Natalie Elphicke’s decision to join Labour is mind-boggling, Starmer was a plonker, berk, nitwit, numpty and a stupid git to accept her

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 15th May 2024)

Last week we learned that young people are not familiar with certain insults that were common in my youth. They don’t know what ‘plonker’, ‘berk’, ‘nitwit’, ‘numpty’ and ‘git’ mean. These are just the polite ones. I was reprimanded once by the then Mayor of Brighton for calling another councillor an “a…”. I can’t say the word as this is a family newspaper!

Labour activists, especially here in Sussex where Labour is pitching itself as a fresh alternative to the Conservatives, will be at a loss for words to describe their bewilderment, confusion, perplexity, bafflement, bemusement, puzzlement and befuddlement that Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed the hard right Tory MP, Natalie Elphicke, into the Labour Party.  Perhaps some are privately, and some not-so-privately, are calling Starmer a plonker, berk, nitwit, numpty and a stupid git for this mind-baffling decision.

When I first heard that Elphicke had defected to Labour I had to check the date. It was May 8th, not April 1st. I couldn’t have been more surprised had Nigel Farrage joined George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain!

But what a pyrrhic victory it is proving to be for Starmer. He will have relished the momentary befuddlement of Tory MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions when they realised that Elphicke had defected to Labour. Her following Lee Anderson to Reform UK was a more likely scenario.

Within minutes Labour MPs were expressing incredulity that one of the most right-wing Conservatives MPs, a member of the European Research Group, someone who was staunchly pro-Brexit, had been so warmly welcomed into their party.  Elphicke is not a good fit for the Labour Party. Just a year ago she wrote an article calling Starmer “Sir Softie” and she accused Labour of wanting “open borders”. She wrote: “Not only have Labour got no plan of their own to tackle illegal immigration, they simply do not want to.” Now Labour is having to resist Tory calls for an enquiry into Elphicke’s past behaviour.

Listening to Labour front benchers’ feeble attempts to justify the decision to accept Elphicke’s defection has been painful in the extreme. A regular on the airwaves, Anneliese Dodds, lost whatever remaining personal credibility she had as she failed to explain away Elphicke’s gaslighting of the victims of her husband’s sexual assaults and harassment, victim-blaming them. While Elphicke got the mildest censure from Parliament for this, surely someone with her record should have no place in Labour.  Dodds, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equality, should be calling out Elphicke on this, not minimising it.

I often wonder why Labour fields lame performers such as Dodds, Pat McFadden and Jonathan Reynolds (the so-called Minister for the Today Programme). Does the party have a cunning plan to bore listeners into submission, believing that if we zone out before the end of their first sentence we won’t be left confused, perplexed, baffled, bemused, puzzled and befuddled by their tortuous non-answers. This strategy seems to be working as Labour extends its lead in the polls. Either that or, as is more likely, the Conservatives are now so discredited that not even a modern-day Churchill could possibly save them from their inevitable defeat come the general election. 

It won’t be this easy for Labour once in office. The banality of their spokespeople will be exposed. Fortunately Labour has some secret weapons who are not being utilised for fear of them looking dynamic and interesting when compared to Starmer himself. One is our own Peter Kyle who is intelligent, interesting, thoughtful, and charming in person and on the airwaves. 

As for the Green Party, the decision of their Brighton Pavilion candidate, Siân Berry, to resign from the Greater London Assembly a mere three days after being re-elected, will leave Londoners confused, perplexed, baffled … you get the idea. Labour activists are suggesting that it shows a lack of commitment, with some asking how can one support a candidate with so little staying power. But perhaps this is all part of a cunning plan by Berry. Gone at a stroke is her only source of income, but she is demonstrating her total commitment to Brighton Pavilion. It also shows her increasing confidence, supported by the polls and Labour fielding what appears to be a paper candidate, that she will retain the seat comfortably.

Back to Labour. Is there anyone that it wouldn’t accept as a member? Yes there is. While Starmer welcomes Elphicke with open arms, Britain’s first black woman MP, Diane Abbott, continues to be excluded. That alone suggests a lot about Starmer’s Labour Party. 

St Peter’s Church runs through the histories of many Brighton families

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 8th May 2024)

Two hundred years ago today, the foundation stone for St Peter’s Church in Brighton was laid at “the entrance to the town”, now the city centre in York Place.  The church was formally consecrated (declare sacred) and opened for business in January 1828.

This coming Sunday (12th May) there will be a service at 10.30am to celebrate this 200th anniversary.

