It is exactly 30 years since the extraordinarily vicious by-election that saw Simon Hughes become the Liberal (now Liberal Democrat) MP for Bermondsey as part of the Liberal-SDP Alliance, and the defeated Labour candidate Peter Tatchell subjected to an unprecedented hate campaign conducted at both local and national media level. The Rotherhithe and Bermondsey Local History Society recently marked the anniversary by hosting a debate at which both Tatchell and Hughes spoke. Watch the first half of Tatchell's speech below. His stories will make you shudder.

The by-election took place at a turbulent time in British politics, especially for a Labour Party engaged in a bitter left-right power struggle under the leadership of Michael Foot. Tatchell was part of a new, young metropolitan Labour left of the period, which also saw Bernie Grant and Ken Livingstone become vilified national figures. There was some discussion at the time about whether Labour's loss of Bermondsey was due primarily to the party's chaotic condition nationally or to the sort of candidate Tatchell was. But there was no doubting the violent homophobic intimidation Tatchell endured, illustrating vividly that even London, with its already well-established and visible gay culture, could be a hostile place for gay people.

Tatchell claims with considerable justice that he's been proved right to have championed the policies he was attacked for in 1983, with many of his arguments since becoming part of the mainstream: the idea that a Conservative prime minister would introduce equal marriage rights for same sex couples in 30 years' time would have seemed ludicrous back then. However, while that new, young London left led the way to progress on important equality and culture issues, it has had less success winning big economic arguments, as the capital's deepening inequality demonstrates.

The second part of Tatchell's 30th anniversary speech and both parts of Simon Hughes's can be viewed here. Tatchell's book about the campaign, The Battle for Bermondsey, is still available.