But let me be clear, we do not need a new Labour Prime Minister. Even less do we need a new Conservative Prime Minister. And we most certainly do not need Nigel Farage in Number 10, not that I really think he has any ambition to get there, so keen has he been in the past to avoid responsibility, accountability and the loss of personal income that will go with both.
Instead, we need new politics. The rise of the Green Party of England and Wales reflects that fact, but so far the offering is flawed, potentially by policy incoherence, but also by entryism, which will always be a problem for a party in its position, where its popularity is rising so rapidly.
That is why the foundations matter. And it is to those foundations that I want to dedicate my time.
Cometh the Potato. Perhaps as Leader, perhaps in the more eminent position of eminence graisseux. But cometh all the same, eh?
I wonder who would make a worse PM: Ritchie or Triple P?
To be honest, I doubt you could get a smoking paper between them.
Get rid of the TitWhisperer! Get the real tit!
Walter Titty and Walter Mitty.
I like that one. I also like the Triple P one – Pol Pot Polanski.
The Piss Poor Politician.
Except he’s not, is he? Right now he’s carpetbagging very well for himself.
Pride comes before a fall. His support base is fundamentally irreconcilable.
He’ll be out of there before people realise green is not the colour of eco, but of Islam.
There are irreconcilable elements in Reform – eg ‘Red Wall’ voters who want more welfare state and economic interventionism vs those – particularly, in the leadership – who get that a smaller state is not only desirable but also necessary. Currently, Farage is fudging it, but it’s a fault line in Reform….
Apparently Reform decided to go with the LibDem strategy of saying what ever needs to be said to get this big election victory and make a statement and will now regroup for the GE. IIRC that was the Speccie’s James Heale’s take but might been Tim Shipman.
Also according to Tim Shipman their policy groups will start publishing over the next 2 years on the assumption it will be 3 years to the GE. They also had Danny Kruger on their podcast who is working out how they will govern and get their policies through Parliament and if you have time that’s worth a listen.
Whatever you think of Reform they are taking themselves seriously and want to be prepared for government.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ARXTO30G4Y3lJJCmt9neW
I take Reform seriously: I voted Reform on the Glorious 7th. But I have some concerns about how the Reform project could yet implode pre- or post-GE. Their coalition of voters reminds me the one Boris assembled, which proved to be fragile.
Yes, but then, Boris turned out to be an utter cunt with his green shit, Boriswave and EU semi-capitulation.
Norman, you forgot surrendering to the lockdown maniacs in your list of Boris faults.
I don’t know how well you know the ‘Red Wall’, Theo, but in my experience most people there want to work (and many of them do), but resent the tax on their relatively meagre earnings going to support the feckless who’d rather watch daytime TV. And while the ‘triple lock’ has become a bit of a shibboleth, it’s really not very relevant. Over the last 16 years it’s been in operation, the ‘third lock’ (minimum of 2.5% increase irrespective of inflation) has only operated a handful of times, and I can’t see inflation dipping below 2.5% for at least the next decade.
I assume you’ve read Matt Syed in today’s ST.
…most people there [in the Red Wall] want to work (and many of them do), but resent the tax on their relatively meagre earnings going to support the feckless who’d rather watch daytime TV.
Indeed; but their social conservatism is matched by their welfare statism and left-leaning economics. And I was born in Hartlepool, so I know the Red Wall pretty well.
So you’re the monkey!
A monkey hanger, not the monkey.
When did you last go back?
2023. For a funeral.
Yeah its far the easiest route for a politician to raise the min wage and then claim that you’ve helped the people who needed help. If the peeps believe it then its pretty baked in. However if a party did get in on a tide of general dissatisfaction and skip all the rhetoric and abolish the min wage (and raise the tax threshold) come re-election enough people who now find themselves in work and earning more could support the incumbents not through the rhetoric but just the mere fact they’re feeling better about their situation. viz. its the economy stupid.
