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Are the shires turning red?

May 10, 2012 2:02 pm

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There is no Aldi or Primark in Witney.

The stone clad town has 4x4s dotted around the side streets and the local paper struggles to report on any crime except for a page three spread on a little bit of graffiti on a local wall. Yet, here in this affluent Oxfordshire town – at the heart of David Cameron’s constituency – Labour won the Witney wards on the district council.

But Labour gains in Witney were no flash in the pan. In nearby Chipping Norton – home of the infamous ‘supper party’ between James Murdoch and David Cameron – Labour also won.

It is not just wealthy Oxfordshire where Labour is winning. On the same night that Galloway trounced Labour in Bradford West, Labour won a remarkable victory in the affluent ward of Crokenhill and West Hill ward in Sevenoaks – the constituency of the ubiquitous Tory Party Vice Chair, Michael Fallon.

And further south in the pretty Kentish town of Sandwich – home to the 2011 Open golf tournament – around a third of all the people who voted in last year’s local election supporting Labour. This, in a town, that was as true blue as the nearby English Channel.

So why are people in the affluent rural towns and villages at last beginning to turn away from the shire Tories to give Labour a look in? While Labour in Government could have done far more to help these areas, the actions taken then are far better when compared to the policies of this Tory led Government. Rural bus services were funded, one stop shop access points for public services were set up and the Agricultural Wages Board was protected.

Now – ministers are ploughing ahead with the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board. Farm workers are already one of the lowest paid groups in the country and the abolition of the board can only make matters worse for 154,000 agricultural workers in England and Wales.

When it comes to isolating hard up rural families from accessing essential public services and getting jobs, the decisions by councils in Northamptonshire, Cumbria and Somerset to cut bus services will make daily life even more difficult. On top of this, the watchdog, Customer Focus, has warned of the damage caused to market towns and rural life with the additional cuts in rural post offices.

The impact of Government policies is hitting the “squeezed middle” of rural and market town Britain. It is an urban fallacy that every person in the market towns and villages has large expense accounts. Yes, there is the case of the stockbroker who liked his Oxfordshire village so much he bought it for £37 million. But the day to day cost pressures on everyday rural and market town life has deteriorated under this Government.

Labour has much more to do, though, to convince rural and market town voters that we are the party that can be trusted to advance their interests. Too often, voters in these areas look to other options when it comes to elections. For example, in last year’s local election, a new party in Herefordshire made very significant gains. Despite the new party’s name – It’s Our County – having something of a UKIP air about it, its policy platform has a strong centre left bent to it.

It is now the second biggest party on Herefordshire Council – behind the Conservatives. It’s Our County’s manifesto includes the statement that has some synergy with the Clause Four of Labour’s constitution – “We believe this is an enlightened county that prefers to put quality of life before rampant profit and growth.”

Its focus on community echoes Ed Miliband’s view that this is the time to face up to areas where communities are fractured. And its condemnation of the Tories and the Liberal Democrats are sure to strike many a chord with Labour voters.

So Labour must present a robust programme aimed specifically at market towns and rural voters. This should include tackling the Government’s timid programme for broadband rollout. Decent bus services for local people are a must. But it is tackling the housing crisis that is really needed in these areas.

While, superficially, abolishing the Labour Government’s regional spatial strategies in favour of local decision making seems fairer, in reality a hotch potch of conflicting local housing policies combined with big cuts in overall house building programmes, has made the housing pressures in rural areas and market towns more acute.

I saw for myself how this was hitting local people. A year ago, in David Cameron’s constituency, I met a local man who had to hold down two jobs to keep things ticking over and was about to have to sell the family home in a local village. The home had been passed down from generation to generation and his distress at being forced to sell up due to rising cost pressures was clear for all to see. But he did not believe that Labour believed in aspiration or in rural areas like his.

In 2012, Labour has begun to change these views.  But until we put forward a robust plan specifically aimed at market towns and the countryside, Labour may not get the electoral breakthrough we desperately need for next year’s county council elections and beyond in order to demonstrate that we are the natural party for shire Britain.=

James Watkins is a member of Unite the Union’s National Political Committee. This article is written in a personal capacity.

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  • redcliffe62

    Lovely article. I do suspect people are voting labour as they felt the other options are even worse.
    32.9% voting and 67.1% apathy or blank tells me that support is very soft and only goes so far.
    A win is a win however.

  • http://twitter.com/bencobley Ben Cobley

    I think we should think about putting together a specific Labour policy agenda towards the countryside, and establish an affiliate/linked party like Labour Co-operative to put up candidates and influence the party powers that be. The name Labour Country would work – it does what it says on the tin and also has a nice double entendre.

    • treborc1

      Is it worth it because I suspect labour will not win much in a general election.

