Things Keir Starmer is NOT doing that I quite like.
1. Not giving us fantasy budgets that crash the economy and wipe £10k off my pension pot overnight.
2. Not offering government contracts to besties/donors/scammers so that they can buy themselves new yachts.
3. Not telling us to follow a load of rules to 'keep us safe' and then ignoring them and having a party with all his mates.
4. Not being ambushed by a cake.
5. Not telling us he's going to level up the country left, right and Chelsea and then doing nothing whatsoever about it.
6. Not telling us he's going to build 400 new hospitals by tomorrow tea time - and then doing nothing about it.
7. Not driving large construction equipment through piles of plastic bricks with some inane slogan printed on them.
8. Not hiding from journalists in a fridge.
9. Not standing on any public stage anywhere and spaffing out a load of lies about stuff.
10. Not sitting in his country house working on personal enrichment projects whilst ignoring the business of government.
Things Keir Starmer is doing that I really like.
1. Working for the country.
2. Showing dignity and conforming to the Nolan principles.
3. Trying to improve stuff despite the constant torrent of inane shouting from the media about tax cuts, tax increases, spending cuts, overspending, flagwaving, not flagwaving, channel crossings, visas, two tier justice, Jimmy Saville, Brexit, rejoining the EU, emptying the dustbins, net zero, energy costs, trade contracts, the Sycamore gap, Farage, Farage, Farage, Farage.
4. Supporting Ukraine against an evil aggressor.
5. Turning up for work (vs the anywhere but Clacton tour)
6. Leading a political party that is NOT riddled with Hitler loving racist nutjobs.
7. Offering us hope that houses are going to be built, net zero is going to be achieved, the NHS is going to get better, defence spending is going up, even if all this can't be delivered by tomorrow tea time (media I'm looking at you).
8. Generally being decent and showing that he understands public service.
The postwar period in Germany was known as "die Bleierne Zeit" - "the leaden time" - the country has suffered military defeat, most of its political leaders had been disgraced by their at least passive complicity in fascism, its industry was in ruins, it had lost territory and was an international pariah. It took a generation for the country to recover its sense of self-worth and for its economy and society to regrow. I'm not saying that Brexit was on the same scale of depravity or calamity, but I think that the UK is going through its own "leaden time", with its political leaders lacking credibility, the country isolated on the world stage and its population dazed and confused. I hope that it doesn't take another twenty years to recover, but the omens are not looking good.
I agree, Nick W. But whence the Gruppe 47? Will we see a flood like Aichinger, Bachmann, Böll, Celan, Eich, Enzensberger, Grass, Handke, Johnson, Lenz, Richter, Walser, and Weiss ... to name the ones on my bookshelf? I doubt it: in the 1947-67 period, Germany spun political lead into literary gold. Not in the next decades.
I've read quite a lot of stuff by the authors you mention but was a bit fazed as I didn't know that there was a German Martin Walser as well as the Swiss Robert Walser...
I've said this before. The SNP, Scottish Greens and the other Indy parties (Alba etc) do NOT accept Brexit as the status quo. I like NT's writing generally but he his usual political antennae don't seem to be functioning about politics here in Scotland.
The fact that you talk about the SNP and Scottish Greens as if they're in anyway rational parties, and not as off in la la land as I'm sure your accuse Reform and Jenrick/Tories as, shows how far the left have fallen.
The Scottish Greens facilitating the Gender Self ID bill, with Sturgeon and Sarwar whipping MSPs to support, at a stroke makes them all bad faith actors.
You obviously don't live in Scotland, as I do. For all their shortcomings the SNP have actually made a decent fist of running the country. We have all kinds of socially beneficial things which folk south of the border don't have - free uni tuition, free prescriptions, free travel on buses for the young and the over 60s, the authoritarian anti-protest laws of the last Tory govt don't apply here...
So well that despite all the extra spending NHS Scotland lavishes, you still have some of the worst drugs related deaths and chronic health issues in Europe, the one thing Sturgeon was put on Earth to achieve ie Scottish independence is further out of sight than a while back, and the anti science and anti rationality debacle of Self ID nearly became law.
