Louise Bagshawe: Just another Thursday

It’s a bittersweet day for me today. I’m off to David Cameron’s constituency of Witney, to attend a key speech. I have a book deadline, so will be writing in the back of the cab. In the morning I’ll be doing the laundry and getting the children off to school; my eldest needs to do his reading practice. All in all, for a candidate it’s just another Thursday.

It might have been different. Wednesday night, when I’m writing this, might have been the most sleepless since the night before my wedding day. We would have started with a dawn raid in the constituency, been out knocking up pledges all day long, talking to tellers, co-ordinating an election day campaign. By the end of the day, my life might have changed; as a Tory PPC in a marginal seat, I might have been elected to Parliament.

On Yellow Saturday (it seems like yesterday, doesn’t it?) I was election planning all day long with my very able young agent. We were on the phone to each other planning an election event when the texts started coming into the Blackberry – from Tim, from my Campaign Director, my regional director, various friends. As you were. Brown’s bottled it.

My reaction at the time was elation. It was such an obvious political misstep. Every candidate I knew had come to the conclusion that Brown did not want to fight, but had painted himself into a corner; how could any politician take such a hit to their credibility? And yet, rather than face the music in the marginals, Corby being one, that was exactly what Brown chose to do. We stopped planning; we started to stand the activists down. I was thrilled to realise I had a few more months to deliver my book, and wouldn’t have to fight an election in half term.

That was the first reaction. But not the last. Over the subsequent weeks, a tremendous disappointment has set in. My grandmother lived in David Cameron’s constituency and I spent long periods of my childhood there; it’s one of my favourite places in the world. But I would so much rather have been spending today in Corby.

Why the disappointment? Principally, I think, it has sunk in that we have two, possibly two and a half, more years of this. Two more years of immigration chaos. Two more years of total fiscal incompetence, of the sort that has seen the recent U-turn on CGT. Two more years of the Tories setting the agenda for a Labour government that can only implement it poorly; IHT, a border police force. Two more years of a politicised and toothless police force, which is a national scandal I will talk about in a future column and a live issue in Northants. Two more years of public service strikes. Two more years to see Lord Darzi, Labour’s health minister’s, promise come true – “The age of the district general hospital is over”. Two more years to watch local maternity units shut. Two more years where this government allows sentences for rape and domestic violence to dwindle to insignificance. Two more years to watch Brown attempt to sign away our rights to the EU without our permission.

The government lately has looked shambolic. We had the U-turn on CGT. We had the U-turn on IHT. We had the U-turn on school surpluses. We had the U-turn on immigration figures – two in quick succession, in fact. This government is making so many u-turns it’s starting to look like Torville and Dean. There is a sense of malaise, a stench of death, about the end of New Labour. The dreadful thing is that Gordon Brown proposes to make us suffer it until the bitter end. He risibly told the assembled press corps that the polls had not featured in his decision, that he wanted time to set out his vision. What is that vision? Anybody? Answers on a postcard, please. All Mr. Brown seems capable of doing is nicking Tory policies (air passenger duty), chortling on the front bench, and hiding from Jeremy Paxman. I understand that he wanted to be Prime Minister. But why, other than the title? What is his political mission? We may have hated Tony Blair’s, but at least the world knew what it was. Mr. Brown, as Michael Gove so aptly argued, is Moore after Connery; second best. 

But today, I don’t have the opportunity to fight that election in the trenches with my team. I don’t have the chance to make the change. Instead, because of Gordon Brown, this is just another Thursday. And that’s more bitter than sweet.

Comments

[rightwingery]

"Wednesday night, when I’m writing this, might have been the most sleepless since the night before my wedding day."

Surely the night AFTER your wedding is the most sleepless!!

[Tony Makara]

Louise, on the positive side two more years of Labour will make them so despised that they will face a 1997 style meltdown when the election finally comes. That will provide the Conservative party with an opportunity to introduce sweeping and radical change to the way our country is run. In many ways it might be an education of sorts to watch this Labour government slowly dying over the next two years. When Labour are finally ousted the first Conservative term in office will have to be focused on damage limitation and it cleans up after the mess left by Labour. However the second and third terms offer so much potential for progress. So chin up Louise, Labour are only denying the inevitable. They are terminally ill and won't recover.

[Nick]

Great article Louise, very apt!!!

I think we can safely say that Louise is one of the PPC's in highly winnable seats that willl ensure the party continues to move forward after the next election and beyond.

