Talk:2016 Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election

Referring to Richmond

I added a sentence, "The Richmond Park by-election was held one week before and saw the Liberal Democrats win the seat from the Conservatives on a substantial swing." It seemed important context for this by-election and is something the recent reporting on this by-election mentions. That's been changed to "... win the seat from Zac Goldsmith..." on the grounds that the Conservatives weren't (officially) standing and Zac stood as an independent. I feel that makes it harder for the reader to understand the sentence, its relevance. As I see it, the seat was Conservative: it is now LibDem -- it counts as a LibDem gain from Conservative (and is marked as so in the List of United Kingdom by-elections (2010–present) article), so I think that's acceptable shorthand. But I understand the concern. Anyone want to suggest some other wording? Bondegezou (talk) 18:07, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

How about "The Richmond Park by-election, held one week before, saw the Liberal Democrats win the seat from former Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith on a substantial swing"? Do you think that gives enough context? Warofdreams talk 20:45, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:2016 Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: The Rambling Man (talk · contribs) 09:28, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

Comments

• "The Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election was a by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Sleaford and North Hykeham" sorry but this is a terrible start, and it may be what other such articles do but it'd be better as something like "The 2016 by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Sleaford and North Hykeham was held..." so we don't say stuff like "by-election was a by-election".  Done
• "The by-election was triggered " It was triggered.  Done
• " UK Independence Party" is piped to UKIP which redirects back to the UK Independence Party...  Done
• Large decrease in majority (votes) and small decrease in swing (%) should be in the lead as that's one of the principle metrics.  Done
• Is there any chance of one of those neat maps which has different views so we can see where this constituency is in terms of the UK as a whole? Most UK residents won't know where it is, let alone our international readership.  Done
• "all UK Parliament constituencies," overlinked.  Done
• " large majority of over 24,000 votes," probably don't need large and 24,000, saying the same thing twice.
  • I'd rather keep it, because whether a majority 24,000 is large or small depends on context (eg in a referendum in the whole UK it would be a very small majority)
• Why is Marianne Overton name-checked and none of the other 2015 losers?
  • Because she's the only person who ran in 2015 who also stood in the by-election. I'm happy to remove it if you think I should though.
    • That factoid is not noted at this point so I would either note it, or remove her name at this juncture. The Rambling Man (Stay indoors, stay safe!!!!) 08:21, 21 April 2020 (UTC)
• Where is source for the two graphs of previous results?
  • Added
• " consult Parliament sufficiently" you link Parliament here but it was mentioned in the preceding section. Done
• "saying;"It has " space and remove ;. Done
• "Johnson defeated the two other.. " She defeated. Done
• " 2010 general election," overlinked. Done
• "Liberal Democrats " ditto. Done
• " Lincolnshire Independents" ditto. Done
• "standing were Peter Hill standing" repetitive. Done
• "North Kesteven" overlinked. Done
• "no description" do you specifically mean no party affiliation declared?
  • If I understand the sources correctly, candidates with no party affiliation can either stand as Independent, or with no description appearing on the ballot paper, and these candidates chose the latter
• You linked the Telegraph but not the Guardian in the prose.
  • Linked Guardian
• Article 50 is normally capitalised.
  • It's used in a quote, so I've changed it to [A]rticle 50
• "No label" was "No description" before. Done
• It's probably worth noting that turnout was around half that of the previous election. Done
• Spaced hyphens in the ref titles should be spaced en-dashes. Done
• Be consistent with linking, some works are linked sometimes. I'd either (a) always (b) never or (c) first-time link them. But be consistent.
  • Unlinked all

That's it for now, on hold. The Rambling Man (Stay indoors, stay safe!!!!) 12:30, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your review! I believe I've addressed all your comments so far. N Oneemuss (talk to me · see my edits · email me) 17:29, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

N Oneemuss good work, thanks. I responded to the query over Overton's name-check, see what you think. The Rambling Man (Stay indoors, stay safe!!!!) 08:21, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

Thanks; I've addressed the comment about Overton. N Oneemuss (talk to me · see my edits · email me) 09:03, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

Great, happy with this, nice article, comprehensive, well written and interesting. Way beyond the basic GA criteria. Nice work. The Rambling Man (Stay indoors, stay safe!!!!) 10:29, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