The Scottish govt has been thwarted by Westminster in trying to deal with drug deaths - it's a very cynical play by Westminster. Holyrood wants to bring in injecting rooms and decriminalise, but westminster won't let it as drugs is not a devolved matter. Then people like you can point the finger at Scotland . Self ID was a misstep granted, but my and my family's experience of the Scottish NHS has been brilliant. And Thiel won't get his claws into our data, unlike everyone in England's. Chronic health issues - well poverty worsened by the Brexit which a large majority of Scots voted against in a damp and colder climate than England's doesn't help.
Yes a few mistakes, but life here is better under the SNP than it would be under Labour or the Tories, both wed to neoliberalism and Brexit.
I've seen Swinney's consistent regret that the Self ID bill failed. Politicians who deny physical reality really cannot be taken seriously. Shame, considering Scotland's proud Enlightenment history re truth and bravery.
I'm afraid you'll have to try a bit harder to convince me Brexit has led to poverty outcomes in Scotland and greater drug use.
What drives me insane is the obsession with reelection, especially in a country where you have the incredible blessing of 5 year terms and basically no veto points to stop a parliamentary majority you can change a country in 5 year’s
In 5 years LBJ ended segregation and passed the Great Society and still had time for a disastrous war in Asia
In 5 years Attlee nationalised industry, created the NHS and built the welfare state
Keating pared native title, created superannuation, passed competition policy and organised APEC all in 4 years
Hell even Thatcher did basically everything she did that endured between 83 & 88
So stop obsessing about reelection, just get on with changing the country, who knows in 2029 the public might just reward you for it
Why do you keep saying all the major parties are pro-Brexit when the Liberal Democrats are clearly in favour of re-joining the Customs Union and Single Market, as a step on the road to re-joining the EU, after a referendum? How is that a pro-Brexit position? Also, if there are loads of people just waiting for a Re-Join party, how come they did so badly in 2019? Your comparison of Rishi Sunak in the 2024 election to a drunk driver is unworthy of you. You should think of a more appropriate simile. And, when you say "all of the parties are wildly disinterested", I assume you mean "uninterested"?
The Lib Dems are in favour of rejoining the customs union - rejoining the single market is explicitly not their policy at present. "As a step to rejoining the EU" - I don't see how adopting what is essentially Theresa May's Brexit is any way a step towards rejoining the EU in any sense. If you are talking about the "Rejoin Party" and why is did so badly, parties that have no national coverage, no money, no notable candidates and no activists do very badly in democratic contests, whatever they stand for.
Nick consistently overlooks this. I get that the Lib Dems' position isn't as radical / ambitious or as urgent as Nick would like, but the party's policy is explicitly to rejoin the Single Market.
Whether it would be better to go all out / big bang or not, the incrementalism that the party have chosen can't help but lead to emphasising the first major step (rejoining the CU) over a later one (rejoining the SM). That doesn't mean the plan isn't to do both.
I find it depressing that we only change parties because the previous administration turned out to be incompetent, I suppose there’ll be a certain amount of amusement in watching Farage trying to deal with the demands of the greedy old nazis who voted for him
Yeah well, whilst campaigning against Brexit on the streets of the Red Wall town in England where I lived at the time, the only reason Brexies ever gave me for leaving as "to send the immigrants home", by which they meant the third or fourth generation UK citizens of south Asian heritage. Couple this ignorance of the fact that Brexit would have had no bearing on sending UK citizens "home", with the way that the Brexies fell onto Johnson's idea that they could have their cake and eat it, and I think that that makes the original description pretty apt.
Interesting Nick, but you think we should take Reform's narrative seriously after Farage's fantasy £80 billion black hole budget deficit proposals? Reform's narrative success is partly due to the fact it is still that of a protest party. It's a different matter being in government and having to make choices in the real world.