“I was born in Hartlepool” – moi aussi ! Strictly speaking West Hartlepool, which makes me a cod’s head, not a monkey hanger. 🙂
They have to be elected before they can do what’s necessary. There’ll be an equivalent of the £22B black hole, because there has to be.
Weird how whatever thing is in the headlines is the thing that he’s going to “dedicate my time” to. It will be something else next week.
Perhaps Spud has that fashionable thing, ADHD. Perhaps next he’ll get that other fashionable thing: late-onset liking for sausage. Or the realisation that he’s a girlie, just like his dear papa.
Thanks for the image of Spud parading around in a frock and plastered-on makeup.
…or in a plaid shirt, with an axe. You’re welcome.
Spud’s an adventure playground for trick cyclists – Paranoid Personality Disorder…Schizoid Personality Disorder…Histrionic Personality Disorder…Narcissistic Personality Disorder…OCD…ADHD…delusions of grandeur…? The list could go on and on.
But the answer will still be MOAR TAX
“so far the offering is flawed, potentially by policy incoherence, but also by entryism,”… he says at the same time Richard announces his plan to get him self through the entry with incoherent policies.
ha!
I can’t be bothered to check his blog, but I bet the sycophants who hang on his every word think this is a great idea. Just like they did when he supported Labour, then swithched to the SNP and now the Groans.
Not a coherent original thought between them.
Isn’t yellow the colour of envy?
And it is to those foundations that I want to dedicate my time.
Murphy digs foundations. Disgusting pandering to stereotypes..
He’s perhaps the biggest narcissist I’ve ever encountered.
By the way, who are these ‘entryists’ in the Greens? All I see is a lot of tanned chaps with beards who are keen to reduce global carbon emissions and intend to start with Israel.
@ Interested: do you mean “intend to start with Israelis”?
(Every time I breathe I emit CO2)
“The time for new ideas is now, and in that context, you should read all of this post as, in part, justification to myself for having woken up in the night and spent two hours sketching out, in incomplete form, an explanation for what has happened, which is not ready for publication as yet.”
What an absolutely insufferable fvcking b3llend!
Echoes of the Assyrian King Esar-haddon, one of whose inscriptions says: “I am powerful, I am all powerful, I am a hero, I am gigantic, I am colossal.”
Or Ozymandias, with the “two vast and trunkless legs of stone” amended to “one vast and brainless head of stone.”
Handsome chap too! And the taxation of enemies is well on-brand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_stele_of_Esarhaddon
The king, the offering of whose sacrifices the great gods love,
and whose priesthood [in the temples] they have established forever;
they have presented him their unsparing weapons as a royal gift;
The king, whose sovereignty the lord of lords, Marduk, has exalted,
far above that of the kings of the four quarters,
who has brought all the lands in submission under his feet
who has exacted tribute and tax from them.
(He is) conqueror of his foes, destroyer of his enemies;
(He is) the king whose walk is a storm, and whose deeds a raging wolf.
Before him is a storm-demon, behind him a cloudburst.
The onset of his battle is mighty.
He is a consuming flame, a fire that does not go out.
(He is) the son of Sennacherib, king of the universe, king of Assyria,
son of Sargon, king of the universe, king of Assyria,
viceroy of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad.
(He is of) the eternal seed of priesthood, of Bel-bani,
son of Adasi, who established the kingdom of Assyria,
who at the command of Assur, Shamash, Nabu, and Marduk, the great gods, his lords,
overthrew the servitude of the city of Assur.
I am powerful, I am all powerful.
I am a hero, I am gigantic, I am colossal,
I am honored, I am magnified,
I am without an equal among all kings,
the chosen one of Assur, Nabu, and Marduk,
called by Sin, favorite of Anu,
beloved of the queen, Ishtar, goddess of all;
the unsparing weapon, who utterly destroys the enemy’s land.
So, son of Sargon of Akkad. And a bit of a blowhard you wouldn’t want to invite for dinner.
Wonder if poor old Sargon is disappointed that “Sargon, king of the universe” never caught on. “Of Akkad” sounds far too parochial in comparison.
