Taking over the franchises of failing rail operators was Loony Marxism when Labour proposed it, but hey ho. If Jeremy Corbyn had not listened to Keir Starmer, then rail fares would already have been cut by a third, and legislation to renationalise the railways would have been in the Queen's Speech. Still, here we are.
Here we are, indeed. We are on the cusp of Boris Johnson versus Ian Lavery, of a man who went up from Eton to read Classics at Balliol, versus Arthur Scargill's handpicked successor as President of the NUM, both on a platform of either holding onto or winning back places like Sedgefield and North West Durham, Bolsover and Blyth Valley, Don Valley and Rother Valley.
And that means public spending and central government economic planning on a scale not seen since the 1970s. The changes to the public spending rules for the North are a frank admission of decades of underspending. Johnson may be motivated by opportunism and Lavery by principle, but that will be academic to those of us who were filling our boots here in what were now the key marginal seats. When it comes to "rolling back the tides of Thatcherism", then "There Is No Alternative", because "I've not got a reverse gear".
And that means public spending and central government economic planning on a scale not seen since the 1970s. The changes to the public spending rules for the North are a frank admission of decades of underspending. Johnson may be motivated by opportunism and Lavery by principle, but that will be academic to those of us who were filling our boots here in what were now the key marginal seats. When it comes to "rolling back the tides of Thatcherism", then "There Is No Alternative", because "I've not got a reverse gear".
Tony Blair can crow about his final majority at Sedgefield, where his party now requires a candidate. But that was only 20 years after the Strike. In the long shadow of the 1980s, of course places like that and like here would never have elected a Conservative. That shadow has now lifted. As we see. Blair was just lucky. As, very largely, Johnson was just lucky this time, and Corbyn was just unlucky. Johnson, however, knows how lucky he was.
The Conservative majority is such that Labour cannot win in 2024, and such that it will have quite a job in 2029. Nor can it ever again win an overall majority. Nobody would invent the Labour Party today. The Marxist critics of its unstable coalition may have been 100 years premature, but eventually and essentially they have been proved right.
Nevertheless, though, Labour will always be one of the two largest parties. The question, then, is who is to keep it right as its coalition partners. Or, indeed, as the Conservative Party's, since that bloc will also fray and fracture quite considerably in the course of this new decade.
I will be standing for Parliament again here at North West Durham next time, so please give generously. In any event, please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
Nevertheless, though, Labour will always be one of the two largest parties. The question, then, is who is to keep it right as its coalition partners. Or, indeed, as the Conservative Party's, since that bloc will also fray and fracture quite considerably in the course of this new decade.
I will be standing for Parliament again here at North West Durham next time, so please give generously. In any event, please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
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