Gorton and Denton

 In his "Brexit Blog" last week Chris Grey referred to the "giggling fatuity of the BBC's political editor Chris Mason."  There has been plenty of fatuity, by Mason and others, in the media's reporting of Thursday's by-election in part of Manchester and I suppose this post may only add to it. However, here goes....

To me the most striking part of the result is that the Conservatives received only 1.9% of the vote, and the Liberal Democrats even les, 1.8%.  Who alive a hundred yeas ago (and there are still some) could have foreseen  that these two great parties, led respectively by massively authoritative Disraeli and Gladstone among others, and which had vied for power for most of the previous century, could possible be reduced to such insignificance?  

 So lesson one is that the structure of British politics can change.  But lesson two is that it can take a long time.

 Lesson three is that there are many false alarms  in the process, at least a couple of dozen in my politically active lifetime. Torrington (1958) and Orpington (1962) spring to mind.  Although Gorton and Denton may be more than yet another flash in the pan, I don't see the Green Party forming the government any time soon - though they could, along with the Liberal Democrats, soon be part of one.

Not before time. 

 Two pieces of good news are that neither Reform nor Labour won.  

A Reform victory wold have been most unfortunate.  We can see in the  United States the horrors which their bigoted, divisive, racist, sexist and scapegoating politics can produce and it is a relief to know that they are, as yet, far from mainstream here.  In spite of all the ballyhoo, Farage's charismatic communication skills, press support and foreign funding, along with  people's bitter discontent with the "established system" Reform received only 29% of the vote.  This,  given the turnout of just short of 50% (good for a by-election) amounts to fewer that one in seven of those entitled to vote.  Farage has borrowed  from  Donald Trump;'s playbook and blamed fake voting.

 A Labour victory would have given Sir Keir Starmer’s government an excuse  to carry on as usual, trying to match the far right at their game.  

Sadly from the yesterday's announcement of Shabana Mahmood's proposals to further harass  present and  future migrants, it seems the lesson has not yet sunk in. But surely labour MPs will ensure  that it does and Sir Keir's government wilt start doing the things a Labour Government is excepted to do: higher but fairer taxation to improve the lot of the weak and vulnerable, and repair the public realm.  

The reforms will be top-down rather than the bottom up initiatives we Liberals would  prefer, but, as a recent letter to the Guardian pointed out, Starmer's approach may be clumsy but his intentions are good and he has as yet done nothing like the damage wreaked by Thatcher and Cameron. 

 A third piece of good news is that the successful Green candidate, Hannah Spencer, is a qualified and practising plumber, gas engineer and plasterer  It  is  a great achievement, even in these enlightened days, for a woman to achieve success in these trades and we must wish her will in her parliamentary career - an MP who,can actually do something useful as well as talk about it.  That must have been part of her attraction as a candidate.   

But she also has the eye for the telling phrase, as her victory speech showed. "We defeated the parties of billionaire donors."  We need more of that frank speaking.

 It is galling that, in spite of our record number of 72 MPs, the third largest party in parliament, we Liberal Democrats hardly get get a mention nowadays  when the future of British politics is discussed. 

But, rather like the swans floating serenely on water but paddling furiously underneath,the party is quietly working  hard at improving the lives of constituents where we have the opportunity.  

 Measured by real polls rather than opinion polls, since last May we have gained  a further 54 councillors in major council by-elections.  That is more that Labour, the Conservatives and Greens put together.  By contrast, through resignations, defections  and defeats Reform has lost 61.

Liberal Democrats are firmly present and I  both believe  and expect  that our influence will increase in spite of, maybe even because  of, the neglect of the chattering classes  and their "giggling fatuity."

 I do, however, have a fear that there is developing  a political divide in  England, in which  in the affluent suburbs, prominently in the south  the competition  will be between the Liberals and Conservatives (possibly allied to Reform) and in the northern heartland   between Labour and the Greens.

Both Liberals and Greens need to be active in all parts of the country, including Scotland and Wales, for a truly healthy democracy.

 That means PR.

 Maybe, just maybe, that is the direction in which enlightened Labour MPs will push their government.