The morning after
Travelling to the centre of Brighton by bus for my hair appointment yesterday morning it was very much business as usual and I heard no reference to the election on the bus or in the hairdressing salon.
As usual passengers were on their mobile droning on about the mundanity of their day.
I like my hairdresser as he is friendly, a good coiffeur and typifies the Brighton gay. Born in Essex he was drawn to the Brighton gay scene. He did have one serious relationship but as far as I can gather is happy in life of casual relationships and sex. I have no idea how he voted as the subject never came up.
One of my many dislikes of the Referendum is whenever I went to a social event people I did not know would ask me how I intend to vote. I prefer this discretion.
In its 3 Brighton constituencies the incumbent MPs – Peter Kyle (Labour/Hove), Caroline Lucas (Green Party Brighton Pavilion) and Lloyd Russel Moyle (Labour/Kemp Town) were all returned with increased majorities.
Brighton has 35,000 students and many of them are Green activists. A campus was moved to opposite the Pavilion and Brighton Pavilion, once a Tory stronghold, went green. In a radio interview yesterday Caroline Lucas expressed her support for PR so that many of her young activists had a more worthwhile vote.
Was she referring to “Extinction Rebellion”? If so I could not think of a better argument against PR.
The Greens once controlled this city and what a hopeless job they made of it.
Their Council Leader rejoiced in the name of Kitkat. As ever with people more concerned with lobbying and being a vocal pressure group rather than a responsible civil administrator, they soon became highly unpopular and were even fined on green issues such as waste.
Personally I yearn for a French-style mayor who would drive the city forward, improve its transport infrastructure and seek to attract visitors to the city by improving amenities and links. However, the city has a lively entrepreneurial culture and buzz which makes any political civic leadership largely irrelevant.
Hungry for a political chat I called an old friend with whom I can have a lively, sometimes argumentative, discourse which never ends in rancour.
His constituency was Richmond Surrey which Zac Goldsmith lost to the Lib Dems. It’s a seat which oscillates between Tory and Lib Dem.
We both agreed that, notwithstanding his large majority, Boris Johnson has some tough issues ahead; the northern Labour vote is lent – not irretrievably changed – and in 5 years’ time Brexit may well be forgotten; there is still much negotiation to achieve with the EU and globally; he will have to defend the union with a tenacious yapping Nicola Sturgeon at his heels: new MPs are ambitious and seek office quickly, not being content to be shire Tories sitting on the back benches: the hard line Brexiteers are still there.
We also agreed that the independents, all of whom lost out, would have done better to stay where they were.
A good example is Finchley and Golders Green.
Luciana Berger must have thought as a Jew she could get over the line but resident MP Mike Freer is very popular and saw her off with a majority of 6,500.
It looks like the political careers of Anna Soubrey, Dominic Grieve, Chukka Umunna and their ilk are over and, as they read of a broad church and softer Brexit by Boris Johnson, must wonder if they made the right move.
