Sunday 30 April 2017

The "Strong and stable leadership should be enough, surely" election - day 13

Sunday morning is politics time, and we nerds faithfully sit down to watch and listen to an array of old blokes (and Sophie Ridge) failing to tie various political leaders down on the issues of the day, coupled with all too familiar faces reviewing papers and leading us though Politics Past, Present and Future.  Pitiful, isn't it?

And yet we're in the middle of an election, facing the biggest change this country has seen since the Second World War, so it should bloody matter.  And the prime minister of this great nation of ours turns up to address her electors after a week and a half of hiding from us (see yesterday, and the rest).

Overnight we'd heard that the Tory manifesto "wouldn't mention" Heathrow expansion.  "A spokesman for the Tories told the Sunday Telegraph there is 'no need' to mention Heathrow as the decision on airport expansion was reached by the Government last year."  And it wasn't just the LibDems who wondered who that would help.  Apart from one Zac Goldsmith, who seems to have rediscovered his Conservative party card, there must be somebody.

The next vote on probably doing something about a third runway at Heathrow, or something, comes at the end of the year, and I'm sure another review or two will be found necessary.  How the hell can a government be #StrongAndStable ™ enough to sail the country out into global waters with no deal to cover millions of people and half of our exports if they can't say Yes, or was it No, as directed?

Anyway, it was Tory time


#MrsME was booked to appear with Marr and Peston.  Both of them tried similar tacks, and both were met with a broadside of answer-came-there-none.

Q. Why are nurses, after a 14% real terms pay cut going to food banks at the end of the week?
A. Increases will be possible with economic growth, and #StrongAndStable ™ leadership (S&SL ™) will ensure that we have growth.


This called to mind my only-just-post-schoolboy economics, the first time I met the political cake which our top diplomat wants to consume but retain.  To slice a cake at all, the theory goes, we must have a cake in the first place.  And if the poor have no cake we must bake a bigger cake so that one day they might hope to share a small slice between their indefensibly large families.

"Why can the cake not be shared out now?"  demand various ne'er-do-wells.
"Because it must be bigger to support all the demands on it,"  is the reply.
"And when will it be big enough?"
"Oh, is that the time?"


Peston reminded #MrsME that she had made a pledge last July, standing in the middle of Downing St (not on the steps), to help those who are struggling, those who might or might not be able to get by.  I'm sure she had a better phrase for it in those heady July days.  Given that “every leading thinktank” says the poor will be disproportionately hurt by benefit changes at the same time as slow wage growth, #wotchergonnerdoabahdit?

Apparently the Tories (careful #MrsME, you might have to mention that Cameron bloke and his sidekick Osborne) have done things to ease access to mortgages (well yes, but that doesn't really help here) and lots on mental health (it's a start, it might even be relevant, but is that it?).  And then it was back to growing the cake.

Q. What about the cuts in school funding per pupil?
A. Spending on schools is at record levels.
Q. But per pupil?
A. That's a small number;  I have a big number.
Q. What are the chances of a UK-EU trade deal?
A. Ah, you must be asking about #StrongAndStable ™ leadership.

Asked about Cameron/Osborne's stupid pledge not to raise the taxes that raise 60% or so of government revenue - you know, the one they hatched to trap Labour into committing to something stupid, and hoped to bargain away in a coalition deal... and then had to make law - she went for "there are no plans to raise taxes".  So that's all right then.

But the loneliness must be getting to her.  It can't be easy, going around day to day in the company of security men, close personal advisers and trusted party members, and not seeing a real person for weeks on end.  She did eventually commit (or did she? the media think so) to not raising VAT if re-elected.

Then those ingrates at the Labour party said it had been their idea!


Oh yeah?

Pensions? Wait for the manifesto.  Social care funding?  Wait for the manifesto.  No deal would be better than a bad deal but I want a good deal.  But the EU27 won't talk trade until the bill's settled. So we need leadership.  Debates?  I want to get out and meet people (and nobody asked how many she'd actually met).





Some people had managed to stay awake through all that.

Royal College of Nurses chief executive and general secretary Janet Davies said:
"Theresa May was explicitly asked to admit that it is wrong for nurses to be forced to use foodbanks in 2017. Not only did she fail to acknowledge it is wrong, she failed to even mention nurses or their work in her reply.

"Nurses should not have to fund the NHS deficit from their own pay packets. Too many are struggling to make ends meet, turning to foodbanks and hardship grants in desperation.

"Every year that the government holds NHS pay below inflation, hundreds of thousands of nurses get another real-terms cut to their salary.

“The government pay cap is fuelling a recruitment and retention crisis that is as damaging for patient care as it is for the nurses themselves. A growing number feel they can no longer afford to work in the profession and others are deterred from joining by the meagre pay on offer.

“After the election, for the sake of patient safety, the government must scrap the pay cap and fill the tens of thousands of vacant jobs.”

Chris Bryant MP (Labour, Rhndda, majority 74,55) was a bit more direct.




Fraser Nelson of the Spectator observed,  "Theresa May has perfected the art of saying nothing in interviews. The most any journalist can hope for is a subtle shift in position, or an absence where a position once stood. She seems to think that, if you refuse to give the press anything, the public won’t care. Worse, she seems to be right – for now, at least."


Labour

John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington, majority 15,700) came out and told us "the manifesto will be fully costed" (which is much less interesting than "the revolution will not be televised") and that he would not put VAT up, or income tax for low and middle (undefined - he's fallen for that one once already) earners.

Ian Lavery (Wansbeck, majority 10,881, Labour's joint election co-ordinator) came out and delivered his script.  Andrew Neil was asking boring but reasonable questions but the script just kept on coming.  Sticking it to the man doesn't work if you don't get heard and end up looking a prat.

Pity, because Labour actually had some ideas out this morning.  Their 20 point plan for the workplace included ideas on workers' rights, minimum wage, controlling takeovers, blacklisting and many (20 minus that lot, approximately) more areas.


Corbyn was more interesting when he addressed the National Association of Head Teachers at their conference.  He proposed that local authorities, which are legally required to provide adequate school places, should regain the ability to build schools to do so, and even take over the academies in their areas.  The mechanics of  it would of course be complex, but this looks like a logical and inexpensive idea which could end up being popular.


Kezia Dugdale meanwhile has announced a gender-balanced team to lose all the Sciottish seats for Labour


and she has a good line on meeting people, unlike #MrsME





There's more, but no time


Paul Nuttall came out to tell us why white rapists are better than brown rapists and show how little he knows about his new pied-à-terre, Boston and Skeggy.

Tim Farron said things about being leader of the opposition in a world defined by #MrsME (I can see three leaders of the opposition bobbing up and down in the Commons to attract attention).

Pressure has been building up in recent days about employment (with Matthew Taylor's report, commissioned by #MrsME coming out as early as the end of June) and Northern Ireland, the land whose name the UK government dare not speak, but I'll have to put those off to another post.



Never knowingly informative, Theresa May won't tell us anything about the Brexit negotiations.  We'll have to go to the EU for that, or useful MEPs like Richard Corbett (not useless MEPs like Farridge), but discussions continue about what our own government is going to dump on us.

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