It just seems so obvious to me. Whatever they do, they are going to get monstered by the right-wing media ecosystem. So ignore them, and just do what they think is right for three and a half years. It can't do them any more harm than they're currently doing to themselves, and who knows, it might just make the country a bit better.
I have been thinking this for a while. Sadly there are few signs of it happening.
It is perhaps the worst indictment that the firmest of supporters and some party members are saying ‘coward.’
This is no longer a question of the ‘soul of the party’ or some other abstract nonsense. It is about a government that is surely staring into the populist abyss, failing to see it, and oblivious to the destruction of democracy they are fuelling.
It is beyond incompetent, it is the modern day equivalent of a Shakespearean tragedy. Macbeth anyone? Or Richard III?
I really believed that Starmer, entering No.10 with minimal political background but being intellectually capable and obviously honest, would be a sea change from the chancers and deranged individuals who came before. What a disappointment. From the freebies row to the current mess it an administration that needs the merest whiff of extra-Parliamentary opposition to blow it off course. I have spent weeks thinking a Reform government, or a Reform linked coalition, would be impossible. I’m beginning to change my mind. But this was a terrific piece, summing up what’s wrong and what needs to be done for the sake of the bloody country.
Exactly the same can be said of the Australian Albanese excuse for a Labor government. Gough Whitlam would be labelling them as “pissants” while spinning in his grave .
There is no right wing media ecosystem, just because there are 2 political parties and one is critical of the other that does not mean one is left and one is right, just that one is slightly more left than the other and both totally incompetent.
What has amazed me about the Labour government is not their good intent, as there are some basically well intentioned individuals in the cabinet, but rather their ongoing ineptness in th way they govern marked by a singular lack of political nous.
Who in thier right minds thought it was a great idea to:
1. Attack pensioners through the winter fuel allowance. Yes, the system is rubbish. As a pensioner who is fortunately well off after a long and pretty susccessful corporate career, why should I get a WFA. Its crazy. The money needs to go to those that really need it and probably more than they currently get. However, instead of reforming the system, or stopping it altogether but giving money to poor pensioners in other ways, they simply cancel it and say, if you really need it, fill in a really long form (....that would probably defeat me) to get the extra money you need.
And what makes it worse. The benefit of cancelling the WFA was pretty small in the grand scheme of things. Crazy diminishing of political capital.
2. Attack farmers! Who again thought this was a good idea. Yes, there are people who buy farms/estates etc. to avoid tax. But, setting the bar at £1M was rediculous as they clearly impacted many farmers who are very cash poor but "rich" in terms of land. Its not an easy or glorious profession. Its hard graft, carried on through the generations by those who have a real passion for it. Don't penalise real farmers. If you are genuine about farming and passing it on to your offspring, so they can farm, then they should not be penalised. Set the bar high at £10 or £20M to catch the tax dodgers. You can bring it down if neceessary. And the attack was again for very little gain. And finally on this point, make the changes in the context of a proper sustained farming/food strategy which we desperately need
Ineptness. Why was this not thought through
And there are probably other examples.
The lack of vision in these areas is staggering
Net zero. Yes, the world needs net zero and the climate crisis is real
But the reality os that while the US, China and India don't make the changes necessary then our efforts, while noteworthy, are ultimately pointless. Do, we give up. No. But there needs to be some political reality applied.
The ineptness comes with simply plowing on regardless and being castigated by other parties and not being adroit in political manourvering
We need sustainable and renewable energy sources. It makes sense economically, but it also makes sense strategically from a point of view of defence and foreign affairs. While we rely on foreign oil and gas imports we are weak logistically and in terms of facing down tyrants like Putin.
So, make the policy about sustainable, economically better reneable energy and yes, while we need fossil fuels well into the future, the policy is not about net zero but about being stronger.
The net zero benefits flow anyway, ultimately.
Politcially I despair
We look like we are facing a Farage led Reform government if this level of ineptness continues.
