Until now, the Starmer-Reeve style has been to face down - and double-down on - all demands for policy U-turns. It's been more than a style, it's been their carefully-crafted, McSweeney-minted modus operandi: Mr Tough Guy who'll see everyone off by sheer force of political will. Don't like it, O weak-kneed Cabinet colleague? Well, tough titty because you'll be defending it on the Sunday TV politics shows, and here are your lines-to-take. You, too, O snowflake Labour MP? It's backbench obscurity for you, or maybe the loss of the Whip. Everything becomes a virility test for everyone on the government benches.
Looks like Winter Fuel Allowance might just have been a step too far, though - we can see why - and there are plenty of other unpopular policies in the same line of country. It'll be interesting to see how the spin-doctory stuff is handled.
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| Bad Al: master of the Dark Arts |
Of course, covering for U-turns and reverse-ferret operations is meat and drink for the practitioners of the Dark Arts. As Kipling said to Asquith in WW1, you set the policy, I'll find the words. You sense they actually relish the intellectual challenge involved, just as did Syme in 1984. (McSweeney is a bit more of an O'Brien character, if not the full Bad Al Campbell.)
However. Their cunning wheeze for the WFA reversal seems to be: we can, and indeed should do it now - because the economy is in better shape. Thanks to us and our tough decisions!!! See what we did there? Oh, how clever these spinners are.
But this comes out on the day both inflation and government borrowing turn out to be "higher than forecast", and quite noticeably, too (just how stupid are these forecasters?). Some *inconsistency* there?
Don't worry: the masters of Doublethink will be up to the challenge! Of that we may be sure. "2 + 2 = 5", eh?
OS
5 comments:
I'm now inclining to the view that Two Tier Judas is a spoilt Mummy's Boy with an inferiority complex. He has other defects aplenty but perhaps they all trace back to those two characteristics.
As for his cabinet, though - you'd think that contrasting himself with that dim and ignorant gang might cure him of his inferiority complex. Aren't they awful?
I'm looking forward to the "chemical castration" debate. Already the cries of "Alan Turing!" in the Guardian comments are deafening.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/21/liberty-steel-has-not-produced-anything-at-two-key-plants-since-july-2024
"Liberty Steel has produced nothing at two of its key UK plants since July, in a sign of the deep financial difficulties for Britain’s third-biggest steelmaker as it looks for rescue funding. The plants at Rotherham in South Yorkshire and Motherwell in Scotland have not produced any steel for about nine months because of a lack of funds to buy vital materials, with staff on furlough on 85% of their salaries for the duration, according to workers who spoke to the Guardian."
And all that coking coal sat in the ground at Whitehaven.... (I know Rotherham is electric arc - that'll be cheap to run!)
Maybe the leader of a country that can't make steel shouldn't go around giving ultimata to countries that can...
Surely large slabs of the political class (of any stripe) know they are mostly useless, cannot do very much useful and are a bit nervous about being found out. Apart from the likes of Farage, Johnson and that Orange guy who are died in the wool BS artists.
How would you like to balance the books in a post-industrial company where all the services are commonplace and on any computer anywhere? Where anyone of talent will turn their back on the whole show once they have made a crust. At least our notional MD can get rid of the dead wood but our hapless political leaders have to pay benefits to the dead wood - they are all terrified of marches and banner-waving and will fellate any group who threaten such just to shut them up.
Lying and fabrication are the only tools to hand and well paid too.
A hard puzzle is to think what an economy really is. ATM we seem to keep the plates spinning by running around madly but there seems no sensible way to keep the game going. Our politicos dance two steps forward and two steps back but can go nowhere. C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre; c'est de la folie.
Just ponder for a mo who the useless are - most of us. A thought prompted by lying down on a sunlounger alongside hundreds of chubby, well fed, well roasted Europeans. Flying south burning jet fuel and scoffing loads is the growth industry - and there are not many others. Lots and lots of the useless on the books, apres nous le deluge.
Sure I'll take the pills, Scout's Honour so long as you skip the breadknife.
What could possibly go wrong. Just another bit of clickbait that will go nowhere - or cost a fortune and end tragically.
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