Here Be Giants

Does the Catholic vote determine British elections, as it undoubtedly determines American ones?

Not in the same way or to the same extent, no.

But look at the very large number of marginal seats in the Midlands and in the North West.

Remember that never, ever voting SNP is practically an article of faith for Scots Catholics, which does not do many a Labourite from the West any harm, and may very well keep certain Highland Lib Dems in their seats.

Consider that there is a definite Catholic side to Welsh Labour, exemplified by Don Touhig and the present Secretary of State, Paul Murphy.

And contemplate that the practising Catholic vote for the SDLP rather than for Sinn Fein could, in a tight spot, make the difference between a Labour Government and a hung Parliament, while the Tories’ takeover of the Ulster Unionist Party is specifically aimed at, albeit among others, the very high percentage of Northern Ireland’s Catholics in favour of the Union in principle.

It may never have been researched by political scientists to whom religion takes place on a different planet. It may be extremely ill-organised. But all in all, it is certainly there.

And all in all, it is certainly here. Yet this constituency is facing an all-women shortlist to replace the retiring Labour MP, and thus by definition facing a Labour candidate who has signed up in support of abortion on demand at every stage up to and including partial birth. That is the case before the selection process has even begun, never mind the candidate herself has been selected. There will be an all-women shortlist. So there will certainly be a candidate in favour of abortion on demand at every stage up to and including partial birth. Exactly who she will be is of absolutely no importance.

This is not a seat that the Tories could ever win, and indeed they fell to third place here last time, even before the very alien David Cameron became Leader and set about transforming his party into something defined specifically against, for example, Northern agrarians and shopkeepers who are hit hard by global capitalism and by its credit crunch. We have quite a few Northern agrarians and shopkeepers who are hit hard by global capitalism and by its credit crunch.

And we have plenty of people who rely on the universal and comprehensive Welfare State, and on the strong statutory and other (including trade union) protection of workers, consumers, communities and the environment, the former paid for by progressive taxation, the whole underwritten by full employment, and all these good thing delivered by the partnership between a strong Parliament and strong local government. As if New Labour were not causing them to suffer enough anyway, these are the people who see their sons harvested in wars waged by and for others who would not dream of putting their own pampered offspring in anything approaching the same situation.

It is time to wake these and several other sleeping giants.