Reform will be an even bigger disaster. They are morally bankrupt and have no talent which will make the current lot look like Nobel prize winners
The Tories are no better as they have long ditched their own talent pool during the Brexit disaster
So, I remain politically homeless
While not inherentally a Labour voter I did hope for some better, more rational, stable governement after the chaos of Johnson, Truss, Sunak, but sadly not
I am not sure anyone will read this but it has been cathartic for me
1. WFA. Yep. Giving it to everyone is stupid. I'm a pensioner and don't need it. But taking it away from everyone was even more stupid.
2. Farmers. Yep. The £1M threshold is stupid, and I'm betting the people they are aiming to catch have some clever, (off-shore trust?), loophole to avoid it.
The point about the climate crisis is that the less we do to mitigate it, the worse it gets. Every 0.1degree we can reduce the rise by, the less damage will result. And vice versa. So, regardless of what anyone else does, we should do our utmost to keep the rise as low as we possibly can. Arguing that we should basically drop our committments to net zero because other countries are not living up to theirs (actually China are going all out on electrification and installing more solar and wind power than the rest of the world combined at the moment) is a recipe for a guaranteed escalation in climate chaos. To the extent that, according to the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (hard headed realists not flakey 'treehuggers') the world is facing a 50% drop in GDP if 2C is breached (we are now on target for ~2.5C) if we carry on our current trajectory of inadequate action.
How can you take the climate agenda seriously when the apparent solution to our aging population is to continue net migration of nearly a million a year !! not exactly sustainable
That's all correct as far as it goes. But we haven't reduced our emissions. We've destroyed our industry and now import the things we used to make here from countries that emit more greenhouse gas than we did before closing our power stations, and we've made homeowners pay more for fuel that is imported from foreign despots.
So let's stop digging and work out a plan to reduce emissions sustainably.
What’s utterly baffling about the current Labour position is the supine nature of the Government’s relationship with the press and wider media, including the BBC. I was a paper boy 50 years ago and delivered papers that detested anything Labour then continue to do so today, now aided by oligarch run social media channels seeking to overthrow our democracy. The majority of journalists in print and on-line are actively hostile to the Government and yet the Labour “sources” continue to leak / brief stories to them in the hope they will be portrayed positively when there is little, if any evidence that this is ever going to happen. And in addition to this the McSweeney Mantra of trying to appeal to Reform voters and stuffing up the core voter base is never going to work. Given all of this, there is a real opportunity for Labour to be brave by getting the fuck off Twitter, quitting the off the record briefings to media haters, sacking Gibb and focusing on communicating a vision of how everyone’s contributions (including financial via tax rises) will make the UK a better place to live. None of which is going to happen, but here’s to wishing for a ray of sunshine on another miserable November day.
Exactly. And just to cement the idiocy of it all, can you imagine the previous Conservative government spending even a nanosecond thinking "But what's the Guardian going to say?"
You've got a massive majority. Do what you like. Fuck the Daily Mail. Fuck Elon Musk. Have the courage of your convic.... oh, I think I've stumbled on the problem.
Thanks Ian. I agree with everything you've written here. I'm now totally without hope. We've squandered a historic opportunity. Callaghan's Government was braver than this and they were in a minority, sometimes I have to pinch myself and remember that Starmer started life with a majority of over 150. If you can be this paralysed with fear whilst having that majority there is no hope. Obviously after the disaster that will be the budget, Reeves' position will gradually become untenable. Starmer will sack her in February to save himself. This will not halt the slide in the polls and May's elections will be a disaster, including don't forget massive loses to Reform and the Greens and forfeiting power in Scotland and Wales (not small beer). Starmer will then resign or be forced out and a new PM for next year's conference will lead a traumatized party to certain defeat and a Farage Government in 2029 and all for the want of a bit of courage. Perhaps the Government collectively need to visit the Emerald city and search out a heart, a brain and above all the nerve. Anyway, happy Christmas one and all
Saddest thing is to see Lammy enmeshed in this cowardice trap. When he stood in the House to describe Brexit for what it is - a blatant right wing capitalist coup that needed to be fought off on Labour Party principles - he was the only politician in the whole place not to muffle his words with self interest or anxiety about focus groups. He was, briefly, the only one who could see the reality of the king’s clothes, baffled by everyone else on his side who weren’t fighting. When will we hear that voice again?
