Greasy Pole: Pragmatic chickens (1996)

The Greasy Pole column from the September 1996 issue of the Socialist Standard

Our more retentive readers will recall that last month The Greasy Pole had things to say about the use made of the word pragmatic by ministers in Harold Wilson’s 1964-70 government, to excuse their failure to live up to their manifesto promises. As the next election approaches we have experienced some examples of extremely hard-headed pragmatism from Tory MPs, even before their manifesto has been finally composed.

We are referring here to what has been called the chicken run. This is the process by which certain Conservative members have announced that they will not stand again for the constituency they now represent and will instead try for the nomination somewhere else. In some cases the MPs’ pragmatism has proved attractive enough for them to be adopted for some other constituency quickly and relatively painlessly—unless we take account of the disappointments of other contenders for those nominations. But in other cases the search for another prospective seat has been laborious and unpromising and we have had to endure the heart-rending spectacle of politicians bulging with talent scouring the country for somewhere to lay their electoral head.

Consider, for example, the case of Terry Dicks, who has been the MP for Hayes and Harlington, which was not among the prettiest places in the country, even before the big jets began to scream low overhead to and from Heathrow. It is a place supposedly teeming with people who were once natural Labour voters—manual workers who swung to the Tories because they got fed up with the strikes of the Winter of Discontent. They then, runs the argument, found that under the Thatcher government they were doing slightly better than before. They assumed this insignificant, temporary change was due to Conservative policies and they went out in droves to vote for people like Dicks.

These voters expected not only policies from their MP but also opinions of a certain robustness. And that was what they got. Dicks did not became famous for any reticence or sensitivity in his views. His heart was not one to bleed easily over the plight of anyone who was not able to feel they were better off under the Tories. Allied to this he was always ready to challenge any incautious critics to the financially bruising costs of a libel action.

Immovable

This seemed to be what Hayes and Harlington had wanted. In 1983 Dicks benefited from a swing of over eight percent; he changed a Labour majority of over 3,000 into a Tory lead of over 4,000. In 1987 he increased his majority, largely through a swing of more than 11 percent from the SDP, to nearly 6.000. He seemed immovable. Yet now he is on the move. Hayes and Harlington will no longer shrill to his strident opinions. Of course this may have something to do with the fact that the electorate there have had a hand in persuading Dicks to look elsewhere. At the last election his majority was down, after some recounts, to a nail-biting 53. There may be people in Hayes and Harlington who wonder why such an attractive and talented representative has not yet found another constituency. But not many.

Another MP on the move who is renowned for robust opinions—if more delicately expressed—is Peter Lilley, the present MP for the cathedral city of St. Albans. He was once an investment adviser specialising in North Sea Oil so it seemed natural for him to be put in charge of Social Security, most of whose customers are unlikely to be sinking the proceeds of their Giros in energy exploration. In fact when he took over at the DSS Lilley’s reputation ensured that his appointment would not be the cause of any celebrations in welfare rights offices. His latest, well publicised, wheeze is to encourage people to spy on their friends and neighbours and report them if they seem to be making invalid benefit claims. We understand there is no truth in the rumour that the Hot Line was jammed with calls about a certain family who have homes in London, Windsor, Norfolk and Balmoral and who are in receipt of excessively generous handouts from the state . . . But we do wonder why Lilley is so wantonly depriving the people of St. Albans, who have so faithfully increased his majority time and again, of his protection for their rectitude.

Feel fed-up

However we answer this, how do we explain the plight of Dr Brian Mawhinney from Peterborough? Mawhinney is chairman of the Conservative Party and so in overall charge of their campaign to win the next election. He oversees their publicity stunts—like New Labour, New Danger and the spoof Labour manifesto (as if the real one will not be bad enough). Since 1983 the Doctor has seen his majority in Peterborough dwindle from nearly 10,500 to just over 5,000.

But does this adequately explain his urge to emigrate to more promising electoral lands? (He has been adopted for another seat.) As chairman of his party Mawhinney is supposed to believe in what they say and to persuade the voters to do the same. He is supposed to think that Tory policies are so successful that the voters will be falling over themselves to return them to power—even in places like Peterborough where there seems to be a feel fed-up factor at work.

Can it be that the Tories—people like Dicks, Lilley, Mawhinney—are not so confident, that they know they have failed and it is time for the Labour Party to be exposed again? After all, to run away and live to fight another way is one of the most enduring examples of the art of pragmatism.

Ivan

Blogger's Note:

• Terry Dicks didn't find another seat to stand in, and did not contest the 1997 General Election. Left-wing Labourite, John McDonnell, won Hayes and Harlington with a thumping majority at the 1997 election. He remains the MP for that seat. 
• Peter Lilley decamped to the Hitchin and Harpenden constituency for the 1997 General Election. He remained the MP for that seat for the next 20 years. The Tories lost his old seat, St Albans, to the Labour Party at the 1997 election.
• Brian Mawhinney left his Peterborough constituency for the safer Tory seat of North West Cambridgeshire. The Tories lost Peterborough to Labour in the 1997 Labour landslide.