General Election

[Richard James]

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmaduke_ ... ss_player)), Wyvill was a Liberal MP but your book, Richard, says he was a Tory. Which is right?

Congratulations, John. The Wikipedia entry seems convincing to me, especially when you look at the Richmond (Yorks) entry. You're the first to spot that mistake - even Edward Winter hasn't, as far as I know, picked it up. It will be corrected should there be a new edition.

En passant, the Wyvill family looks very interesting. Marmaduke was a direct descendant of Edward III.

[Ian Thompson]

Another very strong chess playing MP was Brian Walden, better known in his later incarnation as a television presenter.

His son, Phillip, was a good player as well - graded about 200 in the late 1980s.

Which brings me to a question that has nothing to do with the general election. Does anyone have the results of the Berkshire-Oxfordshire County match which took place on 9 January 1988? What was the result of the game Thompson-Walden? It went for adjudication and I never managed to find out what the result was.

[IM Jack Rudd]

En passant, the Wyvill family looks very interesting. Marmaduke was a direct descendant of Edward III.

I should imagine that would be true of most of the population of the UK. Of course, most of us wouldn't be able to trace such ancestry.

[Alex Holowczak]

En passant, the Wyvill family looks very interesting. Marmaduke was a direct descendant of Edward III.

I should imagine that would be true of most of the population of the UK. Of course, most of us wouldn't be able to trace such ancestry.

The Order of Succession since the 1701 Act of Settlement is known, i.e. all direct descendants of Sophia of Hanover. This wikipedia article has a list of the alive ones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_su ... ish_throne (note, it is incomplete!).

If one generation takes 30 years, and each generation has x children, i.e. Edward III has x children, which have x children each etc. then there have been 22 generations, and x^22 = about 60,000,000, which is only about 1/15 of the UK population. This means that if there were 2.25 children per generation, then ignoring immigration and emigration, and incest (albeit perhaps a few generations apart - admittedly quite likely in royal circles), everyone in the UK is related to Edward III.

By continuing this pattern going back even further, eventually you can conclude that everyone in the world must be somehow related to each other, albeit very distantly. Edward III could well be your forty-third cousin seventeen times removed, and you would be none the wiser.

[Simon Spivack]

Incidentally he was a cousin of Sydney Silverman

Neville, do you have a reference for this? Silverman is a very common Jewish name.

If memory serves Sydney's wife Nancy was a member of Hampstead Labour Party. The Silvermans hosted garden parties in their large home (in Finchley?) for local members. Nelson and Colne, in Lancashire, was Sydney Silverman's seat.

Where is David Robertson when one needs him? I suspect this is right up his street.

One web site that might be genuinely useful is http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/ . It generates information from Hansard. Note, though, that the House of Commons has had funny seniority rules when it came to permitting Members to speak. It could be very infuriating for a Backbencher to patiently wait his turn in the Chamber, only for a drunk to wander in from one of the bars in the Commons and claim precedence. It would be unwise to deduce a Member's effectiveness from the number of speeches given.

[Neville Twitchell]

Incidentally he was a cousin of Sydney Silverman

Neville, do you have a reference for this? Silverman is a very common Jewish name.

Embarrassingly I cannot find a reference for this. Various sites listing MPs do not state that there was a relationship, but I thought I recollected reading that they were cousins, albeit distant ones. Maybe I am mistaken and they were not. Emrys Hughes in his biography of Sydney Silverman does not mention the fact, and it seems that Sydney was the son of Rumanian immigrants whereas Julius was descended from Russians, so maybe they were not related at all. As you say Silverman is a very common Jewish name.

[Richard Haddrell]

Which brings me to a question that has nothing to do with the general election. Does anyone have the results of the Berkshire-Oxfordshire County match which took place on 9 January 1988? What was the result of the game Thompson-Walden? It went for adjudication and I never managed to find out what the result was.

Berks won 15½ - 4½, if that's any help. This was the one match that didn't get reported in the SCCU Bulletin that season.

[Kevin Thurlow]

I have been told that Lembit Opik is a good player, although it has to be conceded that is not his main claim to fame.

[James Pratt]

Lembit has been photographed with his then cheeky girl, Sian lloyd, and Debbie Evans Quek, as she was then at the 50th Welsh Championships

[Louise Sinclair]

If we're going to include inactive players, them we should add:

Rachel Reeves - Labour, Leeds West --- http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getre ... ef=132314D

She was a prominent Kent Junior in the 1990s.

Even with Labour apparently struggling, she should be an MP after the election. She's contesting a very safe seat.

My acknowledgments to Paul McKeown, who first drew my attention to this in a post on the Forum some months ago.

Rachel Reeves is a first class choice as a Labour candidate. Rachel agrees wholeheartedly with policies which will hopefully get NU Labour removed from office - she may get a seat but I doubt she will be involved in government because Labours dream will be over and the rest of us can emerge from the nightmare. David knows Rachel for many years and could tell some interesting anecdotes about tournament chess in Surrey.
Louise

[Gareth Harley-Yeo]

Lembit has been photographed with his then cheeky girl, Sian lloyd, and Debbie Evans Quek, as she was then at the 50th Welsh Championships

Yes it was Debbie's ingenious idea to have Lembit and Sian as the Welsh Chess Union patrons that year. From what I recall they did absolutely nothing for the game, but did make a stomach churning speech about enjoying the odd game before bed.

Incidentally we now have CJ as patron. It's nice to have a figurehead who actually cares about the game for a change

[Michele Clack]

I put the questions about the ECF hoping for the status of a Sport and being eligible to apply for charitable status for adult chess to Nicholas Lane the Lib Dem candidate for Redditch and Inkberrow. He said that he would be happy to engage with the ECF on the issue and that he is a keen chess player. This is the first time that the Lib Dems have put up a strong candidate in Redditch and Jackie Smith the last MP lost a lot of support over the expenses scandal, so he definitely has a chance of winning.

[John Saunders]

Two chess-friendly MPs have bitten the dust... Dr Evan Harris, MP for Oxford West, and Vera Baird, MP for Redcar, lost their seats. Both attended the Chess for Schools launch at the Houses of Parliament a couple of years ago. I believe Vera Baird was Gerry Walsh's constituency MP. There was a local issue which produced a massive swing against her. Dr Harris was only edged out by a couple of hundred votes.

[John Saunders]

Also gone are Charlotte Atkins and Michael Foster (Hastings).

[John Saunders]

... and now Charles Clarke too