Sargon of Akkad was actually ancient history even then. He’d built up the Akkadian Empire in Sumeria in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC (first named person in history to have an empire?). Assyria wasn’t founded until the 21st century. BChttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargon_of_Akkad
The Sargonid Dynasty were the last dynasty to rule Assyria, from 722 BC to 609 BC. Started with Sargon II (confusingly there had been a Sargon I of Assyria but he’d died around 1881 BC), followed by his son Sennacherib, then Esarhaddon who was his son. All fell apart about half a century after Esarhaddon’s death when the Babylonians and Medes invaded. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargonid_dynasty
Gee, what sheer modesty. An example to us all.
You spelt graisleux wrong.
It’s kinda sweet watching Starmer trying to hang on, like a Dear John recipient begging for one last chance. You could make a Hallmark movie out of it. All the L for Labour people would watch it.
Instead, we need new politics.
Whoever can destroy Britain the fastest. His time on earth is limited; he wants to see communism in UK before he goes.
The pompous arrogance is incredible with this man. Unbelievable.
Saddest of all, he has no idea how funny it all is.
Saddest? His colossal lack of self-awareness of his own amusement value is the funniest thing about him!
I only have to see “eleventeenthly” and I fall over laughing.
He must have been gutted when TTK unveiled McDoom and Harperson yesterday and not him.
And let us not forget when little Rishi did something similar with Cameron.
On the one hand, there was Lord Greensill braying about ‘unlocking’ £15bn to spend on his appointment as the Tories’ last hope.
On the other hand, I read of some insider Tory prat praising the appointment to the heavens. ‘What we need is electoral insight, and people forget that Dave is really good at that’. (quoting from memory).
And that of the man who could not win a majority against Gordon Brown. For actual fuck’s sake.
These performances are like drowning and placidly making risotto at the same time. We are not dealing with serious people. And they certainly do not take us seriously.
Global Financial Envoy – it’s the role Murphy must covet every minute he wastes jabbing impotently at his keyboard: the Don Howe of world governance, the man every statesman turns to when all else fails. A quiet word in a finance minister’s ear here, a revolutionary restructuring of humanity there.
And all without the bother of having to persuade the ignorant population to vote for him.
Just like Monnet.
Cameron won a larger share of the vote in 2010 than Blair did in 2005, Brown got a smaller share than Michael Howard. Blair had an overall majority of 64. Cameron failed to get a majority because the dice were loaded.
Look at Thursday’s results and the opinion polls: Labour’s vote share is 3% higher than Tories and gets 33% more seats, LibDems vote share is 37% less but they got 5% more seats.
John Major holds the record for leader of a political party which got most ever votes at an election. 1992 -14,094,116. Got him a majority of 21
But let me be clear
Id est, the usual bumptious, pleading cant of the Blairite world.
It really is cunts all the way down.
But let me be clear is one his signature tics, along with candidly. Amusingly, he hasn’t grasped that it’s the interview filler used by every slippery politician when s/he is about to prevaricate or obfuscate.
Someone was stopping him from being clear?
It seems to say, “It is YOUR duty to understand me.”
Labour is now populated by people without a shred of political conviction, concern for the people the party was created to serve, or even understanding that they have the power to effect change in the world that desperately needs it. Their service is to oligarchs, the City of London, the interests of large multinational corporations and, all too obviously these days, Zionism.
Candidly, it’s The Jews who are to blame.
you should read all of this post as, in part, justification to myself for having woken up in the night and spent two hours sketching out, in incomplete form, an explanation for what has happened, which is not ready for publication as yet.
Probably using that extra time to cross shade the hooked noses and horns.
“Now”?
It was always thus. You just didn’t see them, likely because you agreed with them.
For a little while anyway. As you always do, you shortly find something to disagree with.
Good grief! The idea that Labour currently serves the interests of oligarchs, the City of London, the interests of large multinational corporations and, all too obviously these days, Zionism is deluded. He’s mad as a box of frogs…
I could, with difficulty, find worse things for him to which to dedicate his time.