Victory for the Sensible Party: the General Election 2024

Monty Python 'Election Night Special' (photo: https://www.spin.com/2020/11/the-silly-parties/)

Last week’s election, apparently, resulted in the worst defeat for the Conservatives since 1832 (and it followed the 2019 election which was the worst defeat for Labour since 1935). Statistics and records, don’t we all just love them? However, this year's election most resembled the 1970 Monty Python comedy sketch election in Harpenden Southeast, where the Very Silly candidate put paid to the Silly Party’s chances by splitting the Silly vote, enabling the Sensible Party to triumph. The Very Silly candidate was a man immersed in concrete whose name when read out included a series of noises, among which were a whistle being blown and a gun being fired. Yep, that sounds a lot like Ni-peep-gel Fa-bang-rage, doesn’t it?

Farage is the kid who got the ice-cream and is now screaming for the chocolate. He just won’t go away. He won’t desist until the Conservatives, in their desperation to woo voters from him, disappear completely off the right wing of the political spectrum. The Prime Minister’s job is in his sights, I’ve no doubt about that. Given the electorate – in England, at any rate – I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he succeeded (after all, Boris made it, didn’t he?). Now that would be Very Very Silly.

This year’s Sensible Party, and by that of course I mean Labour, won 63% of the seats but only 34% of the vote in a low turnout. This led the odious Daily Mail, unable to be as gracious in defeat as other right-wing papers, to refer to the Labour victory as a ‘loveless landslide’, meaning that the nation had not fallen for Keir Starmer as it had for previous and more charismatic landslide victors such as Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, and Boris Johnson. Yet a man who is Sensible writ large and who doesn’t move people to nationalistic fervour might just be the man that the U.K. needs right now.

One of the assumptions of the 2024 election was that Jeremy Corbyn had been unelectable and that Keir Starmer had been right to change his party and move it towards the centre, resulting in its success. I must admit that I shared that view too, having seen other left-wing leaders of the Labour Party fail in the 1980s and early 1990s before Blair did the same thing as Starmer, calling his version of the party ‘New Labour’. Consequently, it is difficult to envisage the British public electing a left-winger. Yet maybe the figures tell another story. Jeremy Corbyn attracted more votes, in both elections in which he led Labour, than Keir Starmer in his landside. As a percentage of the vote, Corbyn in 2017 achieved 6% more than Starmer and, in 2019, only 2% less, in the election that was apparently one of Labour’s worst defeats. So the odd fact remains that, if the vote share had divided a different way in 2017 or 2019, nearer to what it was in 2024, it might have been Corbyn who would have been the glorious victor of the landslide. And, unlike Starmer, Corbyn would not have lost the Muslim protest vote (although he might have alienated Jewish voters). Food for thought.

The sobering fact for Labour supporters (like me) is that this victory was born, not out of changes in the Labour Party, or Starmer’s approach in particular, but from the very well deserved lack of popularity of the Conservatives (and the SNP). After so much controversy, corruption, immorality, irresponsibility, and sheer incompetence, it would have been really heartbreaking if the British people had swallowed all the fear tactics, forgotten or forgiven all the mess, and put the Conservatives back in. But the desperate state of the economy and public services told their own story after fourteen years of Conservative rule. Change had to come, which is, apparently, what people 'on the doorstep' told the campaigners.

These factors shaped this victory just like Brexit shaped the 2019 victory that Boris Johnson achieved. For most people, Brexit seems to be in the past, or perhaps they have woken up to the fact that the nation slumbered for several years and let its institutions decline because of Brexit. It was the great red herring of our recent British history. Johnson, Gove, and Farage and the rest of the Brexiteers are responsible for our government being wholly distracted and taking its eyes off the ball of maintaining public services and ensuring that people – including people with jobs – did not slither into poverty.

Is proportional representation, as supported at a recent Labour conference, still on the table? I, for one, hope so. The argument against it is that Labour won their landslide with only 34%, and so the current system suits them. But the dissatisfaction with the Conservatives won’t last for ever. In five years’ time, and certainly in ten, they will have moved on sufficiently from the Johnson gang to appeal once again to right- and centre-leaning people. Given that Labour are unlikely to solve all the problems besetting our society, they could be vulnerable, particularly if they continue to poll under 35% of the voting electorate.

While many dislike the spectre of a proportionally representative government by coalition, compromise, and cross-party discussion (which is what the French are facing right now), it is nevertheless the only truly democratic way to run a country. It ensures that all votes count, and that it is worthwhile to turn out on the day irrespective of the constituency in which one lives. And what is wrong with parties working together and finding consensus? Perhaps MPs would become less partisan and more public spirited as a consequence. And, who knows, with a younger, more involved electorate, plus an agreement with the Greens in a world with climate change ever worsening, perhaps Labour would actually get over the 50% needed to govern even in a proportional system. Hopefully, they will also attract back the Muslims whom they lost this time round.

I thought Keir Starmer’s speech as he moved into Downing Street to be the best I have heard from a new PM. Foolish old man that I am, it gave me hope. I have often dreamed of politicians seeing their work as a vocation. Keir used a word with a less religious connotation, service, but it is the same thing. While MPs are using their undoubtedly clever minds to conjure up impossible reasons as to why their party is the best thing since sliced bread despite all the evidence to the contrary, we will never get anywhere. 100% brain power should be used solving our more intractable problems to everyone’s benefit. Perhaps the ideal of service will help them re-orientate themselves in this way. I also liked Keir’s decision to bring in non-MPs with expertise into ministerial positions. Let’s get the best people on the job rather than someone from your party whom you owe a favour.

The first election I remember was in 1966, when my secondary school organised a mock election and some sixth formers stood as candidates for the three main parties. I agreed with one after the other as they spoke to the school assembly, so the Liberal, who addressed us last, got my vote. Hopefully, I have got to know my own mind a little better since then! Including that year and this, I have observed sixteen general elections, seven won by Conservatives, six by Labour, and in three no party gained a majority (so the party with the most seats needed the support of another party to keep them in). One might hope for a bit more stability than this; having said that, the greatest mistakes, in my view, are often made by governments who win second or third terms and become over-confident. Nevertheless, I hope that Labour stay in for a good few years this time without falling into that trap. Life just feels a little lighter and less clouded when Labour are in power. Viva the Sensibles!