There’s a distinct chill in the air and it’s not just a sign of autumn imminent. The chill of cold, hard reality is blowing through every government department as Keir Starmer’s government get to grips with being in power.
We know, as did Labour that the nation’s finances are in a terrible state.
We know, as did Labour that 14 years of cuts and lack of investment have left public services on the floor.
We know, as did Labour, that the list of things that need fixing urgently is long and complex – from housing to health, education to immigration, prisons, defence and more.
There are no quick fixes and no easy answers but Labour knew that, as did the electorate who gave them a walloping majority and, thus, a chance to reset and rebuild the country. It follows then that we must give the new government a chance but it also requires a reset in the relationship we have with the public services we pay for and use be they local councils, health, transport or any number of others.
When the Daily Mail screams about the tyranny of ten or more recycling bins imposed upon residents by some local councils, how many of their loyal readers stop to think about the amount of rubbish they produce and I’m not just talking about old copies of the Mail.
Wouldn’t it be more useful to campaign against unnecessary packaging, take on supermarkets and delivery services rather than the councils?
When there are similar headlines about the health service, where is the context of £300m wasted every year on unused prescribed medication, the missed appointments and the hard reality that eating crap food, not taking any exercise and imposing an unhealthy lifestyle on your children means you’re more likely to need relatively expensive health care that you get for free for some things that are entirely avoidable like Type 2 diabetes?
When a 20mph traffic zone is seen as a war on motorists instead of a public health measure then surely we have lost any sense of rationality and reason. The culture of blaming someone else is so easy, beloved by certain sections of the media and embraced by many of us who say ‘they’ should do something about X,Y or Z. When in fact we too are ‘they’ who make decisions and don’t always think about the consequences.
Labour should avoid the blame game. We know they’ve inherited appalling, expensive, long term problems from the Tories and will have to make very hard choices about public spending, tax and benefits but a broken record of blame doesn’t move anything forward. We know whose fault it is, we need to hear what you’re going to do about it.
Kamala Harris has reinvigorated the Democrats by injecting optimism into her campaign. People respond to hope with energy, a willingness to muck in, help sort stuff out and somehow Labour needs to find some of that optimism if they’re to take the public with them on a long hard road to rebuilding Britain.
