“I evaluate them entirely negatively - not by wondering what wonderful things they will achieve, but by embracing all the terrible things they might prevent. I am prepared to accept all sorts of compromises with my own values as long as the government is better than the alternative. Voting is not an expression of my soul. It is not a demonstration of my identity. It is my attempt to secure marginal improvements on what came before, regardless of all the various disappointments it will necessarily entail. “
I’ve never read anything that sums up my feelings towards politics more than this! I would consider myself left-wing but (partially through the failings of FPTP) have never been able to vote wholeheartedly FOR something. Just voted to try and minimise the chances of further disaster.
Thanks for this wonderful piece. I shouted ‘yes’ several times. One thing that cheers me is the list of stuff being done without attention from the press. I wonder if Starmer, who has a track record of reforming large organisations, may be happy at this early stage of his leadership to have the press focus on trivialities.
Too many 'top-tier' political journalists are glorified gossip-mongers who've been swimming in the intellectual shallow end for the last decade. Who's up, who's down, who's fighting who, who said what and to whom, with barely a regard for policy.
Now we have a government that wants to get stuff done rather than just create headlines - and these paddlers are desperately clinging to any and every brightly decorated rubber ring for comfort.
"I am prepared to accept all sorts of compromises with my own values as long as the government is better than the alternative. Voting is not an expression of my soul. It is not a demonstration of my identity. It is my attempt to secure marginal improvements on what came before, regardless of all the various disappointments it will necessarily entail."
I would like this (maybe a shorter version) printed on T-shirts and billboards and in the face of every undecided American voter and especially to anyone who's even saying the words "Jill Stein." A lefty political organizer I used to know said: if you want to make a statement buy a T-shirt. That's not what voting is for. I'm not certain we have received the memo over here.
I broadly agree with your basic sentiments, Ian, but I do think that a number of Starmer’s mis-steps have been avoidable and are doing a lot of damage. The decisions over Winter Fuel Allowance and the 2-child benefits cap were unnecessary, in that much better ways could have been found to raise the money they claim they are saving. Politically they have been disastrous, allowing the right-wing media and people on the left to accuse them of going after pensioners and poor people on benefits when there are much more fruitful targets available. Freebiegate has been an awful mess politically, handled clumsily and enabling the likes of Kay Burley and Chris Mason to have an insanely easy couple of months of Labour-baiting. Ditto the screw-ups over Sue Gray. The reactions of the media to both issues were entirely predictable and could so easily have been avoided.
It’s early days, of course, and the hope will be that when people start to notice that their lives are improving, these blunders will all be forgotten. But the first few months could have been so much better….
The WFA had to go, especially considering that those at the very bottom could potential gain by swallowing their pride. It's about time they understood how humiliating the welfare system now is and actually claim the extra benefit they're entitled. (indeed, there is a suggestion it may actually end up costing treasury more...)
Not only did the grandparents damage family household incomes due to the Brexit vote, they've been totally insulated due to triple lock and that should also go in this parliament. The current pensioners are taking out way more than they ever paid in (especially if you count NHS and asset inflation, property) at the cost of their own grandchildren (in schools, EG RAAC) and disabled people. A double whammy if you happen to be both. It's impossible to create Gov policy and new social contract if the current policies are so heavily weighted to protect the core conservative vote. I know Martin Lewis is well respected "apolitical" commentator, but I don't see him speaking up for disabled people who can't leave their homes because their LA's won't fund their transport or the children who can't get EHCP's to go to SEND schools because there is no funding. Let's face it, Ian has barely scratched the surface on the political shenanigans of the Tories and how they funded or defunded LA's purely based on electioneering.
Alongside the sensible actions you draw attention to, I would place the intention to address obesity and diabetes and put funding into GPs rather than hospitals. The first is a way to reduce the enormous burden of diabetes on on the NHS and help productivity by getting people into work, and the second is about picking up cancer and other serious conditions at an earlier stage, meaning less drastic treatments and better outcomes for people.
The NHS has always seemed to me to be in such a mess and to suck up so many resources trying to keep up with our aging population, that I was very pessimistic about our ability to do anything about it. If Wes Streeting and the government can make progress on these two goals, I think we are really in with a chance of seeing positive changes.
Yes yes and yes! Let's celebrate a return to grown up rational pragmatism without having to approve every single choice of every single minister in the government, as long as the direction of travel is loosely in the right direction, and away to the 'back to the nineteenth century' workhouse dreams of the haunted pencil. Oh and by the way, 'I sometimes wonder what happened on that night in June 2016, when the results of the election started to come in. ' - I think you meant referendum but that's by the by. Good luck with the new books.
For starters: I didn't vote for Labour - and have never voted for the other lot. These days, I "waste my vote" on The Greens.
