Starmer's Success, Biden's Suspicious Recovery, Blair and Johnson: Ambani Wedding Whores.
News Ages Fast in Nowsville.
This year has been packed with politics. It seems that every other week, there was another general election somewhere in the world. We haven’t even got to November and the Big One yet. Living in the UK, I tuned-in to the UK version and, like most of the UK, not in the least surprised about the landslide victory for Labour on the 4th July 2024. I’m not going to talk about the election much, past saying that I feel slightly sick every time I hear Kier Starmer speaking; behind the scenes, he appears to want to reshape the Labour Party in the image of someone beholden to shadowy groups of lobbyists who are on a mission to rid the party of anyone to the left of Maggie Thatcher. Despite my personal dislike of Starmer, I’m slightly optimistic that at least the rot of the last government has stopped.
The end result was a landslide on the smaller share of the vote than achieved by Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 and the least representative parliament compared to votes cast, ever. Reform got 5 seats with 14% of the vote. Labour ended up with 410 seats out of 650. Basically, anything that Labour wants to push through parliament it can, theoretically. Hold on though; get ready for an ongoing battle for socialism within Labour, after the honeymoon period.
The honeymoon period is still with us though, England are even doing well in the football* which merits an extra bank holiday if they win according to some and Sir Kier is still practicing his best prime-ministerial Blue Steel. (I noticed it a lot in footage from NATO). The new cabinet are trying hard to get the message out that things are ‘broken’, ‘on their knees’ etc, etc, before they reveal that they will be setting up commissions to look into things. I sense a deep commitment to nothing much changing and an increasing awareness of nothing much changing from the UK citizens of Nowsville. Starmer et al will say that this is because of ’14 years of Tory government’ but it is not. Many of the problems we face were started under the last Labour government or ignored by that government (the Blair era).
Take one of the news issues from the past week: water companies putting up bills by an average of 21% up to 2030. They wanted to raise bills more, saying that more investment is needed to deal with water shortages and other environmental issues, but have been stopped by the regulator (OfWat). Privatising water is such a crap idea that England and Wales is the only fully privatised water industry in the world. Any sane person can see the folly in assuming that hugely expensive investment in infrastructure is going to be a priority for shareholders chasing dividends, or actually believing that a competitive industry is possible in a natural monopoly of what should be a public good.
Tinkering round the edges is not going to be enough. We will see if any government is willing to stand up to corporate and effectively force them to cut dividends for shareholders. I think it is unlikely. By the way, annual water bills are five times higher in some regions, compared with others, how is this fair?
Across the pond, it’s been all about Biden and being old, not ‘elder statesman’ old; ‘doddery old man’ old. Whilst I rail against the stereotyping of older people, the guy is just not with it for some of the time. The excuses after that debate were flim-flam and, the point that no-one else is making, just HOW did he pick himself up the following day considering he had a cold, was so badly jet-lagged and so on. The only situation I could compare it to was the amazing recovery of Michael Jackson when he was told that his ill-fated ‘This is it’ performance rehearsals were pants and the project was going to be pulled; the very next day MJ (owing millions of dollars and with no other financial rescue plan) looked like he was 25 again. Drugs (specifically ephedrine) were involved in the miracle turnaround. Something is not right.
Watching this play out is entertaining in a sort of sadomasochistic way. You know that people are working out their strategies and deciding whether to speak now or jump on the bandwagon of praise for him when he does go. I’ve even spoken to people praying for nature to step in as a way out. When it comes to that, he must step down.
The Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant wedding came to its bling-filled climax, although I’m not sure the photo-opportunities will ever truly end. An endless parade of basically the world’s true A-list appeared in one or more fantastical events befitting of a generation for whom appearance is everything. Boris Johnson and Tony Blair attended, although I’m not sure if that was at the same event as Hilary Clinton and Bill Gates. I guess Starmer and Sunak are hoping that they are on the shortlist for the next billionaire nuptials. Cos that’s the way to roll.
*written before the Euros’ Final and the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.