I have struggled with the news agenda this morning.
I wanted to write something about the King's Speech, and its depressingly neoliberal, anti-human rights slant. Then I realised that the previous sentence was enough. And when we have no idea if any of this will be delivered, what is the point of discussing it?
After that, I wanted to discuss Wes Streeting's forecast Labour leadership challenge. Then I realised I had almost nothing to say about a man who is a true heir to Blair.
Streeting is a man possessed of almost no economic comprehension who, as a consequence, believes that markets are capable of almost everything and governments of nothing and who will, as a result, outsource every government service he can to private contractors. Again, there is nothing else to say.
We are living in a world full of crises, whether in Ukraine, Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Sudan, Yemen, or elsewhere.
In the UK, 14 million people are living in poverty.
As a consequence of the actions of Trump, we face global economic meltdown, real food shortages and the prospect of starvation for some as a consequence of terrible human choices.
Amidst all of this, all the Labour Party has to offer is petty squabbling between people of limited ability whose combined talent is more than enough to prove that Ed Miliband might be the right choice for Labour leader after all.
What a depressing scenario.
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There is a term in old Board of Trade enquiries into the loss of British Ships, ‘Failure to Command’ that rather sums up the current situation.
If the UK was a ship we would be showing two black balls in a vertical line or two red lights ditto at night – the ‘Not Under Command’ signal
True
Even if there is someone at the wheel, there is the old quote about attempting to steer the UK economy. Politicians can pull the levers of power and attempt to set a new course or change speed but they have no idea whether any of the levers are actually connected to anything, or if or when or how much anyone might respond.
Most of it is not mechanical cause or effect – ministers send signals into a complex interlinked network with elements of positive and negative feedback, including people with all sorts of psychological prejudices and tendencies – so it is like one big confidence trick. When people stop believing you, the magic stops working.
Like the Wizard of OZ in the film. Hidden away with a loud voice pulling levers which do nothing.
We need to find our courage and engage our brains to implement the politics of care.
It is depressing, but as the gap between reality and appearances in this country gets wider, the only conclusion is that through a mixture of stubborn pleonexia, corruption, lying and policy stasis something will change eventually, and even then not for the better in the interim at least. But remember these people always get carried away with their own power and essentially bring themselves down.
It is a tragic part of human life that our deepest learning is from making mistakes.
And we must remember that human lives are short; history is long.
The upside is, whilst were here, were we duped? Did we walk around with our backs straight and heads up? Did we have a critical consciousness? Did we dream of something better or ‘do as we were told’ and turn on our neighbours and fellow human beings?
There are some of the positive things in this wreckage – and there are more. As RobertJ says KUTGW. I have some new affordable housing completing this summer – it’s not enough but some people somewhere will have a decent home to live in.
Reform will not need to reach power at this rate as the current Labour mob will have done their job for them.
The kings speech was an exercise in cruelty.
Spoke to a hairdresser yesterday who voted reform last week. I asked why – they will put more money in our pockets, she said, Which will allow me to expand my business.
And that is the rub of it all – money. Most of the public only look at how voting effects them finicially, turning a blind eye to the appalling human rights issues that are likely to be implented.
I enjoyed this silent protest yesterday in Parliament. (You need a laugh sometimes)
https://www.thecanary.co/skwawkbox/2026/05/13/starmer-mocked-in-commons/
Barry Gardiner sat just behind Starmer with Paul Holden’s “Fraud” on his lap, in full view of the Commons cameras for the duration. If you haven’t read it, please do (and Peter Oborne’s “Complicit” on Gaza, which I finally finished this morning, both from OR books. I had to take “Complicit” slowly. Oborne’s final Chapter of “Damns” hits all the right targets. One day justice WILL be done, on earth).
Just a quick reminder of what Starmer said he would do when he was standing for the Labour leadership just six years ago.
https://www.clpd.org.uk/resource/keir-starmer-10-pledges/
Economic justice, social justice, climate justice, peace and human rights, common ownership, migrants rights, workers rights and trade unions, devolution of wealth and power and opportunity, equality, opposing the Tories.
