Grantham goes Labour
June 26, 2007 by owersby
I reckon Alderman Roberts will be spinning in his grave at the news that Grantham is now represented by a Labour MP. The town (which in the 1980s memorably had blue seats on its railway station when the rest of the country had red) is of course where the Blessed Margaret hails from.
I must admit I had occasionally wondered whether Davies might defect to the Lib Dems since he seemed a reasonably decent chap - albeit a bit “Guards Parade Ground” for my taste. Checking his voting record on www.theyworkforyou.com, though, I am not sure why I thought he might be ‘one of us’. Interestingly its difficult to see him as sitting comfortably in New Labour either given his record of voting against ID cards, foundation hospitals and tuition fees. The balance is redressed by his support for the Iraq war of course…
Bill Newton Dunn had some interesting views on Davies, but since I didn’t say I would publish his comments, I wont do so.
It will be interesting to see whether QD is rewarded with office in Brown’s first government. It will also be interesting to see if he is planning to stand for Parliament in the future given the distance the chicken run would need to be to find a safe Labour berth. Imagine Alan Simpson’s reaction if Nottingham South was on the list… 
I don’t know about the blue seats but Grantham also has at least three blue pubs ( I can’t remember the names but Blue Ball, Blue Bear etc are likely). However, the blue in the pubs refers to the Liberal colours in Lincolnshire in the nineteenth century. I don’t think the final national harmonisation of political colours took place until the advent of colour television. I can remember Liberals campaigning in green in the 1960s. What a pity we gave that up !
And what’s wrong with the colour of my website ????
I must dig out my copy of Olney’s book on C19th Lincolnshire politics. My enduring memory of it was a description of Grimsby’s politics having ‘a salty flavour and a distinctly fishy smell’ - doubtless why William Maxfield chose to sit as the Radical member there for only one term.
A close Danish friend (she’s not usually close enough) tells me that Grimsby comes from the Norse “grim” meaning ugly and “By” pronounced “beur” (cf. borough) meaning town. Hence, ugly town.