I watched Matt Hancock on Peston last night. It was a car crash.
Hancock put on his usual tears because he'd been found to be having an affair.
He also blatantly misrepresented the truth about the £40 million NHS PPE contract from which his friendly pub landlord gained with NHS consent by claiming that the person in question's company had no direct contract with the NHS because an intermediary was used, who openly stated in their own contract that all the work contracted to them would be sub-contracted to the said pub landlord's concern, as Jo Maugham has tweeted.
At the core of the interview, there was one simple message. It was that this man, who headed the response to Covid for more than a year, cannot be trusted to tell the truth.
Just as his boss cannot be trusted to tell the truth.
Whilst his colleagues on the backbenchers can only be relied upon to spread misinformation, and most probably Covid.
In response I was pleased to note this in the FT this morning:
The LibDems are giving Labour an easy ride in Bexley, and the opposite is true in Owen Paterson's seat.
This is not an alliance. It is not in writing. It does not imply cooperation in parliament. But it does suggest on the ground cooperation to beat the Tories, which is essential if we are to have a next government which is ABC, or Anything But Conservative, which is what our corrupt electoral system would otherwise deliver.
Now, if only they could agree to proportional representation so that they could achieve this and oppose each other as well.
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It’s a start…. but while there are still Liberal and Labour candidates on the ballot paper then the vote will be split. Too many voters will turn up at the Polling Booth unaware that they should be voting “tactically”.
I have no inside knowledge of the Lib Dems but in Labour the “rank and file” are pretty solidly in favour of a formal pact; only those who see politics as a career are against. Labour candidates see standing in a “no hope” seat as a stepping stone to a better opportunity so are reluctant to stand aside and senior leadership still hope that if the Tories really mess it up then they will get a General Election majority and get to drive the bus.
Sad to see individual ambition getting in the way of a sensible strategy.
@Clive Parry : “…but in Labour the “rank and file” are pretty solidly in favour of a formal pact…”
You think ? Putting aside the fact that the Labour rank and file have been leaving in droves since Starmer took over – and bear in mind that these are the people who do the actual legwork during election campaigns – its my impression that a sizeable number of Labour rank and file aren’t currently likely to vote for either the Lib Dems OR Labour.
The argument being : if we don’t want the neo-liberal 1st team, why would we vote for the 2nd or 3rd teams ?
If any electoral pact were likely to achieve rank and file approval, it’d be with the Greens.
A couple of days ago, the Mid Norfolk Labour website carried the following message :
“Vote Green Party – the Labour Party under Starmer is finished. He lied to get elected leader and backtracking (sic) on all the pledges he gave at the time. He can’t be trusted any more than Johnson can‘
https://skwawkbox.org/2021/11/30/norfolk-labour-website-tells-visitors-not-to-vote-labour-because-under-starmer-its-finished/
That, I think, is the real feeling amongst the Labour rank and file.
I ought to add, on the subject of pacts, that Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour have made a three-year “cooperation agreement” to govern Wales.
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2021/12/01/will-the-plaid-cymru-labour-deal-be-a-reflection-of-the-welsh-way/
As the article sums it up : “As Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour begin this programme together, they appear to have the support of quite a few groups in Wales and beyond. The challenge for both parties is to ensure it acts on that agreement to ensure Wales can properly tackle the damage done to it by decades of neoliberalism.
There’s been enough “tinkering at the edges”, and now, with so much support on the ground, it’s time for Welsh politicians to tackle inequality in a way that means something to its people.”
I hear you with regard to disenchantment about leadership/policy….. but an ABC strategy will deliver more Green MPs…. and ultimately proportional representation. Then you would be able to vote for who you really want rather than the current system where you put a peg on your nose and vote Labour.
A lot of rank and file were leaving Labour in droves when Corbyn was wrecking the party. Now it is just a different set of rank and file.
@Mike G : “A lot of rank and file were leaving Labour in droves when Corbyn was wrecking the party.”
Labour membership – declining over the Blair, Brown and Miliband years – grew under Corbyn to be the largest party membership in Europe.
