Bright Yellow Fireworks

Bright Yellow Fireworks

If you put a group of people together for any reason then politics comes into play. I don’t mean macro-politics of the Conservative versus Socialist kind, but small-scale inter-politics.  Sociology, if you will. 

If, like me, you are a people-watcher – then this stuff is absolutely fascinating.  But for me it is most fascinating when applied to local political groups - because all the people therein are deeply involved in politics at several levels.  It makes for a really interesting melting pot of camaraderie, disagreement, competition, ambition and ideology.  And this is true of every party including (of course) my own.

But lately my interest has been piqued not by the goings-on within the Conservative party but of those exotic folk who make up the Liberal Democrats in Fenland.  Now far be it from me to grab a ladle and stir the pot* but…

Until recently there hasn’t been much of a Lib Dem “showing” in Fenland.  They had no council seats, they didn’t poll particularly well in local elections or national elections and – to be brutally honest – they just weren’t a political force here. 

Then this year, David Patrick was victorious in Kirkgate (sigh) and put the Lib Dems on Fenland’s political map – something that my friend Chris Howes has been trying to do for years!  David Patrick has become the only elected Lib Dem in Fenland for a very long time. 

In a recent newspaper Cllr Dave Patrick suggested that he planned to make sure that there were Liberal Democrat candidates standing for all the seats next time.  It’s not the statement which struck me as interesting but the way that Dave Patrick – as the only elected Lib Dem in the area – is taking a forward position within their group.

Meanwhile Chris Howes, long-time opponent of District Council leader Alan Melton, is ever-present.  Twittering under one pseudonym, blog-posting under another.  Writing weekly letters to local papers and generally agitating in a subtle way.  A veteran of Fenland politics, Chris is a worthy (and often sneaky) opponent.

Then there’s Lorna Spenceley, a Harlow councillor, who challenged Steve Barclay MP for the NE Cambs national seat.  While Lorna was not as effective against that Steve as Dave Patrick was against this one – she nonetheless pushed Labour into third place in the area.  Lorna is still listed as a “Liberal Democrat Councillor” for the Staple Tye Ward in of Harlow District Council but will apparently “not be seeking re-election in 2010.”  Furthermore – her blog seems to be regularly focused on the Fenland area with the latest entry being called: “Any volunteers for Wisbech?”  Hmmm.  Curiouser and curiouser.  I’m sure Lorna’s motives are pure – and yet doesn’t this have an early “campaign” feel about it?

This is where all that local politics interpersonal stuff gets really interesting.  Because until now the Liberal Democrats have been one (small) happy family with few ‘big players’ and not much chance of getting anywhere.  They clearly perceive this might change and it is altering their rhetoric.  As a people-watcher, I have to wonder who the top dog in their party IS.  Chris, the longest-campaigner?  Dave, the only successful candidate?  Lorna – the recent parliamentary candidate?  Or is there some other sinister shadowy figure in the background we don’t know about?  The Lib Dem equivalent of an Underworld Boss – who eliminates enemies by giving them a pair of concrete sandals and dropping them in the River Nene**.

If you ask them, they would assure you that they are all on “the same side”.  That they were “working together” in a companionable way.  And that may be true to some degree.  But at some level each of them is thinking to the future – which they hope will be more locally successful than the past – and beginning to wonder: “What if?”  As Lib Dems go, these are local Big Beasts and I would expect all three are politically ambitious.  While they would tell you and I that their only interest is in beating the Conservatives, I suspect they will be beginning to cast little sideways glances at one another too.  We may not see them today, or next week, or even this year.  But in due course I’m sure we will see some fireworks.  Bright yellow ones. 
  

*Tee-hee.  Mischief.

** Of course I am joking.  Lib Dems wouldn’t eliminate their opponents.  They might send them the obligatory strongly-worded letter or even shake their finger in a serious fashion, but ‘gangsta’ they aren’t.  Stop looking at me that way Chris – my feet are too big for concrete sandals!