Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Jiang (talk | contribs) at 07:56, 27 July 2003 (re: titling of pages). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

I'm tempted to pad out this article with, for example a mention of Neil Kinnock. But on the other hand, it's good that it gives a succint history of the party -- not much happened under Kinnock apart from losing several elections. Maybe a list of leaders & years in power after the main article would be better. Tarquin

There's no consistency with UK party names in Misplaced Pages. British Labour Party; British Liberal party; UK Conservative party British Liberal Democrats arrgghh.... Mintguy

The UK Conservative party is definitley wrong, as "Conservative" is Britain only. In the UK they are the "Consevative and Unionist" party.

It's also Consevative and Unionist in Scotland.Mintguy

Let's fix it then! What format do you suggest? -- Tarquin 15:27 Dec 19, 2002 (UTC)

I dunno, what do you think? Mintguy in particular should Liberal Democrats stay where it is?; do they use the word party in their literature? Is 'Party' inherent in the name Labour Party such that it should be capitalised? Mintguy

we could just email their press offices & ask them what their official name is -- Tarquin 16:04 Dec 19, 2002 (UTC)

The names registered by the major parties on the register of political parties at http://www.electoralcommission.gov.uk/ are:

• Labour Party
• Conservative And Unionist Party
• Liberal Democrats

--rbrwr

Hi. Good work on that!. What page is that on though... Mintguy

http://www.electoralcommission.gov.uk/regulatory-issues/regpoliticalparties.cfm --rbrwr

Cheers! Mintguy

BTW this has reminded me, the page on The Liberal Party says it is a defunct party, but I believe it still exists, a few party members refused to merge with the SDP. Mintguy

Look at the history of UK Liberal party... an anon IP changed that bit a couple of days ago. I put a fuller explanation in further down. I think the old Liberal Party (which is what the article is really about) is indeed defunct, and the new one is a new and seperate thing. I'm open to debate on that one, though. Maybe we should have that debate on Talk:UK Liberal party, though. --rbrwr

I think you should restore it as you had it, as you said it still exists as a rump.

Hmm... How about we use the official names, disambiguating with a (UK) if needed, eg The Labour Party (UK). Put redirects for the common names & give them at the start of the article too. -- Tarquin 18:35 Dec 19, 2002 (UTC)

Hmm... I guess... I'd like to know what the Canadians and New Zealanders etc.. would do as well really, it would be nice to be consistent. Mintguy

Actually Tarquin I think your way is probably the best way. As the definite article is part of the name for both the Tories and Labour, it makes sense. Mintguy

Wandering off onto the topic of the Conservatives, although their official (registered) name is "The Conservative And Unionist Party", they barely ever se that form, even on official documents. so by the "most familiar name" rule I think we should use "Conservative" rather than "Conservative and Unionist". --rbrwr

A Scotsman or Ulsterman might disagree with you, but then in Scotland the Labour Party is the Scottish Labour Party. However on the whole I think it's true.

Yes, http://www.scottishtories.org.uk/ does use "and Unionist" in a way that http://www.conservatives.com doesn't. They also use "Tories" more. It's certainly worth a first-paragraph mention, but for the title of an article about the UK-wide party, I'd skip it. --rbrwr

So do we all kind of think that it should be as follows then?

The Conservative Party (UK)

The Labour Party (UK)

Liberal Democrats (UK)

Mintguy

I'd be happy with that. --rbrwr

Ok I'll start moving stuff in min. While I'm here though... I think there's a constituancy in Wales (there might be more, or it might actually be Scotland) where the Tories have got some other weird name for historical reasons but I can't remember what it is. Mintguy

Wasn't it the 1983 manifesto which was "the longest suicide note in political history", not the 1992 one? Labour were a hell of a lot more electable in 92 than 83! Arwel

Yes, of course it was. And it was (probably) Gerald Kaufman who said it, not Hattersley; see Talk:Gerald Kaufman for what I was able to find out about the history of the phrase. --rbrwr

Removed:

(nicknamed later the 'longest suicide note in history' by then Deputy Leader Roy Hattersley)

for the time being --rbrwr

The official name of the party is "The Labour Party", so I'm moving it back.

May I be the first to welcome back The Labour Party to its rightful place and name. (And as Basil Fawlty would say, 'don't mention the war' <G.> JTD 22:57 Feb 26, 2003 (UTC)

What's with using the in the title? Isn't that against the naming conventions? Just because "the" is part of the official name doesn't mean we add it. We don't see United Kingdom at The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or People's Republic of China at The People's Republic of China. Looking at http://www.conservatives.com, it seems that the parties themselves break the "official title". The 't' in "the" is only capitalized if it is the first word in a sentence. Note the titles of these pages: "Conservative Party - Constituency Map Search" and "Conservative Party - MPs" not "The Conservative Party - Constituency Map Search" and "The Conservative Party - MPs". --Jiang 07:56 27 Jul 2003 (UTC)