Half A Glass...

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I wonder how is it that when the Right or Right-affiliated causes win an election by a small margin - even vanishingly so - it is greeted as a victory of heroic proportions, and when the Left win in similar circumstances, it is greeted as a defeat of like scope. Tigger to one side and Eeyore to the other. The psychology of this is telling, and could be seen as indicative of the reasons behind the current state of British politics: whatever cock-ups the Government makes, or disasters befall them, their attitude and that of their followers and supporters is always one of either insouciance or naked triumphalism. Narrow Labour or Left-affiliated victories however, are treated to a pall of such gloom and pessimism as to give the impression that a Plague Of Locusts was about to descend from God.

Compare and contrast the outcomes of the EU referendum and this weeks Batley & Spen bye-election, held by Labour by a very tight margin and seen by some as a 'defeat' for the party. The referendum result as we all know was to leave by 52% to 48% and was, and still is trumpeted as a glorious and swingeing triumph for the Government. Batley & Spen was held by Labour by the admittedly maddeningly close call of 35% to 34%; but the vote was split by George Galloway's Workers' Party with 22% of the overall votes cast: not as simple as it might first appear. The general feeling on the left is that it was local issues that dictated an overall swing in their direction and away from the Conservatives.

Rather than treat this to the usual glass-half-empty treatment, Labour should cast their faces to the sun and take it for what it is - a victory for the Left. A tad more cohesive optimism from our collective Opposition would go a long way to improving its chances of eventually bringing down this woeful bunch of chancers we kindly grace with the (morally undeserved) title of Government. I just wonder if this result could be a bellwether for a more general shift of focus towards those issues faced by communities and away from the Boris' Big Gestures that is currently the face of national politics: the devil, as they say, is in the detail.

Addendum: Two things - I don't wholly endorse Galloway's views or the simplistic policies of his party, but rather his general left-wing-ness; secondly, I turned on the radio just after posting this and lo & behold Keir Starmer was extolling the Labour win as a great victory - Eeyore with a smile at last. Don't get me wrong, I voted for him in the leadership election and I think he will do a good job, when the current atmosphere of lunacy has given way to some reasoned [two way, Boris, two way] debate.

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