Former Leeds MP -RIP
Posted: Thu 27 Aug, 2020 3:09 pm
Hi, I have just read the obituary of Harold Best, the former MP for NW Leeds. I found it interesting that
he was that very rare example of an MP elected to represent the City where he was born , went to school, lived, and worked, rather than someone parachuted in to the constituency from London because they are on some party short list.
The Telegraph also his contains comment, on the effect of the universities on residential suburbs like Headingly where he lived:
“The universities in Leeds are like Blake’s dark satanic mills,” he said. “They are polluters blighting the landscape, and the polluter must pay. The proliferation of shared houses with absentee landlords is like a medieval plague. Geographers are studying the problem, but by the time they complete their PhDs the destruction of Headingley will be complete.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/ ... -obituary/
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/po ... er-2953975
he was that very rare example of an MP elected to represent the City where he was born , went to school, lived, and worked, rather than someone parachuted in to the constituency from London because they are on some party short list.
The Telegraph also his contains comment, on the effect of the universities on residential suburbs like Headingly where he lived:
“The universities in Leeds are like Blake’s dark satanic mills,” he said. “They are polluters blighting the landscape, and the polluter must pay. The proliferation of shared houses with absentee landlords is like a medieval plague. Geographers are studying the problem, but by the time they complete their PhDs the destruction of Headingley will be complete.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/ ... -obituary/
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/po ... er-2953975