Bert Hazell, who was Labour MP for North Norfolk between 1964 and 1970, is still alive at the age of 101. According to the Daily Telegraph, "On November 8 this year he will take over the late Lord Shinwell's mantle as the country's longest living former MP."
A Labour MP for North Norfolk? An article by Malcolm Redfellow will give you the constituency's fascinating history of political radicalism. And that excellent newspaper the Diss Mercury will tell you more about Mr Hazell.
Radicalism wasnt limited to North NOrfolk - other rural constituencies in Norfolk rejected the Tories in times when the rest of rural England had embraced them. North Norfolk would probably have elected a Labour MP in 1997 (as North West did and South West almost did) but for the fact that Norman had been campaigning hard there for the previous 7 years.
ReplyDeleteOne aside - the Higdons, the teachers at the centre of the Burston School Strike, first made an impression as campaigning radicals at Wood Dalling school in North Norfolk.
His recent death was almost unnoticed;
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thepress.co.uk/news/4049793.Tributes_paid_to_Labour_stalwart_Bertie_Hazell/