I first attended St Peter’s 45 years ago shortly after I had arrived in England. I didn’t become a regular attender as I wasn’t keen on the style of worship at that time. The vicar in 1979 was Canon John Hester who had close links with the entertainment industry. He was a friend of Peter Sellers who had originally found fame in The Goon Show, and was godfather to Victoria, the daughter of Sellers and Britt Ekland. Canon Hester also officiated at Sellers’ funeral in 1980 where he introduced ‘In The Mood’, saying that it was a piece of music that must have meant a great deal to Peter as he had left a specific instruction that it should be played at his funeral. He was surprised when the congregation burst into laughter as he had not known that Sellers actually detested ‘In The Mood’ saying he wouldn’t personally have to endure it if played at his own funeral. My wife has made a similar request that the ‘Match of the Day’ theme be played at her funeral!

Canon Dominic Walker succeed John Hester as the Vicar of St Peter’s. Under his pastoral care, the church flourished. Dominic, who is our daughter’s godfather, was able to draw in many people for whom the church would otherwise have had little relevance. He held services for animals, a humanist memorial service for an atheist, and vigils for people who had died while being homeless and for the victims of domestic violence. He allowed a meeting to be held in support of striking miners, and he supported a councillor who was facing disciplinary action by her own party. Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve was always rammed to the rafters even if the more inebriated worshippers needed a police presence to keep the peace! He was on the Board of Brighton Housing Trust for many years, a member of the Labour Party, and active in the Christian Socialist Movement. At the same time he was a close friend of Sir Andrew Bowden, the Conservative MP for Brighton Kemptown and, together, they participated in a demonstration at Shoreham Harbour against live animal exports.

After Dominic was appointed Bishop of Reading in 1997, St Peter’s seemed to lose its way and the Diocese seemed determined to close it as a place of worship. A campaign was launched to save St Peter’s, led by my wife, Jean Calder, along with Isabel Turner and others. Over several months our teenage daughter, Clare, collected signatures in London Road to save the church. She spoke to many dozens of people who told her what St Peter’s meant to them and their families, how their parents and grandparents had been married there, and that they had been baptised at the church. St Peter’s runs through the family history of many old Brighton families.

Thanks to that campaign, St Peter’s did find a future as a place of worship when it partnered with Holy Trinity Brompton in London. A new priest, Archie Coates, arrived. Together with his wife, Sam, curate Johnnie Gumbell and Johnnie’s wife, Tara, a new congregation was built and St Peter’s is, once again, a thriving church community. I have to confess that I’m not keen on its current style of worship. I’m more of a “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46) type of believer than a “Praise Him with loud cymbals” (Psalm 150) type.

When Archie arrived he came to see me in my previous role as chief executive of Brighton Housing Trust. He said that he was keen to do work in the community. My advice was to avoid doing anything about drugs or homelessness since there were already too many such services locally, and to focus the church’s work on people who were poor and/or lonely. He said my advice was helpful. Three weeks later he announced that St Peter’s would be setting up a homeless drug project! I am glad he ignored my advice because St Peter’s has filled a gap, particularly for homeless women or those with addictions.

For 200 years St Peter’s has touched and improved the lives of so many people. Here’s to the next 200.

Valerie Mainstone: a campaigner who remains a true colossus

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 1st May 2024)

It takes some courage, in one’s mid-40s, to go to university. It takes some attitude to then get involved in student politics. And it takes someone of extraordinary ability and personality to become the oldest person to be elected as President of the Students’ Union. But then Valerie Mainstone was, and still is, a one-off.

Valerie Mainstone (front) at the unveiling of a blue plaque in Montpelier Crescent for Elizabeth Robins and Octavia Wilberforce

Forty years later, Valerie continues to make her mark and be noticed. In our society, women, especially those who are retired, can become invisible. But not Valerie. At just under five feet tall, she stands out from the crowd, including at women’s events and public occasions such as the recent unveiling of the plaque in St Michael’s Place, Brighton, to commemorate the life of Mary Hare (the pioneering teacher of deaf children and campaigner for women’s right to vote). Valerie, as is her custom on such occasions, wore a suffragette outfit. 

Now in her mid-80s, she does not stop, campaigning for the NHS, in the peace movement through the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and as a founder member of the Brighton Women’s History Group. So who is this remarkable woman?

Born in Edinburgh in 1941, she and her family moved to Southwick when her father was posted overseas during the war. An early memory was of standing on the one part of the beach at Southwick that hadn’t been closed and fortified to hinder a German invasion. Looking out across the Channel, she said to herself that one day she would go to France.  The war itself was to have a lasting impact on her. Even today she can’t stand the sound of police or ambulance sirens. “It chills me to the bone”, she told me. 

Valerie, her youngest sister and her Mainstone cousins have inherited a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, a condition which affects more women than men in her family. The BRCA1 gene protects one from getting certain cancers, but some mutations prevents them from working properly. If you inherit one of these mutations, you are more likely to get breast, ovarian, and other cancers. She speaks of her huge relief that she did not pass on the mutations to her son and daughter, and so her four granddaughters and two great-grandsons are free from this particular risk.

