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Monday 10 May 2021

Fake Politics



Cripes – why did Sir Keir bother with a reshuffle? This is surely not the time to dwell, head in hands, on the miserable quality of Labour MPs available to fill the role of shadow minister. Useless, inexperienced, malevolent pettifogging loons - and those are generally the best of the bunch.

It leaves us with a conclusion which keeps suggesting itself. At least one of the two major political parties needs to be completely dissolved to make way for a new party without the baggage of the old. The main candidate for constructive dissolution at the moment seems to be the tired old Labour socialists rather than the newbie Conservative socialists.

Without something as drastic as this we seem doomed to continue with what we have now, fake politics - or wall to wall socialism with no opportunity to change anything at all through the ballot box.

4 comments:

DiscoveredJoys said...

The advantage that the Tories have is pragmatism. They have pivoted around a key policy, such as repeal of the Corn Laws, or Free Trade, and reformed. Arguably Margaret Thatcher pivoted around Privatisation and Boris around Brexit.

Labour have dogmatism. The idea of Socialism runs strong (temporarily sidestepped by Tony Blair and hated for it) and only the client groups change.

Pragmatism beats dogmatism in the long run, and I wonder if the softer greener Tories are preparing the ground for another pivot in a few years to match the changing demographics - and retain power.

MrMC said...

France is slowly realising the dangers of the changing demgraphics and how it threatens everything the west holds dear about it's culture laws and so much more.
Or rather French powers are slowly realising it, the poor sods, like us, who have to live with it everyday have known it for all too long and have been ignored or labelled as racist.

Sam Vega said...

I think the new Conservative socialism is accidental, and probably temporary. Boris was forced into it by the necessity of being seen to deal with covid, and that - along with socially liberal attitudes on race, sexuality, and personal morality - means that he is squatting on Starmer's territory. Starmer's problem is that he cannot field a manifesto or a coherent opposition, because Boris is already doing the stuff Starmer wants to do.

After covid, Boris may shift. He will have to develop more fiscal probity, because the economy won't stand it. He might even make a conservative reform or two. That would allow Starmer room to manoeuvre. But with luck his party will implode and Momentum will be revealed in all its malevolent glory. And we might even see a new right-wing proper conservative party emerge to counter Boris's sogginess. Perhaps Tice's Reform UK, if they can get their act together...

A K Haart said...

DJ - yes pragmatism is a Tory advantage but the problem for voters is that this can mean climbing onto media bandwagons which should be ignored as harmful distractions. The longer term advantage for voters is that the Tories may react pragmatically when the wheels fall off, the disadvantage being that this may be too late.

MrMC - I agree. We'll have to live with the damage now, or rather our grandchildren will.

Sam - we may end up with a proper conservative party, but climate change is deep totalitarian politics with a scientific mask and it either has to be challenged or ignored. At the moment there appears to be no willingness to do either.

Boris is squatting on Starmer's territory but it seems to work very well for him and it isn't easy to see why he would change except around the edges. Labour imploding would change things of course, but that seems too much to hope for.