I’m still feeling the relief that it’s not conservatives or reform: an extremely low bar, I know, but Johnson was so awful, and Farage is the devil incarnate. I’ve no time for Cheshire Cat grinning politicians who promise miracles: give me boring, sensible and even gloomy any day. In general, I’ve distrusted all politicians since Tony Blair, but the ones who over-promise are always up to something, in my book.
I’m still giving Labour the benefit of the doubt, and I haven’t forgotten that they clamoured for lockdown, lockdown, and more lockdown. The Tory-owned press will never be on their side, no matter what they do, so I don’t form my opinion based on mainstream media. Because Johnson kept promising short-term results (“get Brexit done”, “normalish by Christmas”, “build back better”), people are expecting the same from Labour. Lots of people are moaning about the budget: while I resent paying tax at all, under the Tories, wealth kept moving up, and up, and up. Something in the opposite direction is overdue.
Yes, Starmer is a terrible communicator, and is not offering hope at all. But I think we need a period of “make politics boring again”, and being governed by someone who looks vaguely adult-like, unlike Johnson, Farage and Trump: that sort of clown-like politics is becoming dangerously normalised.
Yes, Farage is a worry, especially if Labour don’t mange the quick fixes everyone is hoping for. But it’s a good thing that there are a few Reform councillors in place: they are falling apart. We are getting the sneak preview. It’s not widely reported, because of the right wing press. But I have some hope that Reform may prove themselves totally unfit to govern, before a general election.