Politics
The first borough council was elected on November 1, 1900, when Conservative-supported Unionist and Moderate candidates took control. From 1903 to 1906 the Progressive Party held power. From 1906 to 1925 the Municipal Reform Party (allied to the Conservatives) controlled the borough. In 1925 a Ratepayer's Association stood in place of the Municipal Reformers, replacing them as majority party. From 1928 to 1931, the Labour Party held control, with the Ratepayers holding power from 1931 to 1934. In 1934 Labour regained power, which it held until the abolition of the borough in 1965.
The number of councillors returned at each election to the council was as follows:
- Local elections
| Year | 1900 | 1903 | 1906 | 1909 | 1912 | 1919 | 1922 | 1925 | 1928 | 1931 | 1934 | 1937 | 1945 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unionists | 14 | ||||||||||||
| Moderates | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Progressives | 10 | 32 | 14 | 8 | 5 | 17 | |||||||
| Liberals | 5 | ||||||||||||
| Independent | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Pro-conservatives | 22 | ||||||||||||
| Municipal Reform | 34 | 46 | 48 | 32 | 47 | 6 | |||||||
| Ratepayers Assoc | 40 | 27 | 47 | 9 | 8 | ||||||||
| Labour | 1 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 29 | 9 | 47 | 48 | 47 | ||||
| Unofficial Labour | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Communist | 1 |
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 | 24 | 37 | 29 | 32 | |
| Conservative | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | |
| Vacancies | 5 |
For elections to Parliament, the borough initially formed the two constituencies of Finsbury Central and Finsbury East. In 1918 a new constituency of Finsbury was formed which was identical with the metropolitan borough. By 1950 the population of the borough had declined to such an extent that the Finsbury constituency was merged with the neighbouring constituency of Shoreditch to became Shoreditch and Finsbury.
There are some street nameplates which retain the label "Borough of Finsbury"
Read more about this topic: Metropolitan Borough Of Finsbury
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Of course politics is an interesting and engrossing thing. It offers no immutable laws, nearly always prevaricates, but as far as blather and sharpening the mind go, it provides inexhaustible material.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“The [nineteenth-century] young men who were Puritans in politics were anti-Puritans in literature. They were willing to die for the independence of Poland or the Manchester Fenians; and they relaxed their tension by voluptuous reading in Swinburne.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.”
—George Washington (1732–1799)