Sadly, not the nadir. It's just physics. No bottom to Trump or Starmer. When he was in the Oval Office clutching the royal invitation like a valentine, I knew this man had no self-awareness; you need that, and a sense of irony, to be a good leader. What is surprising is that there is no one in Downing Street who can scream loud enough to be heard. But what can be heard, even over here in Canada, is the sound of something breaking.
Yes, as did I; but we were lucky in that he was closer to 'as advertised'. People voted for Starmer thinking he was different from what he turned out to be.
Oh my god, I can’t bear it when you are so disappointed, I am clearly too invested in your opinions and analysis of any situation! On a lighter note, I heard snoopy was going to be featured in London somehow around Christmas - I forget the details but snoopy helps me forget the charade that is Westminster and the slow self harm that labour is performing on its own skin….
During the opposition/campaigning period, I became increasingly disturbed by Labour's - no, mostly *Starmer's* tendency to make absolutist statements when there was no need. 'We will not rejoin the single market in my lifetime', for example.
It indicated to me a lack of political skill. Yes, he had the Tory press to contend with & non-Lab faithful to woo, but he could've couched all the same ideas in ways that didn't paint him into a corner. So that when or if the FACTS meant that he had to something unpopular, at least he couldn't be called a liar.
Country, not party first, he said. That above all has clearly been his big lie. McSweeney needs to go, & the influence of Blue Labour curtailed, but honestly I just don't think Starmer is cut out for this job.
Excellent analysis as usual. I hope influential people in No 10 read it.
So many of us despair with the Labour government. We will it to do well, show progress and achievement. Instead, too often it is faltering or going backwards.
Oh for a character at the cabinet table with bite and venom who would shake things up.
I'll admit it... I have no idea how the relationship between politicians and the press works. But... I'm hugely mistrusting of the press, and can't bring myself to entirely blame the hopeless lot, currently "governing" the country. It just seems like the press make stuff up; try to hold the Government to account about that made up stuff; and then claim u-turn, when the stuff they made up, doesn't happen.
Having said that, cowardice is what really has me losing my shit at Labour. They bottled it with Gaza and they're bottling it with Reform. I don't know if they've bottled it with taxation - maybe it was all a press fantasy - but, if they can't see they only have one shot at this, we need to add complete stupidity to the list too.
Their cowardice is why I switched from Labour to The Green Party the GE before last. That, and the fact that they seem to have completely lost touch with what your average man-in-the-street needs from Government. And no, it's not Reform racism. It's a better world, which properly addresses the climate crisis; inequality; and money in politics.
Final thought. We seemed to have entered an era where politicians are no longer capable of doing what politicians are supposed to be good at: being convincing liars. We seem to have entered the "bad liars era". But... I guess it's working in the USA.
What joy reading your stuff Ian. It's the alternative voice to the bland crap the public are fed daily. Like my dogs breakfast.
Starmer has it seems 9blown it. I've kept faith through these turbulent times. I like his improved relationships with the European leadership. Yet he seems so wooden with the dull domestic stuff that will undoubtedly do for him eventually
Look at the alternatives however. Wes Streeting is far too flashy. Spives like him and Farage never last long.
So boring old Starmer is the best there is. What a state we are all in. It's a sign of the times.
Sadly, I agree with pretty much everything you say about the government (as Chair of our Constituency Labour Party and member since the Miner’s Strike) but not about ‘Interstellar’, which is one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made (along with ‘Blade Runner’, ‘2001’, ‘Arrival’ etc.). There’s nothing wrong with love, or indeed romance … read some Keats.
It just seems so obvious to me. Whatever they do, they are going to get monstered by the right-wing media ecosystem. So ignore them, and just do what they think is right for three and a half years. It can't do them any more harm than they're currently doing to themselves, and who knows, it might just make the country a bit better.
I have been thinking this for a while. Sadly there are few signs of it happening.
It is perhaps the worst indictment that the firmest of supporters and some party members are saying ‘coward.’
