Sketch: Independently minded? Hardly
By Matthew West
You have to feel for the independent candidates lined up behind Martin Bell at today’s Independent Network press conference. For starters most of the journalists were only there because they wanted to see if they could get the white-suited former MP’s views on the state of politics today.
Were things better or worse, for example, than when he stood for parliament in 1997 on a platform of fighting sleaze within the House of Commons? About the same seemed to be the conclusion. People were angry about the state of politics in the UK today but they had been for a while now and, in fact, well before the expenses scandal broke last year.
So there they were. All 47 of them standing on a platform arranged so much like a church choir I half expected to them to break into song at any minute. Such entertainment was not to be had, however, with most of them staring out fairly blankly at the rather modest gaggle of journalists who had bothered to turn up.
Bell did his best to articulate the general feeling of anger felt towards professional party politicians. He tried to highlight that independent MPs were able to vote with their consciences because they didn’t have a whip breathing down their neck and that a decent spread of independent MPs among those from the main political parties would be a good thing for democracy.
He also tried to highlight the fact that the Independent Network wasn’t a political party, nor did it have any particularly united policy ambitions. “We’re more of a contraption” and “contraptions don’t have policies,” Bell said, clearly to the annoyance of his colleague who was quick to respond: “Let’s call it a network rather than a contraption”.
Whatever name you give it, this network is unlikely to return that many MPs.
And all the candidates behind Bell should be congratulated at their ability to remain stony faced while listening to him tell the expectant journalists most of them don’t stand a chance. How many of the independent MPs sat behind him had a realistic chance of winning in their constituencies, came the obvious question?
“Six maybe” was the reply.
Undoubtedly an improvement on the two current independent MPs in the House of Commons, but by no means likely to make an impact on the national political scene. So who had a decent shot then? Well John Stevens, running against John Bercow in Buckingham, apparently had a very good chance. Sarah Flannery standing against the shadow chancellor in Tatton, Bell’s former constituency, was probably wasting her time though.
Bell was also quite impressed with an 18-year-old candidate standing against Eric Pickles in Brentwood and Ongar.
He doesn’t have a prayer, of course, but then Bell knows that. He stood against the Tory party chairman himself in 2001 and lost. Proof then that being independent doesn’t really do much good? Who knows? Most of the journalists didn’t appear to care.
