The Tories are laughing at the divided opposition

No blogging recently - mainly because I've been holding my breath a lot to see if there is any sign from anywhere that there might be a prospect of a non-Tory government at the next election......

The Tories remain pretty strong in the polls despite presiding over an increasingly chaotic situation. The problems with petrol supply has come to symbolise government complacency. The shortage of HGV drivers, for a mixture of reasons, was known about ages ago and there has been no meaningful intervention to help the situation. Now the army has been called in. The government seem content to let "the market" sort out this and other problems. Leaving things to "the market" has proven catastrophic in other sectors - so that's a good plan!

In the meantime there are real attacks on the living standards of the least well off, with the looming cuts in universal credit and the rise in national insurance contributions. Tax rises to fund public services is a good thing - but it's being done in an ideologically-driven way, with the most well off getting off lightly. 

The Labour Party conference was a bit of a mixed bag. Quite a few policies which sound good. The internal divisions are a bit depressing. It's not so much a split between the left and the right - more a split between pragmatists and purists. Hopefully the pragmatists are in the driving seat, but there's still a bit of a lack of any obvious strategy to overcome the electoral barriers to change the government. The overwhelming endorsement of electoral reform by Labour Party constituencies is encouraging. Hopefully the pressure will build between now and the next election to make that party policy. No talk of electoral alliances, so Keir Starmer is yet to capture the imagination in many ways. 

Closer to home - here's a striking example how a split opposition lets the Tories in:

Cleadon and East Boldon (South Tyneside) by-election result:

CON         35.1% (-13.5)

GREEN    33.5% (+22.4)
LAB          31.4% (-8.9)

When I asked on Twitter, why Labour or the Greens hadn't stood down in this particular election, there were comments about how Labour weren't interested in this kind of approach. That's very depressing. The Tories are laughing at the divided opposition. Here's hoping the electoral realities will prompt a more progressive approach.




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