Your diarist has observed before that Reform and the far right can only win power in this country by default. We are never going to elect them enthusiastically; they will only get there by our leaving the door open and inviting them to help themselves.
The most likely way this happens is by our just not caring. By far the most pressing reason for voter indifference is the cowardice and lazy ineptitude of our political parties. We are not only not given reasons to care; we are actively denied the opportunities to do so.
When parliament went into recess and the so-called silly season began, Pecksniff forecast that, while the government and the rest were complacently drinking pina coladas somewhere, they had left the platform free for Reform. It is called the silly season because the news media have to scrape around for stories. So step forward Reform: the front-page headlines were waiting to be written.
Hence Reform is the only party in town, and xenophobes are given the media’s imprimatur to spout their hate because nobody is bothering to tell a different story.
So we come to last Saturday’s protests in London. It would be stretching a point to suggest that the racists and their fellow travellers would hold to any accepted canons of civilised behaviour. It was certain that Tommy Robinson would arrive to make hate-filled allegations which would fill the headlines. But the government simply gave them the platform. They apparently had no case to make.
In March 1939, during the shameful appeasement of Hitler, the cabinet secretary Alexander Cadogan wrote in his diary: “We must have a moral position, and we shall lose it if we don’t do something now.” We have to wonder what the PM is writing in his diary.
*
The most prominent figure to attend the racists’ march (by Zoom) was of course Elon Musk. He told his audience that “violence is coming” and that “you either fight back or you die”. He spoke dismissively of “Britain’s ancient democracy”, implying that its time had run out, and declared that “parliament should be dissolved” – presumably at the behest of the mob.
Mr Musk is not a democrat. Oswald Mosley was not a democrat either: he was a fascist. And when eventually Britain began to wake up to the threat fascism posed in the 1930s, Mr Mosley was thrown into the slammer. True, belatedly this week home secretary Shabana Mahmood described Mr Musk as a “hostile billionaire” and added that violent actions do not represent our true, tolerant and diverse identity, though perhaps the occasion demanded more than pique and a few platitudes.
It required Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey to take the initiative. In an open letter to other party leaders, he writes:
“At times like this it is vital that the people of this country see their leaders united. That is why I am writing to urge each of you to put party politics aside and join me in publicly condemning these dangerous remarks, and to jointly consider what actions Elon Musk should face as a consequence. We must make clear that no individual, however wealthy or powerful, can get away with using their platform to inflame tensions and incite violence.”
We forgive the split infinitive. But not only have other parties not joined him, fearing it would give him a coup, but Kemi Badenoch (NW Essex) has refused to condemn the mob or to accept that Tommy Robinson represents the far right. A poverty of intellectual resource with which she has ensured the final obsequies of the Conservative Party.
*
Andrew Lewin (Welwyn Hatfield) once again demonstrates over the Elon Musk intercession that he is one of the grown-ups. “I consider everyone who serves in the House of Commons to be a colleague,” he says. “Many will be my political opponents, but they will never be my enemy… We are not going to be cowed by a foreign billionaire, who doesn’t live in this country or can even pretend to understand it.”
Mr Lewin has not always been a favourite of the Labour whips. He is outspoken on Brexit and the EU, and on benefits, and urges Keir Starmer to be radical. He wants “a little bit less talking about the G7, a little bit more about groceries,” so he has formed the Living Standards group of MPs.
Whatever the future of the Labour Party, my dears, we must hope that it features Andrew Lewin.
*
Clive Lewis (Norwich S) has been speaking his mind again. He appears to have some special force field around him, a form of kryptonite perhaps found only in the Golden Triangle in Norwich, which keeps the wrath of the whips at bay. Or perhaps they are just scared of him. He told the BBC’s Week in Westminster that Keir Starmer “doesn’t seem up to the job”, and that there is “a very, very dangerous atmosphere among Labour MPs. People are concerned, slightly downtrodden, a little bit browbeaten and feeling as if the party has seen better days”.
New MPs must fear being tarnished by the prospect of long years of becoming lobby fodder, and wonder whether at the next election they face martyrdom in the name presumably of Morgan McSweeney. Then this week another government minister, prepared for any depth of dishonesty in gaslighting the public, again utters that depressing mantra regarding a return to the EU: “Not in my lifetime”. It’s probably time Labour’s MPs decided whose side they are on. Is it the country? Or is it the shabby cowardice of their own government?
*
For all his unpopularity and the reported rows between Keir Starmer and his Grima Wormtongue, Morgan McSweeney, the PM seems untouchable. But fate may have just played its trump.
Andrew Gwynne is the now-independent MP for Gorton and Denton, part of the Manchester sprawl. Until February, he was a health minister – when he was revealed to have exchanged joking WhatsApp messages with colleagues, one of which suggested: “Dear resident, F*ck your bins. I’m re-elected and without your vote. Screw you. PS: Hopefully you’ll have croaked”.
