My parents, and the 1974 general election
My Mum had sewn a banner in support of Labour for the October 1974 general election, and hung it on the back of our house in Richmond Road, Brighton.
This photo shows how our (slightly odd) neighbour of the time reacted.
My parents made it to bed at 4am after waiting for the results to be called at Brighton Dome. Andrew Bowden was returned again as Tory MP for the seat. (He lost the seat in 1997 with Labour’s landslide and now plays lots of poker.)
Five years after the battle of the banners, my parents both joined a march in protest at the National Front candidate Valerie Tyndall who stood at the next election in 1979. Somewhere there’s a pic of both of them under a banner for the anti-fascist league that appeared in the Evening Argus: “Grim-faced protesters…”
I wore all red to the Dome in 1992 for the results and remember the Tory winner, who appeared to be drunk, shaking his fist and ranting in anger at the crowd as they booed his result.
For 2010, all the Kisses are voting Green and will be heading into town to hear the results roll out. I don’t think my Dad would mind.
