On Monday, the UK gets another Prime Minister. We've been having rather a lot of them lately. We're not exactly First Republic Italy yet, but the reputation of the UK for political stability is kind of gone.
Ultimately, Sir Keir was perhaps unsuited for the top job. He was at the end of the day a lawyer and not a politician. His election as Labour leader after the 2019 defeat was a case of being the most popular candidate in an mediocre batch and no-one really thought that Labour would be back that quickly. Then again, I didn't exactly think that Boris Johnson would self-destruct in the way he did.
The 2024 election was a case of "the Government losing" and Labour's landslide coming on a very low share of the vote.
Ultimately, Sir Keir made some massive missteps. Winter Fuel Allowance changes went down like a lead balloon - it's a third rail of British politics, along with the triple lock for pensions it seems. Immigration was always going to be an issue. "Two-tier Kier" will stick with him for the rest of his days, regardless of the truth of the matter. I definitely feel we could have done more on Gaza and should still do more.
However, what ultimately holed him below the waterline was the whole Peter Mandelson scandal. I don't know whose idea that was to appoint him as ambassador to the United States, but it was in retrospect a stupid one. John Healey resigning over defence spending was just the magazines exploding.
I have thoughts on Andy Burnham, our Prime Minister-elect, but I'll save those for next weekend once his government is in place.
No comments:
Post a Comment