I'm also somewhat disappointed with Labour's record BUT the Tories remain a clown show, as you say' and in my view Farage should never be allowed near the levers of power. I'll always cast my vote for the party that is best placed to keep those others out.
On the rejoin issue, surely it's a nonstarter until there's enough of a cross party consensus, otherwise the parties in opposition will simply threaten to rip up the agreement all over again.
The problem with citing public support for rejoin is that it's not enough and the public is clearly fickle.
What is always left out is the fact that the EU want to be sure we have stopped doing the hokey kokey. Perhaps most states would trust us but enough will demand certainty before dropping their veto.
What do you think of the fact that both Reform & the Tories' "Brexit betrayal" attack line on Labour's Brexit mitigation deal* with the EU has almost sunk without trace?
* I think many Brits understand, that Brexit is so harmful as to need mitigation/undoing.
Not yet a subscriber, but after this, where you have, in the first part anyway, written, much more capably that me, my thoughts, I may well sign up. Not sure I quite follow your 'Farage as PM in waiting' thread, but I know many who agree and I bloodywell hope you're all wrong! 🙏
I don't buy that "60% aren't happy with Brexit" means that a campaign to rejoin is realistic. I think it's much more likely that if such a campaign were to gain any media traction, a large share of that 60% would promptly echo Brenda from Bristol.
Things Keir Starmer is NOT doing that I quite like.
1. Not giving us fantasy budgets that crash the economy and wipe £10k off my pension pot overnight.
2. Not offering government contracts to besties/donors/scammers so that they can buy themselves new yachts.
3. Not telling us to follow a load of rules to 'keep us safe' and then ignoring them and having a party with all his mates.
4. Not being ambushed by a cake.
5. Not telling us he's going to level up the country left, right and Chelsea and then doing nothing whatsoever about it.
6. Not telling us he's going to build 400 new hospitals by tomorrow tea time - and then doing nothing about it.
7. Not driving large construction equipment through piles of plastic bricks with some inane slogan printed on them.
8. Not hiding from journalists in a fridge.
9. Not standing on any public stage anywhere and spaffing out a load of lies about stuff.
10. Not sitting in his country house working on personal enrichment projects whilst ignoring the business of government.
Things Keir Starmer is doing that I really like.
1. Working for the country.
2. Showing dignity and conforming to the Nolan principles.
3. Trying to improve stuff despite the constant torrent of inane shouting from the media about tax cuts, tax increases, spending cuts, overspending, flagwaving, not flagwaving, channel crossings, visas, two tier justice, Jimmy Saville, Brexit, rejoining the EU, emptying the dustbins, net zero, energy costs, trade contracts, the Sycamore gap, Farage, Farage, Farage, Farage.
4. Supporting Ukraine against an evil aggressor.
5. Turning up for work (vs the anywhere but Clacton tour)
6. Leading a political party that is NOT riddled with Hitler loving racist nutjobs.
7. Offering us hope that houses are going to be built, net zero is going to be achieved, the NHS is going to get better, defence spending is going up, even if all this can't be delivered by tomorrow tea time (media I'm looking at you).
8. Generally being decent and showing that he understands public service.
Thanks for reading.
I'll carry on subscribing because you continue to reassure me that I'm not going mad. I'm not happy with how things are but I think you're right.
Your continued interest and support is most appreciated. All I ever try and do here (and elsewhere) is call it like I see it.
The postwar period in Germany was known as "die Bleierne Zeit" - "the leaden time" - the country has suffered military defeat, most of its political leaders had been disgraced by their at least passive complicity in fascism, its industry was in ruins, it had lost territory and was an international pariah. It took a generation for the country to recover its sense of self-worth and for its economy and society to regrow. I'm not saying that Brexit was on the same scale of depravity or calamity, but I think that the UK is going through its own "leaden time", with its political leaders lacking credibility, the country isolated on the world stage and its population dazed and confused. I hope that it doesn't take another twenty years to recover, but the omens are not looking good.
