the sandals are off

Can anyone recall when the party of government last came fifth in a by election? This is surely the biggest story of the Henley by election. Just over a year since Labour faced up to the fact that Blair had become ‘a bit of a liability’, Labour MPs would have hoped Brown to be a safe pair of hands. It is stunning just how much support has drained away from the Labour Party in just twelve months. In fact, it’s less than twelve months since GB was ramping up expectations of a snap autumn election to get his own mandate!

I cannot recall in my political lifetime a party losing so much support so quickly.

What else can we deduce from the final count? The Tories are clearly learning lessons from us on how to fight by elections. For all they criticise us, they now fight by elections exactly in the same way as we have learned to. This is the primary reason that we only ‘held our own’ in Henley. Lib Dem tactitions need to be working out now what our strategy must be next time. Clearly, the Tory Party has begun to behave like a serious political force again. We must be concerned about the threat that they pose to our held seats in LD/Con fights in the next general election. But the Tories have weaknesses that we need to exploit. They are still a divided party (hence the David Davis show) and there is still a gap between the smooth Cameronite image and the average local Tory activist. As has been pointed out, your average Tory PPC is still likely to be a eurosceptic Thatcherite rather than a Cameron style ‘liberal’ conservative. I know the difference between us and the Tories - but I’m not convinced the man in the street necessarily does. We need to communicate what Liberal Democracy is to a wider audience.

Meanwhile, the New Labour project is surely in terminal decline. We must be ready to strike hard in LD/Lab marginals. Surely every Labour MP with a majority of less than 5 digits must be feeling very nervous this weekend.

We have much to be optimistic about - but much hard work to do!

For most of my life there’s been a fourth force in British politics. If you knew nothing about Britain, but studied a cross section of popular newspapers, you would get the impression that we were rather a different nation. Our newspapers are, on the whole, more right wing, authoritarian and insular than the average Brit.

No newspaper illustrates this better than The Sun. And never was it worse than under the editorship of one Kelvin MacKenzie. He wouldn’t deny it either. In one famous quote in the early eighties he said:

You just don’t understand the readers, do you, eh? He’s the bloke you see in the pub, a right old fascist, wants to send the wogs back, buy his poxy council house, he’s afraid of the unions, afraid of the Russians, hates the queers and the weirdos and drug dealers. He doesn’t want to hear about that stuff (serious news).

He presided over controversial front pages like the ‘Gotcha!’ celebrating the sinking of the Belgrano and the front page which insulted the Liverpool fans in the wake of Hillsborough.

He also claimed that the Sun’s attacks on Neil Kinnock in 1992 handed the victory to the Tories. But to this day the Murdoch press exerts an unhealthy influence on British politicians. Mudochs opposition to the Euro would make any politician think twice about advocating membership (five economic tests not withstanding) and one wonders whether governments are required to get the Sun’s approval for any major new policy.

Now MacKenzie is threatening to run against David Davis claiming that he would back 420 days detention without trial, let alone 42. But at least for once the Murdoch Machine would have to face the electors, instead of telling us what we think.

Watching the statement by David Davis a few minutes ago, I couldn’t help feeling just a tinge of admiration. Don’t worry - I’m not about to go blue on you all! But Mr Davis did speak passionately about the way in which this government has ridden roughshod over our traditional freedoms. The gamble he has taken is huge. By election voters can be a fickle lot.

If the reports are correct, and we don’t field a candidate against him, that will have removed his biggest obstacle to re-election. One thing is for sure, we will at least see this vital issue debated publicly over the next few weeks - and I welcome that.

Someone needed to take a stand on authoritarian government versus civil liberties. I will applaud him for doing that.

When one has been away from blogging for a while, it’s often hard to know where to start. However, news today that Britain is likely to take another step towards George Orwell’s famous nightmare horrifies me. If you haven’t seen the news yet, check out the BBC website or The Times online. The upshot is that the government will now consider setting up a database containing details of every telephone call you make and every email you send. Not only that, they also want details of all of your internet activity. Am I alone in finding this somewhat sinister? Of course the pretext for this will be ‘fighting terrorism’, but the authorities already have the power to request such information from communications companies on a targetted basis. Terror suspects can already have their communications monitored, and I don’t disagree with that. But a single database of every piece of every phone call that you make and every email that you send - how does that make you feel?

Are we living in Britain or Airstrip One? I need to know!

This post on Sunday Trading caught my eye. It is often debated in conjunction with the debate  on whether we are still a Christian nation. Very topical when one ex-Prime Minister has just publicly converted to Catholicism and our own leader has come out of the closet as an atheist! But I actually think the two questions are quite separate.

I’m an Anglican, but I believe in a secular state which protects religious freedom. I am also comfortable with Liberal Democrat proposals to disestablish my church. Experience shows that religion and politics do not mix well. Applying religious beliefs to political views is always open to interpretation. My moral code stems from my beliefs - such as ‘all men are created equal’ (a big one for me) - but I know atheists who still accept the same moral code because their conscience informs them too. And yet there are bible bashing Christians in the United States who support the death penalty - something which as a Christian I find abhorrent. So I believe that the state and politics should be secular - and that politicians and political leader can be of any faith or none - provided that they respect my right to my faith. Being secular is not the same as being atheist. I would always resist attempts to secularise the Christian festival of Christmas. Shame on those who promote ‘Winterval’ and ban religious Christmas cards. It is our faith and our festival - take part if you wish. But if you don’t believe, respect those of us who do.

On Sunday trading - there is another issue (other than the religious one). For most Britons, whether you are a churchgoer or not, Sunday is the quieter day when people get to rest and spend time with family. Or at least it is unless you work for a retail giant. I have no problem with anyone who wants to work on Sunday. But I have a big problem with the huge numbers of retail staff who are made to work on Sunday by their greedy employers. Let’s face it, retailing is not the best paid profession - and many employees working on a Sunday are working their normal rostered hours - they are not all getting double time. The current Sunday trading laws at least try to limit the hours that people have to work - but I would like to see a situation where no retail employee worked on a Sunday unless it was because they genuinely wanted to. Too many are cajoled and press-ganged by an environment in which if you didn’t work on Sunday you would be seen as ‘not a team player’ and likely to be passed over for promotion.

And so to Boxing Day. For so many of us, we can at least look forward to a well earned two day break at Christmas. Take pity on the shop worker who, at the busiest time of year, is now pressured into taking only one day - so that the sales can start in earnest on Boxing Day. I urge you to think before shopping on Boxing Day. If we don’t shop on Boxing Day, the stores won’t open - and the staff will get a well earned break next year.