‘The Wild Men’ David Torrance
A Labour government elected on a promise of change – but without any closely thought out plans other than saying change – a Prime Minister seen as too focused on freebies and foreign affairs at the expense of domestic duties, an agenda beset by scandals pulling focus from essential matters, separatist movements in Ireland and Scotland being marginalised and potentially disastrous, an insurgent party destabilising the political status quo and a seemingly radical set of politicians proving to be tiresomely business as usual much to the frustration of their supporters.
It is not exactly difficult to see why David Torrance was struck by the historical parallels when he published his book, ‘The Wild Men: The Remarkable Story of Britain’s Labour Government’ in 2024.
And those parallels – less ringing a bell than clattering cymbals in their resonances I would suggest – certainly add a timely atmosphere to an historical exploration which rattles along and is never a chore to read.
Torrance takes the sensible approach of tackling the period of eleven months of the first Labour government which ran from January to November 1924, essentially department by department, using the minister as the route into both the achievements and the failings of the administration.
What this approach brings – detail, an appreciation of the diverse personalities and perspectives these (mostly) men brought to their roles – does, perhaps, come at the expense of a grand over-arching narrative.
In fairness, it is entirely possible that this is deliberate because one of the things which most clearly emerges is the total lack of a coherent narrative put forward by the government, plus ca change. Just to take office was the achievement and, to the disillusionment of their voters, much more seemed to be beyond these “wild” men.
Ironically, the aspect which seems least convincing is the “wildness” of these men. Compared to the derangement of Liz Truss, the debauched merry monarch-ing of Boris Johnson, the debacle of the Covid PPE procurement systems or even Keir Starmer and the world’s most expensive pair of spectacles, Ramsey MacDonald’s charmingly monikered “McVitie’s Share Affair” would even qualify for a -gate suffix these days. Although, surely, the best named scandal title still remains the Teapot Dome Scandal.
These “wild” men are certainly “mild” by modern manners.
I believe it was Karl Marx who said, “history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce,” and it is difficult to conclude much else than that the current Westminster administration has achieved nothing except for stripping the humour away from a program of leadership which is to farce what Mr Bean is to word play.
None of that, however, is the fault of Mr Torrance who has written a timely, engaging and entertaining book of interest to anyone keen to learn more about how we got where we are – and quite possibly where we’re going.
Author
David Torrance is a constitutional specialist at the House of Commons Library. Prior to that, he was a freelance journalist, broadcaster and writer for almost 20 years. As a Herald columnist, he was one of the leading commentators on Scottish and UK politics during the 2014 independence and 2016 Brexit referendums, while as the author or editor of almost 20 books, he published unauthorised biographies of the SNP leaders and First Ministers Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, as well as the authorised biography of David Steel. (Biography adapted from https://www.northbanktalent.com/clients/current-affairs-business/david-torrance)
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