Ten Years - Yesterday

Hello,

Uncle Arthur decided not to post something about the tenth anniversary of the 1997 General Election on the precise date for a plethora of reasons. One of the reasons stems from the fact that I was very busy indeed at work and it just wasn't feasible to post a comment.

However, on reflection this blog and the objectives it is seeking to pursue are not just about Labour being in power and marking off the years, although Labour in power -for the longest ever period - is not to be sniffed at. In all the reflections and of course assessments of Blair's record (very few of them truly objective) Uncle Arthur has one abiding memory of that day.

Uncle Arthur was campaigning for most of the day in a seat somewhere in Lancashire, a marginal seat that returned a Labour MP, who is now a minister. At the end of that
sweltering (and yes, glorious) day he and a colleague spoke to some women outside some flats at about 8.30pm who did not know it was election day and they could still vote. Ok, seems a bit hard to believe, but not everyone lives in the weird and frenetic world of Westminster politics and all the 'sterile fuss' it generates. They were assured that they could vote and as they were Labour voters arrangements were made to chaperon them to the nearest polling booth.

That was the last bit of work Uncle Arthur did that day before returning to Manchester for the celebration and man it was a celebration. Uncle Arthur had one thought as those Labour voters were assured they could cast their vote. The thought was 'I just hope we don't let these people down'

I am not going to be rehearsing the arguments of what has and has not been done for Labour's core vote; that will be repeated ad nauseum in the next few weeks. My point is simply this; it would be good if every election we have a quite and poignant thought for those whom most Labour folk went into politics to serve in the first place. People will be let down by the system but striving to ensure that this experience is the rarity and not the norm is a worthy goal.