January 7, 2020  

Councillor Tony Belton’s Battersea January, 2020, Newsletter (# 127)

 

  1. December was, of course, dominated byClapham Junction the General Election. But first, on the 4th, I went with Labour’s candidate, Marsha de Cordova, for Xmas lunch at Haven Lodge, Kambala Estate. It was a lovely but quiet event and as such a fairly standard campaigning occasion. But what was new to me was the Lodge’s spectacular set of photographs of Battersea in the early Probably a horse drawn bus?twentieth century. I only have room for two here but I hope that you enjoy them. The first has an open-topped 37 bus in St. John’s Road, heading for Herne Hill via Brixton, according to its head-board, passing a horse-drawn coal-lorry, the same route as the 37 follows even to this day! You can clearly distinguish the clock on Hinds, the jewellers, with the “new” Arding and Hobbs tower behind. Hence this picture almost certainly dates from1910-1914. And the second is the old Arding and Hobbs, before the 1909 fire destroyed the shop leading to the building, which we all know today.
  2. And so, to the 12th, and the disastrous745551e3-2da7-4838-b389-13ba2f58f16e
    (as far as I am concerned) election result. I would, however, like to share with you some fairly random thoughts, that may or may not surprise depending upon how closely you follow these things. But first the locally great news of a big win for Labour in Wandsworth with our three MPs, (from the left) Tooting’s Rosena Allin-Khan, Putney’s Fleur Anderson and Battersea’s Marsha de Cordova, seen here immediately after the count.

  3. With a 6% swing to Labour, Putney was the only true Labour gain in the country (I say “true” because all the other so-called gains were in seats such as Streatham, where Labour simply recaptured one lost to defections, such as Chuka Umunna). But Battersea also had a 2.5% swing to Labour as did Canterbury. I haven’t found a simple table comparing swings across the country, but these three were probably Labour’s stars of the night. (Neighbouring Tooting had a small 1% swing to the Tories.)
  4. Putney’s large swing makes Battersea, probably for the first time, the most marginal Labour seat in the borough, even if by only the tiniest margin. If Marsha had about another 80 votes then Putney would re-take this somewhat unwanted title!
  5. This election gave a better indication than usual about the impact of, so-called, third-party interventions, especially perhaps when neither “main” party was exactly popular. For example, in the “safe” third-party seat of Caroline LucasBrighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, the popular Green pictured here, achieved a 4.4% swing from Labour and a 3.3% one from the Tories. Meanwhile in neighbouring Richmond Park, perhaps the least surprising gain of the night, the swings to the Lib/Dem’s Sarah Olney from both Labour and Tory were identical at 6%. It appears in both cases, that the Green/Lib/Dem candidate was taking an almost identical number of votes from both Tory and Labour. In Kensington, where Labour lost by a mere 150 votes, this seemed to be confirmed and yet decisive, with the Liberals registering a 6.5% swing from the Tories and a 6.7% swing from Labour.
  6. The moral of the story being? I’m not sure except that the British first-past-the-post electoral system is so strong that, where the previous election was essentially a two-horse race, then it was almost certainly a wasted vote supporting third party candidates. So, for example, the Lib/Dems may have looked a tempting prospect in many parts of the country but they barely got anywhere near winning, except where they were already in first or second place; just as Labour also got nowhere near winning anywhere in the country, unless Labour was already in first or second place.
  7. The rise of the Scots NP from third-party obscurity to apparently total dominance, is the major exception to this rule. But I think we can all agree that Scotland is just possibly that oddity “the exception that proves the rule”.
  8. Ironically, of the four current councillors, from Wandsworth, one of the strongest Tory local authorities in the country, who stood in the General Election, the three Tories lost and the one Labour councillor, namely Fleur Anderson, won. That must be some kind of a record! By the way, to my knowledge, there are now seven ex-Wandsworth councillors currently serving as M.P.s. They are the Tories Lucy Allan, Paul Beresford, Christopher Chope, Charles Walker and Nadhim Zahawi, and Labour’s Rosena Allin-Khan and (now) Fleur Anderson.
  9. This was the 14th General Election, in which I played an active role, as well as 14 Council elections, half a dozen GLC elections, 5 GLA ones, three Referendums and a few European elections – a total of well over 40. It started with a great victory when I was the Labour organiser in St. Mary Park in 1968 (and a ghastly defeat in 1970’s General Election). By the way, in case you hadn’t noticed, this time I was Marsha de Cordova’s agent and hence on any printed matter you received from her you will have seen aAt the count small imprint saying “Promoted by Tony Belton”. That’s not exactly a great adrenalin buzz but elections continue to thrill and agonise me in almost equal measure. This picture shows our core team of Carmel Pollen (centre), Amy Merrigan (also with the rosette) and me at the count.
  10. Most notably, not one of the recent rebels, such as Labour’s Mike Gapes and Chuka Umunna, or the Tories Dominic Grieve and Anna Soubry, won or retained their seats despite registering variable swings of 8% to 20% in their favour.
  11. The three Wandsworth M.P.s are all women, of whom the most senior, Rosena Allin-Khan, has been an M.P. for all of three and a half years. This must be a first in terms of both gender and experience. It is not true, however, as some have said, that it is a first for all three to be from the one party. All three Wandsworth MPs were Labour from 1964-1979 (Hugh Jenkins, Douglas Jay/Ernie Perry/Alf Dubs and Tom Cox) and from 1997-2005 (Tony Colman, Martin Linton and Tom Cox), whereas they have never all been Tory.
  12. Historic footnote. Actually from Jay Douglas1964-1983, there were four Wandsworth seats, with the miniscule Battersea North (essentially the current St. Mary Park, Latchmere and Queenstown) being merged into Battersea South in the 1983 Parliamentary re-distribution. Douglas Jay, pictured, was Battersea North MP and a member of Harold Wilson’s Cabinet, 1964-70.
  13. My friend Mike has done some research on the age profile of the UK electorate and he tells me that of the 100 constituencies with the fewest number of older constituents (voters 65+ years old) Labour now holds 99. The odd one out is Brighton Pavilion, held by the Green, Caroline Lucas.
  14. Equally of the 100 constituencies with the largest 18-34 year-old electorate, Labour now holds 84, the Tories 13, and the LibDems, Plaid and Green one each. It really does appear that in 2019 age was a more significant indicator of political leaning than class, education, socio-economic standing or, in England at least, region. (Scotland and Northern Ireland are clearly different, but I suspect Wales is more likely to be like England). Unfortunately, it is difficult to tell whether this evidence means that the UK is bound in time to fall to Labour or simply that as people get older/more mature they get more conservative/cautious!
  15. On a personal note, we went to Winchester (family) and Bath over Christmas itself, including a visit to the Recreation Ground, where we were entertained by Bath’s 16 – 14 victory over the Sale Sharks. But although it was keenly fought, I remain to be convinced that Rugby Union is really a spectator sport. On a dark, murky afternoon most of the action at the other end of the pitch was indecipherable, so at one point I was convinced that the Sharks had scored a try when in fact it was a Bath defensive touch-down.
  16. Whilst in Bath we went to theNick Wilton delightful Theatre Royal to see a great pantomime performance of Beauty and the Beast, which featured, perhaps I should say starred, a great take-off of Boris Johnson, by the classic “Dame”, Nick Wilton, pictured here. If the audience in Bath can be helpless with laughter at the lampooning of the “oven-ready” Prime Minster, then not everything will be gloomy in 2020!
  17. Returning to London, I stopped at the IMG_4692“Duchess of Somerset Hospital (1695)” on the A4. Many of you may have driven past it, just a couple of miles west of Hungerford and wondered what it was. I stopped and discovered inside it an exquisite estate of very large (for 1695) almshouses provided for retired clergymen and their widows. It was well worth the stop, especially for historians of the 17th and 18th centuries!