This is no longer a question of the ‘soul of the party’ or some other abstract nonsense. It is about a government that is surely staring into the populist abyss, failing to see it, and oblivious to the destruction of democracy they are fuelling.
It is beyond incompetent, it is the modern day equivalent of a Shakespearean tragedy. Macbeth anyone? Or Richard III?
I really believed that Starmer, entering No.10 with minimal political background but being intellectually capable and obviously honest, would be a sea change from the chancers and deranged individuals who came before. What a disappointment. From the freebies row to the current mess it an administration that needs the merest whiff of extra-Parliamentary opposition to blow it off course. I have spent weeks thinking a Reform government, or a Reform linked coalition, would be impossible. I’m beginning to change my mind. But this was a terrific piece, summing up what’s wrong and what needs to be done for the sake of the bloody country.
Exactly the same can be said of the Australian Albanese excuse for a Labor government. Gough Whitlam would be labelling them as “pissants” while spinning in his grave .
Exactly this - and said far more concisely than my comment!
There is no right wing media ecosystem, just because there are 2 political parties and one is critical of the other that does not mean one is left and one is right, just that one is slightly more left than the other and both totally incompetent.
What has amazed me about the Labour government is not their good intent, as there are some basically well intentioned individuals in the cabinet, but rather their ongoing ineptness in th way they govern marked by a singular lack of political nous.
Who in thier right minds thought it was a great idea to:
1. Attack pensioners through the winter fuel allowance. Yes, the system is rubbish. As a pensioner who is fortunately well off after a long and pretty susccessful corporate career, why should I get a WFA. Its crazy. The money needs to go to those that really need it and probably more than they currently get. However, instead of reforming the system, or stopping it altogether but giving money to poor pensioners in other ways, they simply cancel it and say, if you really need it, fill in a really long form (....that would probably defeat me) to get the extra money you need.
And what makes it worse. The benefit of cancelling the WFA was pretty small in the grand scheme of things. Crazy diminishing of political capital.
2. Attack farmers! Who again thought this was a good idea. Yes, there are people who buy farms/estates etc. to avoid tax. But, setting the bar at £1M was rediculous as they clearly impacted many farmers who are very cash poor but "rich" in terms of land. Its not an easy or glorious profession. Its hard graft, carried on through the generations by those who have a real passion for it. Don't penalise real farmers. If you are genuine about farming and passing it on to your offspring, so they can farm, then they should not be penalised. Set the bar high at £10 or £20M to catch the tax dodgers. You can bring it down if neceessary. And the attack was again for very little gain. And finally on this point, make the changes in the context of a proper sustained farming/food strategy which we desperately need
Ineptness. Why was this not thought through
And there are probably other examples.
The lack of vision in these areas is staggering
Net zero. Yes, the world needs net zero and the climate crisis is real
But the reality os that while the US, China and India don't make the changes necessary then our efforts, while noteworthy, are ultimately pointless. Do, we give up. No. But there needs to be some political reality applied.
The ineptness comes with simply plowing on regardless and being castigated by other parties and not being adroit in political manourvering
We need sustainable and renewable energy sources. It makes sense economically, but it also makes sense strategically from a point of view of defence and foreign affairs. While we rely on foreign oil and gas imports we are weak logistically and in terms of facing down tyrants like Putin.
So, make the policy about sustainable, economically better reneable energy and yes, while we need fossil fuels well into the future, the policy is not about net zero but about being stronger.
The net zero benefits flow anyway, ultimately.
Politcially I despair
We look like we are facing a Farage led Reform government if this level of ineptness continues.
Reform will be an even bigger disaster. They are morally bankrupt and have no talent which will make the current lot look like Nobel prize winners
The Tories are no better as they have long ditched their own talent pool during the Brexit disaster
So, I remain politically homeless
While not inherentally a Labour voter I did hope for some better, more rational, stable governement after the chaos of Johnson, Truss, Sunak, but sadly not
I am not sure anyone will read this but it has been cathartic for me
1. WFA. Yep. Giving it to everyone is stupid. I'm a pensioner and don't need it. But taking it away from everyone was even more stupid.
