Politics
The first election to the council was on 1 November 1900, with the Progressive Party taking control of the new borough. They retained power until 1909, when the Municipal Reform Party (allied to the Conservatives) gained a majority. The Progressives regained the council in 1912, holding power until 1919 when the Labour Party gained control. In 1931 the borough come under Municipal Reform control again. Labour regained power in 1934, retaining it for the rest of the borough's existence.
Elections of the whole council were held every three years. Elections were cancelled during the two world wars (1914-1918 and 1939-1945). The 1952 election was postponed for a year so that it did not clash with elections to the London County Council. The number of councillors returned at each election was as follows:.
- Local elections
| Year | 1900 | 1903 | 1906 | 1909 | 1912 | 1919 | 1922 | 1925 | 1928 | 1931 | 1934 | 1937 | 1945 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progressives | 37 | 38 | 29 | 2 | 29 | ||||||||
| Municipal Alliance | 17 | 16 | 25 | ||||||||||
| Municipal Reform | 52 | 25 | 11 | 21 | 25 | 22 | 31 | 18 | 15 | 5 | |||
| Labour | 41 | 33 | 29 | 33 | 23 | 37 | 40 | 50 | |||||
| Discharged servicemen | 2 |
No Municipal Reform candidates were nominated after 1946, and Conservative candidates were nominated at local elections for the first time.
| Year | 1949 | 1953 | 1956 | 1959 | 1962 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | 34 | 37 | 46 | 34 | 40 |
| Conservative | 21 | 18 | 18 | 21 | 12 |
| Liberal | 3 |
Read more about this topic: Metropolitan Borough Of Battersea
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“We are naïve and moralistic women. We are human beings. Who find politics a blight upon the human condition. And do not know how one copes with it except through politics.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“The differences between revolution in art and revolution in politics are enormous.... Revolution in art lies not in the will to destroy but in the revelation of what has already been destroyed. Art kills only the dead.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)
“Politics begin where the masses are, not where there are thousands, but where there are millions, that is where serious politics begin.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)