Valerie did well at school but had her mind set on getting married, which she did at 19 much to her mother’s disgust. She worked as a shorthand typist for the Federation of British Industries where her fluency in French and German saw her working with the Oversees Director of the Federation. It was at the Federation that she met people who had been members of the French Resistance during the war, thus deepening her Francophile tendencies that started on that beach in Southwick.

She worked at a local dairy where, she says, sexual harassment was endemic. It reenforced her belief in union membership.  A Workers’ Education Association course was the start of her academic aspirations. 

When she divorced her husband in the early 1980s, she enrolled as a mature student at the University of Sussex studying European History with French. Her year abroad was in Marseilles where she researched and wrote her dissertation ‘Professional Equality of Women in the Sugar Refinery In Marseilles’ for which she won the prestigious Peggotty Freeman Memorial Prize for the Best Year Abroad Dissertation. And it was at Sussex University that she was elected as President of the Students’ Union which is where I first met her, even though I was not a student.

After graduation she worked for Women Against Sexual Harassment where she continued her advocacy work and gave talks at schools, universities and workplaces. She spoke at a conference in Paris on the fight against sexual harassment, surprising the organisers by delivering her speech in fluent French.

Today she remains as active as ever. Her diary is much busier than mine, as I discovered when we tried to find time to meet. After our meeting, she had to dash off to a demonstration outside Hove Town Hall. In the previous fortnight I had seen her at an event where she was dressed as a suffragette, and at the International Women’s Day event at the Corn Exchange where she spent time staffing three stalls, for Sussex Save the NHS, the Brighton Women’s History Group, and the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal.

Many people do their bit to make this world a better place. By comparison, Valerie’s activism is that of a colossus.  

I might sound like Victor Meldrew but I can’t believe it! The shameful decisions to end FA Cup replays and the exclusion by the ECB of Sussex Women from the top tier of English cricket

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 24th April 2024)

I’m told that I am rapidly turning into Victor Meldrew, grumbling and complaining at the smallest incident that annoys me. On Saturday, I was unable to find the stream for a rugby game from Cape Town that I had been looking forward to watching. Apparently, according to my wife and daughter, I kept muttering: “I don’t believe it”. The daughter’s boyfriend even called me Victor, thus making us two peas in a pod. I finally found the stream on BBC Wales but the commentary was in Welsh. My mood wasn’t helped by my beloved Stormers being beaten by the Ospreys from Cardiff.

In mainstream sport, there have been two decisions taken in recent weeks that have put me in Victoria-Meldrew-on-steroids mode. These decisions demonstrate that both football and cricket are run for the benefit of elite clubs rather than for all.

In football, the Football Association and the Premier League have decided that no longer will there be replays in the FA Cup.  There was no consultation with Football League, National League or grassroots clubs for whom the competition represents not only their best opportunity to create life-long memories for supporters but also a hugely important source of income. FA Council members were not consulted about the changes.  The decision, and the way it was taken, demonstrate a total lack of respect for the football pyramid and its fans. Football belongs to all of us and decisions should not be taken in back room deals in which only the very wealthiest clubs are allowed to participate.

Those behind this decision are the clubs that compete regularly in European football competitions. They complain that there are too many fixtures and, for them, the FA Cup is a minor irritation, especially in the early rounds when they run the risk of slumming it with the likes of Yeovil Town, Crawley and Stoke City. After all , what sums up the FA Cup better than a replay on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke?  Even worse, the foreign-owned clubs might get drawn away against a non-League side. My fantasy fixture would be either of the Manchester teams, City or United, being drawn away at The Dripping Pan to face the Mighty Rooks, Lewes FC. A replay could mean that their pristine grounds being contaminated by teams from the lower leagues and, worse still, plebs like me who support the likes of Lewes.

In cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed last week the eight First Class Counties who have been successful in their bid to be awarded Tier 1 women’s team status from 2025: Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey, and Warwickshire. Joining them, by 2027, will be Glamorgan and Yorkshire, who have been named as the first two Tier 1 expansion teams. Sussex and Kent, who have done so much to nurture women’s cricket in this country, have been excluded. As longstanding Sussex supporter Steve Hanson said, “Sussex were the forerunners for women’s cricket” and that “we staged matches when no-one was interested and now they don’t want us.”

The decision on who to include was not taken on cricketing performance. Had this been so, Sussex, led so well by Georgia Adams, would have definitely been included. They have won the Women’s County Championship six times since 2003 (twice as many championships than the Sussex men have ever achieved), and have won the Women’s Twenty20 Cup twice in the 15 years of that competition. Last year, playing as the Sussex Vipers, coached by the former England captain Charlotte Edwards, they won the Rachel Heyhoe Flint Trophy and retained the Charlotte Edwards Cup.

