It does not mark a historic rejection of the right and the market in favour of more spending and bigger government
Posted in General on 26. Jul, 2010
It does not mark a historic rejection of the right and the market in favour of more spending and bigger government. Thursday’s voting, as suggested by the words of Mr Sugden, was occasioned by a weary dislike of the Government on the part of its core constituency. This much is certainly true: the Conservative Party – the ruling party in Britain for 77 of the past 111 years – today controls no councils in Scotland, none in Wales, no councils in any city areas outside London and just eight in the rest of England.Although the comparison is inviting, this is not the same kind of political watershed as the Gingrich triumph in last November’s US congressional elections. Not since Ethelred’s Witan of AD992 had the Conservative Party been so poorly represented in the councils of the nation. They are the beneficiaries of one of the most extraordinary electoral revolts in modern times, the rising up of the Tory heartlands against their party.
All through Thursday night and the better part of Friday, pundits struggled with the scale of the Tory rout It was worse than 1993, it was worse than 1981, it was … And that, metaphorically, is what hundreds of thousands of his former fellow Conservative voters will now be doing.
For, this weekend, all over suburban and rural England, startled new Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors will be looking at their diaries, consulting their spouses and sitting in meetings, trying to organise their lives to exercise powers they never thought they would win. “In the past couple of months, with tax increases and £600,000 going in fat-cat handouts, it makes you wonder if it’s all worthwhile.” The club committee is not amused – so from next week Mr Sugden will probably have to play his snooker at the local Labour club. Take a bow, Peter Sugden. A lifelong Tory voter, Mr Sugden has provoked a row at the Selby Conservative Club (three snooker tables and beer at a pound a pint) by standing as a Liberal Democrat in last Thursday’s local elections Mr Sugden, a fish shop owner, was Piafian “No, I’ve no regrets,” he said. Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Domitian of Maestricht, St John of Beverley, St Letard or Liudhard and Saints Serenicus and Serenus.. Today is the Feast Day of St Edbert, St Evodius of Antioch, St John Before the Latin Gate and St Petronax.
TOMORROW: Births: Robert Browning, poet, 1812; Johannes Brahms, composer, 1833; Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer, 1840; Gary Cooper (Frank James Cooper), actor, 1901; Maria Eva Duarte Pern (Ibarguren), Argentine leader, 1919.
Deaths: Caspar David Friedrich, landscape painter, 1840; William Hesketh Lever, first Viscount Leverhulme, soap millionaire, 1925; Max Miller, comedian, 1963. On this day: the first Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, opened in London, 1663; the Cunard liner Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine, with a total of 1,198 lives lost, 1915; the qualifying age of women voters was reduced from 30 to 21, 1928; Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, 1945. On this day: the first postage stamp, the Penny Black, was issued, 1840; the Zeppelin Hindenburg crashed and was destroyed by fire at Lakehurst, New Jersey, 1937; Josef Stalin became leader of the government of the Soviet Union, 1941; Roger Bannister ran the first four-minute mile, 1954. Anniversaries
TODAY: Births: Sigmund Freud, neurologist and psychoanalyst, 1856; Rudolph Valentino, actor, 1895; George Orson Welles, actor, director and writer, 1915. Deaths: Cornelius Jansen, theologian, 1638; Maria Montessori, physician and educationist, 1952; Marlene Dietrich (Maria Magdalene Dietrich), actress, 1992.
Heinz, 59; Mr Richard O’Sullivan, actor, 51; Mr John Padovan, chairman, AAH, 57; Mrs Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, author, 68; Mr William Pybus, chairman, Homeowners Friendly Society, 72; Mr Christopher Saunders, Headmaster, Lancing College, 55; Sir Arthur Snelling, former diplomat, 81; Miss Elizabeth Sderstrm, soprano, 68; Mr Clive Soley MP, 56; Mr David Tomlinson, actor, 78; Sir Alan Traill, former Lord Mayor of London, 60; Maj-Gen Henry Woods, Vice-LordLieutenant, North Yorkshire, 71.. Birthdays
TODAY: Sir John Arnold, former High Court Judge, 80; General Sir Jeremy Blacker, Master-General of the Ordnance, 56; Mr Tony Blair MP, Leader of the Opposition, 42; Miss Susan Brown, actress, 49; Professor Rosemary Cramp, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology, Durham University, 66; Miss Joanna Dunham, actress, 59; Sir Frank Ereaut, former Bailiff of Jersey, 76; Mr Robert Fell, former chief executive, Stock Exchange, 74; Miss Alessandra Ferri, ballerina, 32; Mr Neil Foster, cricketer, 33; Maj-Gen John Hamilton- Jones, consultant, Cubic Defense Systems, 69; Mr John Henderson, former Lord-Lieutenant of Berkshire, 75; Mr Charles Hendry MP, 36; Mr John Hutton MP, 40; Vice-Admiral Sir Hugh Martell, 83; Mr Freddy Randall, jazz trumpeter, 74; Mr Alan Ross, author and publisher, 73; The Right Rev John Taylor, Bishop of St Albans, 66; Mr Norman Whiteside, footballer, 30.
TOMORROW: Mr Scobie Breasley, jockey, 80; Miss Teresa Brewer, actress and singer, 64; Lord Briggs, historian, 74; Mr Peter Carey, author, 52; Sir Charles Cunningham, former senior civil servant, 89; Professor Alan Cuthbert, Master, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, 63; Sir Reay Geddes, former chairman, Dunlop, 83; Professor Robert Goodden, architect and designer, 86; Sir James Gowans, former deputy chairman, Medical Research Council, 71; The Right Rev Robert Halliday, Bishop of Brechin, 63; Mr Robin Hanbury- Tenison, explorer and author, 59; Mr David Hatch, adviser to the Director- General, BBC, 56; Mr Michael Hawkes, former deputy chairman, Kleinwort Benson, 66; Sir Lenox Hewitt, industrialist, 78; Sir Michael Hopkins, architect, 60; Lord Kirkhill, former Lord Provost of Aberdeen, 65; Mr David Leach, potter, 84; Mr Calum Macdonald MP, 39; Sir Neil Macfarlane, company director and former MP, 59; Mr David Marshall MP, 54; Sir Basil Nield, former MP and High Court judge, 92; Dr Tony O’Reilly, chairman, president and chief executive, H.J. He might concede that, even without the House of Hanover, the world is deeply tragic, and not adequately addressed by his homespun Deism.He might even allow that our vision of God’s generosity to all humankind might indeed relate, mysteriously, shockingly, to the sacrificial death of Christ.John Keane’s Tom Paine: a political biography is published by Bloomsbury (£25.00). He would not expect us to behave well except on the foundation of genuinely shared belief. But he would be cheered that so many communities of faith thrived, moved by their own shared visions rather than by official prescription, inhabiting a Republic rather than a Kingdom of God.
And he would laugh uproariously at the mess the Hanoverians finally got themselves into.He would deplore the moral chaos of contemporary Britain: but he would expect just that from a system of belief founded on convention rather than conviction. He might also see a providential hand in the collapse of Clause IV socialism. The old liberal democrat would rather enjoy New Labour’s combination of ardour and common sense. He would certainly be glad at the demise of old Labour, along with its trade-union and town-hall oligarchies. Paine would deplore the continuation of an imperial French presidency, but he would rejoice at the prospective demise of Britain’s sleazy plutocracy.