Yesterday furnished us with a very significant clue.
In a post several weeks ago I described the then by-election candidate's demeanour thus:
Burnham makes a pretty unconvincing saviour of the nation. He comes across as an odd combination of entitled, nervous and petulant.
Obviously, I'm still fishing around for a good understanding of the man, who's been out of the national gaze for a long time. He is without doubt an unusual party leader and PM. For example, I believe I'm correct in saying he's the first post-war leader of either of the two trad Major Parties not to have come directly from the ranks of the existing Cabinet / Shadow Cabinet (need to check Alec Douglas Home). Of those who went to an English university at all, he's the only one from Cambridge.
He seems to have a degree of decisiveness, of cut-and-thrust, maybe even a bit ruthless (more so than Sadiq Khan, clearly, who also plotted the same strategy for becoming PM but fell at the critical hurdle, somewhat to my surprise.[1]) He is obviously also ambitious, and always has been. And an extremely personable guy, who commands affection (we'll find out about his command of loyalty as time goes on). But although these things are good and even necessary, it's not necessarily sufficient: there's also that streak of domesticity, in the sense of not-really-made-for-the-global-league. Like one of those really good, popular sportsmen (I'm thinking rugby, soccer, cricket) who makes a huge contribution for his club team, is absolutely idolised by the supporters of that club, but never makes it as an international - and you sort-of know why. The step-up to test match sport is a big one, and not everybody can make it.
I could go on (as you know), and certainly will over the coming months.
Anyhow, to yesterday's big clue. We all saw it in realtime. His Big First-Day Announcement, the removal of VAT on electricity, is duly wheeled out. What a brilliant quick-win, a declaration of intent! To be 'funded' by scrapping[2] digital ID - even better!! And then, only 12 hours out of retirement, along comes Darren Jones who torpedoes it in the space of a single tweet. In Burnham's Brave New World of No More Hostile Briefing! Hahahah.
But here's the thing. Starmer got away with sheer murder as regards adverse media coverage, for many months before the last GE, and many weeks thereafter. But HMS Burnham, being torpedoed having barely left harbour, instantly became the main headline across all meejah!
The difference? The meejah instinctively feared Starmer: he has the air of a potentially very vindictive person (with a track record to boot). With the position he commanded from about 2023 onwards, nobody was about to piss on his shoes - not until they knew they'd got him cold (on the freebies thing). But we see very clearly - On Day One! - that even with Burnham's massive Parliamentary majority, and popularity, and the gallons of early-days goodwill sloshing around, the meejah - including the Beeb - have no fear of retribution at all.
Is this just a function of Labour's weak position in the polls? I don't think so. No, it's a judgement on Young Andy's personality. That he likes to be liked is a commonplace observation. But the meejah mob sees something else: it reckons he's soft. We're in the territory young officers are always warned against when getting a bit too matey with their soldiers. If you become One Of The Boys, very soon you'll be Just One Of The Boys. Respect gone. Doom.
Andy (mate!), it's a crisis: remember these words.
And now ... Listen great things... We must straight make head / Therefore let our alliance be combined / Our best friends made, our means stretched. / And let us presently go sit in council / How covert matters may be best disclosed /And open perils surest answered. ... For we are at the stake / And bayed about with many enemies / And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear / Millions of mischiefs.
ND
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[1] So he may indeed be as ill as he looks
4 comments:
Glad to see Miliband sidelined. Hope he enjoys the brown nosing.
What comes next is more difficult. A lot of criticism is aimed at HM Treasury but I can't see Healey winkling the mandarins out their shells or dishing the P45s. Exactly where growth will come from is hard to see and likely slow to emerge if at all.
As for high wage, I reckon that ship sailed 40 years ago. Easier to offshore and dump the problem of creating an educated and motivated workforce on HMG (failed). Leaving HMG with a big benefits bill and all the rest. Look also at what has happened to France and now Germany. The high wage economies are USA (bits of), Luxembourg (financial fiddles), Switzerland (stashing loot), Germany (for now), Australia (coal and iron), Austria (dodgy dealings), Belgium (less said the better), Norway (obvs), Netherlands and UK. There is a message there somewhere.
Not obvious who to copy to liven our economy up. The euphoria lasted ooooh about three seconds.
The Parliamentary Labour Party cosplaying as government are utterly useless. That they chose Burnham as their saviour tells you how successful he will be. The dearth of talent means no hope of an actual saviour before the next general election.
I think of him as the Manchester Mussolini: entitled, vain, and incompetent. His big speech was the equivalent of saying he'd make the trains run on time. And of course he won't.
On the other hand Benito did drain the marshes: Andy's equivalent would be to build lots of houses. And of course he won't.
I quite like Miliband's appointment to the Foreign Office. It looks like a poisoned chalice. Go on, Ed. Make nice with Trump. Talk your way out of the nasty things you said about him. Or, as the old Soviet joke nearly went, You pretend to apologise and he'll pretend to believe you.
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