The proof that nothing is ever new in politics
Here is a summary of the key events that will occur in this year’s General election . . .
The Old etonian Prime Minister condemns ‘the old system of socialist controls, nationalisation, extravagant spending and all the rest of it’.
In rePly, labour’s leader complains that ‘millions of our fellow citizens are still living under conditions of hardship and poverty’.
The Shadow Chancellor, widely seen as more radical than the labour boss, inveighs against the City for pursuing selfish ‘get-richquick gains for a few’. he also complains about the number of Old etonians in the Cabinet. ‘They believe they were born to rule.’
labOur’S Deputy leader says that the Tories are planning to ‘get their wish and wreck the principle of a free national health service’.
a far-rIGhT candidate tries to stir up trouble by railing against foreign immigrants taking jobs off white people.
One thrusting young Conservative candidate declares: ‘I’m a young man looking to the future, not an old man grumbling about the past.’
Oddly enough, this is not just a prediction of what will happen in the 2019 General election: it also doubles as an accurate list of events in the 1959 general election.
The bbC is currently repeating its coverage of that election, which was chaired by the redoubtable richard Dimbleby, father of David and Jonathan, calmly assisted by the psephologist David butler, famous for his Swingometer (and happily still with us, aged 95). Together with David Kynaston’s brilliant book Modernity britain: Opening The box 1957-59, it presents many parallels with the present day.
Sixty years ago, the Conservative Prime Minister warning against nationalisation was the Old etonian harold Macmillan, and the Shadow Chancellor who complained of City sharks was harold Wilson.
The fiery aneurin bevan warned that the Tories were planning to dismantle the nhS. and the far-right candidate who railed against ‘cheap coloured labour that is now being imported into britain’ was Sir Oswald Mosley, standing on an anti-immigrant ticket. and what of the young Conservative who said ‘I’m a young man looking to the future, not an old man grumbling about the past’? This was Michael heseltine, who,
60 years on, is grumbling about the dismantling of civilised life. after 60 years, little has changed. Others may find this disconcerting, others reassuring. So will the 2019 General election be a re-run of 1959’s? The following events occurred 60 years ago; perhaps we should tick them off, one by one, if they recur in the coming weeks.
The Conservatives start in front, but, as polling day approaches, their lead seems to narrow. ‘We have definitely got the Tories on the run’, says an optimistic labour MP — back then it was Tony benn, but this year it may well be his son, hilary.
of QuIeTly the Opposition confident, starts the drawing leader up a list of his future Cabinet.
buT on polling day, labour suffers a major defeat. The Conservatives romp home with a majority of 100.
The liberals double their share of the vote but, owing to the first-pastthe-post system, their number of MPs remains the same.
The far-right candidate loses his deposit.
labOur MPs argue that the Tories fought a dishonest campaign. a senior labour MP complains that ‘the Tories were able to exploit fear of nationalisation, inflation, flight from the pound, trade unions, and internal so on’. The rows, party with suffers half the party complaining that the other half are not ‘true Socialists’. There are calls for a complete overhaul of labour policy, of the and party a restructuring machine. The bbC repeat of the 1959 coverage lasts well over four hours, and isn’t a minute too long. These days, the studio. no one In smokes 1959, the in
presenters all puff away. Outside town halls up and down the country, policemen all appear to be 55 years old, and have a row of shiny bright buttons down the centre of their jackets. Inside the halls there are lots of elderly women wearing tea-cosy hats. The men counting the votes all look like either the Duke of edinburgh or arthur lowe.
BALLOT boxes are rushed to the counting halls either by ‘a fleet of taxis’ or by double decker buses. When they are interviewed, politicians are happy to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘I don’t know’, without feeling the need to fill the next few minutes with blather.
In my next column, I plan to examine the bbC’s 1959 general election coverage in greater detail. but, before then, I urge you to watch it — it’s available on iPlayer — so you can see everything that’s changed, and, perhaps more surprisingly, everything that has stayed the same.