There's one simple policy, (which I know we're not going to get), from Labour:
T A X _ T H E _ R I C H
The problem is, Labour is now as much in hock to the wealthy and big business, as the Tories. Starmer is probably more than happy with the Swift distraction - as no-one's looking at Labour's policies. The Labour Party of the good old days, would have been helping the working class and doing their utmost to tackle inequality. But those days are gone. Labour, just like the Tories, are now making policy to suit their donors, rather than the electorate.
We no longer have a working democracy - but are edging ever closer to a Plutocracy.
No government will ever tax the rich to the extent us underlings would like.The people that we’re talking about are the people that donate to the parties. If these rich people see their tax going up, they’re not going to carry on donating are they? It’s a predicament that only a completely ruthless bastard could solve. I’m available for any task deemed too controversial. Good rates, and if you book me once I won’t charge for a second booking. My rates start at 10 quid rising depending on the complexity. If you’re skint, I take fruit salads (the confectionery ) and anything with licorice in.
Count me in for "ruthless tasks". I would definitely do the PM job for nothing. Confectionery, (without licorice), would be a bonus.
Tackling political party funding is the place to start. There needs to be a very low ceiling - say £1000 maximum from any one donor. And, of course, closing all of the many loopholes, which allow people to bypass the rules.
You can join if you like but I’m not sure how you’d fit in, not wanting licorice might be frowned upon. You’ll need to sharpen up on your sarcasm skills too.
Anything that can be done to tighten up on funding should be done. But as you say it’s a start point. There are plenty of other things that governments have exploited, the last scabby government found plenty of loopholes that were detrimental to ordinary people.
Sorry about the licorice - but at least we're not going to be in-fighting over confectionery. :-)
The last lot didn't bother with loopholes. They went big. Funnelling millions to their pals through the Covid VIP Lane. More a Grand Canyon than loophole!
Sarcasm? That's the first time anyone has EVER picked me up on not being sarcastic enough! I must be losing the knack. As someone who likes to think of themselves as the child of Basil Fawlty and Victor Meldrew, that puts my very existence into question.
The Swift thing is infuriating, but maybe we're getting to the Jump the Shark moment where people will think "jesus fucking christ, what has happened to us?".
I love Starmer's anti-populism schtick, the winter fuel repayments policy is unapolegetically an ass-kicker policy. The question that gives me anxiety, based on how powerful public outrage was vs the Tories, is whether the media and public outrage could take him down?
The flames can be stoked, but is this government fireproof? Like you, I think, I just want results that fix the mess and get us back to being a serious country in a difficult modern age. If Starmer just lets himself become this hate figure, will anyone care about the results? I suppose that's the big experiment.
I agree to all of this I'm no Starmer cheerleader but all this faux scandal shit post reporting on Taylor swift tickets etc by the same arseholes who willingly turned blind eyes to mass amounts of tory corruption and sleaze for decades can get in the bin. It's crap and cheap and we deserve better as a nation from our media outlets. It feels like the longest build up to an autumn budget in my lifetime I am actually looking forward to political discourse and policy being in the headlines again. I'm also waiting with baited breath for the new working deal and Employers Bill to land as in my profession for good or bad it is going to send shockwaves of change in an already fragile stretched labour market thanks to bloody brexit. Cal was down the island with his
grandad the day they filmed the last ever episode of Gavin and Stacey and he met the cast but had no idea who any of them were! Bloody typical.
Ian, love your writing, and political research and commentary. The criticism to level against Starmer (and Reeves) is on their understanding of political economy and power. Everything is contingent on growth, measured by GDP. They should have the intelligence to redefine growth, but that seems beyond them. If they succeed despite themselves, any money and value will not accrue to the British people. That, not T Swift tickets, is bordering on the criminal. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whos-charge-can-we-stop-handover-economic-political-power-pearson-x0blc/?trackingId=AyxS6gtNT6vzUFtrUDD%2BaQ%3D%3D
We expect Burley to say <whatever>. What grips my nuts and is driving me towards getting rid of my telly licence is the Godawfulfucking bias of K'berg and Mason on the Beeb. We pay their wages and deserve neutrality FFSAKES 😡
I look forward to Friday mornings in a way I never did before discovering your work! I find it incredibly reassuring that I’m not alone in my thinking. Please keep being the voice of reason and sanity (along with a few others) in an otherwise crazy and unpleasant world. Thank you
“I evaluate them entirely negatively - not by wondering what wonderful things they will achieve, but by embracing all the terrible things they might prevent. I am prepared to accept all sorts of compromises with my own values as long as the government is better than the alternative. Voting is not an expression of my soul. It is not a demonstration of my identity. It is my attempt to secure marginal improvements on what came before, regardless of all the various disappointments it will necessarily entail. “
I’ve never read anything that sums up my feelings towards politics more than this! I would consider myself left-wing but (partially through the failings of FPTP) have never been able to vote wholeheartedly FOR something. Just voted to try and minimise the chances of further disaster.
