I know this was only a small part of our objectives but a small victory non the less. Secondly I would just like to refer to the main article which states "Goldsmith vowed that the party would continue after the 1997 election...". I feel sure I can remember him catergorically stating that he had no intention of continuing as a party after the election. I am happy to be corrected but I am sure this was not the case.
That was my point Tim. We were calling for the wider referendum, but all the parties announced referendums on the single currency after the Referendum Party was formed to deflect from our wider aims and give the impression that what we were doing was pintless. The party was formed more than a year before the 1997 election. I was working with them for at least 18 months before the election. I suppose the main achievement was that even now we still have that promise from all the main parties however much I'm sure they would love to take us in. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.111.233.129 ( talk) 20:54, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
The plural used across Wikipedia is "referendums" - see Category:Referendums, the sub-categories Category:Referendums by year, Category:Referendums by country, and the related article Referendums related to the European Union. The plural form has been made consistent across Wikipedia.
Referendum#Terminology says the following:
"Referendums" is in no way inaccurate usage. Timrollpickering 10:32, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
"called for referendums on aspects of the UK's relationship with the European Union" - this implies different referenda on separate issues with the UK's relationship with the EU, i.e. a plurality of issues - hence, referenda is the correct term. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ray gillespie ( talk • contribs) 22:08, 8 September 2007 (UTC)
This is also posted on the Talk:United Kingdom general election, 1997 page. Please respond there.
There is a discrepancy between figures given on this page and the Referendum Party page for the number of votes received and the nuber of seats contested, i.e.:
External sources give other figures, e.g.:
Anyone have anything definitive? (I suspect the 547 seats is the most likely.) I do seem to remember that one seat had a delayed election because of the death of a candidate - was that 1997? - and that could explain some of the discrepancy (only 846 results announced on election day, and lower total votes) but this would not explain at leasy three voting total. Emeraude ( talk) 12:23, 3 November 2014 (UTC)
GA toolbox |
---|
Reviewing |
Reviewer: Vanamonde93 ( talk · contribs) 05:32, 28 June 2017 (UTC)
GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria
I have tried once to reform the lead section. May we accept my edits? These are:
Clearly whoever has given this article featured status has not considered these points... They may have been caught up in Brexit hysteria!- Adam37 Talk 16:41, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
This article says that the Referendum Party was active from 1994 to 1997. I would question whether this is accurate, as I am sure that they contested seats in the 1992 election in the United Kingdom. Vorbee ( talk) 18:12, 22 December 2017 (UTC)
The article said, "Although not offering party membership, it claimed to have 160,000 registered "supporters", an exaggerated number." A editor has recently deleted the last three words, with the comment "according to whom?" Fair point, but where does the figure of 160,000 itself come from. I cannot find it anywhere, and while it is almost certainly the case that Goldsmith exaggerated the number of "supporters" I have not been able to find a reliable number. For example:
And, from his son and totally unreliably,
The only reference to members/supporters which makes much sense is that:
Can anyone come up with a reliably sourced and consistent figure, either for how many it claimed or, better yet, how many it actually had? Emeraude ( talk) 08:15, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
The result of the move request was: not moved. ( non-admin closure) Mattdaviesfsic ( talk) 22:08, 28 December 2023 (UTC)
Referendum Party → Referendum Party (United Kingdom) – Reasonable potential for confusion with the wikipage for the currently active political party in South Africa also called "Referendum Party”. Disambiguation is hence necessary for users searching “Referendum Party”. Suffy69 ( talk) 15:27, 20 December 2023 (UTC)