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This Election
is Between Town and Country
Disraeli's two
nations were 'the rich and the poor'. For New Labour they are 'the town and
the countryside'. The incompetent way in which foot and mouth was handled
signified an utter failure of comprehension by Labour of rural Britain.
Before he became
Prime Minister Mr Blair told Country Life magazine that he was 'a country
boy at heart'. This seems hysterically funny in the light of his subsequent
approach to country matters. After all, the Government has presided over
the virtual collapse of agriculture, not merely livestock farming but also,
in some places, arable too.
'To Mr Blair and his lieutenants the countryside is a theme park, where
"their people" play at weekends. What they fail to understand is that the
theme park is only kept open by the people who farm it and the millions who
live in it and sustain it.'
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Labour has,
in short, lavished time, care, money and attention on metropolitan causes,
interests and minorities and has only late in the day pretended an interest
in life beyond the city ring-roads. The Government does, of course, support
the countryside in theory. As Mr Blair and his lieutenants have repeatedly
told us over the last couple of months, there is a great 'tourism industry'
(sic) out there that needs our support. To them, it is a theme park, where
'their people' play at weekends. What they fail to understand is that the
theme park is only kept open by the people who farm it and the millions who
live in it and sustain it. Whole stretches of England risk becoming derelict.
The painful reality of rural poverty is unseen and unknown to Labour. Mr Blair
has no idea of the disconnected, unbriefed figure he cuts when he goes to
farmyards in his sharp suits and wellies. And as for sending the epicene figure
of Chris Smith out of Islington to rural parts to empathise with businesses
hit by the tourism slump-well, that really did test the English sense of humour
to new limits.
In Labour's
treatment of country people, and non-metropolitan people in general, we see
its main front against the forces of conservatism. The fight is being waged
against the very forces that maintain the theme park and that manufacture
social stability. Sadly, the fact that these two nations are now set up is
unlikely to prevent the Government that created them from winning another
election. However, if they are allowed to become entrenched, the inequalities
created will threaten not just the Labour project, but the happiness of the
whole nation.
Source: The
Sunday Telegraph, 6 May 2001
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