The fact that an estimated 200,000 have left since Starmer took over and swung the helm due right seems to suggest that, far from wrecking Labour, Corbyn offered something that is otherwise missing in UK politics – something that a lot of people want. Something that the Esthablishment does not want at any cost.
Starmer is the Esthablishment’s safe pair of hands, charged with making sure nothing ever changes.
You are of course, quite right. We need some sort of proportional representation in order to get the Tories out. Unfortunately, we will not likely get the Tories out while FPTP is the system in place for electing MPs. FPTP looks set to continue and to give us Tory governments. Meanwhile, Labour have traditionally been as happy with FPTP as the Tories were. This century, not Blair, Brown, Milleband, nor Corbyn, showed any interest in pelectoral reform and proportional repersentation. Even now, there is scant sign from Labour of any interest in abolishing FPTP. Yet the probability of them winning the next election is low – in the Bexley by election, the signs are that the great majority of voters, despite being disillusioned by the egregious Johnson, will still vote Tory. Labour are not going to get in power in the next election, unless they perhaps go into alliance with the minor parties, but that seems unlikely. So we are left with thge prospect of another incompetent and corrupt Tory government ruling from 2022 onward, and no FPTP.
I also watched the Hcock interview found it sickening at his near tearful face,if that was in a court of law he would be charged with perjury.
I thought you might be interested in this.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhra-approves-xevudy-sotrovimab-a-covid-19-treatment-found-to-cut-hospitalisation-and-death-by-79
I have never heard of this before,but it makes me wonder why the Valneva vaccine was treated the way it was.
I wish the other parties would work more closely together as the crisis in our country is actually the Tory Government itself.
I think that the lesson of one-party dominance has made PR more of a necessity now. The Tories have justified themselves out of existence and the only thing keeping them in is their capacity to buy influence and favour with the rich, MSM (as well threatening those who oppose them by telling people what is actually going on).
The other necessity for PR of course is that it makes it harder for back-seat drivers like the rich donors to dominate policy in politics. PR and its inclusive democratic principles would water the extremism down one would hope.
It’s PR that I wish was being exploited – not sleaze. PR has more longevity.
Two days in a row Richard, you’ve given me something to feel more cheerful about. Yesterday Johnson being formally labelled a liar in Parliament, today news of cooperation to defeat the Tories. Is it really the case that Labour are seeing sense in Oswestry?
Is there anyone who is involved in that constituency who can verify this? Absolutely essential to overcome FPTP’s bias in favour of the Tories. Especially as ABC can now mean Anything But Corruption with Johnson in charge.
ABC ( Any But Conservative.) is for only one election. Only one non Tory candidate in each seat. Only one item in the joint manifesto. Replace First past the Post voting system with something like Single Transferable Vote or a similar simple system . Once passed. Dissolve Parliament. All parties revert to own policies and voting takes place under the new system.
Agreed
There is no hope of Labour supporting PR as their establishment, as has been pointed out, are against despite rank and file and conference votes in favour. I once asked Tony Benn, one of the few Labour people I respect, at a union meeting some years ago, whether he was in favour of PR (thinking he was a progressive) but he emphatically rejected the idea, so this attitude must be entrenched in Labour higher echelons. The only way to make Labour wake up is for a massive vote for |Greens.
Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, and every single MP has collected their seat as a result of FPTP voting.
ATV was a good idea, but when presented to the electorate in a referendum it was rejected.
The fact that one third of the electorate did not vote at the last election has been buried. This realty shows the publics disenchantment with the tories and labour.
Possibly…. or just an unwillingness to bother voting in a very safe seat. We must have proportional representation to enfranchise all.
On a small scale here is what ABC ( in first past the post system) voting did in true blue Suffolk. Woodbridge has always been Tory. Before last local elections Tory 11 seats, not Tory 4 seats. After election Tory 4 seats, non Tory 11 seats
Excellent
And a very Tory area, as I know
Good news, and cheering to see that in a very ‘blue’ area their hold at the local council level has been broken. The problem is translating that into the Westminster Parliament. And for that, the Labour party needs to wake up and act for the good of the country as a whole, put aside its selfish and obstructive tribalism, and commit to an ABC pact and PR.
More people are likely to vote if they see that their vote has more meaning