      • EmmaBurnell

        Yes, becuase even if Labour held no seats with any rural areas at sall (which is extremely unlikely given the make up of several key seats) a Labour Government would still be expected to govern for the whole country, and that includes having a workable rural policy agenda.

        • treborc1

          Well if you believe that fine I live in a rural area, and sadly labour did little for us when in power, but I know this is a newer labour

    • Brumanuensis

      Back in 1981, Francois Mitterand – until recently the only Socialist ever elected President of France – wanted to communicate his suitability as President for all of the French. In order to do so, he used this poster:

      http://storage.canalblog.com/66/78/132350/6512861.jpeg

      The French have a concept of ‘France Profonde’, (lit. ‘Deep France’), a sort of traditional rural hinterland vaguely akin to ‘Merrie Englande’, except with greater political and cultural resonance. This is the France of traditional federalism, anti-Parisianism, conservatism, but also radicalism – Jose Bove for instance. The same impulse that unites rural UMP voters and south-western rural socialists. Mitterand’s poster, with its evocation of the France of small towns, churches and local communities and community ties, brilliantly captured this. So much so, that it helped propel him to the Presidency and was re-used by Sarkozy 26 years later in his own campaign imagery.

      If Labour can do the same it would genuinely match Ed Miliband’s ‘One Nation Party’ appeal. This is a great opportunity for us. We’re more or less the only national Party that can still speak for all parts of Britain, in a way the Tories and Lib Dems can’t anymore. With the Hunting Ban receding in importance, the question is how we do it.

      I think ‘Blue Labour’ might offer some guidance here. Rowenna Davis writings on ‘community’ and common institutions offers a chance for Labour to be the voice of those who may not naturally count themselves as socialists, but who don’t like the fabric of their communities being worn away in the name of progress, nor the growing array of rural-specific problems that this article details. It’s not impossible. As late as the late-60s, Labour had seats like North Norfolk, King’s Lynn and South Bedfordshire. We just need to work harder.

      • http://twitter.com/bencobley Ben Cobley

        Fascinating stuff. I was also hearing not so long ago how Labour used to have a strong hold in East Anglia.

        The naysayers say it is pointless to try to expand beyond current “heartlands”, but like Emma says below, a government is meant to rule a whole country, and it is surely necessary that any party seeking a mandate to govern the whole country should have strong roots in every party of it. The French example is a telling one, and the history that you point out shows how blinkered and restricted so much current strategical thinking is.

        The “How ” is of course the big issue, like you say. In my view it must rely largely on inspiration, a sense of fun and of common purpose to get people mobilised. Once you achieve that, you’re halfway there. A Labour Country affiliate would surely help achieve this by giving an edge of independence and ownership to those who choose to get involved. I am not a big fan of institutionalised interest groups within the party apparatus, as I think we have discussed here before, but this is one that I think would be justified for the fundamentally different character of country from city, and for being about sharing living space rather than accidents of birth.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

          Some interesting points here. Labour’s popularity in Esst Anglia reflected the much higher proportion of farm labourers in the county at that stage – and their relative lack of deference, as displayed by the strength of the Agricultural union – whose leader became a Norfolk Labour MP.

          Certainly there is a French rural socialist tradition (and also the Conservatives are much stronger in their major cities – Marseille often returns a conservative administration). I definitely think we shouldn’t abandon any area, but what sometimes concerns me is an assumption that we need to have a different political position in consequence. Its often far more about what we don’t do than what we don’t say

        • Brumanuensis

          Back in 1945, a majority of Norfolk’s constituency’s were Labour. Special circumstances admittedly, but indicative I think ( http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/atlas/largemap.jsp?crc=0&date=1945-07-05&KeepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=700&width=800 ).

          Always worth reading up about this man too:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Arch

          • Brumanuensis

            *constituencies

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

    There is also the problem of ‘tactical LIbDem voting’ to overcome. For a while, in some of these towns, Labour voters switched to the LD’s to keep out the Tory. This was often almost accepted, particularly if the local LD’s weren’t too bad, but the problem is that once it has happened more than once or twice the erstwhile Labour voters start thinking of themselves as LD’s

    The first priority is to find candidates and stand. The second – target the winnable wards. Its about getting a toehold, even if its only two or three seats to start with.

    • http://twitter.com/robertsjonathan Jonathan Roberts

      Spot on. Many councils have no Labour representation as a result of this phenomenon – the ridiculous leaflet bar charts and ‘Lib Dems winning here’ slogan actually pays dividends for them in rural parts.

      I think if branches, as you said, targeted a very small number of wards (even just one or two) and really worked them, then a real difference could be made.

      Labour activists in these areas also suffer from ‘what’s the point’ apathy in these areas and giving them the opportunity to engage in a winnable, highly targeted campaign will help increase activist enthusiasm.