2. Farmers. Yep. The £1M threshold is stupid, and I'm betting the people they are aiming to catch have some clever, (off-shore trust?), loophole to avoid it.
The point about the climate crisis is that the less we do to mitigate it, the worse it gets. Every 0.1degree we can reduce the rise by, the less damage will result. And vice versa. So, regardless of what anyone else does, we should do our utmost to keep the rise as low as we possibly can. Arguing that we should basically drop our committments to net zero because other countries are not living up to theirs (actually China are going all out on electrification and installing more solar and wind power than the rest of the world combined at the moment) is a recipe for a guaranteed escalation in climate chaos. To the extent that, according to the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (hard headed realists not flakey 'treehuggers') the world is facing a 50% drop in GDP if 2C is breached (we are now on target for ~2.5C) if we carry on our current trajectory of inadequate action.
How can you take the climate agenda seriously when the apparent solution to our aging population is to continue net migration of nearly a million a year !! not exactly sustainable
That's all correct as far as it goes. But we haven't reduced our emissions. We've destroyed our industry and now import the things we used to make here from countries that emit more greenhouse gas than we did before closing our power stations, and we've made homeowners pay more for fuel that is imported from foreign despots.
So let's stop digging and work out a plan to reduce emissions sustainably.
We are suffering similar chaos in Australia , due to a cowardly government and a catastrophic crumbling Opposition Conservative Party .
🤜💥🤛🧢 Chapeau Murray.
What’s utterly baffling about the current Labour position is the supine nature of the Government’s relationship with the press and wider media, including the BBC. I was a paper boy 50 years ago and delivered papers that detested anything Labour then continue to do so today, now aided by oligarch run social media channels seeking to overthrow our democracy. The majority of journalists in print and on-line are actively hostile to the Government and yet the Labour “sources” continue to leak / brief stories to them in the hope they will be portrayed positively when there is little, if any evidence that this is ever going to happen. And in addition to this the McSweeney Mantra of trying to appeal to Reform voters and stuffing up the core voter base is never going to work. Given all of this, there is a real opportunity for Labour to be brave by getting the fuck off Twitter, quitting the off the record briefings to media haters, sacking Gibb and focusing on communicating a vision of how everyone’s contributions (including financial via tax rises) will make the UK a better place to live. None of which is going to happen, but here’s to wishing for a ray of sunshine on another miserable November day.
Exactly. And just to cement the idiocy of it all, can you imagine the previous Conservative government spending even a nanosecond thinking "But what's the Guardian going to say?"
You've got a massive majority. Do what you like. Fuck the Daily Mail. Fuck Elon Musk. Have the courage of your convic.... oh, I think I've stumbled on the problem.
Thanks Ian. I agree with everything you've written here. I'm now totally without hope. We've squandered a historic opportunity. Callaghan's Government was braver than this and they were in a minority, sometimes I have to pinch myself and remember that Starmer started life with a majority of over 150. If you can be this paralysed with fear whilst having that majority there is no hope. Obviously after the disaster that will be the budget, Reeves' position will gradually become untenable. Starmer will sack her in February to save himself. This will not halt the slide in the polls and May's elections will be a disaster, including don't forget massive loses to Reform and the Greens and forfeiting power in Scotland and Wales (not small beer). Starmer will then resign or be forced out and a new PM for next year's conference will lead a traumatized party to certain defeat and a Farage Government in 2029 and all for the want of a bit of courage. Perhaps the Government collectively need to visit the Emerald city and search out a heart, a brain and above all the nerve. Anyway, happy Christmas one and all
"He effectively started a leadership challenge against himself" *screams into pillow.
Saddest thing is to see Lammy enmeshed in this cowardice trap. When he stood in the House to describe Brexit for what it is - a blatant right wing capitalist coup that needed to be fought off on Labour Party principles - he was the only politician in the whole place not to muffle his words with self interest or anxiety about focus groups. He was, briefly, the only one who could see the reality of the king’s clothes, baffled by everyone else on his side who weren’t fighting. When will we hear that voice again?