I agree, Nick W. But whence the Gruppe 47? Will we see a flood like Aichinger, Bachmann, Böll, Celan, Eich, Enzensberger, Grass, Handke, Johnson, Lenz, Richter, Walser, and Weiss ... to name the ones on my bookshelf? I doubt it: in the 1947-67 period, Germany spun political lead into literary gold. Not in the next decades.
I've read quite a lot of stuff by the authors you mention but was a bit fazed as I didn't know that there was a German Martin Walser as well as the Swiss Robert Walser...
I've said this before. The SNP, Scottish Greens and the other Indy parties (Alba etc) do NOT accept Brexit as the status quo. I like NT's writing generally but he his usual political antennae don't seem to be functioning about politics here in Scotland.
The fact that you talk about the SNP and Scottish Greens as if they're in anyway rational parties, and not as off in la la land as I'm sure your accuse Reform and Jenrick/Tories as, shows how far the left have fallen.
The Scottish Greens facilitating the Gender Self ID bill, with Sturgeon and Sarwar whipping MSPs to support, at a stroke makes them all bad faith actors.
You obviously don't live in Scotland, as I do. For all their shortcomings the SNP have actually made a decent fist of running the country. We have all kinds of socially beneficial things which folk south of the border don't have - free uni tuition, free prescriptions, free travel on buses for the young and the over 60s, the authoritarian anti-protest laws of the last Tory govt don't apply here...
So well that despite all the extra spending NHS Scotland lavishes, you still have some of the worst drugs related deaths and chronic health issues in Europe, the one thing Sturgeon was put on Earth to achieve ie Scottish independence is further out of sight than a while back, and the anti science and anti rationality debacle of Self ID nearly became law.
The Scottish govt has been thwarted by Westminster in trying to deal with drug deaths - it's a very cynical play by Westminster. Holyrood wants to bring in injecting rooms and decriminalise, but westminster won't let it as drugs is not a devolved matter. Then people like you can point the finger at Scotland . Self ID was a misstep granted, but my and my family's experience of the Scottish NHS has been brilliant. And Thiel won't get his claws into our data, unlike everyone in England's. Chronic health issues - well poverty worsened by the Brexit which a large majority of Scots voted against in a damp and colder climate than England's doesn't help.
Yes a few mistakes, but life here is better under the SNP than it would be under Labour or the Tories, both wed to neoliberalism and Brexit.
I've seen Swinney's consistent regret that the Self ID bill failed. Politicians who deny physical reality really cannot be taken seriously. Shame, considering Scotland's proud Enlightenment history re truth and bravery.
I'm afraid you'll have to try a bit harder to convince me Brexit has led to poverty outcomes in Scotland and greater drug use.
Sarwar is Labour not SNP or Greens
Oh, I know, a plague on all their houses.
What drives me insane is the obsession with reelection, especially in a country where you have the incredible blessing of 5 year terms and basically no veto points to stop a parliamentary majority you can change a country in 5 year’s
In 5 years LBJ ended segregation and passed the Great Society and still had time for a disastrous war in Asia
In 5 years Attlee nationalised industry, created the NHS and built the welfare state
Keating pared native title, created superannuation, passed competition policy and organised APEC all in 4 years
Hell even Thatcher did basically everything she did that endured between 83 & 88
So stop obsessing about reelection, just get on with changing the country, who knows in 2029 the public might just reward you for it
Why do you keep saying all the major parties are pro-Brexit when the Liberal Democrats are clearly in favour of re-joining the Customs Union and Single Market, as a step on the road to re-joining the EU, after a referendum? How is that a pro-Brexit position? Also, if there are loads of people just waiting for a Re-Join party, how come they did so badly in 2019? Your comparison of Rishi Sunak in the 2024 election to a drunk driver is unworthy of you. You should think of a more appropriate simile. And, when you say "all of the parties are wildly disinterested", I assume you mean "uninterested"?