  • http://profiles.google.com/roger.f.mccarthy Roger McCarthy

    The ‘It’s Our County’ development in Herefordshire is an interesting one – although I suspect that the part name is a simple statement of ownership and that ‘the rampant profit and growth’ they are opposed to is only that which blights the values of their properties. 

    • http://twitter.com/gonzozzz dave stone

      “ let’s not fool ourselves that we can ever be the natural party for ‘Shire Britain’ ”

      But opportunities often arise where work can be done to advance the interests and priorities of ordinary people – and sometimes these dissolve and/or reform established party political allegiances.

      This happened during the campaigns to prevent the privatisation of our forests. This was/is a very popular anti-capitalist campaign which brought people from different political backgrounds, and no political background, together.
      Take a look at this, from an area represented by a Conservative MP, and you’ll see what I mean:

      http://www.handsoffourforest.org/

      • http://profiles.google.com/roger.f.mccarthy Roger McCarthy

        Which is exactly what I meant by as ‘a proper local opposition’. 

        But there is a vast gap between participating in an ad hoc coalition of groups and individuals around what was fundamentally a small-c conservative position on a single issue and converting those people into Labour voters. 

  • http://twitter.com/_DaveTalbot David Talbot

    I’m always very favourable to these kind of articles on LabourList, hailing as I do from rural Stratford upon Avon, and this is a good article with points well made.

    I’ve written about this issue before, too:

    http://labourlist.org/2011/11/rural-voters-need-labour-too/ 

    Plugging my thoughts aside, I think the answer to the question; are the ‘Shires turning red? is alas no. With just 1700 Labour councillors in the predominantly District Councils, compared to the Tories 5000, and holding not one of the 26 County Councils – it is clear to see the extend to which the Labour party almost completely disappeared from the rural vote during our 13 years in power.

    The first thing is to adopt a no ‘no go areas’ for Labour. People can’t express their support, even in rural seats, if there is not a Labour candidate to vote for. Having enthused, engaged and focused local parties always helps, particularly as these CLPs usually have to operate on a shoestring with minimal or no help from regional centres and next to no foot soldiers. 

    Wins in Cameron’s back yard are nice and to be welcomed, but only when Labour ups the number of District Councils we hold (currently a derisory 31) and County Councils can we be confident that we have truly broken out of our urban strongholds. 

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

      To be fair, we didn’t have much before 97 either. I was born in Bucks, where towns like Chesham used to have Labour councillors and now don’t, and we managed to win only one ward in Aylesbury town last time. But even then we only won the odd seat and I can certainly remember having no Labour representation in Wycombe at all for 4 years – then we managed 2 councillors – and that was in an urban town with a large BME population!

  • http://twitter.com/gonzozzz dave stone

    Interesting to hear that a successful ‘upstart’ rural political party (It’s Our County) has a policy of putting people before profit. This parallels the approach of the usually urban (in the UK) Occupy movement and their imagery of the 99% vs the 1% and their concern with accountability.

    It could be useful if activists from the areas, where Labour has recently been successful (named by James, above) were to describe conditions in their areas and explain how their electoral success was achieved. How about it LL?

    • Kevin Flack

      I was the agent for the Crockenhill & Well Hill by-election mentioned – we went from nowhere to winning 58% of the vote. The size of the majority was down to the candidate, pure and simple – but I reckon we’d have scraped in anyway. I’ve written about it here:
      http://www.southernfront.org.uk/2012/03/can-we-really-win-in-southern-villages.html
      It’s not easy winning rural seats but – and I’m going to shout now – IF WE DON’T STAND CANDIDATES WE DEFINITELY WONT WIN.
      So congratulations to Eastern Region for standing in 100% of wards last week.
      Great article from James.

      • http://twitter.com/gonzozzz dave stone

        Thanks, Kevin. Great article (linked) – deserves to be widely read. And congratulations!

  • Kieren

    Hey,

    Well, it is a gradule process. In my neck of the woods, Rugby, the Tories have managed to gerrymander the electoral bounderies so it would stay blue. But we made progress, taking a key swing area and they lost rural seats to us as well. This seat will be VERY marginal in 2015. We won’t take Warwickshire County Council because of places like Stratford and Kenilworth but we will make gains if we keep going. Interesting times.

