There is a difference between Boris Johnson and Joe Biden that can be summarised in one word, which is vision.
Like many, I am surprised by Biden. After decades of public service no one saw him as a radical. The idea that he might be about to spend $6 trillion to tackle core issues of equity and sustainability within the US economy was not at the forefront of most people's minds when he was inaugurated. 100 days in, and that is what he is doing.
At around the same time post Johnson's election he was missing Cobra meetings on Covid to find the time to buy wallpaper.
The jest is not for effect. I suggest that the difference is very real. As, of course, it is between Biden and Trump. Or between Biden, Johnson and Modi, who is another politician who appears to have discovered that populist form is no substitute for real action, let alone appropriate action.
So what is happening here? Bringing it back to Johnson, has he run out of road, remarkably quickly in an administration where but for Covid his absence of ideas might have become apparent even sooner? I think so. Yesterday's bluster (for outraged bluster of no substance was exactly what it was: I watched it live whilst having my lunch and could not quite believe it) was a desperate attempt at a diversionary tactic. But immediately following it was Ian Blackford's question.
He asked, as leader of the SNP in Westminster, whether the Prime Minister was a liar. The Speaker ruled the question admissable, if (apparently) distasteful. Blackford knew he could not call Johnson a liar, although he very obviously is, so he turned the accusation into a question instead. Doing so, he got away with it. Johnson, of course, did not provide an answer, but in the process he admitted the truth.
That truth is now plain to see. It is that Johnson does not know why he is Prime Minister. He does not know what being Prime Minister demands of him. He does not know what to do as a result. And that would be fine if he had arrived in office with a vision to fulfil that required that he swept aside the impediments that Whitehall can present, just as Biden is doing in the US. But the destruction of Brexit apart - which was just a Tory game - there was no such vision.
Instead we have got the best indication of what populism is all about. Substitute cronyism for vision and the one-word contrast between the two is apparent. Biden is working for the common good. He referred to the opening line of the US constitution - ‘We the people' - in his speech last night, making clear that the people of the US are his motivation. Johnson is doing the exact opposite. If he was to find a similar line in the UK's unwritten constitution it would be ‘You, the exploited'. The comma, as a separator, is deliberate in my version.
This is populism laid bare. Biden has lived beyond his Gorman moment. Instead he is working on delivering the promise implicit in Amanda Gorman's poem.
This in itself is quite extraordinary.
But Johnson has no vision. There is just greed and a desire to deplete the public purse for private gain, that found an unexpected chance in Covid, but the opportunity for which was already laid bare in the Henry VIII powers that had been enacted to make Brexit possible (within the limits of possibility that exist with regard to that objective).
The question is, how long is it before Wallpapergate, or Cash for Cushions, or whatever else the media like to call this, will spill over? Will Kerr Starmer's new line of calling Johnson ‘Major Sleaze' (itself a riposte to Johnson's claim that Starner is Captain Hindsight) cut through?
My suspicion is that, corruption fatigue or not, this one will drip feed into the consciousness of the UK. There will always be 30% of England that will vote Tory, because they think it would be to betray their grannies not to do so. But the swing voter will get over their Covid euphoria when the good times don't return (as they won't), but Covid might. And they will then ask what all this was for? And there will be no answer.
I offer just one caveat to my optimism. Labour also lacks a vision right now. Not being Tory is not a vision. Starmer needs to look at Biden and take note. He needs a plan. Right now he has not got one. And he might need it sooner than expected. I am not aware that he is talking to anyone about creating one. And that is my concern.
The absence of vision is the massive hole in the middle of English politics right now. It has to be filled.
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Let’s not get carried away about Biden – he’s still spending almost $800 Billion a year supporting the biggest carbon emitter on the planet – the US Military – already a substantial increase over that spent by the dastardly Trump. And that’s in a country without adequate public healthcare and Biden’s ‘vision’ is to deny it.
Johnson’s income is also a fraction of what Biden has treated himself to over the years.
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/politics/a31265187/joe-biden-net-worth/
Don’t get me wrong, Biden’s spending announcements look good, but the devil will be in the detail as usual.
I agree with everything you say.
But Biden in my view has no choice but to be more radical because he knows that Trump is still out there. Trump could be back. Biden’s policies must help everyone – especially Trump supporters or Biden is toast. But the country is divided and badly so. And that being so, things are on a knife edge even now and for next 4 years. Or I’d say 3 terms or more.
America is much more open in terms of how it conducts its business – greed for example has /is practiced openly but not all Americans think this way. There is a rich Leftish culture that has been basically oppressed by the market for years.
In this older, more archaic country however, greed and power is practiced in secret. That is why it is harder for us to change. Have we ever really changed? I suppose 1946 and all that was a step forward but Attlee only got one term because I think that the rich and wealthy ‘permafrost’ we have here ordained it to be so.
And also, all you need a useful idiot to help. And that useful idiot is the modern Labour party I’m afraid.
We are a septic isle and although I have hope for America, I have none for this country.
Even Scotland I feel will mess up their opportunity too. All we’ve done is scrawl in pencil over the permanent ink of the real and enduring power of the Establishment. We are victims of living history.
America is still writing theirs. Good luck to them.
PSR – why do you think Scotland will mess up its opportunity? I have my own ideas as to why this is a possibility (an avoidable one) but would be interested to hear what your reasons are.
If they do not have their currency than then Scotland will not really be a sovereign nation.
And they won’t last 5 minutes in the real world.
My worry is those who advocate Scotland having the Euro or Scottish pound linked to the British one will be doing so because they will be best placed to profit from the chaos that will ensue.
Economy is warfare. You defence is the ability print your own money or be damned.
You are 100% right, Richard.
The present leader of the Labour Party lacks a Vision on Equality, Freedom and Fraternity. These are the three main, Democratic concepts of any political Party to the left of Conservatives anywhere in the world.
