Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of British Members of Parliament who crossed the floor

List of British Members of Parliament who crossed the floor[edit]

Forgive me if this isn't formatted correctly, as it is my first nomination for featured content. This is a list of Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom who have 'crossed the floor' (changed political parties) since the 1945 general election.

I think it meets all the Featured List criteria:

Its purpose is to bring together all the biographies of Members concerned so that readers can compare their stories. Not all of the articles have yet been written but the vast majority have. The entry criteria are fairly strict because the political parties keep a close eye on their MPs and immediately know when one has left them.
It is constructed as a timeline. In a few cases I could not find a source which gave a precise date, but this is present for the vast majority.
Every Member who changed parties, or was temporarily excluded from their existing party, is included.
I have cited the source which was used for the building of the list. Individual entries, especially the dates of change and reasons given for changing, were sourced from contemporary newspapers, particularly The Times digital archive.
I don't think anyone has disputed the listings.
The article has been stable.
I have included a brief reason why the Members changed party and some other circumstances.

Of course I welcome constructive criticism, and if it can be further improved I will do my best to help. Sam Blacketer 23:53, 16 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment Is there a reason why it starts at 1945? If other crossed the floor before then perhaps they should be added (otherwise it should be called the unwieldly 'List of British Members of Parliament who crossed the floor since 1945')Ben Finn 00:11, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There were certainly others that crossed the floor before that, although there does come a time in the 19th century when political parties were not the solid things they are now and it is impossible to be accurate. However, the reason this list starts at 1945 is really twofold: Firstly, there exist biographical articles on most post-1945 MPs, but only a minority of pre-1945 ones. Secondly, the list would become too large (in my opinion) if it was expanded significantly. I took my lead from the List of United Kingdom by-elections which only includes byelections from 1979, with earlier lists having date suffixes. Perhaps move to List of British Members of Parliament who crossed the floor (1945-)? Sam Blacketer 00:18, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe - I'm no expert on article names, so it was just an off-the-cuff suggestion. Ben Finn 01:50, 20 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose Potentially and excellent and useful list, let down by a short lead and inadequate referencing.

Have a read of WP:LEAD. Your readers won't all be familiar with British politics but should be able to grasp the main points without having to read linked articles. Explain crossing the floor but also I note many of the MPs just resigned (or were kicked out) and didn't join another party. Explain what the whip is. You could give counts of Labour/Conservative defections and also mention the birth of the SDP as a significant mass exodus.
You give just one reference, which needs a fuller citation (including ISBN, publication date and edition). See {{cite book}} for a template to make this easier. I've searched for this book and can't find a 2005 edition. The only one I can find covers 1900–2000, which clearly wouldn't cover the last dozen or so entries. You say you supplimented the info (date and reason) with newspaper articles. These need to be cited inline. See {{cite news}} for a template to help with that. You mention The Times as your source. Is this freely available online? If so, you can supply URLs in the citation. I know The Guardian is a good source of free online news articles and they don't muck about with their URLs.

Do you think you could extend the list back to 1900 with the help of your book? Colin°^Talk 21:58, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment - the lead needs to be expanded, and should explain why there is a cut-off in 1945. I think the title ought to be changed too - this is not a comprehensive list of floor-crossings, just those since 1945. For example, one (two!) of the most famous, Winston Churchill in 1904 and back again in 1924, are not mentioned. -- ALoan (Talk) 18:25, 22 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]