Sadly, not the nadir. It's just physics. No bottom to Trump or Starmer. When he was in the Oval Office clutching the royal invitation like a valentine, I knew this man had no self-awareness; you need that, and a sense of irony, to be a good leader. What is surprising is that there is no one in Downing Street who can scream loud enough to be heard. But what can be heard, even over here in Canada, is the sound of something breaking.
Terrence, we need a Mark Carney to lead the UK.
We seem to have lucked out with our PM.
Not sure it was ‘luck’; we voted for him :)
Yes, as did I; but we were lucky in that he was closer to 'as advertised'. People voted for Starmer thinking he was different from what he turned out to be.
Oh my god, I can’t bear it when you are so disappointed, I am clearly too invested in your opinions and analysis of any situation! On a lighter note, I heard snoopy was going to be featured in London somehow around Christmas - I forget the details but snoopy helps me forget the charade that is Westminster and the slow self harm that labour is performing on its own skin….
During the opposition/campaigning period, I became increasingly disturbed by Labour's - no, mostly *Starmer's* tendency to make absolutist statements when there was no need. 'We will not rejoin the single market in my lifetime', for example.
It indicated to me a lack of political skill. Yes, he had the Tory press to contend with & non-Lab faithful to woo, but he could've couched all the same ideas in ways that didn't paint him into a corner. So that when or if the FACTS meant that he had to something unpopular, at least he couldn't be called a liar.
Country, not party first, he said. That above all has clearly been his big lie. McSweeney needs to go, & the influence of Blue Labour curtailed, but honestly I just don't think Starmer is cut out for this job.
Nailed it. The problem is apparent, well to me and maybe a few others, McSweeney has to go.
Is it too late for Labour to get a grip? Hope not as the thought of the vile POS Fartage getting anywhere near to No 10 is frightening.
Yes, this is dark. But on the audio version, Thanos saves the day, once again! 😂🙏
Matched only by my dog Porridge adding his two penn’orth.
You can put Ad Astra into that camp as well (though I controversially enjoyed that more than interstellar)
Excellent analysis as usual. I hope influential people in No 10 read it.
So many of us despair with the Labour government. We will it to do well, show progress and achievement. Instead, too often it is faltering or going backwards.
Oh for a character at the cabinet table with bite and venom who would shake things up.
I'll admit it... I have no idea how the relationship between politicians and the press works. But... I'm hugely mistrusting of the press, and can't bring myself to entirely blame the hopeless lot, currently "governing" the country. It just seems like the press make stuff up; try to hold the Government to account about that made up stuff; and then claim u-turn, when the stuff they made up, doesn't happen.
Having said that, cowardice is what really has me losing my shit at Labour. They bottled it with Gaza and they're bottling it with Reform. I don't know if they've bottled it with taxation - maybe it was all a press fantasy - but, if they can't see they only have one shot at this, we need to add complete stupidity to the list too.
Their cowardice is why I switched from Labour to The Green Party the GE before last. That, and the fact that they seem to have completely lost touch with what your average man-in-the-street needs from Government. And no, it's not Reform racism. It's a better world, which properly addresses the climate crisis; inequality; and money in politics.
Final thought. We seemed to have entered an era where politicians are no longer capable of doing what politicians are supposed to be good at: being convincing liars. We seem to have entered the "bad liars era". But... I guess it's working in the USA.
What joy reading your stuff Ian. It's the alternative voice to the bland crap the public are fed daily. Like my dogs breakfast.
Starmer has it seems 9blown it. I've kept faith through these turbulent times. I like his improved relationships with the European leadership. Yet he seems so wooden with the dull domestic stuff that will undoubtedly do for him eventually
Look at the alternatives however. Wes Streeting is far too flashy. Spives like him and Farage never last long.
So boring old Starmer is the best there is. What a state we are all in. It's a sign of the times.
Sadly, I agree with pretty much everything you say about the government (as Chair of our Constituency Labour Party and member since the Miner’s Strike) but not about ‘Interstellar’, which is one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made (along with ‘Blade Runner’, ‘2001’, ‘Arrival’ etc.). There’s nothing wrong with love, or indeed romance … read some Keats.