The ECB has announced that First Class Counties like Sussex, who were not awarded Tier 1 status, will now be involved in a process to determine the composition of Tier 2 and Tier 3 which will also involve National Counties (i.e. not First Class Counties) in the new-look women’s domestic competition structure.  But what is as egregious as the decision to exclude the likes of Sussex and Kent, is the decision that for the duration of the 2025-2028 seasons all three tiers will be ‘closed’, with no promotion or relegation.  How ridiculous and how protectionist it is that the favoured few will be guaranteed a spot in the elite Tier 1, no matter how poor their cricket and how deserving the winners of Tier 2 might be.

Clearly merit is not something the ECB cares about, and women’s cricket will be the poorer for this shameful decision.

Corrupting our language, where care and concern for children is called ‘hate’, and mutilating and poisoning them is ‘love’

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 17th December 2024)

It was George Bernard Shaw who said: “The British and the Americans are two great peoples divided by a common tongue.” That might not be quite true, but we have had different dialects, but these, too, are merging with the Americanisation of the English language. This is nothing new. Speaking on the wireless in 1935, Alistair Cooke declared that “Every Englishman (sic) listening to me now unconsciously uses 30 or 40 Americanisms a day”.

Dr Hilary Cass with her report on NHS services for children and young people who are questioning their gender identity or experiencing gender dysphoria

When I first came to the U.K., even though I was a first generation South African from an English-speaking family, I used words and phrases that were not understood in Brighton. ‘Red robots’ and ‘circles’ in the road meant nothing to Brightonians who said ‘traffic lights’ and ‘roundabouts’. Before then, my father and his brother who were born and brought up in Stoke-on-Trent, could communicate with each other in the North Staffs dialect that the rest of us struggled to comprehend. A more famous saying, now available as an inscription on mugs, asks: “Cost tha kick a bo agen a wo an yed it til thee bost eet?” It means: “Can you kick a ball against a wall and head it until it bursts?” My aunt Dorothy, who lived in the Potteries, would call me “duck” – a common term of affection towards both men and women as in “Tow rate owd duck?” meaning “Are you all right dear?”

Our language and local dialects are being lost thanks to our arrogant cousins from across the Atlantic. We no longer have tomato sauce but ketchup. Chips are now fries (though not in South Africa where crisps are called chips). Mac and cheese, keeping you across all the news, and cookies are just a few other examples. Why can’t we say macaroni cheese, keeping you up-to-date, and biscuits? Computers have given new meanings to common words like apple, windows, mouse and cookies.

‘Sussex as she wus spoke’ is a delightful guide to the Sussex dialect by Tony Wales. I learned some gems from this book: ‘all mops and brooms’ (to be in a muddle), a ‘bum-freezer’ (short coat), and ‘so drunk he couldn’t see through a ladder’ (very drunk). Many of the words and sayings are, to me, ‘wimwams for goose’s bridles’ (something not understood). This column gets its shares of ‘balsam’ (uncomplimentary remarks) but I hope I will be spared on this occasion.

In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, ‘Newspeak’ limited a person’s ability to articulate and communicate abstract concepts, such as personal identity, self-expression, and free will, which were described as ‘thoughtcrimes’, acts of personal independence that contradicted the ideological orthodoxy.  Orwell explained that Newspeak is a language characterised by a continually diminishing vocabulary where complete thoughts are reduced to simple terms such as Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), and Miniplenty (Ministry of Plenty). 

Political discourse today has adopted a similar approach. The most obvious recent example has been the ability to close down debate on women’s sex-based rights by accusing someone of being a TERF (a trans-exclusionary radical feminist) or being ‘transphobic’ when questioning the ideological orthodoxy of trans-rights. 

After the publication last week of the thoughtful and authoritative Cass Report on NHS services for children and young people who are questioning their gender identity or experiencing gender dysphoria, it has been interesting to see which politicians have backtracked on their previously-held views. These same people never lifted a finger to defend the likes of Professor Kathleen Stock (hounded out of Sussex University for her gender critical views) or the Labour MP Rosie Duffield (ostracised and abandoned by her party’s leadership). These latter-day converts are yet to apologise to Kathleen or Rosie, or the countless other women and some men (like Father Ted creator, Graham Linehan) who have spoken out so bravely. Yet some of those who said nothing are now calling for a ‘kinder’ dialogue when through their previous silence they were complicit in a hateful ideology.

This ideology has, for almost a decade, captured politics and, most alarmingly, the NHS. Children have been put on toxic medication that can lead to an increase in cancers and infertility, and young people have been mutilated by the removal of perfectly healthy organs.  And here again language has been corrupted. As my friend, Helen Saxby, explained, “it’s urging caution and research in the treatment of children that has been smeared as ‘hate’, and playing fast and loose with children’s health that has been rebranded as ‘love’.” It is people like Helen who will be judged as being on the right side of history, and that history has begun to be written through the Cass Report.

