BOOKS: How I became the creature I am
The Almanac of British Politics (7th ed) by Robert Waller & Byron Criddle
No sort of nerdery should be attempted without the right equipment. Just as a church-spotter wouldn't dream of setting off to amble in a far-flung exemplar of Victorian Revival in Metroland without a Pevsner stuffed in their rucksack, the self-respecting political enthusiast (nerd is such a judgmental word) needs The Almanac of British Politics. I emphasise the verb, need. For the hardened nerd owning the Almanac is not a lifestyle choice, some extra in the pursuit of political spoddery - it is an essential; not owning it is like a Portilloite not being able to hum show tunes. Impossible to imagine.
After the hyperbole, the question has to be asked what do you get for your bucks? A hefty 900-plus pages of profiles of constituencies, maps, brief sketches of MPs, statistical tables. These raw facts would just be indigestible if they were not seasoned by the sagacious and arch judgments of Messrs Waller and Criddle.
There's fun (of sorts) to be had with those statistical tables, ranging from the seats with the most pensioners to those with the lowest proportion of electors in financial hardship. These tables can be used to bolster your prejudices. For instance, Liverpool Riverside has the highest number of Income Support claimants; yet it also had at 34.8% the lowest turn-out at the last election. Too busy sitting on their arses to go out and vote (yes, I know I'm being facetious). The three seats with the highest turnouts were all won by Sinn Fein, confirming the efficacy of the Republican motto "vote early, vote often". There are all sorts of facts that you can amaze your friends with. There are just three seats with a majority of non-white residents (Brent South, Birmingham Ladywood and Birmingham Sparkbrook/Small Heath); and the seat with the highest proportion of non-manual workers is not some verdant Tory sanctuary in Berkshire but Lib-Dem held Sheffield Hallam.
But where the Almanac comes into its own, and cannot be bested by any other publication, is the wealth of detail that Mr Waller uses in the description of each constituency. For instance, we learn that the Greens have a stronghold in the St Peter's ward of Brighton Pavilion; and which wards have a Tory presence in the Labour backwater of St Helens North; then there's the explanation of the declining fortunes of Hastings & Rye. This information is incredibly useful not only for activists and political journalists but for anyone who wants an anatomy of Britain, a social snapshot of every nook and cranny of this country, from the concreted poverty of Ancoats to the educated comfiness of Harpenden.
Mr Criddle - who is co-author with Andrew Roth of the long-established series of Parliamentary Profiles - brings verve to the description of MPs. Thus we learn that Tam Dalyell (not aka Sir Tam Dalyell, tenth baronet, of the Binns, Linlithgow) is 'a ponderously articulated eccentric' who 'wears ankle-length trousers' and that Michael Ancram is 'rather short and stocky for an aristocrat', that Gwyneth Dunwoody vows to 'keep going until I'm 110 on sheer bile'; that Peter Viggers has sung every part of Handel's Messiah; that James Arbuthnot is 'an austere, dessicated man with a voice likened to that of a speaking clock'; Sion Simon's Corsican grandfather fought with the Free French; and that Alan Reid, the Lib Dem MP for Argyll, is 'reputedly Parliament's most accomplished chess-player' (OK, that is too boring).
The Almanac is unusual in that it believes class, religion and facial hair matter: that, for good or ill, these factors affect the political process. Taking the most important first: there is only one Tory MP (John Randall) with a beard; while on the Labour benches - and they are all outed - there are forty-nine. Baroness Thatcher was right - as ever - to have her suspicions about facial adornment. The educational and social backgrounds affect the style and self-perception of MPs - as the brouhaha surrounding the appointment of Michael Martin, and the lengths that Michael Meacher went to hide his bourgeois secret life, or the class solidarity that strengthens the barricades on both sides of the field sports debate - go to prove. The two authors note the religious sensibilities of MPs too - they talk about Labour MPs, especially in Scotland, voting the Catholic ticket on homosexuality or abortion; or Jewish MPs who support the State of Israel. They remind us that sometimes there are higher - and lower - forces at work, with God and class interest to the fore, that overcome the dictates of caucus.
When it comes to party politics, we might not live in 'interesting times'., but Criddle and Waller enliven in a way that few Westminster correspondents can the battlefield that the next election will be fought on, and the spear-carriers who will risk public humiliation at the ballot box.
The Almanac of British Politics (7th ed) by Robert Waller and Byron Criddle [Routledge, £40]
The Snake, August 19, 2002 04:46 PM