SUDDENLY IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO READ

Do you remember when it was all so predictable? Until Harold Wilson, in 1964, said if the country was to prosper, a "new Britain" would need to be forged in the "white heat" of this "scientific revolution."  I remember thinking how exciting it all sounded. Labour had giants like Crossman, Crosland, Jenkins and Castle.  It was a tonic after what was described as “13 years of Tory Misrule” (what a soundbite that was).

Since the war (72 years ago) we’ve had 17 governments, 7 Labour (three of those under Tony Blair so “labour” rather than LABOUR), 9 Conservative and just 1 coalition in a rather dull game of political ping-pong.

But on Thursday that changed.

From an ostensibly unassailable lead in the polls Mrs May seized defeat from the jaws of victory and having claimed to be her team’s best player and only hope, dropped a dolly catch and said - mortally - after her u-turn on her manifesto social care plans in apparent exasperation  that we didn’t seem to understand her: “But nothing has changed. Nothing has changed.”

The Prime Minister cannot deal with the chaos of life, untidiness and contradiction. As such she isn’t an ideal leader or (heaven forbid) a negotiator in our modern world. Because of course things had changed, and always do change. More than anything else this rigidity lost her votes.

The restless electorate used the ballot box as an instrument of punishment for this inflexibility in a new way. Above all youth gave the Tories payback for Brexit. I’d never before heard diehard voters say “I don’t know who to vote for.” Imagine Arsenal fans supporting Spurs? Impossible in football perhaps but it’s now it was happening in politics.

I live in Brighton - two out of three seats marginal.  Caroline Lucas, the Green, doubled her majority.

But it was in Kemptown and Hove that we saw the real action.  Kemptown went from Conservative to Labour on an increased Labour vote of 19%. In Hove Peter Kyle increased his vote by 22% on an amazing 78% turnout turning a 1000 majority marginal into a 20,000 majority safe seat.  Localism, young voters and talent have played a major part in the election overall.

Jeremy Corbyn’s right in saying the face of British politics has changed and that Theresa May is the old, inflexible face. New and relevant faces are people like Emmanuel Macron, Ruth Davidson and Justin Trudeau. The new faces are not compromised by party machines. They are young, angry and authentic. Most of all they listen to other people.

The old “irrelevants” simply stay stuck on message with old ideas, bad scripts and fifth rate soundbites.
If you are out there and want to play this new, sensible politics then draw up a chair and please join in.
We need talent because everything has changed, yes, everything has changed. It’s a terrible time to be a diehard but a great time to be open minded and articulate.