Nigel Farage says that he will campaign against Conservative MPs who had voted against the Internal Market Bill. Well, he did not field a candidate against any of them last year, when he knew perfectly well what several of them were like. In any case, the Conservatives owe their majority to the Red Wall, where by definition the Brexit Party did also stand, since those were then Labour seats.
Speaking of which, there is fuss and bother over a Zoom call involving Laura Pidcock and something to do with "Labour anti-Semitism". Last year's story. Not only, but not least, because it has Laura Pidcock in it. Who cares about anything involving Laura Pidcock anymore? No one. Just as no one cares about "Labour anti-Semitism" anymore. Only a niche market ever did. In either case. If Jeremy Corbyn in 2019 had held his own 2017 line on Brexit, then he would have taken 40 per cent of the vote for a second time and we would now have been halfway through another hung Parliament. Next year, he might even have won.
When she lost her seat, then Laura Pidcock refused to shake hands, and since as the second placed candidate she had refused to make a concession speech before sweeping out, then none of the rest of us could make one, either. But Richard Holden knows that that was nothing personal on the part of any of the rest of us. She had wanted a recount at half past three in the morning, but her own regional party hack had told her where to stick it.
She still lives a few streets away from me, and there is talk of her taking over from the retiring Labour Councillor next year. He will have done 25 years, but she would then lose Labour the seat. Having known him for nearly 40 years, I would not be at all surprised if, despite being well into his seventies, he stayed on after all rather than hand over to her. Ronnie Campbell did that with the Blyth Valley parliamentary seat in 2017, which was how we got her at the last minute instead.
But who cares? There are 34 members of the Socialist Campaign Group, and 17 of them, half of the total, were first elected on the night that Laura Pidcock lost her seat. Do you think that those sitting MPs sit around thinking about her? So why does anyone else?
Farage made an extraordinary selfless sacrifice in standing down 317 candidates last year, (knowing his life’s work was in grave peril from a combined SNP/Lib Dem/Labour opposition all committed to overturning the referendum result in various forms). He helped split the Labour vote and let the Tories win in the few seats he stood in too. Arron Banks had rightly warned him if he stood against the Conservatives in every seat, splitting the Leave vote, he risked being remembered as the man who lost Brexit.
ReplyDeleteHe finally listened. Those of us who support national independence see eternally grateful.
He stood candidates in every Red Wall seat, by definition. But not against any of tonight's Conservative rebels, by definition.
DeleteTonight’s rebels have a uniquely British view of the rule of law. The EU and it’s members couldn’t give a stuff about the rule of law.
ReplyDeleteWell, we shall very soon see about that.
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