My Programme for January

  1. I am not finished with the General Election as I have to complete the Labour Party election expenses return for Battersea by 17th And if they are wrong then although the MP, Marsha de Cordova, would no doubt be under fire, I am the one who would go to jail! So, no pressure there, then.
  2. I am due to take part in an estate inspection of Wayford Street and Este Road on 13th January, and on the 15th the Power Station people are inviting councillors and others to an update on progress on the Power Station and the Northern Line Extension to Battersea Park.
  3. Meanwhile the chess season starts in earnest on 14th January and I have my first surgery of the year on 18th
  4. On 28th January I have the Planning Applications Committee.
  5. My political scene will, however, be dominated by two issues, one being the election of a new Labour Leader to succeed Jeremy Corbyn and the other the response of many to Brexit on 31st January. More than three quarters of the Battersea population voted to remain in the EU but, in the Prime Minister’s view, Brexit will be done by the end of the month. It probably will be in a headline grabbing sense, but it won’t be over in the real negotiating sense until at least the end of the year. One so-called Grass Roots Conference will be held on this subject on 25th January; I will be there to take part.
  6. If you have views on the future leadership and/or Britain and the EU, I would be happy to hear them and discuss, including passing them on to the MP.

About Tony Belton

Labour Councillor for Latchmere Ward 1972-2022, now Battersea Park Ward, London Borough of Wandsworth Ever hopeful Spurs supporter; Lane visit to the Lane, 1948 Olympics. Why don't they simply call the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, The Lane? Once understood IT but no longer

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