UK Capitalism would be able to deliver on these basic concepts and their humanitarian vision but they don’t feature as a Vision in Starmer’s agenda. Johnson is incapable to do so since they simply don’t play a part in his personal logarithm.
A month or two ago I filled in an online survey (from YouGov) about party leaders.
Why did I think that Keir Starmer would be a better PM that Johnson?
As best I can reconstruct it, I answered
“Because he’s not an incompetent, narcissistic, borderline psychopathic compulsive liar.”
And belatedly realised that right there is part of the problem. It’s not good enough to be “not Johnson”
The “curtaingate” outrage is fake. As per Peter Stefanovic’s video, the media could have run with any number of proveable dishonest points, but they have chosen to go for a mild one, that doesn’t involve any of their friends being in danger of being exposed.
It maybe that Johnson’s time is up, and either Sunak or Starmer is being readied to replace him, but that is the decision of those who control them. We will know soon enough through their pet media.
As for Labour, as an opposition they are now finished. Starmer saw to that. They will lose in Harlepool, they will continue to blame “the hard left”, meanwhile, others are getting on with building real, progressive alliances.
That will be the future.
Polls suggest that Toryscum will do well in local elections. I watched PMQs and the Mendacious Fatberg made one or quite good points – in amongst the blathering bullshit. One of them was “why was Starmer not asking questions about funding of local authorties” – Bunter warbled on about what the Toryscum are doing (omitting of course the decade-long de-funding). Bunter has a point: wallpaper and Downing Street flats may be useful for point-scoring – but UK serfs are more interested in how gov is going to make their lives better. Toryscum have a narrative of sorts in this area – Labour have none.
So after 1 year of toryscum incompetance, 170,000 (or is it 180,000) dead, the toryscum party is going to do OK, if not well in the local elections. Bravo Labour. Thus I support the views of Birgitta and PSR.
One way or another the Uk is finished and England is headed for a one-party state – because Labour under Starmer is incapable of articulating anything that appeals to people. Pathetic.
I agree. Starmer stood for leader on the basis of carrying on the policies of Corbyn. If he had not he would not be leader. He then reneged on that position and started a purge of the left wing.
Covid has exposed that Govts, even Tory ones, can directly fund services without raising taxes. That is an open goal for the kind of vision articulated under Corbyn which offered hope of improved lives for millions of people. Starmer has not even faced that open goal and has been more intent on kicking his team mates. IMO without a new leader and without a new vision Labour is finished.
He pretty much purged the Green New Deal too
A big mistake
Like it to not it is the on ly game in town that’s available for him to use
No one else has a bigger idea, and I say that with all due modesty because no one is more surprised than me
The Guardian today reports the Government has voted to block amendments to the Fire Safety Bill that means leaseholders may now be left with sole liablitiy for safety repairs totalling £10Bn, following the Grenfell scandal. The buyers of these properties presumably bought in good faith what they believed were properties built under properly regulated and approved fire-safe rules of construction. The property owners, however appear to have no recourse against anyone whatsoever to pay up: there seems to be no leverage to assure compensation throughout the whole chain of responsibility from the construction industry, through regulatory authority to Government itself; even the Government and Parliament, that provides the regulatory and legal framework takes no responsibility for what has happened. Nobody is responsible, nobody stands to pay, nobody is to blame, nobody is punished. Move on, nothing to see here.
This is remarkably similar in form to the post-Financial Crash (2007-8) response of Government, albeit with some notable exceptions. Nobody was responsible there either. The regulatory authority was simply replaced (by a clone). There was one difference in the 2007-8 Crash. The Government saved the banks, at any cost (and for a lot more than £10Bn), and even gave them a guarantee of support (open-ended and with no sunset clause), no matter what, and requiring almost nothing in return: this free lunch was so large it became known as ‘too big to fail’ – and that was the end of the matter; nothing to see here. Of course we should not forget that the financial sector is much closer to the chumocracy than the fate of mere mortgage-paying electors.
The British standards of regulation are always the same – put to the test, as inevitably they are; they always end in the same abject failure: they prove to be worth precisely nothing, no matter what, no matter when. Nothing to see here. Move on.
Britain now stands for two fundamental truths: we have no standards, and we are content to have no integrity.
Sadly true
From
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/28/america-is-on-the-move-again-biden-to-give-first-congressional-address
The American Jobs Plan is going to create millions of good-paying jobs, jobs Americans can raise a family on.”
Simple clear idea, Jobs Americans (Or British, or whoever)can raise a family on. Sums up a wonderful idea, what more could any UK Politician Promise – but they wont
We have been arguing for this in the Green New Deal for a decade
In. fairness, Corbyn and McDonnell got it
Caroline Lucas helped write it
But the rest? Why don;t they get it?
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Green New Deal chaired by Caroline Lucas and Clive Lewis met yesterday morning. One of the speakers Prof. Marianna Mazacutto was asked a question about Green QE. What interested me about her reply was that she immediately started using the phrase “money creation” as if it were common knowledge that QE involves money creation. Unfortunately someone listening to her may have come away with the impression that that was all that was involved in the idea.
I heard some of the meeting, but missed that due to a call
I gather I got a name check but do not know why
The people who frequent the upper circles of the Labour Party prefer focus groups to ideas. They are intellectual vacuums. Claire Ainsley, head of policy, wrote a dismal book based on market research. For some reason Starmer thought she’d be a good person to employ. She has no clue. Basing your policies on what you think people want to hear will be seen through instantly. Followship instead of leadership. I think only by supreme good luck does talent find its way to the top. More often it dies somewhere in the bureaucratic bowels of the party. What rises up is the professional politician. A clueless empty space looking for a career. Systemic useless-ism.