Why MacKenzie will lose
Yesterday, I wrote that Labour would duck the issue of 42 Days, either by not standing in the Haltemprice and Howden by-election, or running on a full slate if they did.
Kelvin MacKenzie might stop that. In preparing to stand if Labour don’t, he’s forced a choice on them. They might not stand - in which case he will. That’ll humiliate them by demonstrating their cowardice, and it’ll force an argument on 42 Days anyway. MacKenzie says he’d stand solely on 42 Days and authoritarian platform - so there will be a debate, and Labour won’t be able to stop it.
The alternative is that Labour stand - and get forced into an argument on 42 Days, and get hammered. So, that’s the choice of humiliation or even more humiliation for Labour. Or, as it’s otherwise known: not a real choice at all.
Indeed, so potentially damaging is this to Labour’s preferred strategy of hiding in the Commons toilet and lobbing shit (”irresponsible,” etc) at Davis that it’s hard to see why MacKenzie’s doing this. Murdoch and his minion MacKenzie are well known for their shared penchant for an authoritarian approach to everything. And yet their plan could well lead to humiliation for the government.
Perhaps MacKenzie wants to force Labour to stand a candidate and have an argument he thinks should happen. Perhaps he thinks he can make that argument better than Labour himself, and can win. He’d be wrong if that were the case. All his threat to stand has done is strengthen the opposition. He and Murdoch, like much of the media, are apparently at odds with much of the public over Davis resignation: just read some of the comments even appearing on the Sun’s website.
And MacKenzie’s candidature might forge together a coalition for Davis that Labour wouldn’t. Most lefties and liberals loathe both Davis and MacKenzie in general. But when one agrees with you for once, and the other doesn’t, then the choice is clear - support the candidate running on 42 Days, and make it clear the race is about 42 Days and nothing else. He’s hated more, and has positioned himself on the opposite side of the barricades. So you shout at him, regardless of who else joins you. Observe this, for example:
Yes, yes, Davis is a distinctly unreliable “libertarian” with some nasty socially conservative stances, but who can resist the idea of kicking Rupert Murdoch in the nuts? For myself, I’m glad I don’t live close enough to face this particular dilemma. MacKenzie’s decision is partly conditional on Labour not standing, it seems, but my feeling is that momentum - and strong-arming from his boss - will carry him into standing whether Labour field a candidate or not (and, increasingly as the hours tick by, it looks like not). Here’s his positive manifesto for a bright future:
MacKenzie may just have added a few LibDems, Greens (?), independents and maybe even discontented Labour activists to the campaign buses.
So - the public appear touched by Davis’ apparent statement of princple, and there may even be a unified campaign for him. Regardless of the propaganda Murdoch churns out for MacKenzie, he’ll find it hard to win.
But on the off chance he does, will the last person to leave Haltemprice and Howden please turn out the lights?
Posted in: By-Elections, Murdoch, The Home Office
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