Things Can Only Get Better: Eighteen Miserable Years in the Life of a Labour Supporter

"For me, this book is in the ‘history as nostalgia’ category, a book that reminds you of the past and of who you were in the past. It’s a genuinely funny book. It will resonate for anybody who was (as I was) a left-of-centre student feeling absolutely righteous conviction at the certainty of the correctness of their own views. Utter bemusement is the prerogative of youth, and it was impossible to understand how anyone could vote for a Conservative government. “At the moment, there’s a real pessimism about what’s happening in this country. There’s nothing new about that—it was there throughout the Thatcher years.” And yet, no matter how absolutely and obviously right I and other long-haired students were, nothing ever quite turned out the way that we wanted it to, and this was just part of being on the left. Politics was an all-encompassing pursuit in which no matter what else happened, the Conservatives always won. At the moment, there’s a real pessimism about what’s happening in this country. There’s nothing new about that—it was there throughout the Thatcher years. Things Can Only Get Better does a really good job of reminding us what it was like during that time. The book it most reminds me of is by Nick Hornby, who wrote Fever Pitch at about the same time, an account of what it was like to be a lifelong Arsenal fan. This book is its politics equivalent, about what it was like to be a true believer in a cause—and all of the highs and very frequent lows that came with that. For the left, this is a history that starts from, ‘Who is this person? What is happening? It’ll be okay because she’ll lose.’ But she wins. Then, you think she’ll lose in 1983, but it’s all about the Falklands and she wins. Then, the Conservatives win again in 1987. And again in 1992. There will be generation of people in their early 50s for whom the first 10-15 years of their interest in politics would have all been about Margaret Thatcher. And if you were on the left, that would have felt like the most miserable time imaginable. “Anti-Thatcherism—being on the left, supporting the miners—was a whole identity. It wasn’t just what you thought about politics, it was who you were.” Interestingly, for the Conservative side, because she’s venerated to such a degree, they’ve got the problem that everything that’s come after her has, in some sense, been a disappointment and a failure. Everything is compared back to Thatcher and the glory days. So you’ve got this split generation for whom the blessed Margaret is the reference point for everybody, for both parties. They just each draw different lessons from it. The other important thing to mention about John O’Farrell’s book is his ability to capture the degree to which politics was about day-to-day identity: who you dated, what you wore, what music you listened to. That now feels really dated, but when you read the book, you go back and it reminds you of how this anti-Thatcherism—being on the left, supporting the miners—was a whole identity. It wasn’t just what you thought about politics, it was who you were. British politics was so stable for such a long time, that if you knew what somebody’s job was and how their parents had voted, you would have had a 9 out of 10 chance of guessing how they would vote in an election. Also—and this is a ballpark figure—around 9 out of 10 people did not change their vote in any election. So you had this utter sense of stability, with elections being decided in marginal constituencies by the relatively small numbers of people who changed their mind. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . What would you look at now, if you could know one thing to figure out how somebody voted? Their age? Possibly. Are they public sector or private sector? That would matter. But it’s so much more fluid and cross-cutting. Brexit adds another layer on top of that. The volatility of the electorate means you can be wiped out in one election and then emerge absolutely triumphant in another. Sitting her now, it’s possible to see both a scenario in a general election where Boris Johnson is returned with a majority of 200 and a scenario where he crashes and burns and goes down as the greatest disaster of a Conservative prime minister in history. There’s just this volatility there, now, in the country: how people distrust politicians, the way in which the tension goes from one issue to another, the way there are now multiple parties. The instability feels built-in. It’s a bugger if you’re teaching modern history because you can’t write your lectures in advance and hope that they’re still going to stand up in two weeks’ time. When I was writing 12 Days that Made Modern Britain I kept putting off to the last possible moment sending the Brexit stuff to the publishers because I knew the moment I sent it something would happen that next day. We live in interesting times and all that. I’m not sure I’m particularly happy with what’s happening, but I suppose if you’re interested in British politics and modern history it’s good for business."