Maybe it’s the heatwave. But an awful lot of folk who’re supposed to be on the same side are now at one another’s throats. Notably ex Prime Minister Tony Blair and the man who’s pitching to be the next one. And if Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham does get his way the impact on all our lives could be profound. As our Political Correspondent Peter Spencer reports, voters in the upcoming Makerfield by-election hold the nation’s destiny in their hands.
So many words, so little time. The only way to make any sense of this story is to boil it down to the barest of outlines.
In essence, Blair’s saying the Labour party’s turned into a soggy, left-leaning, go-nowhere failure. And the only way to get its act together is to head rightwards. Good advice, say top Tories, and long overdue.
By contrast, Burnham reckons it should screech off in the opposite direction. Instead of vaguely embracing Margaret Thatcher’s legacy of handing over key services to the private sector it’s time to take them back.
Clever ploy on his part, as it ties in with what he makes of Maggie’ s theory that privatising stuff would would end up doing everyone a favour. Nicknamed at the time: ‘Trickle-down economics.’
Yerright, he says: ‘Trickle-down economics did not in the end trickle down very much at all.’
This, he hopes, will be music to Makerfield ears, bearing in mind that great swathes of that part of the country were laid waste by Thatcher’s pulling the plug on most of the coal mines and much of heavy industry.
The legacy of those years was, first, widespread rage at the Tories that whole communities had been destroyed, and then in time disillusion with Labour for not coming to the rescue.
Hence the current soaring popularity of the populist Nigel Farage.
When people are angry it’s always good to feed them a scapegoat or two. First, he served up foreigners, coming from the European Union, then the immigrants from elsewhere who plugged the job gaps created by their departure.
There’s little sign of how he’d sort the north-south divide in Britain’s prosperity. But the ace up his sleeve is that he isn’t Keir Starmer. Or the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
And in a country still smarting from the world economic crash caused by the Americans in 2008, it seems people are minded not to vote for governments, but against them. It’s the anger factor.
Also worth bearing in mind, given that everything hinges on the Makerfield shindig less than three weeks away, the impact stemming from that Wall Street wobble has to this day on parish pump politics.
The subsequent austerity measures introduced by the then Tory-led government featured slashing Whitehall’s funding of local authorities by nearly half.
No great surprise then that town halls are a bit strapped for cash when it comes to sorting that eternal bugbear – fixing potholes in the roads.
No great surprise either that the Tories didn’t exactly come clean about the austerity impacts across the board, instead adopting a make-do-and-mend approach over the years.
The upshot being everything just got shabby and frayed, and as time went on the electorate could be forgiven for not really remembering where it all started, just jolly fed up with how things were.
Cue Keir Starmer’s landslide victory, followed by precipitous fall from grace, when he couldn’t flip the nation on a sixpence either.
Bit of a big ask that. But, arguably, Blair hit the nail on the head when he complained of a lack of worked-out and clearly explained plan. And of its consequent eternal ducking and weaving.
‘Too often ministers seem to totter in the breeze. To lack ballast,’ he observed, tartly.
As to whether Prime Minister Burnham would make a better fist of all, that’s an open question. Though his talk of a radical shift in ideological direction – however it plays with voters – sure is a starting point.
If he doesn’t win in Makerfield, mind, there’s a good chance that Keir Starmer will plod on at Number Ten and all this froth about fresh faces and new directions will just fizzle out. At least for the foreseeable.
No question Burnham’s played a canny hand in his leftward lurch pitch, because the wounds of Thatcherism may never heal up north.
And his insistence on spreading wealth and power away from just London and the south is every bit as adroit.
But he’s up against both a pro-Reform mindset in much of the constituency, and Farage’s utter determination to seize the seat by throwing everything at it.
This because if he loses the by-election in what what could be classified as Reform heartland the humiliation will be intense.
Conversely, if he wins he’ll present it as the not-so-distant dangling of the keys to Number Ten.
Has to be said, mind, the current spate of sniping and snarling isn’t just confined to the left of the political spectrum. They’re at it hammer and tongs on the far right too.
There’s also the question of whether the so-called ‘plucky plumber’, Reform candidate Robert Kenyon, might not have been the ideal choice after all.
More and more of his old social media posts that’re now coming to light suggest that he’s a bit more than just a straight-talking geezer who tells the story as it is, as his defenders in the party claim.
In one post he suggested women can’t: ‘Ref, drive, or give directions.’ Adding that ladies presenting rugby games on telly: ‘Aren’t up to the job and only there to tick a box.’
Oh, and in case anybody hadn’t clocked it already, he declared: ‘I’m sexist, sorry but I am.’ Sure that’ll go down a bundle with female voters.
In addition to that, with Reform currently three points behind Labour in the race, they could really do without their right-wing rival party Restore Britain snapping at their heels.
This outfit, currently polling on seven per cent, could bleed away enough support to inadvertently hand victory to Labour.
It’d be the mother of all right hooks for Farage, as Restore was founded by one of his own former MPs, Rupert Lowe, after the two of them spectacularly fell out.
To get a flavour of why Farage might have found Lowe a bit much, he did confirm on the stump in Makerfield, that he had once said he wanted to put illegal immigrants on a: ‘Midge-infested island – and let the midges do the rest.’
OK, illegal immigrants aren’t best beloved by everyone, but nor are gulls.
And yet, staff at a Morrisons branch in Cardiff have won widespread praise for putting up a protective sunscreen for one who nests at the same spot in their car park each year.
Odd choice of egg-laying venue, admittedly, but the supermarket workers nonetheless went the extra mile by coning off four spaces and giving her fresh food and water.
And the little film of their efforts which they put on Facebook immediately went viral. Some of the comments weren’t especially enthusiastic, but at the time of writing there were getting on for fifty-thousand likes.
Good to know that alongside all the horridness in the world there’s room for a bit of kindness as well.
Watch Peter’s report at peterspencer.org
Peter’s column will return on Sun 16th July
Peter Spencer has 40 years experience as a Political Correspondent in Westminster, working with London Broadcasting and Sky News. For more of his fascinating musings on the turbulent political landscape, follow him on Facebook & Twitter.