Gromit, I’ve checked, and you’re right. Tatchell was subjected to a smear campaign. However, that doesn’t explain why, after 30 years, and the revelation that he is bi-sexual, Hughes still holds the seat. With such an enormous shift, politics must factor in there somewhere. As former Labour voter, I would never have voted for Tatchell – but not because he’s gay.
This is interesting.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/rod-liddle/8848211/happy-memories-of-the-bermondsey-by-election-30-years-ago-2/
//….what smug and epic arrogance on behalf of me, and people like me, in the Labour party at that time. That we knew better what the working class wanted in its representatives, that the Labour party was not primarily about the minimum wage and job creation and better conditions for the very people who set up the party, but was there as a wedge for progressive values which were not remotely shared by the people we were purporting to represent…//
Nothing’s changed. The Labour Party still doesn’t represent the working man.