  • Mike

    Great article
    Labour in Witney not only won two wards but secured 39% of the vote across the 5 wards and the Green’s secured another 10%

    In Basingstoke Labour beat the Lib Dem in 17 out of 20 wards and even in the Lib Dem stronghold of Cheltenham Labour came second in 3 out of 7

    In South Cambridgeshire Labour beat the Lib Dems in 11 out of 18 wards

    Labour has a long way to go to win (as in France) rural areas over, the fox hunting debate was used by the enemies of progress such as the Countryside Alliance to great effect, an organisation who have not said a word against the cuts or growing rural poverty since the election

    Tory MP’s are not speaking up for rural communities  jobs, fuel, buses, broadband, CAP, AWB etc

    Rural workers earn £4k less than urban workers despite higher cost of living

    Country Labour would be a good start

    But for the forces of progress to rest County Councils from the Tories , we need to address issue of independents and an active decapitation policy, as well as a realistic approach to which wards are worked

    Country Standard for it’s part will stand up for rural communities as it has since 1935 and work with any progressive party to end the Tory County Council mis-rule

  • disgusted

    And Labour gained another seat in Tunbridge Wells. Labour doing well in Kent as a whole

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=680876783 Duncan Enright

    I won the seat of Witney East – the first time it has been won by a Labour candidate – and at the same time colleagues won in two other target seats, making a group of 4 on the West Oxon District Council. I will write further about this, but it is fair to say that a combination of local issues (monolithic Tory councils with limited ambition, unpopular and undemocratic local decisions on a wasteful bypass and a much loved sports ground) and national situation (recession, squeeze on household budgets, rising prices and cuts in income, unfairness of granny tax and cut in top rate of income tax) all played a part. For a bit of background, and some details of extraordinary local Tory reactions, see http://www.duncan4witney.org/blog.

  • Mike

    There is urgent need to focus on a strategy for next year’s County council elections, I accept that not all County Councils are the same, some are made up of former mining areas such as Nottinghamshire others like Essex and Kent have been stripped of many working villages and become dormitory villages for London. 
    What clear is there are still many rural workers and families, striving to keep their head above water as their bills increase and their pay falls. Already fuel is more expensive in rural areas, cuts deeper in rural areas and pay £4,000 below that of urban workers, and the scrapping of the Agricultural Wages Board which set a benchmark for many rural jobs has had a major impact
    Progressive candidates urgently need to address the issue of rural Broadband, the lack of which is seriously undermining rural communities’ ability to compete or participate.
    We need to have answers to the housing crisis, and stop the closure of rural transport and services such as libraries
    We also need to address the issue of fuel/transport costs and maybe something could be done via road tax in this area (at least in the short term)
    What’s clear is that “progressives” need  “space” to develop unique rural priorities, especially in areas such as CAP, The role of Parish Councils, GM, TB, Farming issues and not allow ourselves as rural progressives to be pigeonholed as some were over the Fox hunting issue
    With regards to potential names – The  Australia LP has already done this 10 years ago – Why not Suffolk Labour Country or Suffolk County Labour – This is done in Wales and Scotland – what ever the answer somebody needs to do something !
    It’s never been more vital that “progressives” in rural communities rise to the challenge of the 2013 County Council elections

    Mike
    Country Standard

  • carolekins

    A great article: the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board is one of the meanest things the Coalition have done  and we definitely have things to say to rural voters.  In Durham we are a very rural Labour county (because of our industrial past).  Now very hamstrung by the govt taking away half our grant, nevertheless there has been good progress, e.g. in tackling health inequalities in the County.  I was encouraged to see in Sacriston (ex-pit village near Durham) recently a shiny new outpost of one of the Sunderland hospitals (meaning that people don’t have to travel out of their village for certain outpatient appointments).  The Co Council has until now given good support to local bus cos; they were even running a free school meal programme for all pupils  until the last election.  All of this progress has been put at risk by funding changes which mean that Durham will lose 49% of its govt grant over the parliament (compared to some Tory counties even getting more money).

  • Khoshnaf Al-Kadi

    I share Mr Watkin`s openion. I think Labour has made some significant  gains but its not enough. Most people are waiting for a powerful and forceful drive, if you like, the kind of policies Mr Watkin is advocating in rural market towns and countryside, which will deliver the further blows to the government coalition and  will build on Labour`s recent successes. This important factor has been missing sofar.everyone knows that coalitions policies has hit all sections of British society with the exception of the very few rich and has created a more unjust and divided society. Labour needsto explore current political affairs and disputes in the coalition to its advantages and not to be afraid of adopting realistic radical plolicies and making bold statesments which will go down extremely well with the electorates in the shires as a whole. I believe recent trends in Europe has shown that leftist politics are back on the scene and this would be the right time to do it.

    Dr Khoshnaf Al-Kadi

    • treborc1

       £1.54 this morning in a rural garage  and it’s not the highest by a long chalk, buses Labour did not do to well with buses in the rural area with cuts.

      Jobs rural jobs are not  going to the people I know most of the farms around me are still paying cash in hand, they are small mainly milk dairy farms, and Milk prices are not doing well again.

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