I doubt very much whether my millions of followers are waking up, desperate to read my take on the Gorton and Denton by-election, but, briefly, you are going to get it. There is little to be gained from having a dig at an impressive victory by a populist bunch of opportunists like the Greens – there: I had a dig while pretending I wasn’t – so my reaction is mixed. I am relieved that Nigel Farage’s fascist private company Reform UK Ltd doesn’t have another MP, particularly a nasty piece of work like Matthew Goodwin, and I am disappointed, though not surprised, that Labour lost.
Labour has over three years to mount a proper recovery which will only be achieved by undoing the mess left by 14 years of Conservative misrule, which were aided and abetted for the crucial first five years by the Liberal Democrats, both of whom were obliterated last night.
My main thoughts at this time are with the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason whom, I fear, will be blubbing uncontrollably at the failure of Reform UK Ltd. It’s been obvious where the BBC in general and Mason in particular have been heading politically since the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson stuffed the upper echelons of the corporation with his right-wing allies, including Robbie Gibb. The attacks on Labour have been utterly relentless, while Mason and his colleagues have all but cheered Nigel Farage and his tinpot cabal of fascists. On balance, the failure of Reform UK Ltd is more significant than Labour’s defeat and even the Green’s win.
Reform UK Ltd’s candidate, the former academic Matthew Goodwin blamed Reform Uk Ltd’s defeat on ‘woke progressives, sectarian voting and Islamists‘. Yeah right, Matt. I’d much rather be a card-carrying woke progressive than an arse-licking lickspittle like Goodwin. His assertion about ‘sectarian voting’ could be said about almost any election ever but if he has evidence of Islamism, as he calls it (he obviously means terrorism) perhaps he should inform Inspector Knacker?
I have no idea why so many people voted Green. Maybe they were attracted by their policies to leave NATO (oh yes they do), to disarm our nuclear weapons, to tax people to park in their office car parks, dramatically increasing taxes on air travel as well as banning short haul flights and taxing people who fly loads (which I agree with: oh well), introduce new carbon taxes in general and generally fuck over the motorist. But the fact is they did and we need to accept the result for what it is. The will of the people.
One good thing about all this is that it is very clear that Nigel Farage will never become Prime Minister. The majority of voters reject Reform UK Ltd’s slogans (they have few actual policies beyond populist soundbites: that’s how fascists work) and work out themselves the best candidates to defeat them. It bugs me a little because if you vote tactically it means you will never be happy with what you have voted for. It’s a negative, though sadly essential, tactic. I’ve never had to do that so far in my life but if the worst came to the worst, I think I would have to vote for the candidate best placed to defeat the extremists.
I’d like to think Farage’s time has gone. I doubt that his industrial-sized ego will see him quietly slip away from this career politician who has done so much harm to our country and he will still seek to divide. Already, the fascist right is beginning to split into smaller parties, a trend that will only continue once people realise we have had peak Reform UK Ltd and peak Farage.
Meanwhile, the world keeps turning and most of us get on with our mundane lives. The voters of Gorton and Denton, or at least most of them, rejected hate and division. If there’s a positive to be taken form this election, then that’s it.
