No Rest for the Weary

Many political activists around England and Wales have their feet up during this long Bank Holiday weekend, to recover from weeks or even months of delivering and canvassing. But in truth, there is no rest for the weary. Labour’s May Day Massacre and its body-count may be over, but two parliamentary by-elections loom, one in the north and one in the south, just to put enough guilty pressure on everyone to get involved. There aren’t as many parliamentary by-elections as there used to be — probably something to do with longer life expectancy, and a trend towards younger people getting into parliament – and the two imminent contests are both important.

Crewe and Nantwich was the seat of the indomitable Gwyneth Dunwoody, who was the longest-serving famle member of parliament and anything but a ‘yes woman’. But Labour will have a fight on its hands to keep the seat red, even though they have selected Gwyneth’s daughter Tamsin as their standard-bearer. The LibDems already have a candidate in place, Elizabeth Shenton, to ensure that the upcoming battle — scheduled for 22 May — is not a straight choice between Labour and the Tories.

The second by-election, in Henley, has not yet been called; it rather depends when Boris ‘Bojo’ Johnson gets round to it. The Times rather mischievously floated the rumour last week that Boris would not resign his Henley seat if he won the London Mayoralty, but Bojo has scotched that idea. So sometime later this year, we’ll see a fierce, predominantly Conservative-LibDem battle at Henley — or maybe a regatta would be more appropriate.