Re: Alex Johnson - worst prime minister ever?
Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2021 5:31 pm
I can totally understand the frustration of things like this repeatedly leading to nowhere (as it did largely with Trump), and on top of that Starmer has missed a few open goals and not been as strong on some topics as I think he could have been and still not alienated anyone who wasn't already a dyed-in-the-wool tory voter.
All that said...I think what he is establishing, and what seems to finally be cutting through, is that as far as leadership goes it's an honest man vs a corrupt man. I hope now the vaccine bounce has bounced that the trajectory should be more one way. Johnson may get off again, but the much, much higher risk this time is that in doing so he makes himself look every bit the elite that he claims he isn't (but clearly is), and that it is absolutely one rule for him and another for everyone else. The fact that it's Cummings - who all the Tories were defending to the hilt last summer - doing the damage is an enormous help too. If they say he's a liar, why did they defend him? If they don't, what he says must therefore be truthful. And all this is *before* brexit realities cause them increasing woes and cries of "this isn't what I was told we would get" even from staunch supporters.
Through greed, incompetence and corruption they've painted themselves into an increasingly tight corner and they all have no loyalty and dirt on each other. If Johnson goes, who replaces him? Bully Patel who might be having her case reopened? Dodgy deal Hancock? Sunak, whose pressure led to the delayed lockdown and thousands of deaths? Backstabbing, perpetually unpopular with the public Gove? None of them are anything more than a straight swap and that won't shake off the sleaze tag because they have practically no-one else to choose from, having hounded everyone decent out of the party.
Starmer may not be Biden. But then Biden wasn't Biden until he was safely in office. Now he's doing great things, and no one apart from the perpetually disappointed Bernie bros is whining that he's just another centrist suit. I think the sort of people who moan that Starmer doesn't get as het up as Corbyn forget that Corbyn has only ever got het up, getting het up is (among other things) what put a lot of people off him, and consequently he's never been in a position to genuinely influence anything for the better. Being able to claim you're always on the right side of history re: what positions you held is nice, but making history - and having the sense of how to get into a position to do that - is orders of magnitude better.
All that said...I think what he is establishing, and what seems to finally be cutting through, is that as far as leadership goes it's an honest man vs a corrupt man. I hope now the vaccine bounce has bounced that the trajectory should be more one way. Johnson may get off again, but the much, much higher risk this time is that in doing so he makes himself look every bit the elite that he claims he isn't (but clearly is), and that it is absolutely one rule for him and another for everyone else. The fact that it's Cummings - who all the Tories were defending to the hilt last summer - doing the damage is an enormous help too. If they say he's a liar, why did they defend him? If they don't, what he says must therefore be truthful. And all this is *before* brexit realities cause them increasing woes and cries of "this isn't what I was told we would get" even from staunch supporters.
Through greed, incompetence and corruption they've painted themselves into an increasingly tight corner and they all have no loyalty and dirt on each other. If Johnson goes, who replaces him? Bully Patel who might be having her case reopened? Dodgy deal Hancock? Sunak, whose pressure led to the delayed lockdown and thousands of deaths? Backstabbing, perpetually unpopular with the public Gove? None of them are anything more than a straight swap and that won't shake off the sleaze tag because they have practically no-one else to choose from, having hounded everyone decent out of the party.
Starmer may not be Biden. But then Biden wasn't Biden until he was safely in office. Now he's doing great things, and no one apart from the perpetually disappointed Bernie bros is whining that he's just another centrist suit. I think the sort of people who moan that Starmer doesn't get as het up as Corbyn forget that Corbyn has only ever got het up, getting het up is (among other things) what put a lot of people off him, and consequently he's never been in a position to genuinely influence anything for the better. Being able to claim you're always on the right side of history re: what positions you held is nice, but making history - and having the sense of how to get into a position to do that - is orders of magnitude better.
