Oh, Edwin Poots! I did think of titling this post “Poots, Poots, Poots, marching up and down again” but thought better of it. I’ve gratuitously used it here instead. So the DUP elect a ‘Young Earth Creationist’ as their leader on a platform of consensus. What could possibly go wrong? Well, turns out the answer was everything; once in post he completely ignored his colleagues and merrily went his own way leading to his swift defenestration. Not a great look for the DUP as a serious political party.
Gratifying to see that ShitEd and the LibDems are still very much up for puerile photo ops. Having convincingly won the Amersham & Cheshunt By Election from the Conservatives – HS2 and housing development major factors – causing the LibDems to oppose development on a local level while being in favour of it on a national level – neat trick eh? So ShitEd poses knocking down a blue wall with an orange hammer – honestly – if Playschool did media events… It’s about as sophisticated as wearing ‘Bollocks to Brexit’ tshirts.
Much weeping, wailing, cheering and general kerfuffle in the Bubble following the Batley & Spen By Election result. Predictably, Starmer ranted about it being an ‘important win’ and ‘Labour is back’. Now, for the life of me, converting a majority of 3525 in 2019 (worst national Labour performance since 1983) into one of 323, eighteen months into a Conservative Parliament does not look anything like victory to me.
On that theme I am gravely concerned that there is no credible Opposition to the Government. It’s not about the size of the Conservative majority, Labour has enough seats to be a credible party of Opposition (as opposed to the Official party…) should it choose to be so. It doesn’t. Try as I might I cannot see Labour as a Government in waiting nor can I see Starmer as a future Prime Minister. Why? Because I don’t see them having a coherent policy offering capable of engaging the sections of the electorate that they have systematically driven away over the last two decades or so. They are now only talking amongst themselves about themselves. Who does Labour represent now? It’s activists and possibly unionised public sector workers because the heartlands have long gone. They are rapidly becoming as irrelevant as the LibDems. Part of me laughs, but Democracy needs the stimulus and challenge of effective Opposition to the Government to flourish, absent that we drift further down the road to tyranny – driven by good intentions naturally but a benevolent tyranny is still a tyranny.
Hysterical excitement for the Euros results. England are doing better than expected and, indeed, better than they have for many years. Be still my fluttering heart – it’s only a game. More amusing, naturally, is that we defeated Germany to get through and Switzerland beat France. Oh and Scotland were knocked out after a wild burst of unjustified optimism following their goalless draw with England. Heavily plugged as a ‘Must Win’ i.e. ‘Can’t Lose’ game for both sides this was always the most likely result. It happens pretty much every competition that Scotland qualifies for – does anyone remember ‘We’re on the march with Ally’s Army’? Late seventies if memory serves. So insane optimism followed rapidly by crushing despair as the team stumble and fall at the first or second hurdle. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh. That said, the trainloads of Scottish football fans returning Northwards with Covid to remember the occasion by could be viewed as the 21st Century equivalent of the sealed Lenin train sent by Germany into Russia.
A ray of good news breaks through – it looks like Baroness ‘Marzipan’ Harding has been ruled out of contention for the Head of the NHS job. Why do I call her ‘Marzipan’? Well, aficionados of ‘The Thick of It’ will recall the “About as much use as a marzipan dildo” insult and with her name being Dido (the ‘l’ being invisible as well as silent, obviously) it seemed fitting especially post her less than stellar performance at TalkTalk (even without the hack by two teenagers which stands out for me as ‘How Not To Manage An Incident’) and if you add the Test and Trace farrago it seems even more fitting. I can’t, offhand, think of anyone less suited for the job. She does, however, reinforce my suspicion that Management Consultants charge eye wateringly large sums of money to provide plausible reasons and justifications for whatever the CEO/Executive level want to do rather than actually come up with novel, original and useful insights themselves. After all if they knew the Secret of Success would they not be merrily tearing the arse out of it in their own enterprise rather than selling it on to others? Just a thought.