Labour’s superb victory in the Glenrothes by-election yesterday may just be the electoral turning point that party members have been waiting (and working very hard) for. Although there had been much talk recently of the “Brown Bounce” which has seen the Tory lead in the polls halved, there had been no firm evidence that Labour has finally turned the corner. Until last night that is.
This was a victory that wasn’t easily won. Labour supporters had travelled from all over the UK to assist Lindsay Roy and the local party. Unlike in recent by-elections, this time their hard work was rewarded.
For the first time in a very long while there is light at the end of the tunnel and we no longer seem to be staring the nightmare of a Tory government in the face. Gordon Brown must now build on this success and on the massive mood of optimism amongst party members. If we all fight as hard as we fought in Glenrothes we may still be smiling after the next General Election.
Once in a while something spectacular happens that temporarily restores this grizzled old cynic’s faith in human nature. The landslide victory of Barack Obama in yesterday’s US Presidential Election is one such event, one that has allowed me to fall in love with America again.
The choice of an African-American as the 44th President of the United States of America is such a cataclysmic, earth-shattering, epoch-defining moment, made all the better by being almost unthinkable even two years ago. Remember too that Barack Obama is not just any African-American. As Michael Moore writes Obama is also “the most liberal senator in the United States Senate. More liberal than Ted Kennedy. When was the last time you had a chance to send the MOST liberal senator to the White House? Trust me, it won’t happen again in our lifetime.” For the people of America to have chosen Obama with such a decisive majority despite the scare-mongering of the far-right shows that the “World’s Greatest Democracy” has finally earned the right to that label.
For me the defining image of last night was Jesse Jackson being reduced to tears in the crowd in Chicago. He might not always have seen eye-to-eye with Obama but here, for Jesse, was the culmination of over 40 years of struggle to get the voice of the Black man and woman heard in America. I shared his tears last night and I’m on the verge of sharing them again as I write this.
One word of caution though – the joy shown by the majority of Americans last night draws comparison with the euphoric scenes in Britain after the election of Tony Blair on 1st May 1997. The British people eventually fell out of love with Tony Blair despite a string of achievements that made Britain a much fairer and more prosperous place to live. The fickle nature of voters may mean that Barack Obama is lucky to have an eight year limit on his Presidency.
OK, another word of caution – I’ve been here before (to a much lesser extent) when Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, only to be appalled by a President who, amongst other unsavoury deeds, extended the scope of capital punishment and supported the bombing of civilians in the former Yugoslavia. I like to think that my judgement has improved in the last sixteen years and thankfully I can’t see Obama being another Clinton.
Now is not the time, however, to allow my joy to be diminished by irrational fears about the past repeating itself or by the enormity of the task ahead. Now is the time to enjoy the moment because moments like this don’t happen that often.