Becoming a generous friend and wise mentor wasn’t on the job description when Hugh Burnett became the High Sheriff

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 10th April 2024)

I had no idea what to expect when I went to meet the High Sheriff of East Sussex. I didn’t have a clue what a High Sheriff did. I later discovered that the High Sheriff is the Monarch’s judicial representative in the county. They have a ceremonial role in overseeing judges, magistrates and others. It is a non-political role and is appointment by the Monarch for one year and is unpaid.

And so I met Hugh Burnett, that year’s High Sheriff. He was waving off charity walkers who were raising money for advice and legal services in Brighton and Hove. He and I went for a coffee while waiting the walkers’ return, and thus began a friendship that has lasted to this day.

Tessa and Hugh Burnett

Hugh has had an extraordinary life. He was born in Monte Carlo and lived in Marseilles until his family were evacuated back to Britain at the outbreak of war when he was six months old. After the war the family returned to France before he was sent to school in England.  Later he qualified as a chartered accountant but never worked as such, finding a niche in early computing where he worked as a salesman and trainer. He worked for various companies in Brighton including Gross Cash Registers and Cash Bases where he was part of a management buyout. In business he specialised in taking companies with a £2 million turnover and building them to have a £15 million turnover.

He has twice been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, the first time as part of Cash Bases and then in a personal capacity. In 2001 he was made an Officer of the British Empire for his services to the community in Newhaven. He was a member of the Newhaven Economic Partnership and was vice chair of Lewes Tertiary College.  After his year as High Sheriff, he became a Deputy Lieutenant for East Sussex where he assisted the Lord Lieutenant and his friend, Sir Peter Field, in his role. It is the duty of the Lord Lieutenant to arrange visits of members of the Royal Family. They also seek to promote and encourage voluntary organisations and charities, and to take an interest in the business and social life of their counties.  Both Peter and Hugh excelled in these duties.

The Hugh Burnett I know is a most generous man, giving his time freely and has shared his wisdom with a number of charities, including BHT Sussex where he was a Trustee for almost a decade. He  became my unofficial mentor and I have many reasons to be grateful for his encouragement and wise counsel.

When he became a BHT Trustee it was in response to an article in The Argus.  I explained to him that there was a process that had to be followed, including an interview. He seemed delighted, saying that he hadn’t had a job interview since 1964! At the interview itself, we were assisted by a friend from London, Brenda, a large Jamaican-born woman with an infectious laugh who was a trainer in equalities. In response to an equalities question, Hugh said that in business “one would be foolish not to appoint the best man for the job.” Hugh and Brenda then the most delightful exchange of views. After Hugh had left, Brenda said that we had to appoint him, saying: “That man doesn’t have an ounce of prejudice in his body.”

Hugh has no time for consultants, saying: “Why pay someone to steal your pocket watch so that they can charge you to tell you the time?”  He also was outspoken on the ever-increasing trend of boards to focus on process rather than on entrepreneurship and outcomes, a view with which I wholeheartedly agree.

They used to say that behind every successful man is a strong woman. In Hugh’s case there is Tessa. When my wife and I first went to their home for dinner, we expected the raconteur Hugh to dominate the evening. But we hadn’t accounted for Tessa who kept us royally entertained while Hugh looked on, adoringly. Tessa herself has served the community as a dedicated charity trustee and a longtime volunteer at Citizen Advice. The last year hasn’t been easy for them but they have been sustained by the love and support of their two daughters and their grandchildren about whom both Hugh and Tessa speak with such joy, love and pride.

So when I met the High Sheriff, I didn’t expect to meet such a generous friend and wise mentor. Hugh Burnett was truly the best man for the job! 

Any politicians who says “There is no magic money tree” is treating the electorate as children and idiots. And now Rachel Reeves is acting like a latterday snake oil saleswoman.

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 3rd April 2024)

Whenever politicians say “There is no magic money tree”, they are treating the electorate as children and idiots. And all who use this pathetic, empty phrase should forfeit the right to be regarded as serious politicians because it closes down legitimate debate on their political priorities.

The politician who most famously used the phrase was Theresa May in 2017 when attacking Jeremy Corbyn. It has subsequently been used by Rishi Sunak and, most recently, by Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner. Labour is also prone to say that the Conservatives have “maxed out the government’s credit card”, an equally stupid concept. The government does not have a credit card and government finances are not the same as those of a household, itself another simplistic and wrong concept favoured by politicians. Proof of this is that there is always money to fight wars.

The household comparison dates back to Margaret Thatcher who, as far back as the 1979 general election campaign, said: “Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country”. Running a home and running the country are not the same, but what an inspired election slogan! 

