Political commentary

No relief in Ladywood

Geoffrey Wheatcroft

Not many people, I imagine, know that canvass and cannabis are etymologically cognate. Those who do would be hard put to think why it should be so when canvassing down Nineveh Street, All Saints Ward, Ladywood, Birmingham, on a rainyevening. A drowsy numbness pains the senses, all right, but it is not a consciousness-expanding experience. No high; no spacing out. It is at such a time that those present, both canvassers and journalistic observers, are reminded that we were not brought into this world for pleasure alone.

Birmingham was once a great city with a proud industrial history, the town of Baskerville and Priestley and Chamberlain. It has still a lovely cathedral by Thomas Archer — really a parish church — and a municipal art gallery with a famous collection of PreRaphaelites. Also on display at the moment is the Cornbury Park altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini which they are fund-raising to buy. It is not, in truth, a great masterpiece. And as one comes out of the gallery one might well wonder if Birmingham deserves a Bellini at all.

For today it is possibly the most horrible town in England. Ladywood is its nastiest constituency, taking in the nightmarish 'developed' city centre — where the pedestrian can move above, or below, but not at, ground level —and spreading out into dismal slum streets, dappled with housing estates. Ladywood is decaying, in every way. The old industries — brass and jewellery — have declined. The industrial strength of the West Midlands has moved away to the outskirts. The terraced houses rot; people move out in search of work (the electorate is now down to 36,518, four thousand below 1974) while unemployment remains way above average. Streets once built for the rural poor coming off the English land are now filled with the rural poor coming off the land of the Indian sub-continent. Probably more than fifty per cent of the constituency is now 'immigrant'. At least seventy per cent live in council accommodation.

A record number of candidates is contending the by-election. The fruit-cakes will contribute some £1,500 to the Treasury (and it might not be a bad thing to raise the deposit to keep up with inflation). There are only two candidates who might win, the Conservative challenger, Mr Quentin Davies, and the Labour defender Mr John Sever. Both are of their types: Mr Davies publicschool (Mr Michael Foot's old school, as it happens), Cambridge, FO, City, ardent European, keen Bow Grouper. Mr. Sever non-public-school, a Brummy lad (his phrase), a local councillor. His posters bear the slightly odd slogan: 'Sever Labour'. From

what? Mr Sever wears a three-pice suit and a floral shirt; Mr Davies a blue denim suit and blue gingham shirt. Both are slightly awkward, first-time campaigners. Mr Sever incautiously emphasises 'The wonderful services Brian Walden has given you working for the constituency'; Mr Davies is proud of having studied under Dr Kissinger, also a mistake one might think.

The Tories canvassed in Soho Ward on Friday. We covered a shopping street, the candidate pressing the flesh with, mostly, bewildered Indians, one of whom asked me, 'Are you labouring?' Eventually we met an elderly Birmingham-born lady who pointed out that we were in the wrong constituency, so the procession turned round and went back again.

Mr Davies told me what I could see anyway: 'This place used to be literally a hive of industry. Now it's like the bare ruined choirs, if you knOw what I mean.' And added, no doubt correctly, 'It's the sort of constituency Labour thought they could hold forever, and completely neglected.' The Conservatives are making much capital out of the industrial development policies of the Government which have contributed to this neglect; and, of course,, out of rising prices.

The rainy evening in All Saints ward was with the Labour candidate. Most streets are completely mixed — English, Punjabis, Jamaicans. The immigrants now form the core of the Labour vote: 'I don't want you coming away from a single Indian house without a poster up,' the head canvasser shouted. 'Indians always take a poster.' The knockers went from door to door as we slowly patrolled by car, the candidate 'blasting' with the tannoy, stopping occasionally to hand out stickers to crowds of children.

The commonest complaints from voters were about council house rents and inadequate policing. In fact old-fashioned policemen on the beat are about to be reintroduced on the housing estates. There was little else said about local issues despite the interesting state of Birmingham politics, summed up in the saying Every Alderman has his Price.

Street by street is prognosticated upon. 'There's no way we can lose this block. Rock solid': 'This bit of the ward may fall away to the National Front'; 'Terrible street this. Council's packed it with problem families, Big Liberal vote.' Labour are confident of holding Ladywood, though no one doubted that the last majority of 9,739 will be very severely reduced. In fact the by-election is particularly hard to weigh up. The swing needed for the Tories is just over twenty per cent, which has been achieved in other recent by-elections. But those Tory victories have been in more or less prosperous working-class seats such as Birmingham, Stechford: only a few miles away, but sociologically utterly remote. In Newcastle Central, another decayed inner city constituency, the swing was much smaller.

None of the fringe candidates is likely to win many votes, but together they may collect enough seriously to affect the outcome. The National Front, is, alas, no longer a fringe party. It will very likely do well. A Labour man said that hewas sure that the NF would beat the Liberals into third place. The Tories inevitably have an equivocal attitude towards the Front. They are playing down the race issue in Ladywood although Mr Andrew MacKay, whodid not dos° when he won Stechford, is playing a large part in the campaign. But the Tories cannot entirely regret the NF, as the assumption is that most NF voters are Labour, not Conservative, defectors.

This theory was dramatically highlighted by the case of Mr Peter Marriner, lately the Labour agent in Ladywood. He has been accused by the Socialist Unity candidate, Mr Ahsam, of having fascist connections. Mr Marriner, it should be said, has vehemently denied the allegations. He claims that he deliberately infiltrated the British Movement as part of a course in politics at Birmingham Polytechnic. And that on another occasion Mr Walden had asked him to go along to a right-wing rally to brief a Guardian journalist (I think I've got that right).

At all events Mr Marriner has resigned to the great inconvenience of Labour and the glee of the Tories. Incidentally, it was someone else who was being referred to when I overheard, in the back of the Conservative van, the memorable lines: 'Jolly had luck about that chap. I mean if he'd just been queer, or just had a criminal record or just been a member of a fascist organisation. But all three .

The Liberals are campaigning without much enthusiasm and with less hope. Their candidate, Mr Kenneth Hardeman, may indeed come fourth and is scarcely less likely to lose his deposit than Mr Matthews, the Independent Conservative. The Liberals' chances in Ladywood — indeed in the country — seemed well symbolised by John Bright Street, now a particularly decrepit street running along the edge of the constituency.

There has not been a by-election in August since 1963, in the rather different circumstances following Mr John Profumo's departure from public life. The first reason for this seemed clear enough: Labour calculated that what advantage they now hold over the Tories would diminish as autumn comes: 'We'll hold it now, hut I wouldn't be so sure come October.' But August still seems an odd month. Doesn't it cut against Labour as much as Conservatives, with voters on holidays? 'I'll let you into a secret. Asians don't take holidays.' By such calculations is the fate of small constituencies and great nations decided.