In a Land of Make Believe
On the face of it it doesn't make sense. The Tories are at each other's throats over Brexit. They have overseen a stagnation in living standards for many, a significant fall for the poorest and a rise for those better placed. A Tory run council (Kensington and Chelsea) dismally coped with the Grenfell disaster - in part the result of Tory cuts and an obsession with balancing the budget. A collapse in the prison system directly due to cuts in staffing: crime rates rising after many years of decline due to cuts in police funding. Local authorities cutting staff and services to the most vulnerable because of the Tory's belief in small government - whatever the price. A laissez faire attitude to employment - claiming merit for creating millions of jobs yet blind to the types of low pay jobs created. In hock to a small group of Northern Ireland politicians who hold the rest of the country to ransom. A Government made up of C list politicians who seem to be more concerned about their own careers in the Tory party than what just might be good for those they nominally represent.
Yet this Government, possibly the most disastrous in 50 years is ahead in the polls. Frankly I can't explain it. Labour is not attractive, granted, but it has policies which do try to address the major failings in our country. Housing, benefits, transport, Brexit, investment, policing, local authority funding, business rates etc, etc. Labour have reasonable alternative policies (except the Tories have no policies in these areas). And additional taxation. Of those who can afford to pay more and those who believe genuinely better provision in a vast swathe of public enterprise is worth a tax hike.
It can't be personalities. Jeremy is not the most attractive of leaders and most of his shadow cabinet are unknowns except for Diana Abbot and John McDonnell Yet the Tories are led by a most unattractive Prime Minister - don't take my prejudice for it - the polls say the same. Her cabinet is made up of some of the most vote repellent people you could imagine. Gove, Hammond, Truss and that guy who's supposed to be in charge of Brexit. Oh and the leader of the House, not forgetting the Secretary of State for Transport who in earlier times wouldn't have been employed as a ticket collector on the Bluebell Railway.
I give up. I put it down to the British genius of suspending disbelief until we're totally fucked. Drifting back into a mystical past where we were ruled by well intentional betters and the rest of us let them get on with running the country.
Finally, I also blame the Internet, virtual reality, Facebook and the inability of anyone to concentrate for more than 10 secs on any question. And David Dimbleby's imminent departure from Question Time. There, I think I've covered all the bases.
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