Characters

+Maybe it’s too soon to say but I think there’s a prospect that all the talk of a multi-party political landscape may be just that: talk. Yes, the two party hegemony of the post war era is clearly over, the Labour/Tory share of the vote has reached a low ebb, but the point is it still remains significant. And now that we supposedly live in a multi-party condition it remains to be seen what a test of that in maybe three years time will look like. Essentially, the same old choices are going to have to be made. All things being equal—and heaven knows how events might intervene—the question will be what can the state afford to do to look after us? Because that’s what we want it to do. And, consequentially how will everybody pay their fair share? It may well be that some parties duck the question. They will be found out. I can foresee a reaction against untested parties and an electorate retreating to old nostrums. Perhaps the real question is, in our near presidential parliamentary system, who’s personality and perceived flawless character will win voters’ hearts?
 
+Memory Lane: I saw on the clickbait (the Telegraph in a rather reasonable obituary) that one of the ’red’ Liverpool MPs Terry Lewis has died. He left the Commons in 2005 and the Labour Party in 2010, rejoining in 2015 when Corbyn was elected. I knew him slightly since he and another old socialist (communist?) MP Bob Wareing used to drink in the Paviours Arms just off Marsham Street after the final division. They like me must have had flats in Pimlico. Listening to them castigating Tony Blair was always entertaining but I suspect they suspected me of being to the right of Joseph Stalin. The Paviours sadly no longer exists, having made way for luxury flats, of which there is a shortage in London. The thing about the pub (apart from the two old renegades) was that its interior was original art deco and was in my opinion worth saving. My efforts to see it preserved came to nought. A pity—it could have been a popular feature in the V&A, perhaps with two waxwork MPs propping up the bar.