I know he has changed or abandoned much of that, but this was his promise. How should we mark his scorecard?
With a “Black Spot” (Treasure Island, R L Stevenson).
Any candidate adopting the 10 pledges would have
a) a credibility problem
b) the perfect answer to the “bond vigilantes”
Agree. I lived through the evisceration of the Labour Party and experienced the shenanigans at first hand in our constituency party.
Reading Holden’s account of just who was behind the project to destroy the left, and how they did it, not only made sense of what I had experienced, but allowed me to leave the party with a sense of relief, and an angry determination to fight back.
Thanks to Holden and Oborne we now know that “just because we are paranoid, it doesn’t mean they are not out to get us”.
They are out to get Polanski and the Green party now. We must know our opponents, and fightback.
Helen
Interesting that the only two politicians who have failed to pay taxes are both left wing.
Who are you kidding?
Look at Richard Tice and the Tory history on this.
Good article on a similar theme by Aditya Chakrabortty today:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/13/westminster-labour-civil-war-voters
Very depressing… and so much in the media is about poor communication etc etc – nothing about the lack of ideas and what kind of country we might want to live in.
The King delivering the speech written by the Government talked about how difficult and uncertain times were, and how many policies that His Government want to try to get through parliament. Parliamentarians who are elected to represent their constituents and working for the good of the Nation should now come to realise that the UK public is tired of navel gazing, the internal squabbles, the dirty laundry being washed in the spin cycle of the media; promises being broken, and nothing effective actually being done.
If there was honesty, humility, and a change of mindset to work for the health and wellbeing of the UK as a whole in a more unified manner than just thinking that the ‘wealth’ of the Nation mattered only by fiscal measures, with more cross-party policy making to get us through this period that we are in; then maybe there could be some hope of stopping the constant change of the occupancy of No10 happening, and long-term strategies that can be put in place without precious money, time and the patience of the electorate being wasted.
Where there are intersecting issues that will involve multiple governmental departments, that will take years for effective strategies to set-up, implement and take effect to come into fruition – then in certain areas, even though there maybe select committees, think tanks, consultations and readings/votes in both parliamentary chambers; you will still have democratically elected members drafting and passing bills, but a different way of getting essential long-term policies and programmes set in motion which will still have safeguards in place for audit/review and amendment as required, but hopefully less U-turns, stalling or scrapping of them, and some progress being made.
National failure, interesting isn’t it? Slow at first, then it accelerates getting faster & faster.
1979 the UK +/- soverign, 46 years later, imbeciles populate the government which is run for the benefit of the rich, economically, and whose forign policy formation is mostly set by a combo of tRumpSA and Israel( Genocide-r-us). The most vociferous opposition (Deform) run by liars and chancers.
Those able to articulate what is wrong & what needs to be done are ignored (e.g. Lewis). Failed state – & thus Wales, Scotland & soon N.I. splitting away – are symptoms.
Thatcher started – but plenty of little helpers after that (underpants-man, B.Liar-warmonger, Broon-economic-imbecile, the telly-tubbies (Cam-moron & Gidiot), robot, liar-fantasist, cretin, neocon, empathy-free-zionist.)
You’ve hit the nail on the head regarding how exhausting it is to watch internal Labour squabbles while the world faces actual humanitarian crises and domestic poverty. It is truly depressing that the debate has devolved into petty infighting over leadership rather than addressing the dire economic reality of 14 million people living in poverty. That kind of ‘limited ability’ focus distracts from the urgent need for a fairer economy in the face of global instability.
“It’s depressingly neoliberal”
Suppose this was true and we’re living in an age of deeper neoliberalism year by year, you would expect the 100 or so remaining neoliberals to be rather happy about the state of Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
I’m not feeling any satisfaction from the inventor of the Bowman salad about how pretty good everything now is.