Two wise men at the Muckrakers this week were discussing the importance of Bonhoeffer’s theory of stupidity. The theory claims that – perhaps counter-intuitively – stupidity is learned, and there is certainly evidence of that in the Labour Party. Keir Starmer’s apologists want us to cut him some slack. He has to be cautious at this stage, they say. True. But he doesn’t have to be stupid.
Lucy Powell’s remarks this week (clearly with Keir Starmer’s imprimatur) that “there is no money left” are certainly stupid. But as well as being economically illiterate, using this as an excuse for leaving children in poverty is unforgivable.
Keir Starmer’s own remarks on “making Brexit work” are also economically and in every other way illiterate, since nobody – nobody – has yet produced a coherent explanation for how it possibly can. And his insistence that Britain will never rejoin the EU is both preposterous and presumptuous, since no government can foresee the future, nor bind the decisions of its successors.
Labour remains terrified of the electorate, which is no position for a party aspiring to government. The party finds it safest to treat them as though they are stupid too. So where, we have to ask, will this spiral lead? While there is no sign anywhere of politicians with wisdom or courage or grace, there will remain no light on the horizon.
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There were three by-elections this week. The only surprise was that the Tories hung on to Uxbridge & Ruislip, by their fingertips. This is much less likely to be because of fond memories of their last MP, but more to do with the furore over the extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to the suburbs next month. Vehicles driven in London that don’t comply will incur a charge, so it’s an easy hit for the Tories.
In Selby & Ainsty and in Somerton & Frome, huge Tory majorities were swept aside – in Yorkshire by Labour and in Somerset, predictably, by the Liberal Democrats. In these two seats at least, there seem clear indications of tactical voting. In Somerton & Frome the LibDems report Labour and Green voters enthusiastically wishing them luck.
The Greens were also-rans in all three elections, as they presumably knew they would be. So in the matter of splitting the vote, they may well have saved the Tory seat in Uxbridge. Because of ULEZ, Labour lost by 495 votes. The Greens, who backed the Labour plans, won 893 votes…
Voters understand tactical voting and don’t need lecturing on it, while the parties hate it. Better let the Tories in rather than not have their party’s colours on the voting slip. Even if you’re a Green. It seems they are learning to be as stupid as the other parties.
Pastor Bonhoeffer’s theory becomes more and more convincing.
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But what was apparently a vote against ULEZ and what is often portrayed as a war against the motorist seems to have become a somewhat obvious target for the Tories from hereon. Their interest in saving the planet is anyway at best lukewarm, and the headbangers among the alt-right believe it to be a conspiracy. So the Tories are unlikely to overlook such a tempting issue that may work in their favour, especially when they know it will be exploited by their rivals on the right. The arguments over motor vehicles may also move into other areas, such as domestic heating.
So we must expect that by the next general election we may see the Tories morphed wholeheartedly into a climate-sceptic party, banging the drum for fossil fuels everywhere.
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Since we are talking about the political parties, a poll this week asked voters what policy they most associated with the main party leaders. Of Keir Starmer, the leading responses were: ‘nothing’ 20%, and ‘don’t know’ 18%. In third, only 7% knew he had something to say about the NHS.
Of Ed Davey, 32% didn’t know, 27% associated him with nothing. Only 4% thought he’d said something about education. Of Rishi Sunak, who occupies endless chunks of TV news, 15% knew he bangs on about immigration, and even that is a mixed blessing. (Only 6% think it an important issue and most of them believe the government is handling it badly.) Second for Mr Sunak was ‘nothing’ again at 14%.
Dear reader, just think… All the politics we have to sit through, and yet the general public know nothing about the people in charge and who supposedly set the agenda. This is a catastrophic performance by not only those leaders but the pharisees who advise them and claim to know best. It seems they haven’t a clue. In modern times was there ever a period when the British people were ever so ill-served?
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Meanwhile last week (drumroll, please) West Depwade went to the polls… A by-election in a little-known seat on Norfolk County Council, but with the Greens winning it, it has potentially much greater significance than might appear. Mock not the Depwadians. Because West Depwade will be part of the new parliamentary constituency of Waveney Valley which straddles mid-Suffolk and south Norfolk; and as Pecksniff has already pointed out, the Greens intend to win it for their leader and local candidate Adrian Ramsay.
After the May elections in which the Greens resoundingly won mid-Suffolk District Council, south Norfolk remained stubbornly Tory. Indeed, the previous incumbent at West Depwade left behind him a hefty Tory majority, and the opposition parties went through the ritual jostling for the right to be best runner-up. But instead, the Greens, who put up former MEP Catherine Rowett, worked hard and won it, and came from fifth place to do so. They beat the Tory, and leapfrogged Labour, LibDems and an off-piste ex-Tory independent to do so.
The LibDems improved a little on their vote, Labour more or less held on, the ex-Tory lost ground. But the Green vote leapt by 20%. So there is a worry here for both their rivals. On this result at least, it looks as though there is little enthusiasm for the traditional parties, who will only get the votes of ex-Tories because they are sick of the government. But the 20% swing to the Greens perhaps means rather more.