There is nothing wrong with a country borrowing for investment, even at times of financial instability. What is not right is to borrow to fund tax cuts or day-to-day spending, at least in the long term. I can think of many occasions when nations, in the wake of economic turmoil, have borrowed to fund huge public investment.  One example, in the wake of the 1929 financial crash, was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ that promoted economic recovery and put Americans back to work through Federal activism. New Federal agencies controlled agricultural production, stabilised wages and prices, and created a vast public works programme for unemployed people. 

The post-war Labour government, at a time of huge debt, made massive investment in creating the NHS, expansion of state education, the building of council housing, and so on. There was a bipartisan approach, not least in housing. During the 1950s, Churchill’s Conservative government delivered new council housing at a rate not seen before or since. Investment in public housing through subsidising the cost of building new homes pays for itself over the years, with lower rents and less public subsidy to help people meet overblown rents. The economics of investment in housing is actually very simple. Investment in bricks and mortar retains value, whereas rent subsidies do not. This bipartisan approach was broken by Margaret Thatcher who began the dismantling of the social housing sector through the politically popular but economically disastrous Right to Buy programme. 

A new bipartisan consensus in favour of financial austerity has been created following the election of the Cameron government in 2010, and Labour front benchers have meekly performed lemming impersonations by following the Conservatives (and until 2015, the Lib Dems) over the austerity cliff. Historians will look back at this era with astonishment – that the major parties were so economically short-sighted and inept that the wellbeing of the nation was sacrificed in the pursuit of power.

If, as expected, Labour forms the next government, it will have voluntarily tied its own hands by adopting Conservatives financial rules. Labour supporters are not enthused by the wooden and lacklustre Sir Keir Starmer – “Sir Crasharooney Snoozefest, the Human Bollard” as Boris Johnson called him. They are destined to be as disappointed by the failure of Labour in government as they have been appalled by the Conservative’s demolition derby antics. 

Following the 2007-08 global financial crisis, the country needed investment but got austerity. When the country needed “strong and stable Leadership” as promised by Theresa May, we had a succession of circus clowns prime ministers unable and unwilling to invest in public services or to control the privatised monopolies. Successive Conservatives promised growth but had absolutely no idea how to achieve it. Now Rachel Reeves, acting like a latterday snake oil saleswoman, promises growth but rules out investment (not least in housing), promoting a valueless and fraudulent remedy that is destined to fail.

Labour will win the forthcoming general election, not because the electorate has any high hopes that “things can only get better” (to quote the 1997 Blairite strap line) but because voters are sick to the back teeth of the chaos of Conservative ‘rule’. And when Labour inevitably fails in government, it will be responsible for a massive swing to the right, by-passing a Conservative Party in mortal decline, to Reform UK and, even more worryingly, to parties on the extreme right.

“Doing good in Brighton”: honouring the educationalist and suffragette Mary Hare

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 27th March 2024)

When I was a councillor in the 1980s, I used to love door-knocking, both during election campaigns and throughout the year. But there was one exception, a street I never enjoyed visiting: St Michael’s Place in central Brighton. It was inevitably windy and raining. I was back in St Michael’s Place last Saturday. Not only was there a bitterly cold west wind, and not only did it rain, there was a most dramatic hailstorm the likes of which I have seldom experienced in England.

But Saturday was different. It was an uplifting and joyful celebration of the life of Mary Hare, a suffragette, the founder of an independent women’s police force in Brighton and, most importantly, a pioneering teacher of deaf children. The Mayor, Cllr. Jackie O’Quinn was there, the Brighton and Hove Bus that bears the name ‘Mary Hare’ was incongruously parked in this side street, and at least half those present were communicating through sign language. They were all there to witness the unveiling of a blue plaque to commemorate the life and work of Mary Hare.

17 St Michael’s Place was Mary’s home from 1895 to 1901, and was one of the sites of the school she had founded. According to the programme prepared for the unveiling, “Mary was ahead of her time in championing the rights and wellbeing of deaf children and women” and was “a revolutionary campaigner for the inclusion in society and education of deaf children who, at that time, were often abandoned in asylums, or considered by some as unworthy of education.”

Mary was a committed suffragette and a contemporary of Mary Clarke, the sister of Emmeline Pankhurst, Brighton resident and organiser, and the first suffragette to die for women’s right to vote. There is currently a campaign to have a statue of Mary Clarke erected in the gardens of the Royal Pavilion to commemorate her life and work. 

The Brighton Gazette of 1908 reports that Mary Hare chaired a Women’s Social and Political Union meeting on Queen’s Road where she said that suffragettes “were going to rouse Brighton”. In 1913 she became secretary of the Brighton Women’s Freedom League, which was prepared to break the law, but rejected violence.