Thanks for this wonderful piece. I shouted ‘yes’ several times. One thing that cheers me is the list of stuff being done without attention from the press. I wonder if Starmer, who has a track record of reforming large organisations, may be happy at this early stage of his leadership to have the press focus on trivialities.
Too many 'top-tier' political journalists are glorified gossip-mongers who've been swimming in the intellectual shallow end for the last decade. Who's up, who's down, who's fighting who, who said what and to whom, with barely a regard for policy.
Now we have a government that wants to get stuff done rather than just create headlines - and these paddlers are desperately clinging to any and every brightly decorated rubber ring for comfort.
"I am prepared to accept all sorts of compromises with my own values as long as the government is better than the alternative. Voting is not an expression of my soul. It is not a demonstration of my identity. It is my attempt to secure marginal improvements on what came before, regardless of all the various disappointments it will necessarily entail."
I would like this (maybe a shorter version) printed on T-shirts and billboards and in the face of every undecided American voter and especially to anyone who's even saying the words "Jill Stein." A lefty political organizer I used to know said: if you want to make a statement buy a T-shirt. That's not what voting is for. I'm not certain we have received the memo over here.
I broadly agree with your basic sentiments, Ian, but I do think that a number of Starmer’s mis-steps have been avoidable and are doing a lot of damage. The decisions over Winter Fuel Allowance and the 2-child benefits cap were unnecessary, in that much better ways could have been found to raise the money they claim they are saving. Politically they have been disastrous, allowing the right-wing media and people on the left to accuse them of going after pensioners and poor people on benefits when there are much more fruitful targets available. Freebiegate has been an awful mess politically, handled clumsily and enabling the likes of Kay Burley and Chris Mason to have an insanely easy couple of months of Labour-baiting. Ditto the screw-ups over Sue Gray. The reactions of the media to both issues were entirely predictable and could so easily have been avoided.
It’s early days, of course, and the hope will be that when people start to notice that their lives are improving, these blunders will all be forgotten. But the first few months could have been so much better….
The WFA had to go, especially considering that those at the very bottom could potential gain by swallowing their pride. It's about time they understood how humiliating the welfare system now is and actually claim the extra benefit they're entitled. (indeed, there is a suggestion it may actually end up costing treasury more...)
Not only did the grandparents damage family household incomes due to the Brexit vote, they've been totally insulated due to triple lock and that should also go in this parliament. The current pensioners are taking out way more than they ever paid in (especially if you count NHS and asset inflation, property) at the cost of their own grandchildren (in schools, EG RAAC) and disabled people. A double whammy if you happen to be both. It's impossible to create Gov policy and new social contract if the current policies are so heavily weighted to protect the core conservative vote. I know Martin Lewis is well respected "apolitical" commentator, but I don't see him speaking up for disabled people who can't leave their homes because their LA's won't fund their transport or the children who can't get EHCP's to go to SEND schools because there is no funding. Let's face it, Ian has barely scratched the surface on the political shenanigans of the Tories and how they funded or defunded LA's purely based on electioneering.
Alongside the sensible actions you draw attention to, I would place the intention to address obesity and diabetes and put funding into GPs rather than hospitals. The first is a way to reduce the enormous burden of diabetes on on the NHS and help productivity by getting people into work, and the second is about picking up cancer and other serious conditions at an earlier stage, meaning less drastic treatments and better outcomes for people.
I had heard people talking about diabetes and its effect on the NHS before but did not realise that if you are overweight to the extent of obesity, you are less likely to be in work and if you are in work, more likely to need sick leave. https://www.contemporaryhealth.co.uk/obesity-and-population-health/study-reveals-workers-with-obesity-are-twice-as-likely-to-take-long-term-sick-leave/ https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/people-with-obesity-take-more-sick-days-research/
The NHS has always seemed to me to be in such a mess and to suck up so many resources trying to keep up with our aging population, that I was very pessimistic about our ability to do anything about it. If Wes Streeting and the government can make progress on these two goals, I think we are really in with a chance of seeing positive changes.
Yes yes and yes! Let's celebrate a return to grown up rational pragmatism without having to approve every single choice of every single minister in the government, as long as the direction of travel is loosely in the right direction, and away to the 'back to the nineteenth century' workhouse dreams of the haunted pencil. Oh and by the way, 'I sometimes wonder what happened on that night in June 2016, when the results of the election started to come in. ' - I think you meant referendum but that's by the by. Good luck with the new books.
For starters: I didn't vote for Labour - and have never voted for the other lot. These days, I "waste my vote" on The Greens.
