The Battle Opens
So what promises to be a long and confused election campaign has opened with losses on both sides. The Tories made new promises and cancelled old ones casting doubt on their reliability and Labour produced another of their silly dossiers, which nobody will believe. One of the papers, I think it was the Mail, said it was not a clash of competing ideoligies but an argument between managers over detail.
This is the nub. The public want major reform not of schools or the health service but of the way we are governed and our view of the rest of the world. There is a mood for as near revolution as the people of thse islands ever get. Yet who bestrides the political stage, a giant among among them all, to offer hope and a new beginning? Oh dear, you are so right. There is nobody.
In 1945 there was just such a mood for root and branch change in the whole structure of the economy, society and social priorities. Attlee, tried and tested as Churchill’s deputy over the harsh years of war, stood ready with a tough team of experienced members of the war cabinet by his side. To the astonishment of the world and by all accounts Attlee himself the nation turned to him and away from the hero who had hauled it victory out of certain defeat.
There is no such figure now. Yet Attlee was no giant. Mild mannered, self effacing, crisp and businesslike yes,but not one to turn heads. In modern parlance there was no motorcade factor. In this coming electoral battle there is however, one dark horse, whose name sounds ghastly and who would vanish in a half crowded tube. Nick Clegg. Yet he talks of reform of the way we are governed, of a written Constitution, a much fairer voting system, an elected House of Lords, a fairer society, taxing according to ability to pay, power sucked from the centre to the community. Hmmm.
The Lib Dems make not quite break through to make Nick king, but kingmaker is much more on the cards than even seven days ago. And they have got Vince. People trust him with the money more than either George or Alistair. This could just be a rather interesting time in politics after all.