I’ve used the example of the South Shields constituency in the North East several times when writing about the issue of safe seats and how they make a powerful argument for electoral reform (The new MP for South Shields has been chosen, I live in a Rotten Borough, and The South Shields by-election and Lazy Labour) so I thought I’d post this. I will remind you that it is the only seat in existence since the Great Reform Act of 1832 to have never elected a Conservative MP and that the Labour party have held the seat without interruption since 1935.

This video of a report from Channel 4 News of West Country Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg visiting South Shields is mostly a curiosity. I usually find Rees-Mogg intensely irritating — but in this to be fair he does come across as a bit more of an engaging personality. The video doesn’t tell us anything more profound than that the Conservative Party doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of getting anyone elected there — but it is a useful illustration of why our political parties in effect abandon parts of the country.