A few comments on the by-election

 

I haven't a lot that is original to add to the analysis that has already appeared on the Gorton and Denton by-election.   I did find the Substack contributions of Manchester-based political scientist Rob Ford in the run up to the election very helpful, not least in understanding the complex electoral geography of the constituency.

I am a little surprised at ow little comment there has been on the performance of a credible Conservative candidate, at a time when there is supposed to be a revival in enthusiasm about Kamikaze.

It is also worth bearing in mind that governments do not always lose by-elections: the Blair Government lost none in its first term.

I also find it concerning that over 10,000 electors were prepared to vote for a chancer parachuted into the constituency who in my view expressed opinions that some would regard as racist.  He also came across as a nasty piece of work and a bad loser.

So I am still looking at political asylum destinations.  Apparently my first choice, Finland, is very strict about applications.  You have to declare your intentions on arrival and are then sent to an unpleasant camp.

Luxembourg looks more promising.  Admittedly their adverts urging people to come to live in the Grand Duchy are targeted at youngsters in finance, but I did give some help to the University of Luxembourg when it was getting off the ground.   It also offers free public transport.

Time to catch up with Guy Bland, the fictitious MP for Borestshire South.   Bland has always been a Starmer loyalist and like many in the PLP thinks there is not a credible candidate in the PLP to replace him.   Letting Burnham stand in the by-election would have cost Labour the Manchester mayor's position and the campaign would have cost a party short of money around £1 million.

He does think that Laboir should realise that graduates are among its core voters and something needs to be done about an essentially unfair student loans system, especially those on Phase 2 loans.   Almost all the cost of higher education has been placed on the individual although there are clear societal benefits.

Blamd's loyalty hss been repaid with his appointment as an assistant whip, not for a region as is more usual but for Labour MPs in predomunantly rural seats (albeit difficult to define).   The concordat between the PM and the NFU at least gives him a decent start.  Because all government posts that can be renumerated have been take up, the post will be unpaid.

In his private life his wife, a former BBC religious broadcaster, has felt a call to the priesthood and is hoping to go to theological college when their child is a little older.   Taking communion in Felpersham cathedral, she felt the Real Presence.

Attending a CoE primary school and sharing a flat with a theology PhD (which involved inviting a  priest to Sunday lunch) have given me a lay interest in theological matters, developed further when I spent several years as chair of the friends of my local parish church.   However, the doctrine of transubstantiation has always caused me problems and is one reason why I am not a communicant member of the CoE.  I can still remember a three hour argument with two Catholic colleagues about the topic and I have no wish to repeat it.

Harold Wilson's humble holiday home

Looking back to a  possibly more innocent and less fractious time in British politics when prime minister Harold Wilson tried to boost his down to earth image by holidaying in a humble bungalow on the Isles of Scilly.  He genuinely loved the islands and is buried in Old Town churchyard.

I have posted a few essays I originally wrote for the now defunct Scilly Now and Then which drew on documents in the National Archives at Kew: https://scilliesharoldwilson.blogspot.com/2026/02/harold-wilson-builds-his-holiday-home.html 

Revisiting the 1936 Abdication

Clearing out my house I offered for free a collection of books on the 1936 Abdication.   I got no takers, would that change today?

For authoritative commentary on the monarchy I rely on the authoritative Professor Robert Hazell CBE  at the UCL Constitution Unit (although he was badged as Cambridge University on television).

However, I have noticed some rather misleading commentary by others on the abdication of Edward VIII, subsequently the Duke of Windsor.

I think that was a real constitutional crisis because Winston Churchill, whose judgement was generally unreliable in domestic politics, tried to set up a 'King's Party.' 

Fortunately, that attempt failed.   Edward Windsor was a weak individual with German and Nazi sympathies.   One can even see him as a front man for a Nazi occupation of Britain.

He paid the price in terms of living out the rest of his life in exile and estranged from his family.   His wife in particular took a role in café society which was made up of rich but boring Americans who played golf in Palm Beach,

Some of the tales about the Duchess of Windsor are lurid speculation.  I think that by the time she fled to France she realised she was in too deep and tried to disengage.   Her feud with the Queen Mother (aka Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon) whom she called 'cookie' at least had its amusing aspects.

The deeply socially conservative prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, certainly set out to shaft Edward and he did a good job of it.  He made sure that the concept of a 'morganatic marriage' was never properly considered, although I don't think it would have been acceptable either to the establishment or the public. To deny the Duchess the title of HRH was not really justified in constitutional terms

In many ways it was a footnote in history, but it suddenly acquires an inappropriate relevance.   Robert Hazell has done some interesting comparative work on constitutional monarchies in Europe (unfortunately my copies are currently in store) and I look forward to hearing more from him in the coming weeks.