DYK nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Yoninah (talk) 12:55, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that at the 2016 Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election, voter turnout fell to 37%, compared to 70% at the 2015 general election? Source: "The turnout for the by-election was 37.1% according to North Kesteven District Council, down from 70.2% at the general election last year." [1]
  • ALT1:... that Brexit, British withdrawal from the European Union, was considered the main issue in the 2016 Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election? Source: "As the third British byelection since the EU referendum, the lead-up to the Sleaford and North Hykeham vote has been dominated by talk of Brexit" [2]
  • ALT2:... that Caroline Johnson, a paediatrician, won the 2016 Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election as the Conservative candidate? Source: "Conservative Caroline Johnson has won the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election ... Consultant paediatrician Dr Johnson said her election would boost Theresa May's support on Brexit" [3]
  • ALT3:... that one Labour MP said that the result of the 2016 Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election could foreshadow an "electoral disaster" for the party? Source: "David Winnick, the veteran Labour MP for Walsall North, said: 'If we were to continue in this way then the indications are 2020 will be an electoral disaster.'" [4]
  • ALT4:... that the 2016 Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election was triggered by the resignation of Conservative MP Stephen Phillips, who criticised the government's handling of Brexit? Source: "Mr Phillips informed party whips earlier this week that he would resign as an MP because he felt his values were not the values of the government. He has been critical of the government's approach to Brexit since June's Leave vote" [5]

• Reviewed: Exempt.

Improved to Good Article status by N Oneemuss (talk). Self-nominated at 11:34, 21 April 2020 (UTC).

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook eligibility:

• Cited: - Offline/paywalled citation accepted in good faith
• Interesting: - no

QPQ: None required.

Overall: Nice article! However, none of the suggested hooks are particularly interesting or unusual. buidhe 06:34, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

• ALT3 only, I am not sure ALT4 is sufficiently interesting. buidhe 04:23, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

• Hi, I came by to promote this, but the quotes listed in a blockquote section lack a citation, per Rule D2. Yoninah (talk) 21:18, 4 June 2020 (UTC)
  • Fixed; sorry about that. N Oneemuss (talk to me · see my edits · email me) 21:40, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

• Thank you. Restoring tick for ALT3 per Buidhe's review. Yoninah (talk) 12:54, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

Informal peer review from Harry

Sorry it's taken me a while to get to this.

• Is her profession as a paediatrician relevant? Nobody else seems to have their pre-politics occupation mentioned.
• Nevertheless, the party's absolute majority (measured in number of votes) is this noteworthy? I thought it was fairly common for by-elections to have lower turnout than general elections, which would likely reduce the number of votes for any particular candidate/party?
• Ten candidates stood in the by-election; the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) came second Suggest a full stop instead of a semicolon; the two clauses are not part of a whole.
• many MPs and analysts felt this was because of Labour's stance on Brexit—an attempt to appeal to voters on both sides of the debate. You might need to elaborate very slightly on what that stance was.
• Why are we using 2019 statistics in an article about a 2016 election?
• You should pare back your use of semicolons; 32 in just over 2,000 words of prose is a little excessive and they can hamper readability and make the prose choppy.
• Caption For Paul Nuttall should explain his relevance, since he wasn't one of the candidates
• willingness to trigger [A]rticle 50 despite For readability, I would suggest either rendering the quote as it appeared, or capitalising the "A" without the brackets. Minor typographical corrections are allowed in quotes.
• Likewise "[p]eople here voted for Brexit
• Is there anything more to say about the LibDem campaign other that Tim Farron visited? It seems odd to mention that but nothing else. Or any of the independents/minor parties?
• in an opinion piece on December 4, the journalist Andrew Rawnsley Tell us which publication he was writing for. It gives the reader some sense of his political leanings.
• what was interesting is almost always redundant and can be easily eliminated
• When was the the date of the by-election announced?
• Is there anything to say about Johnson's political career? Issues she raised in parliament, anything she's done in the constituency, her relationship with the party, opinions on government policy, etc? A couple of sentences on that would tie the article up nicely.

—@N Oneemuss: Hope this helps. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 14:04, 21 January 2021 (UTC)