In 1915 Mary Hare set up a volunteer uniformed women’s police force, much against the wishes of the local constabulary, to assist Brighton and Hove’s women and children. An article in the Brighton, Hove and South Sussex Graphic entitled  ‘Bobby – the Woman Policeman’ records her work and describes Mary as looking “particularly smart in her uniform and bowler hat”. Times have moved on and one of the speakers at the unveiling of the blue plaque in St Michael’s Place was Superintendent Petra Lazar from Sussex Police.

Her true passion, however, was as an educationalist for deaf children. She said that her efforts on behalf of these children “have been my greatest joy in life.” She established, originally in London, the Private Oral School for Deaf Children in 1895, taking mixed pupils of all ages from across the country. In 1916 the school moved to larger premises in Sussex, and then to Berkshire, where the Mary Hare Grammar School for the Deaf still operates.

A past student of the Mary Hare Grammar School is Brighton-born Margaret Stewart who lives with her husband John in Patcham. Margaret single-handedly set about fundraising for the blue plaque to recognise the pioneering work of the remarkable Mary Hare. ‘Remarkable’ can also be said of the formidable Margaret Stewart who herself should be seen as an inspiration to us all. She might be small in stature but she has displayed a steely determination to honour Mary Hare.

While Margaret was the driving force behind securing the blue plaque for Mary Hare, others have supported her including the influential Brighton Women’s History Group. Present, too, at the unveiling was the current Head of the Mary Hare School for the Deaf in Berkshire, Robin Askew, and the force of nature that is Victoria Garcia from Brighton and Hove Buses who does so much to ensure that the names of more of the daughters of the city are celebrated on our buses. 

About the independent police force, Mary Hare said that “we are out to do good work in Brighton, and we have had unsolicited testimonials to the effect that we have done good.” This could be said about all of her life’s work. It can also be said of Margaret Stewart, and those words should be a challenge to the rest of us “to do good in Brighton.”

Could a vote for ‘Rosie Duffield’ gain a head of steam in Brighton Pavilion?

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 20th March 2024)

Some people in Brighton Pavilion are considering voting for a surprise, unofficial, candidate. She will not be on the ballot paper, but people have told me that they might write her name at the bottom of the ballot. She is not seeking nomination here and almost certainly will not endorse this move. She might even publicly denounce it. What is more, she will be standing for the Labour Party in the Kent constituency she already represents.

So why are people in Brighton Pavilion considering voting for Rosie Duffield? She won’t be elected here, and any vote for her will be counted as a spoiled ballot and won’t count. ‘Vote Duffield’ was my wife’s proposal. Rosie Duffield is the Labour MP for Canterbury but she was vilified on social media and shunned by Labour’s leadership because of her gender-critical views. She, like many of us, does not believe that anyone can change their sex regardless of how they might choose to live their lives.  

Tom Gray and Siân Berry

I don’t know how many will vote for ‘Rosie Duffield’. It might be just a small handful or it could yet gain a head of steam. Much depends on what the official Labour candidate, Tom Gray, says on the protection of single-sex spaces for those born female, spaces such as hospital wards, changing rooms, toilets, refuges and rape crisis services.

Siân Berry has had a consistent take on this issue. Her view is that transgender women (those born male) should be allowed to use women-only spaces even if they have all their male bits intact (my words, not hers). The Greens have lost support amongst many women and men because they relentlessly prioritise trans rights over women’s sex-based rights, their failure to investigate a Green Party member, the paedophile David Challenor, and their unlawful discrimination against their former deputy leader, Shahrar Ali, who holds gender-critical views. 

Siân has said she will never compromise on trans rights. Tom Gray, on the other hand, seems very reluctant to say what he believes or if he believes anything at all!  He has been challenged on social media to say where he stands, and some constituents have written to him on the issue. I have been told that he has not replied. 

In my first column this year, I wrote about the potential for this to be an election issue in Brighton Pavilion: “Tom will need to say where he stands. The trans rights lobby, including those in his own party, is very vociferous, especially on social media, but they are not significant electorally.” I pointed out that Labour has shifted from its previous support for self-identification which would have allowed people to legally change gender without a medical diagnosis and has, instead, recommitted itself to ensuring that some single-sex services and places should be accessed by biological women only. 

I have written to Tom asking for his views on this matter but was referred to the regional press office. I wrote to the named press officer, several times over a few weeks, but have had no response. Are they still captured by the trans-rights activists? Why are they unwilling to repeat the party’s new policy? So I wrote again to Tom, as have others who have contacted me. Tom has not replied to them either. If I was still a Labour member in Brighton Pavilion (I resigned my party membership back in 1994) I would be thoroughly disappointed and disillusioned by Tom’s non-campaign.

