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The Independent today published one of their increasingly ‘immature’ editorials, do they get people on “work experience” to write them ? http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-hurrah-for-democracy-1953549.html. This elicited a response from an ‘obviously’ die hard Labour supporter, my response: “ So you don’t like David Cameron, so what but, does your blindness have consequences for your judgement ?”

The Editorial too was a bit limp too because there is an awful sickening reality behind all of this regardless of political party or policies, love them or loath them, the Conservatives under Cameron are likely the “only game in town” currently and the reason is simply because they have more ‘people to call on’ than either of the other two. Regardless of the outcome, this General Election will see one of the largest intakes of new MPs we have ever seen and will exceed that of 1997.”

More Than a Numbers Game

And NO, I’m not talking about the Gordon Brown, “No time for an amateur…” slogan, that is nonsense and if held to, no MP would ever lose their seat. Besides which and despite all the ‘jokes’, in the upper echelons of the Civil Service are people who are very much ‘on top of their Departmental briefs’ and will gently steer any new Minister in the right direction and ensure they avoid the big pitfalls. Besides which, everybody has to start somewhere.

However, what is required from these MPs as ‘Tribunes of the People’ is that they are experienced in their craft, the black arts of achieving “the possible” and it is this lack of experience that will prove crucial in the success or failure of the next Government.

Step back and look at the whole thing coolly for a moment and think back to 1997. Whilst Blair achieved a landslide taking many seats from the Conservatives, he had a substantial hard core of Labour MPs who had sat through the Major Government’s 5 years, as politicians, he had a battle hardened team to build out from, new MPs could be ‘mentored’ and were.

What Happened

Unfortunately there was the Blair – Brown Feud over the top job and yes, I have used the phrase before but it is sadly true, it hollowed out the Labour Party, rising stars had to choose between being a ‘Blairite’ or a ‘Brownie’ and the result is a loss of a whole generation of political talent. Labour ran out of ‘people resources’ over two years ago, they couldn’t even mount a coup to oust Brown, who has turned out to be the veritable “Rasputin” of British politics.

Labour is ‘tired and emotional’ and if you want further proof, ask yourself whether you would appoint someone as dire as Andy Burnham to any job in your organisation ? At school, ‘Andy’ would always be the kid who got to see the ‘Blue Goldfish’, or not…

Whilst the “Fat Farty of Fife” will likely survive anything up to nuclear, it looks like many of the Labour Party MPs won’t, either because they are standing down or, will lose their seats anyway. In terms of forming a Government in their own right, it is not likely and as they are unlikely to have a fresh infusion of MPs, they would be begrudging as a minority government.

The FlipFlops

Let us suppose the LibDems polled very well on the day and were the largest party in a hung parliament, how effective could they be, how many names can you think of off the top of your head to form their ‘front bench’ ? I will give you Clegg, Cable and Hune as ‘starters’…

Yes, you may HATE the Conservatives but, they actually are the only party in a position to deliver effective government at the moment. A hung parliament will only put off the day when just one party has to be given “The Job” but delay by the electorate this time round, may well cost us all a lot of hard cash and regardless of our political preferences.

In addition, my view has always been that this is an “Economic” rather than a “Political” election and I suspect that the electorate know this only too well so, in a sense, “It ain’t over until the Fat Lady sings…” and May 7th could be interesting. My money is still on a majority Conservative Government with everyone denying they voted Tory, we shall see.