Whatever the result of that next election I feel confident that Corby will have an excellent new member of parliament.

[john]

MEAN-SPIRITED COMMENT OVERWRITTEN BY THE EDITOR.

[Catriona Mackenzie]

"Two more years of immigration chaos. Two more years of total fiscal incompetence ..."

Exactly, and I can see first hand how this is effecting our very infrastructure. The schools cannot cope with the amount of students who have English as a second or third language. The language barriers betwen parents and teachers create unnecessary complications.

In most schools now there are EAL departments. These departments are designed to act as a support mechanism for students with English as a second language. But, this provision is inadequate and cannot cope with the amount of students coming into schools, because there are just so many of them.

Another ridiculous fact is that despite them having a limited grasp of the English Language, students are still expected to learn and be taught the national curriculum. These students are even entered for SATs and GCSE's. It's total insanity.

At my school a high percentage of students have English as a second language, yet the EAL department is supported by only two members of staff.

[Edison Smith]

Tony,

I doubt Brown and Labour will be nearly so despised as the Tories in 1997. That was a once in a generation phenomenon. Whilst Labour remain united, and there's no economic crisis to rival Black Wednesday, they'll go into a 2009 election in a poor state, but not a disasterous state.

In short, look to 1992 rather than 1997.

The task facing the Tories is huge. Not only have we to turn around a 50-odd seat Labour majority, but we must win with a big enough majority ourselves to ensure we get longer than one term (encumbants hardly ever increase their majority second time around). This will be against a Labour party still - after everything - in considerably better nick than a 1997 Tory party that was tired, divided and despised, with a majority of pretty much 0.

[Tony Makara]

Edison Smith, the fact that Labour have not allowed our economy to cool and have stored up volumes of debt means that inflation will be inevitable once the pound depreciates in value. The strength of sterling is masking underlying inflation. So I'm expecting Labour to run into severe economic problems.

The reason I believe the Conservative party will put together at least two or three terms in office is also because Labour just do not have any intellectual heavyweights coming up in the ranks. They have diluted their party through the selection process and now just don't have any sort of intellectual backbone in their party. An intellectual core is needed to come up with new ideas and to formulate a coherent strategy. The Labour party is riddled with Passive MPs who can react to ready made situations but the cannot come forward with ideas of their own.

[David Lindsay]

There was never going to be a General Election today. But the media demanded one just to give themselves something to do, and the Tories demanded one because ... well, why? Such is the constituency map that they could not possibly have won, no matter what.

They were told where to go, spat out their dummies, and have been wailing ever since, not least in the form of wholly made up stories about how Gordon Brown changed his mind because of opinion poll results. He was never in any doubt. Why would he be? Just look at the map: he can't lose while the Tories are still treated as a major party.

Now grow up.

[Stephen Warrick]

You evoke true anger and passion in your writing about this dismal, vacuous shower of a government Louise, clearly Corby is set to have a fine MP fighting for their interests at the next election - whenever it is finally called!

[David Sergeant]

"the form of wholly made up stories about how Gordon Brown changed his mind because of opinion poll results. He was never in any doubt."

David Lindsay 04.06

Er David, were you talking about something else? You are too silly to argue with, but, because I am patient I'll just draw attention to the £1 million Labour spent preparing for an election.

Don't bother trying to grow up you will never be mature.

[Andrew Langley]

Great article Lousie, as ever full of passion, substance and relevance. To your list of woe can I add, my own observations.

We have to endure two more years of Labour's shameful gerrymandering of local government funding, to screw conservative councils and feathernest their own heartlands.

Two more years of failure to tackle welfare dependancy and our broken society, where Labour prefers to import immigrant workers, when we have 5.3m Brits not in work.

Two more years of lies over national debt, pretending the huge mortgage we are leaving our kids to pay, namely PFI, is some kind of free lunch, which we don't need to pay back.

Two more years of deploying our brave servicemen and women to do the world's dirty work, whilst Labour fails in its covenant to properly equip them.

But despite these woes, inflicted on us by a directionless and crumbling government,we'll keep our spirits up, redouble our efforts and fight to win.
We are right behind you here in Northants, Louise, so keep smiling and keep up the good work.

[Gloy Plopwell]

This is a fabulous article Louise!!
If only we'd had a general election and Corby would have a tireless stupendous workhouse in Louise sooner!! Keep it up.