Putting The Bag Into Bagshawe

On last night’s Westminster Hour, Louise Bagshawe, from whom it is always good to hear (though not for any reason that might have been in her mind if she had one), informed us that staunch Labour voters were happy to vote and campaign for her. No wonder they are. Bagshawe has never left the Labour Party, which she only joined because of Tony Blair.

Membership of both parties is the norm among first-time candidates for either of them. Certain Spandau Ballerinas become very agitated when I point this out, so I never push them over the edge completely by suggesting that the miners’ strike might no longer be going on.

I am not even sure that this set-up is in breach of Labour Party rules (as if anybody cared – next you’ll be trying to tell me that CLPs still exist). Although the reference to “a party with which the Labour Party has an electoral arrangement” was originally to the Co-operative Party, this current state of affairs is also such an arrangement, and one that matters an awful lot more. As for Tory rules, they have never really had any.

Anyway, Bagshawe maintains that her Labour supporters are attracted to her views on foxhunting, the pretend-banning of which New Labour did instead of redistributing wealth (in the right direction, I mean) and in order to cajole disgraceful MPs into voting for the Iraq War. The Tories think that are onto a winner with foxhunting. But there were majorities to ban it in the Major years. And its heartlands are Yorkshire, Wales, the Midlands, Devon and Cornwall, which return few or (in the Cornish case) no Tory MPs, and have now done so for three successive General Elections.

An anti-hunter said that repeal of the hunting ban would mean re-legalising stag hunting and hare coursing, as if that were, so to speak, a killer argument. Well, I don’t know if you have ever eaten fox, although I suppose it is perfectly possible, and killing foxes is of course absolutely necessary if you eat lamb, chicken or eggs, or if you wear wool. But I have certainly eaten both venison and hare many, many times. And very delicious they are, too.