Northern Party: Difference between revisions

{{For|the 1912 Antarctic expedition|Terra Nova Expedition#Northern Party}}{{For|the separatist party for Northern England|Northern Independence Party}}{{Infobox political party

Michael Dawson, a former Executive Committee member of the [[Labour Campaign for Human Rights]], is the nephew of former MP for Lancaster [[Hilton Dawson]] who now runs the [[North East Party]]. At the launch of the party he said "We've been planning this for months. This is a Northern rebellion against a system that has failed the North."<ref>{{cite news|title=The Northern Party: New party targets Lancashire seats|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-england-32167718|accessdate=3 April 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=2 April 2015}}</ref> The party argued for [[Northern England Devolution|Northern England devolution]] of power to an autonomous Northern region, and for business investment and environmental protection.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/12910378.A_coastal_battle_at_Morecambe_and_Lunesdale/|title=A coastal battle at Morecambe and Lunesdale|work=Westmoreland Gazette|date=April 23, 2015|accessdate=April 25, 2017}}</ref>

The party described its symbol as "a Norse raven, closely associated with the ancient kingdom of Northumbria (today's North of England) and the struggle for autonomy".<ref>{{cite web|title=Why the Raven? |url=http://www.northern.party/index.html |archive-url=https://archive.istoday/20150426220038/http://www.northern.party/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 April 2015 |publisher=Northern Party |accessdate=26 April 2015 }}</ref>

The party stood candidates in five seats in Lancashire:<ref name=forms>{{cite news|title=Ex Tory MP forms the Northern Party|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/the-northerner/2015/apr/02/ex-tory-mp-forms-the-northern-party|accessdate=3 April 2015|publisherwork=The Guardian|date=2 April 2015}}</ref>

* [[Lancaster and Fleetwood]]: [[Harold Elletson]] (174 votes). Elletson was the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] MP for [[Blackpool North and(UK FleetwoodParliament constituency)|Blackpool North]] 1992-1997.<ref name=exmp/>

* [[Blackpool North and Cleveleys (UK Parliament constituency)|Blackpool North and Cleveleys]]: James Walsh (57 votes). Walsh is an ecologist, former [[Green Party of England and Wales|Green Party]] member,<ref name=forms/> and part of [[Frack Free Lancashire]].<ref name=exmp/>

[[Paul Salveson (politician)|Paul Salveson]] noted the smaller vote share than the [[North East Party]] and [[Yorkshire First]] at the same General Election and a lack of parish councillors versus those other parties, and suggested this was because the Northern Party, though they stood in Lancashire, had a Northern identity rather than a Lancashire identity.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Politics of the North: Governance, territory and identity in Northern England|url=http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Politics-of-the-North-Hayton-Giovannini-Berry.pdf|editor1=Richard Hayton |editor2=Arianna Giovannini |editor3=Craig Berry|last=Salveson|first=Paul|chapter=Will the North rise again?|publisher=White Rose Consortium for the North of England / University of Leeds|date=January 2016|accessdate=April 25, 2017}}</ref>