There's one simple policy, (which I know we're not going to get), from Labour:
T A X _ T H E _ R I C H
The problem is, Labour is now as much in hock to the wealthy and big business, as the Tories. Starmer is probably more than happy with the Swift distraction - as no-one's looking at Labour's policies. The Labour Party of the good old days, would have been helping the working class and doing their utmost to tackle inequality. But those days are gone. Labour, just like the Tories, are now making policy to suit their donors, rather than the electorate.
We no longer have a working democracy - but are edging ever closer to a Plutocracy.
No government will ever tax the rich to the extent us underlings would like.The people that we’re talking about are the people that donate to the parties. If these rich people see their tax going up, they’re not going to carry on donating are they? It’s a predicament that only a completely ruthless bastard could solve. I’m available for any task deemed too controversial. Good rates, and if you book me once I won’t charge for a second booking. My rates start at 10 quid rising depending on the complexity. If you’re skint, I take fruit salads (the confectionery ) and anything with licorice in.
Count me in for "ruthless tasks". I would definitely do the PM job for nothing. Confectionery, (without licorice), would be a bonus.
Tackling political party funding is the place to start. There needs to be a very low ceiling - say £1000 maximum from any one donor. And, of course, closing all of the many loopholes, which allow people to bypass the rules.
You can join if you like but I’m not sure how you’d fit in, not wanting licorice might be frowned upon. You’ll need to sharpen up on your sarcasm skills too.
Anything that can be done to tighten up on funding should be done. But as you say it’s a start point. There are plenty of other things that governments have exploited, the last scabby government found plenty of loopholes that were detrimental to ordinary people.
Sorry about the licorice - but at least we're not going to be in-fighting over confectionery. :-)
The last lot didn't bother with loopholes. They went big. Funnelling millions to their pals through the Covid VIP Lane. More a Grand Canyon than loophole!
Sarcasm? That's the first time anyone has EVER picked me up on not being sarcastic enough! I must be losing the knack. As someone who likes to think of themselves as the child of Basil Fawlty and Victor Meldrew, that puts my very existence into question.
The Swift thing is infuriating, but maybe we're getting to the Jump the Shark moment where people will think "jesus fucking christ, what has happened to us?".
I love Starmer's anti-populism schtick, the winter fuel repayments policy is unapolegetically an ass-kicker policy. The question that gives me anxiety, based on how powerful public outrage was vs the Tories, is whether the media and public outrage could take him down?
The flames can be stoked, but is this government fireproof? Like you, I think, I just want results that fix the mess and get us back to being a serious country in a difficult modern age. If Starmer just lets himself become this hate figure, will anyone care about the results? I suppose that's the big experiment.
I agree to all of this I'm no Starmer cheerleader but all this faux scandal shit post reporting on Taylor swift tickets etc by the same arseholes who willingly turned blind eyes to mass amounts of tory corruption and sleaze for decades can get in the bin. It's crap and cheap and we deserve better as a nation from our media outlets. It feels like the longest build up to an autumn budget in my lifetime I am actually looking forward to political discourse and policy being in the headlines again. I'm also waiting with baited breath for the new working deal and Employers Bill to land as in my profession for good or bad it is going to send shockwaves of change in an already fragile stretched labour market thanks to bloody brexit. Cal was down the island with his
grandad the day they filmed the last ever episode of Gavin and Stacey and he met the cast but had no idea who any of them were! Bloody typical.
Once again Ian you have my heartfelt thanks for your writing and assessment of the state of affairs
All good, all good.
That Waterstones thing... Is that the largest private collection of 1960s 'Teach Yourself' books on the shelf behind you ?
Are you trying to promote the power of autodidacticism ?
How could I possibly refuse an offer from the Fuckbot 2000 (copyright Dorian Lynskey)?
Ian, love your writing, and political research and commentary. The criticism to level against Starmer (and Reeves) is on their understanding of political economy and power. Everything is contingent on growth, measured by GDP. They should have the intelligence to redefine growth, but that seems beyond them. If they succeed despite themselves, any money and value will not accrue to the British people. That, not T Swift tickets, is bordering on the criminal. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whos-charge-can-we-stop-handover-economic-political-power-pearson-x0blc/?trackingId=AyxS6gtNT6vzUFtrUDD%2BaQ%3D%3D
We expect Burley to say <whatever>. What grips my nuts and is driving me towards getting rid of my telly licence is the Godawfulfucking bias of K'berg and Mason on the Beeb. We pay their wages and deserve neutrality FFSAKES 😡
I look forward to Friday mornings in a way I never did before discovering your work! I find it incredibly reassuring that I’m not alone in my thinking. Please keep being the voice of reason and sanity (along with a few others) in an otherwise crazy and unpleasant world. Thank you