For this he lost his government position as health minister and was suspended from the party. However, he may yet have an important role in its future. Mr Gwynne has suffered ill health in the past, and there are rumours he is considering stepping down as an MP. He would leave a most attractive seat for any Labour successor: in the last general election he achieved 50% of the vote.
Now it so happens the PM’s only realistic challenger for party leadership is Andy Burnham – only Mr Burnham is not an MP. He is the popular mayor of Manchester, the only Labour figure to achieve positive ratings in the opinion polls. So… what if Mr Gwynne resigns, and Mr Burnham makes it known that he would quite like the gig?
That could only be seen as a direct challenge to Sir Keir. How could Mr McSweeney (with his fingers always in the candidate selection pie) allow it? On the other hand, how could he not? Allow it and all attention focuses on Mr Burnham. Sir Keir would become a lame duck. But prevent it, and the motive would be all too plain and so likely to trigger a visceral response within even this parliamentary party.
A scholar from among the Muckrakers’ finest observes that “agedum si credis te satis durum esse” is the Latin for “Come on if you fink you’re ‘ard enough”. Perhaps it will come to that.
*
Last Saturday, from an aggressive and sometimes violent crowd of 110,000, police made 24 arrests. The week before last, from a crowd of 15,000 acknowledged peaceful protestors, there were 890 arrests. From which, what conclusion are we to draw?
Dear reader, for some time we have lived through a period of gesture politics. Nobody has the willpower or determination to get things done, so instead politicians pose or take a position which is intended to give the impression they are on the case. Then nothing happens. (This began with David Cameron and his ad hoc Sunday morning schmoozes on the TV sofa.)
But sadly, we now have gesture policing. What are the police for? Apparently, to be seen to pretend to do something. They do not have the resources to police a huge crowd of violent thugs – not their fault, of course – so the best they can do is a stand-off. Throwing bottles and hand-to-hand fighting is accepted because there is nothing they can do about it. But in a Palestine Action protest it’s easy-peasy, picking up a bunch of grannies holding up bits of cardboard, who tend to call you ‘dear’ and ask you to mind their rheumatism. So 890 arrests is no sweat, and nobody gets spat on.
Now however you look at it, this has to be two-tier policing. It is not ideological, but in a bizarre reversal of the social compact, only those offering no trouble are arrested. The others just get a dirty look and a few words of admonishment from a politician anxious not to upset anybody.
*
It hardly needed a soothsayer’s tarot to predict the failure of Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party. Ever since its announcement in July, Pecksniff has been pointing out that it was guaranteed to fail. But its utter collapse into vicious in-fighting before it even has a name or any objectives was even beyond the prognostications of this diarist.
On Thursday, it was noticed that Mr Corbyn had been removed as a ‘person of significant control’ from Your Party’s holding company. At the same time his co-leader Zarah Sultana launched a social media blitz inviting applications for membership. Within hours, 20,000 had done so and paid their dues.
Mr Corbyn immediately responded by claiming there were no memberships to be had, Ms Sultana should withdraw her media campaign and send back all the money – all 20,000 memberships. Ms Sultana explained her actions by claiming she was being “sidelined” by the Corbyn faction, who had excluded her from decision making, and that the party had already become a “sexist boys’ club”.
Meanwhile and behind the scenes – in these organisations there is always a ‘behind the scenes’ – observers point out that Mr Corbyn’s dragon, Karie Murphy, holds data on 800,000 potential recruits and is surrendering that data to nobody.
However, the humiliation for all involved will have served its purpose if it persuades those well-meaning souls who were prepared to jump in never to place their trust in the incompetent mountebanks of the dotty left. There is a reason why, after more than a century, they are still far from power. And giving them credence is why any party even of the moderate left so often fails.
*
A Labour councillor from Stevenage has defected to Reform. The move by Councillor Mason Humberstone is described by one excitable hack as “a major blow” to Keir Starmer, though it seems unlikely the PM has ever heard of him and it is quite possible he has other things on his plate.
Cllr Humberstone has attended only four out of 17 meetings this year, so it seems he has at least one qualification for joining Reform. But one of Pecksniff’s most assiduous spies whispers that, on the street, the word is young Humberstone has previous. It’s said that, before joining Labour, he was a member of the Liberal Democrats… and before that, it was the Tories.
*
One last observation, dear reader, relating voters’ educational background to their party preference. According to analysis by Best for Britain, those who attended state schools would vote Reform by preference, with Labour second – except grammar school types, who would vote Reform and then Conservative. But the surprise comes with former private school pupils, who would vote strongly for Labour as their first choice.
*
With thanks to this week’s supergrasses, eavesdroppers and dobbers-in: Malcolm Lynn, Liz Crosbie, James Porter, Mary Marshall, Helen Forte, Karl Whiteman and Celina Błędowska.
<<< Previous Pecksniff’s Diary
More from East Anglia Bylines