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By the way, Pecksniff enjoyed coffee this week with a prominent Liberal Democrat. Ebullient, my dears, simply ebullient, and keen to gossip.
An opportunity then to explain again that EAB is wholly non-party political: we support progressive and EU-inclined parties – heaven knows whether that should include Labour these days – whoever they are. But support can be difficult. Our country is in the state it is largely because of the incompetence, tribalism and often sheer laziness of our political parties and the vapid and despondent culture they have introduced, and they all deserve a serious kicking for it.
Labour is perhaps more criticised than the others because it has more pretensions, and there is also simply more to write about. Your correspondent spent a year working with the Greens, though not a member, and found them almost terminally frustrating. There was also an evening in the pub with the LibDems, discussing car-park fees. But at the moment, if the Greens are more often given the nod in this diary it is because what one knows about them suggests they may have found their vibe. Dear reader, if you are a local politician with knowledge or gossip to share, send it to @PecksniffsDiary on Twitter or editor@eastangliabylines.co.uk.
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We hear that Labour campaigners in the phantom Mid Beds by-election have been told by HQ to be respectful to Tory voters, something it seems Nadine Dorries rarely attempted.
The latest on La Dorries is that, fearing that Boris Johnson’s attempts to make her a peer may have failed, she appealed to Liz Truss to do the decent thing instead. Leaving aside the small matter of Ms Truss having sacked the wannabe Lady Dorries, there is an irony here. We see one absentee MP vainly appealing to another, and no doubt suffering the same frustrations as any hopeful constituent. Neither has been seen in the Commons for weeks, if not months.
Ms Truss is interested in those who can offer her money or prestige. She has no interest whatsoever in providing prestige for a has-been ex-minister who has been dumped at the woolsack by her one-time political paramour.
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Speaking of which, we learn that Liz Truss is entitled to £16,000 severance pay for the 49 days she spent as prime minister, trying to bankrupt the country. It is difficult to find the right words, one realises, though notable that Daisy Cooper (St Albans) didn’t really try.
“This is a slap in the face for all those who have seen their mortgages soar because of Truss and Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget,” she said.
Is that it? “A slap in the face,” indeed. Is it always asking too much for just one of our politicians occasionally to say something cliché-free and with wit and originality?
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If one were to nominate a natural leader of the spiv tendency in the Conservative Party one could do no better than to look at Grant Shapps (Welwyn Hatfield), of course. This is a man who while actually an MP was also masquerading as several other non-existent people in promotion of one of his several get-rich-quick enterprises. So one would hardly expect better than his latest wheeze – a juvenile and tortuous argument about holding the Labour Party responsible for some damage evidently done to his office.
Just Stop Oil apparently attacked the Department of Energy, of which (may the fates preserve us) Mr Shapps is the secretary of state. Now one of JSO’s donors, as it happens, also donates to the Labour Party. This, claims Mr Shapps in the kind of leap of credulity he no doubt employed in his previous business schemes, therefore means the Labour Party is the ‘political wing’ of JSO. (Not going too fast for you here?) So as such, it should pay for the damage. Presumably just as the Tory party should be held responsible for all the dubious, illegal and other murky activities of their alarming Russian donors and their dirty money.
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Susanna Reid of Good Morning Britain interviewed Robert Halfon (Harlow), an education minister, on plans to restrict what the government chooses to call “rip-off” degrees. (Note the reduction of any kind of public discourse to the bluntest and most abusive phraseology.) They (and so naturally Mr Halfon) think there are too many degrees that don’t lead to higher wages. Only nobody from the government is prepared to name one. It was, you understand, just a phrase that came up at a meeting and so somebody thought it worthwhile to trash the qualifications of thousands of people for the sake of a morning’s headline.
But Ms Reid is canny enough to point out that it is government policy to try to stop higher wages, on the grounds that they claim they lead to inflation.
And though this has nothing to do with degrees but everything to do with what an unpleasant little haemorrhoid Mr Halfon is and there being a miserable weekend ahead, we will just note here that he once claimed £30,000 parliamentary expenses for a room at his club where he met his mistress.
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Has anyone any idea what is happening at Hadleigh Town Council? Only six councillors put themselves up for election this year and were duly appointed, since each one was uncontested. But that left eight empty chairs, so Pecksniff is informed they duly co-opted eight new councillors. Those of you who by now haven’t left for the pub will have clocked that this gives Hadleigh 14 councillors, none of whom have been elected. Hmmm…
This apparently means they have lost the general power of competence, because two thirds have to be elected and none out of 14 doesn’t come close. Oh, and the clerk isn’t qualified.
If this seems a shambles, it won’t do to ask questions. The council have decided to introduce a policy on ‘persistent communicators’, which as far as your diarist can tell means people who complain. One is told that there is discussions on what the ‘punishment’ for such a crime should be.
Punishment? For writing to the council? The relish is almost biblical. Does this mean turning the home of a recalcitrant Hadleigh citizen into a dung heap? No doubt the clerk will be poring over standing orders as we speak.
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Special thanks this week go to Pete Martin, Allan Paterson and Pippa Heylings.
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