Why can’t Tom say that he supports the policy of his Party (even if his leader, Sir Keir Starmer can’t quite bring himself to say “sex-based rights”, preferring to refer to “safe spaces”)? Perhaps he feels that he cannot go against those vociferous activists who hold a different view to the party’s policy, as does the MP for Brighton Kemptown, Lloyd Russell-Moyle. If Tom is running scared of his own Party members, what will he be like when faced with more formidable opponents and vested interests when he is an MP?

A recent opinion poll put Siân Berry at almost 50% with Tom Gray at 37%. He needs something to ignite his rather odd and lacklustre campaign. If he could harness the ‘gender critical’ vote, then the result could be closer than it is currently likely to be. But for now, imagine the scene at the election count as Siân narrowly wins the seat, aided by outraged ‘Duffield’ votes that could otherwise have gone to Labour. It would be too late for regrets.

Who from Brighton’s past should we be remembering? The film ‘Vindication Swim’ recalls the achievements of the amazing Mercedes Gleitze

(This item first appeared in the Brighton Argus on 13th March 2024)

Brighton has a poor record of preserving the memory of those who have gone before. How many Brightonians, not least those who are recent arrivals, know who Herbert Carden, Dorothy Stringer or Lewis Cohen were? And why should they? The City Council does little to commemorate these and other individuals who helped make the city what it is. The Argus remembers them, and Brighton and Hove Buses names significant people from Brighton’s past on its buses and on a special website. It should be commended for this.

From time to time I write about people I have known who have died, people like Selma Montford, Dennis Hobden, Ruth Larkin, Bernie Jordan and Bob Cristofili. Mary Clarke is the ‘forgotten suffragette’ in spite of being Emmeline Pankhurst’s sister. Mary ran the Brighton office of the Women’s Social and Political Union. She died on Christmas Day 1910 from a brain haemorrhage probably caused by rough treatment at the hands of the police and prison authorities immediately before her passing. There is no memorial for Mary other than her name appearing on the front of a Brighton bus. There is now a campaign to have a statue of Mary Clarke erected in the gardens of the Royal Pavilion estate. 

Another long-forgotten Brightonian is Mercedes Gleitze. She was born in Brighton who, in 1927, became the first British woman to swim the English Channel. Her swimming achievements were not ‘limited’ to that. She is believed to be the first person to swim the Straights of Gibraltar and was the first person to swim to Robben Island and back to Cape Town, a sea I know well as I was brought up there and can testify to the currents and coldness of those waters.

After nearly 100 years during which time she had become largely forgotten, her legacy is now secure through a film that went on general release last Friday, deliberately coinciding with International Women’s Day. The film, Vindication Swim, features the amazing Kirsten Callaghan and the equally impressive John Locke. Remarkably, it was written and directed by a 23-year-old Brightonian, Elliott Hasler. If you warch just one film this year, make sure it’s Vindication Swim.

With Kirsten Callaghan and John Locke (I’m the one who didn’t dress up for the occasion!)

After a special screening of the film on International Women’s Day at Brighton’s Duke of York cinema, a cinema that Mercedes herself had visited, Kirsten Callaghan, John Locke and Elliott Hasler answered questions from the audience. Kirsten described some of the discomforts and challenges faced by Mercedes which she, too, had experienced. For example, she wore a heavy 100-year-old one-piece bathing suit. The leather in the goggles she used bled, resulting in a disgusting taste seeping into her mouth. On one occasion she was in the water for four hours, with the salt affecting her mouth and sense of taste. Elliott, too, spent lengthy periods filming in the water, but he had the protection of a wetsuit! John, on the other hand, stayed in a small support boat as had his character, Harold Best, who had coached Mercedes.

All the scenes in the sea were filmed off the south coast. No use was made of stage tanks nor ‘green screen’ technology where subjects can be superimposed onto virtual backgrounds. 

Back to Mercedes herself. Her first endurance swimming record was for 26 hours. Over several years she extended this record to 45 and, subsequently, 46 hours. She had become a popular and famous personality, and when she undertook these endurance swims in public swimming baths, crowds would attend and encourage her by singing together.

Most of Mercedes epic swims, including her world records for endurance swimming, were sponsored.  She used her sponsorship and winnings to open accommodation for homeless people, particularly homeless women, with the first Mercedes Gleitze Home opening in Leicester in 1933. The charity bearing her name continues to operate providing accommodation for homeless people but, sadly, not in Brighton. She helped unemployed people to move from the north to Leicester where there were jobs. She is also said to have supported the extension of the franchise to women below the age of 30 in 1928.

Towards the end of her life, Mercedes became increasingly reclusive. She denied her past achievements and would not discuss them with her family.  She died in1981 in London aged 80. There is now a blue plaque commemorating this daughter of Brighton at the house in Freshfield Road where she was born in 1900.

I hope that in future more Brighton women, perhaps not as exceptional as Mercedes Gleitze, can be remembered for their own extraordinary achievements.