The Battle for Tristramgrad (aka Stoke-on-Trent)

This is the coat of arms of the city of Engels (Saratov Oblast) in the Russian Federation, evoking sentiments surrounding hard-working labour symbolised in the bull bearing his heavy load. Enter the Hon Tristram Hunt, recent biographer of Engels, undisputed pretty boy of the academic media set, and now the Labour Party's candidate for the apparently safe seat of Stoke-on-Trent Central. I'm not a fan, incidentally, and nor, apparently, are many Labour supporters in Stoke, according to the secretary of the local party, who intends to stand as an independent candidate. However, the selection of Tristram Hunt does raise some interesting issues.

Stoke-on-Trent, like Liverpool under the Thatcher Governments of the 1980s, has been the victim of New Labour policies in the noughties. These have included the imposition of education programmes and demolition of much perfectly good housing and other building stock. There has been a loss of population and employment, and, most significantly, a pervasive loss of confidence in the area both amongst its own residents and external interests, notably the very central government whose policies have exacerbated problems arising largely from industrial restructuring within Stoke and its surrounding sub-region in the North Midlands. In the midst of all this, Stoke and other parts of the North Midlands have fallen victim to another political problem, headed by another Cambridge historian, albeit not one so pretty as Tristram Hunt: Nick Griffin of the British National Party.

The question now is whether New Labour "Patrician Socialism" of the kind embodied in Hunt (an apparent favourite of Lord Mandelson) can deliver the kind of transformation required in Stoke-on-Trent, or whether the Labour Party needs to recast itself post General Election as a party of (as distinct from for) the people again. Peter Mandelson aside, Tristram Hunt does have a number of attributes in his favour, including a wide ranging knowledge of the kind of historical developments which contributed to the rise of cities like Stoke, or Five Towns, during the Victorian period. The real possibility that Hunt is the right man to preside over a new renaissance of the North Staffordshire Conurbation cannot, therefore, be overlooked. Against this, is a real danger that any renaissance will still leave many people behind, contributing further to a disaffected rump of voters who will opt for the BNP. With all this in prospect, Labour supporters of Stoke-on-Trent may choose a local independent candidate, something which may in turn split the vote in favour of the not-so-pretty Mr Griffin.

Whatever the outcome, "The Battle for Tristramgrad" has the makings of drama to which many a nineteenth century novelist would have aspired : a dashing hero with dubious connections, an ugly rival with even more dubious connections, and a hitherto unknown man of the people, deeply connected to the local community, but without the right connections to make him New Labour's candidate and perhaps, therefore, without the connections to deliver the modern regeneration which has hitherto eluded Stoke.