After living through the voting in and out of a good many Westminster governments in my lifetime I've come up with one of those "they divide into two types" theories, which is this. That by the ends of their time in power some governments turn out to have been graspers while others, a lesser number in my opinion and experience, can be looked back on as what my theory is calling tryers. None are perfect, I doubt that's even possible. But in the end they fall out one of those two ways.
And the way they fall seems to me to be pretty much a party split. Not entirely but mostly. The book that got me even wanting to write about politics, for example, is by a rare and admirable former member of the Grasper Party.
But Conservative governments and their members are the graspers on the whole. While Labour are the tryers. Conservatives grasping power to stay there, as if of right. Even like now when they've long run out of ideas of what to do with it. And sadly there will sometimes have been individual Conservative grasping going on. Like we saw this time round with profiteering during the pandemic. Then in that expenses scandal a few years back, when there were a good many more graspers than tryers on the Daily Telegraph's meticulously researched list.
So yes, the tryers aren't all perfect either, but at least they're the tryers. In government for the greater good of us all, on the whole. Rather than, say, for primarily class, business or themselves reasons.
At the moment, and this is what’s got me thinking along with the book I’ve just read1, we're in one of those periods and will be for the next year or so, when the tryers are the Government in Waiting. This hasn't happened anything like often enough in my life. (In fact this is only the third time, after the governments in waiting of Harold Wilson and Tony Blair.)
But, and this is where my theory also becomes a plea, maybe this time round more of us left of centre types could try and not tear the government in waiting to pieces over the fact that they won't be perfect enough, left wing enough and all that?
Because of course they won't be. They have a whole electorate to consider and millions of our different dreams and needs to try and balance out. As well as all those swing voters they'll need to coax gently out of voting for the graspers for the tryers to get elected at all. But they will be tryers, at least. Whatever their shortcomings, the coming Labour government in waiting will be tryers. So let's give them that and wait now for the blessed day when we can vote the graspers out. For a few years anyway.
The book is “Politics on the edge: A memoir from within” by Rory Stewart. This article was originally going to be a glowing review of it. But I’m from Liverpool and in the end I just couldn’t manage that. So I’ll leave you with a few glowing quotes from the back of the book instead,
II is on my list of books to read. Thanks Ronnie for pushing me from ‘shall I get it’? To ‘yes, I’ll get it’.