Brent East

Prologue
The odds were poison. Labour had a 13,000 majority in the London seat of Brent East. The Tories came a distant second and Lib Dems were nowhere. Labour owned that bit of the inner city.

In the early hours of this morning, Brent East fell to Sarah Teather of the Liberal Democrats with a 1,000 majority.

Defeat
Sitting here now, I´m trying to make sense of it. A piece of prime Labour real estate belongs to the Liberals. The analysis must be simple; thousands of people just said ´no more´.

For such a huge majority to be overturned is a VERY bad result for the government. They came, they saw, they were trampled into the dirt. I spoke to some Labour people yesterday as the polls opened, and they were sure the seat would hold. Maybe a reduced majority - say, one thousand at worst - but still theirs. Still a seat for them in parliament, still an MP for their team.

They threw some pretty big people into that place for the campaign, plenty of cabinet ministers, although not the man himself. They even got Ken Livingstone to back their candidate, Robert Evans, and say he was an anti-war, anti-new labour kind of man – ‘vote for me, I’m not really Labour’.

But not good enough.

The Lib Dems, desperately trying to sell themselves as the real party of opposition and as a real credible alternative to Labour, actually won.

It was quickly explained away and justified. First Labour; they insisted it was a typical by-election thing, voters delivering a strong message to the government, safe in the knowledge it would not results in that government being removed from office. A warning shot, mid-term blues.

And Labour people were soon on the airwaves insisting lessons would be learned, although that’s an obvious lie because at the same time Tony Blair was insisting retreat from his various agendas of reform and military occupation would be political suicide.


Then the Conservatives explained their terrible night away (they used to hold Brent local council) by saying they never expected to win in a traditionally left wing seat. Worth nothing perhaps to note it’s a traditionally left wing seat because it contains an incredible mix of people from different ethnic backgrounds. Not rich, either, which must deliver some kind of message to the Tories, at least if they want to listen.

And the Lib Dems, high on their crushing victory. Charles Kennedy assured us this was the START of something NEW and BIG for LIBERAL DEMOCRACY.

All arguments with some merit, but none crack the real nut. The real story is the miserable turnout, which is as damning to the government as the Lib Dem victory. In fact, it’s a painful for all the parties.

Less than 40 per cent voted, and the story from that seems clear: no one wants anything to do with politics in this country.

It´s so fucking tainted that ordinary folk - barbers and cab divers and check-out girls and whores and pickpockets - are too disgusted to bother with it.
Disgusted, and bored by the whole alienating process of picking some bastard who will lie to you and heap misery on top of your already miserable life.

Needless to say, not all politicians are like this. There are some good ones and it’s up to you to decide who these rare people are. Only one thing is clear. There are not enough of them and they will NEVER become Prime Minister.

Never.

Which means the real choice in British political democracy is the choice between a .45 revolver or sawn-off 410 for a suicide. The details will be different but brains still paint the wall.



EPILOGUE
The other day over the press announcement system in the press rooms, it was announced that the “Prime Ministers Statement is now available in the lower gallery”.

For a fraction of a second no one knew what the disembodied voice was talking about.

Someone said: “Maybe he’s decided to resign.” We all carried on chipping out our lousy stories.