A Long, Long Time

Hello, dear reader!

They say a week is a long time in politics. It seems two is an absolute age.

Yes, it appears I chose the wrong week to be unwell. The week I faced up to writing my weekly blog post with a deep-down, full-body weariness and a complete lack of inspiration, turned out to be the week I missed the news story of the year by twenty-four little hours.

Actually, no, scratch that. I think it was less. Although time does seem to concentrate and contract when you’re talking about Liz Truss’ high speed car crash of a premiership, doesn’t it?

The point remains, however. There would, if not for an already busy day and a lingering, possibly MS related, fatigue, have been material for a blog post and a half (although it would have meant politics twice in two weeks, rather than, um, twice in two posts)

And then they go and do it again.

The Cons Have It
When I say ‘they’, I of course refer to that bafflingly long-lived institution known as The Conservative Party, because even in the week since my last abortive posting date, they’ve managed to be ‘interesting’ enough to warrant mention in what is (supposedly) a personal blog.

We have a new Prime Minister, you see. Not one I voted for, probably not one you voted for (unless you’re a paid-up party member who decided to read past my artfully camouflaged slur against the Tories), but a new one, just the same.

But don’t worry, this one, a man who is reportedly almost twice as rich as The King, understands the struggles of the common man. He has his finger on the pulse; his ear to the ground, and other anatomically unlikely metaphors. He is, in short a man who knows what he’s doing (unless he’s trying to fill someone else’s car up with petrol for a photo-opportunity), a man who knows money, because he has a lot of it, and knows the markets and the banks, too, because he was, according to The Times, one of a group of hedge fund managers who allegedly made £100million from a stock market bet that may or may not have had a material part in causing the 2008 financial crisis.

And he’d already put together his crack team, to stand firmly behind him (knives optional), including one Suella Braverman, who returns to Cabinet after taking a few days away to reflect on the inadvisability of sharing ‘a draft written statement on migration, deemed highly sensitive because it related to immigration rules, which potentially have major implications for market-sensitive growth forecasts’ (The Guardian) after being sacked for the same.

Same Old
So, all in all, I think we can all rest easy in the knowledge that the priority this ‘new’ government, a government that bears no relation or similarity to the governments of the last twelve years, holds most dearly, is the life and livelihoods of ordinary people such as you and me. 

These are selfless, self-sacrificing, servants of the people not looking for personal advancement or enrichment, not using the economy or the general population as some credo-driven experiment in neo-liberal philosophy, or the pieces in a rigged game. No, these people have no stake in such a game; no trust-fund, no short positions, no human or employment rights they might be better off without. It is not they, or even the people they invest with, who could possibly benefit. Nope. Not even.

I don’t know what’s worse, the thought that the last twelve years of austerity (austerity 2.0, coming soon to a high street near you!) is an artefact of incompetence or corruption, but until we (hopefully) get our constitutional right to eject this bunch of clown-crooks I guess all we can do is boo from the sidelines at the clown-car as it catches fires and careers through a shop window in one last desperate act of vandalism.

Still, only two more Prime Ministers until Xmas.