Interlude on General Elections

If you’re a politician, don’t come anywhere near me.

There is absolutely nothing personal about that. It’s just sound advice based on track record. Let me explain.

I had the opportunity of meeting two of Britain's Ministers of State over the last five years – Bill Rammell and Shahid Malik. They both seemed energetic, capable chaps with a bit of charisma thrown in. And they both lost their seats last night. Not even MP’s anymore.

In the general election that heralded in Harold Wilson’s first administration, I worked to get the then standing MP for Coventry South re-elected. It was a Tory marginal and, sadly, Philip Hocking was swept aside in the general swing to Labour.

In the same election, a friend of mine was very proud to have been selected as the Conservative candidate for a safe seat. “It’ll need a bit of work doing” he said. He lost his deposit. To be fair, it was the safe Labour seat of Rhondda West. The only other Tory candidate to share that dubious distinction was, I believe, in the Rhondda East constituency.

So the net is that if you want or already have a career in politics, then knowing me doesn’t bring you much luck.

I checked to see what happened last night in the Welsh valleys and it seems that the Tory candidate for Rhondda (they’ve combined East and West now) got enough votes to be able to retain his deposit this time round. Understandable - I’ve never met him.