I enjoy writing this weekly column. Most weeks its easy, lots of news. Some weeks its tricky – no news at all. Other weeks, it’s impossible to know when to write it. This is one such week.
Where to begin? The King’s Speech, our legislative agenda for the coming Parliamentary session? Green leader Zac Polanski’s council tax troubles? Reform leader Nigel Farage’s £5,000,000 undisclosed gift? Scores of Labour MPs coming out saying Starmer must go. Slightly fewer coming out saying Starmer must stay? It’s hard to know where to start.
So, on a morning when we expect Health Secretary Wes Streeting to quit his job and launch a leadership bid (I’m writing this, for the record, at 7:40 am, Thursday morning), Angela Rayner leaps out of the shadows to reveal she has amicably settled her stamp duty troubles with HMRC, allowing herself to launch her leadership bid. It’s not yet 8 o’clock – where’s Andy Burnham?
Labour bang on about 14 years of psychodrama under the previous government as if they are puritans. But it turns out that all the sackings of civil servants, staffers, ministers, all the U-turns (22 so far, if anyone is still counting), appointments of paedophile chums, and all the rest of it, was merely Labour quietly testing their very own 12 cylinder, turbo charged, fuel injected, 1,000 horsepower psychodrama engine, the like of which we have never seen before.
Labour MPs have been stalking around Westminster looking like thunder. Even the weather came out in support of their mood during the pageantry this week. Hailstorms met the shining military bands. The king was rained on from black skies. Tourists ran for cover.
It’s no wonder Labour did so dismally last week in the elections. They lost two thirds of their councillors up for re-election. They blame current economic woes on the war in the Middle East, forgetting that their own decisions have destabilised our economy, leaving it ill-prepared for shocks. Rachel Reeves claims she has brought down inflation. Its 3.3% now. It was 2% when she became Chancellor. She can’t even count to 4. It is simply breathtaking how utterly incompetent this government is.
So, we now enter into Labour’s leadership battle, while the rest of us struggle with Labour’s cost of living crisis, Labour’s inflation, Labour’s unemployment, Labour’s over regulated economy. Even the trades unions have said this Starmer government has got to go. I’m with them.
