Health Warning! Be prepared – he’s coming back , one way or another

 

“Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war” is a suitable quote on which to start the day when summarising the political situation in Westminster. The papers are in full ‘havoc crying mode’, with ‘Truss in trouble’ and ‘Tories in open revolt’ being some of the headlines this morning (link). 

Firstly, to set the background, let’s take a look at Starmer’s ‘restructuring’ Labour. It didn’t receive top billing in the MSM, albeit the Guardian published a report late afternoon on Tuesday (!), headlined: “Keir Starmer axes chief of staff to put Labour on ‘election footing’ (link). This was picked up later by some more London-centric papers like ‘iNews’, this announcement didn’t make the headlines yesterday.

Clearly the Westminster MSM decided to turn a blind eye and act as if nothing much had happened. Perhaps it was already ‘not really hot news’ yesterday morning? Perhaps the chief editors didn’t want to disturb us peasants any more than usual, given the daily fear porn they provide us with? Perhaps they though the report on Tuesday evening in the DT was sufficient?

However, I think we need to be disturbed, very disturbed, so first see this quote from that DT article:

“Sir Keir Starmer has brought in a Blair-era campaign boss and streamlined his office to put Labour on an “election footing”. The Labour leader on Tuesday announced he was sacking his chief of staff, moving Labour headquarters to a new office building and changing the structure of the party, as he told staff they had a “huge chance” to win the next election. The reshuffle had been planned “for a while” but was brought forward in light of the party’s poll lead of up to 33 points, he said.” (paywalled link)

Don’t worry – this sacking was ‘only’ due to Starmer merging his office as ‘Leader of the Opposition’ (don’t snigger – he really believes he led ‘Teh Opposition’!) with Labour HQ to prepare for the GE. Next, see this (my emphasis):

“Party officials believe that if the markets do not recover, the Conservatives could face electoral wipeout at the next election. Sir Keir has appointed Marianna McFadden, a former New Labour official, as his deputy campaign director. She joins the party from the Tony Blair Institute, where she worked for Sir Keir’s predecessor as “head of insight”. Matthew Doyle, Labour’s director of communications, is also a former Blair-era official, while Sir Keir is reportedly receiving informal advice from Lord Mandelson.(paywalled link)

This ought to have sent shivers down the collective backs of chief editors and columnists in the former conservative papers like The Times and the DT. It didn’t. I wonder if they’re looking forward to a repeat of the landslide Labour victory in 1997, triumphant Blair photos and jubilant lefty masses included?

Well, the saying that those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it surely applies as the Westminster cabal seems to look forward to the Blair years: wars, foot-and-mouth disaster, ‘immigration’ included. At least the NHS will finally ‘be safe’ and ‘Teh Rich’ will have to pay …

Labour is getting a massive helping hand from The Times where we find three reports focussing on ‘Truss in Trouble’. One is based on a lovely leak:

“Liz Truss has been told by her most senior advisers that she needs to rip up last month’s mini-budget and raise corporation tax as the price of restoring market confidence in her government. Officials have warned the prime minister that it is “no longer credible” to press ahead with big tax cuts without risking a financial crisis that would further drive up the cost of government borrowing and mortgages.” (link, paywalled)

Why they warn of ‘risking a financial crisis’ when we’ve been told already that there is one, thanks to yon mini-budget and thanks to the intervention of the BoE these past weeks I dunno. Here’s a thought: could those ‘senior advisers’ be some mandarins who are trying to create their own credentials for the time when Labour gets into No 10? The Times certainly looks as if they’re fuelling said crisis, e.g. with this  report: 

“Markets endured another volatile day as investors sold off UK government bonds, pushing yields to their highest level since the aftermath of the mini-budget and piling pressure on the Bank of England to keep propping up the debt market.” (link, paywalled)

It’s as if they are hoping that ‘Teh Markets’ won’t recover because that is what Labour is hoping for. It gets worse. A nameless Tory MP leaked what was said at the 1922 Committee meeting to The Times. Their headline: “You have trashed the past ten years, Robert Halfon warns Liz Truss” certainly comes under ‘cry havoc’! See this:

“Liz Truss was accused by a senior MP of trashing “the last ten years” of Conservative government as her party turned on its new leader over the mini-budget. Robert Halfon, a former minister who chairs the education select committee, unleashed a furious attack on her financial measures, saying they disproportionately benefited the wealthy and meant she had abandoned “workers’ conservatism”. According to an MP present, Halfon told Truss in a meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers — her first as prime minister — that “in the last ten years we had the living wage, a focus on apprenticeships and skills”, contrasting that with “bankers’ bonuses, benefits cuts and now cuts to affordable housing targets”.” (link, paywalled)

Blimey! Strong words – but none about those Tory policies which got us where we are: Lockdowns, Net Zero, Sanctions, ‘undying’ support for that war in the Ukraine, illegal immigrants … Does anyone in Westminster really believe these things will go away under Starmer, with the likes of Blair and Mandelson pulling his strings? There’s more:

“[A] Tory MP who has been in the Commons for more than a decade said: “It was the worst 1922 I’ve ever been to.” They added: “With each tough question she looked like she’d had the wind knocked out of her — the 31st of October could finish her off on the basis of the reception she got in that room.” […] A former minister told The Times: “It’s pretty grim. I’m very depressed. Everything they’re doing is everything that I don’t believe in.” (link, paywalled)

Were all those Tory MPs oblivious to Starmer putting Labour on a ‘restructured’ election footing? Do they think getting rid of Truss will prevent a Labour government? Meanwhile, this is how the fierce supporter of Truss, Allister Heath, concludes his column in the DT:

“If Truss is destroyed, the alternative won’t even be social democracy: it will be Labour, the hard Left, the full gamut of punitive taxation, including of wealth and housing, and even more spending, culminating rapidly in economic oblivion. Those Tories plotting to depose Truss need to work out on whose side they really are.” (paywalled link)

We know whose side they’re on: their own. They want to save their own skins in the coming GE and seem to hope that getting rid of Truss a.s.a.p. would help. They’re serious though – check out the rather woolly thoughts by Paul Goodman in his articles for ConHome yesterday (link). 

Too late now because the Tory MPs disregarded the opinion of Tory party members who were enthused about Kemi Badenoch. They ‘knew better’ and voted her our, leaving the party members with a choice between Sunak and Truss. Is it even conceivable that those MPs didn’t know how Truss operated, that she was a puppet only? 

The Tories deserve everything that’s coming to them. It’s only a pity that we’ll all get to suffer in a rerun of the Blair years, this time on the basis of an economy in deep crisis. What fun times to look forward to!