I don't understand what the Labour Party is doing. I don't think many non-partisan people do either

I voted Labour at the last election. It was the first time I had ever done so. From the way things are looking at the moment, it will be the last time I ever do so. I just don’t get what they are doing now or what they are about. I have been somewhat patient at coming to this conclusion, but we’re ten months into this government and I feel like I should have an inkling of what they are at least trying to do by now. To be clear, I’m not saying I don’t like what they are trying to do, or that I get what they are trying to do but that I think they are doing it badly, I’m saying I don’t understand what it is they are trying to accomplish at all.

My reasons for voting Labour in 2024 were simple: the Tories were a clown car being driven by a drunk driver and needed to be taken off the road as quickly as possible. I figured Labour either secretly had an agenda, or would come up with one fast once they were in power. If they were hopeless, the Tories would surely rise to occasion.

None of this has unfolded. Labour seem directionless, veering all over the place. The winter fuel allowance is the best example. When they first cut it back, they said it was because they need to make savings somewhere. Okay, fair enough. I continue to believe the Tories complaining about this is ridiculous, by the way - you want to cut the size of the state, but just not the bit where we give money out to rich pensioners? Please. By announcing the policy, Labour were saying that they were willing to cut the size of the state where necessary. Perhaps a strange narrative for a Labour government to adopt, but a coherent one nonetheless, particularly given the Tories suddenly came across like a bunch of bleeding heart socialists over the matter.

U-turning on it, as they have done now, makes zero sense. They look ridiculous as a result. It just seems weak and confused. So, some rich pensioners should get the benefit, but not the really rich ones? How does that work as a narrative? Or take the Get Britain Working white paper, put out by Liz Kendall’s DWP, of which I happen to be a great admirer. The idea is to support people back into work, as many as we can. Great idea. But then, the Workers Rights Bill makes that much harder to do, removing the incentive for employers to make extra hires, particularly to take chances on anyone that has been out of the job market for a while, or doesn’t have a lot of experience - in other words, the very people who we most need to get into work and who will have the toughest time getting hired. The two ideas clash very badly against each other.

That’s before we get into the 15% Employers NI, which revealed so much about Labour’s lack of direction. It was announced as a tax rise that wouldn’t hurt “working people”, yet that’s exactly what it will do. The rise disincentivises employers to take on staff. And before you say, “But what will these companies do, just not hire people?” Yes, that is what they will do. This is exactly how economies shrink - companies hire fewer people, hoping to weather the negative cycle, fewer people are employed, which means they buy less stuff, which means companies hire fewer people because they are selling less stuff…..you get the idea.

Again, my hope was that if Labour were this directionless, the Conservative party would fill the gap. Yet they steadfastly refuse to do so. In fact, as lost as the Labour Party look at present, they are a bastion of great superintendence compared to the Tories. Under Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative party looks like a relic of some bygone era already. Completely out of touch and confused.

The exception is Jenrick, who admittedly does manage to get some cut through - as he did this week with his TFL video. Jenrick filmed himself at the gates of an Underground station, giving fare dodgers a hard time. It got a lot of traction and ruthlessly exposed how a lot of people on the left of politics fail to understand how much social breakdown affects people lower down the socio-economic ladder (much more so outside of London, which was an unintended irony of Jenrick’s post, but I digress). Having said all that, Jenrick’s thing is just doing the Farage tribute act better than anyone else at the moment. And it’s still nowhere close to Nigel himself, let’s be honest here.

And all this adds up to Reform being at around 30-odd percent in the polls, while Labour hover close to 20% and the Tories are in the mid-teens. As much as that might depress many of you, let me give you an upside: it is proof positive that democracy is alive and well in Britain. Like them, hate them, whatever, Reform genuinely deserve to be way in the lead in the polls. Okay, to a large extent by default, but still, they are there because they are the only political party in Britain with a coherent narrative.

Take this example: as many long time readers will know, I don’t like Brexit very much. Around 60% of the country agrees with me on this. But a chunk of that 60% will vote Reform in the near future and I completely get why. When every party is essentially pro-Brexit - which is where we are now, bullshit aside - then why would my position on Brexit affect my vote? More than that, if all the parties agree that Brexit is now the unalterable status quo - which, they all do, whether you want to admit that to yourselves or not - then that confers instant status on Nigel Farage. I mean, he backed Brexit when very few people did, so if all the parties now agree that it was the right thing to do - or the very least, that we shouldn’t rejoin the EU, at least not any time soon - then perhaps Farage could be right about a bunch of other stuff as well? In fact, if we’re stuck with Brexit, at least for the foreseeable future, why not let the man who was the visionary behind it run the country? If you don’t think people will think like this in Stoke-on-Trent, or Teesside, or Grantham, or Scunthorpe, you’re just being wilfully naive at this stage.

A lot of you will unsubscribe after this, particularly those who followed me because I told you we’ll be rejoining the EU sooner than you think, and fair enough. I get it. I will say this to you in parting: I would love to get behind a realistic movement to rejoin the EU. But despite polling being in such a movement’s favour, all of the parties are wildly disinterested, which means there’s nowhere to go. And that means - ironically enough - that Nigel Farage will almost certainly be our next prime minister, put there by a load of people who might otherwise have backed a rejoin party, had such a thing been available. If you back away from liberalism because you think no one is interested, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy - as we are seeing unfold in front of us, right now.