On this week: 30 October – from the archives
‘On this week‘ is a weekly column by our news editor Josh Elgin which offers a window into the past through the pages of The Gryphon archive. Exploring the events and stories that unfolded during the same week in history – enabling a deeper understanding of the context that shapes our present.
30 October 2015
EIGHT YEARS AGO – Newly elected Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn visited the University of Leeds to launch a voter registration campaign after changes in how people could register to vote led to claims that a disproportionate number of young people would fall off the register.
In September 2015, Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party in a landslide victory, with 59.5% of first-preference votes.
When the Islington North MP stood for the leadership, none of his colleagues expected him to come close, let alone win.
He argued that the party needed to draw a line under the New Labour era of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, but the anti-war campaigner, who had stood on a platform opposing cuts to public services and welfare, was inexperienced and deeply polarising.
Corbyn, however, argued that his platform would appeal with young people, who had long had poor turnout numbers in elections.
In 2017, his argument appeared to be affirmed when a so-called youthquake saw Labour outperform expectations and deny Prime Minister Theresa May an outright majority. His party won 10% more of the votes cast and gained 30 seats compared to 2015.
According to an analysis by Ipsos MORI after the election, young people had turned out to vote in the election in greater numbers than at any other point for 25 years. However, academics have debated the extent to which young people impacted the result.
In 2018, the British Election Study argued that the youngquake was a myth that had become an assumed fact based on anecdotes.
A year later, Corbyn led the Labour Party to its worst election result since 1935, attracting less than one-third of the votes cast and electing only 202 MPs.
His handling of complaints of antisemitism, Labour’s confused Brexit policy and the disunity within the party led to his appeal among voters plummeting between 2017 and 2019. He subsequently resigned, with the University of Leeds graduate Keir Starmer elected to the position in 2020.
03 November 1961
SIXTY TWO YEARS AGO – A student from the now-closed Department of Mining and Mineral Engineering climbed a 45-metre tall crane and attached a banner promoting their annual ball.
The stunt puts today’s societies and their drab Canva social media graphics to shame.
The mining department is believed to have closed over two decades ago. The country, which was once a global leader in the mining industry, decreased production in coal and metals in the latter half of the 20th century due to foreign competition, affecting many communities in Yorkshire and making a degree redundant.
04 November 1977
FORTY SIX YEARS AGO – the University Women’s Action Group held a protest outside of The Royal Park in Hyde Park against a strip show being held in the pub.
A spokesperson for the student group said: “This is the first show of its kind to be held here and we don’t want a precedent to be set.
“Stripping is a blatant form of the exploitation of women and denies that women are full human beings.
“What we want is a one-night boycott as a gesture of our annoyance.”
Strip clubs continue to be legal, but concern about the expansion in the number of live sex entertainment venues led to the Policing and Crime Act in 2009. The law imposes tougher licensing conditions on venues hosting live adult entertainment. Today, the Royal Park doesn’t host any such show in its venue.
With thanks to Special Collections which is located in Brotherton Library – visit their website to learn more about the collections they hold.
