Well, I blame Labour. It may seem rash to blame the new government, just 33 days in power, for everything from riots and high taxes to my mother’s washing machine breaking down, but after spending four hours on the phone with the manufacturer, that’s what I’m saying. not willing to do.
And I’m not alone. Keir Starmer poll ratings have dropped nine points since he took office. This despite the fact that he looks like a prime minister and deals well with far-right violence. With his glossy hair and NHS specs, Sir Steer Calmly resembles a 1940s leader, the biscuit minister in a Pathe News Real.
But modern voters want to know “what’s in it for me?” The government’s first significant act was to withdraw the Winter Fuel payment to pensioners and give a 22 percent pay rise over two years to junior doctors, most of whom, if they had a little patience, will soon earn more of £40,000.
Generosity for public sector workers, but eliminating the social assistance ceiling? Build a billion houses and still cut spending on roads and railways? Historians will scratch their heads at such contradictions, but today’s commentators applaud them, congratulating the Labor Party on its maturity and courage.
André Marr, minutes after the start of the new era, said that “for the first time in many of our lives”, Britain felt like “a little haven of peace and stability”; governed by “ordinary, serious people, speaking like the rest of us.”
I love André; he is one of our best announcers. But who exactly is this “us”?
The confusion of British politics could be resolved if the two main parties swapped brands: calling the Conservatives “Radical” and Labor “Conservatives”. To conserve is to defend orthodoxy, and orthodoxy in Britain is left-liberal, through the BBC, universities, business, charities and the public service. These people have long pushed us in one directionwith the only slight resistance coming from a Conservative majority in the House of Commons.
With the Tories having been annihilated, Andrew is right: even as the provinces burn, it appears that peace has descended on Westminster, as there is now an alignment between cultural and political power.
The state can unbuckle the belt. Breathe. Expand. As a subtle war is waged against the Brexit class, cutting their benefits and building on their insides, money will be found for public sector workers – God bless them – by nationalizing the railways, a public enterprise of energy and, my favorite, something called the “growth mission board”.
The Labor Party has never been truly socialist; Chancellors from Philip Snowden to Denis Healey have been austere. Instead, the party is the vehicle for each generation’s cohort of do-gooders, taking the values of the contemporary management class and translating them into policy.
That’s why I feel no shame attributing our problems to a month-old Labor government. These people have been arming our country from the sidelines for years.
The educators who discouraged standards and discipline are now rewriting the curriculum, the Bank’s money printers are now in bed with the Treasury and the naive people who Knelt for Black Lives Matter are in charge of policing a riot, having contributed to transforming the police force into a “hands-off” organization.
Rioters should “feel the full force of the law,” ministers say. I expected them to arrest them.
Conservative leadership
Mel Stride has challenged his Conservative rivals to a series of televised debates. No no no! Having ruined my spring by calling an early general election, you are not going to ruin my summer by holding a public leadership contest.
The best solution is to lock the six candidates in a room and let them solve the problem in private. You can use bottles, fists, I don’t care: whoever survives, wins. Just keep it to yourselves.
We despair at the self-esteem of modern British politics. This is a modest country: politics should be conducted in the House of Commons or in the columns of Parliament. Daily Telegraph. But everyone thinks they’re Americans now, and the gulf between this aspiration and their true talent makes them look foolish. James Smartly recorded a campaign launch video – as if he were Bill Clinton – talking in a very dark library. The goal was to evoke seriousness. The poor man, cursed with a naturally depressed voice, seemed to have gone in there to kill himself.
As for old Mel, no one knows who he is. When GBNews reported his candidacy, it referred to him as “they” – indicating that the broadcaster was unsure whether Mel represented Melvyn or Melanie, and did not want to offend in any way. I asked around for the inside scoop on Miss Stride, and all I got was a deputy who vaguely recalled that “he’s good at Sudoku” – although he thought it might be someone else.
The most satisfying final round would be Tom Tugendhat vs. Kemi Badenoch, a contest not of politics but of style. Do you like your opposition to be surprisingly loyal or amusingly rude? Choose wisely: Tories will oppose things for a long time.