The Lib Dems are in favour of rejoining the customs union - rejoining the single market is explicitly not their policy at present. "As a step to rejoining the EU" - I don't see how adopting what is essentially Theresa May's Brexit is any way a step towards rejoining the EU in any sense. If you are talking about the "Rejoin Party" and why is did so badly, parties that have no national coverage, no money, no notable candidates and no activists do very badly in democratic contests, whatever they stand for.
From the Liberal Democrat manifesto 2024;
"Finally, once ties of trust and friendship have been renewed, and the damage
the Conservatives have caused to trade between the UK and EU has begun to
be repaired, we would aim to place the UK-EU relationship on a more formal
and stable footing by seeking to join the Single Market.
All these measures will help to restore the British economy and the prosperity
and opportunities of its citizens, and are also essential steps on the road to EU
membership, which remains our longer-term objective."
Nick consistently overlooks this. I get that the Lib Dems' position isn't as radical / ambitious or as urgent as Nick would like, but the party's policy is explicitly to rejoin the Single Market.
Whether it would be better to go all out / big bang or not, the incrementalism that the party have chosen can't help but lead to emphasising the first major step (rejoining the CU) over a later one (rejoining the SM). That doesn't mean the plan isn't to do both.
I find it depressing that we only change parties because the previous administration turned out to be incompetent, I suppose there’ll be a certain amount of amusement in watching Farage trying to deal with the demands of the greedy old nazis who voted for him
Did AG Hermer write your speech?
Remember Clinton's "basket of deplorables" and Harris's 2024 narrative that only Nazis and fascists vote for Trump worked so well.
Unfortunately, she had a point.
Keep at it, the nazi/fascist jibe doesn't have any effect other than to isolate discourse even further.
I like your description of Reform voters
Of course you do, it's all the left has.
Yeah well, whilst campaigning against Brexit on the streets of the Red Wall town in England where I lived at the time, the only reason Brexies ever gave me for leaving as "to send the immigrants home", by which they meant the third or fourth generation UK citizens of south Asian heritage. Couple this ignorance of the fact that Brexit would have had no bearing on sending UK citizens "home", with the way that the Brexies fell onto Johnson's idea that they could have their cake and eat it, and I think that that makes the original description pretty apt.
Interesting Nick, but you think we should take Reform's narrative seriously after Farage's fantasy £80 billion black hole budget deficit proposals? Reform's narrative success is partly due to the fact it is still that of a protest party. It's a different matter being in government and having to make choices in the real world.
I'm also somewhat disappointed with Labour's record BUT the Tories remain a clown show, as you say' and in my view Farage should never be allowed near the levers of power. I'll always cast my vote for the party that is best placed to keep those others out.
On the rejoin issue, surely it's a nonstarter until there's enough of a cross party consensus, otherwise the parties in opposition will simply threaten to rip up the agreement all over again.
The problem with citing public support for rejoin is that it's not enough and the public is clearly fickle.
What is always left out is the fact that the EU want to be sure we have stopped doing the hokey kokey. Perhaps most states would trust us but enough will demand certainty before dropping their veto.
Nice to feel I’m not alone. For me it’s the lack of vision that’s most disappointing. What are they trying to achieve? I have no idea.
I like your argument. No one in UK politics is prepared to do the hard graft of shifting the dial back towards Europe. It's very depressing
What do you think of the fact that both Reform & the Tories' "Brexit betrayal" attack line on Labour's Brexit mitigation deal* with the EU has almost sunk without trace?
* I think many Brits understand, that Brexit is so harmful as to need mitigation/undoing.
Not yet a subscriber, but after this, where you have, in the first part anyway, written, much more capably that me, my thoughts, I may well sign up. Not sure I quite follow your 'Farage as PM in waiting' thread, but I know many who agree and I bloodywell hope you're all wrong! 🙏
Uninterested not disinterested
Voting lol.
I don't buy that "60% aren't happy with Brexit" means that a campaign to rejoin is realistic. I think it's much more likely that if such a campaign were to gain any media traction, a large share of that 60% would promptly echo Brenda from Bristol.