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TRICKY DICKY IS NOT THE ANSWER
ABOUT 10 times a year I watch the juvenile farce called ‘Prime Minister’s Questions’, hoping that something will have changed.
Since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister I have never heard an attempt to respond to the Opposition Leader’s question. Instead there is a tirade of irrelevant fictitious statistics, blame games, excuses, personal insults and total complacency. After the Liz Truss interval it has continued with ‘Tricky Dicky’ Sunak in this respect a clone of Johnson.
How then, can we ever expect the nation’s problems to be solved by the Conservatives? And what are these problems? Hmmm, where do we start? Perhaps with the ineptitude and arrogance of the government and the resulting Johnson legacy.
The handling of Covid and the results of Brexit have been a disaster. The UK has no control over immigration and, with growing illiter acy and innumeracy, a shortage of labour. The health service and care homes are dangerously unreliable. Inflation and the economy are out of control and the country is on the brink of recession. There are no significant guaranteed trade deals. Solutions to many of the above issues were pledges by the Conservatives for reelection.
Furthermore, the police, judiciary and prisons are in a state of crisis; the roads are peppered with potholes; the rivers and coastlines are infested with untreated sewage; racism is endemic in many institutions; the children are the unhealthiest in Europe.
Then the strikes. We know that, after two and a half years of Sunak’s chancellorship, there is no money left to satisfy the demands of the unions. Millions of people are under real hardship with rampant inflation (the highest in Europe), soaring food, energy and mortgage costs and no increase in their income. Because the Prime Minister refused to meet and negotiate with the unions, the situa tion was exacerbated by hugely disruptive strikes in the public sector, including health workers, teachers, transport workers, border controllers, the passport office, fire brigades and civil servants.
Since 1939 (my lifetime), Britain has never needed effective, accountable leadership more than today. Since David ‘Cameraman’, two rather different imageobsessed incumbents have occupied Number 10. Admittedly, being Prime Minister in these circum stances is an incredibly difficult job. It makes managing England’s football team seem like a walk in the park. Having said that, I would not trust anything ‘Tricky Dicky’ says, any more than ‘Honest Boris’.
Do I have a solution? No. Except that the UK needs a fundamental change. After 13 years in opposition, who knows how Labour would perform? Under Keir Starmer, growing into the role, things could hardly be worse than they are now. And, once a new government is installed to pick up the pieces and repair the damage, many more things will need to change. It could take decades.
Sunak is the question not the answer. Any idea that the Conservatives deserve another chance next year is simply loopy.
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