Member-only story
Changing Course in Mid-Life? Re-entering your safe place might not be as easy as you think.
The portents were far from good. I had spent the day dashing backwards and forwards between the committee room (campaign office) and polling stations, becoming increasingly despondent at the returns — our own ‘exit poll’ — that indicated that I was nowhere near retaining my seat on the county council. Now, at the count, there was no mistaking the sense of euphoria in the Labour camp. Their candidate was on track to win by a significant margin.
How different it was from four years previously, when my victory had been such a shock to them. I had been swept to success on the back of the excitement generated by a resurgence of the Centre in British politics. A resurgence that had proved to be all too temporary.
Early in 1981 four former cabinet ministers had resigned from the Labour Party to found the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Their hope was that this new political movement would provide impetus to, and interest in, middle-of-the-road policies in opposition to the polarisation of Left and Right that had characterised the political scene for as long as anyone could remember. By joining in an electoral pact with the only other party of the centre, the Liberal Party, they had achieved a number of by-election successes and gained many seats in local government…