Why do celebs in the media always ‘jet off’ to places? Battleaxe will breathe such a sigh of relief when our Easyjet plane manages to lurch down the runway at Gatwick and drag itself into the air, never mind any jetting. Philosopher’s Covid is better, and I am still negative… so we are off. As you can imagine, life has been a bit quiet in Battleaxe Towers this past week, so I thought I’d take a rest from diversionary things like Boscombe Downs syndrome and slagging off the Tories and take a look at the woes of the Labour Party. Yes, I know this is yet another diversion to take my far-too-active mind off the likelihood of catching Covid at the last minute, or our flight being cancelled or delayed for hours, but there you go…

Ah, Easyjet from Gatwick. That’s so confidence-inspiring. They keep on sending me emails and texts to say get to the airport early, and just had another saying there won’t be any food or drink on the plane! And another asking is my cabin bag the right size… Every time I get one I think crikey, that’s it, flight’s cancelled… At least we don’t have to worry about there being no trains – we’ve got a car and driver taking us to the airport. So, there won’t be any more posts now until I get home.
There has been a lot in the media in the last few days about how Labour needs to identify and promote its values, vision and plans, rather than relying on the awfulness of the Tories to get themselves into power. This is a very good article. Sitting and waiting for the government to implode might well work, and heaven knows, the current government and its leader could hardly be doing much worse. Also it is, by and large, true that governments are defeated because of their perceived shortcomings rather than the opposition winning people over with their fabulous offerings. Maybe the one recent exception to that was – dare I say the name – Tony Blair? Anyway, our faulty first-past-the-post electoral system means that sitting and waiting is very risky.
So, Labour has to get its act together and develop a way forward that is going to WIN. The next election is in early 2024. It needs to start now! Today! There is far too much havering and sitting on the fence from the leadership, especially, sadly, from Keir Starmer. Yes, I know he is still beset with insane Corbynites who would prefer purity of dogma to anything useful like being in power, but they will just have to be zapped. If they don’t toe the line they will just have to go off and form their own party. (is it ‘toe’ the line, as in being lined up at the start, or ‘tow’ the line, which is something to do with ships. I never know).
When I was at work I used to spend hours sitting around (or in my case, striding up and down shouting) in over-priced and over-heated hotel meeting rooms with focus groups of staff, and then boards of directors, coming up with Core Values, Visions… Strategic aims… ad infinitum. Sure, the results of our efforts weren’t always that great, and in a few years the company would dream up a new load of stuff and you’d have to start all over again, but we got the job done, and the organisation would have moved forward a tiny bit. So what stops the Labour Party? They must spend a fortune on expensive strategy consultants – what on earth are they doing? There was this workshop popped up on-line from the 2021 Party conference. Didn’t do much good, did it?
If I put this stuff up on Twitter, I’d get lots of snarky comments about how the shadow cabinet has lots of ‘ideas’. Sure, they may have, but ideas on their own are no use.
Honestly, I am not blowing my trumpet or going through a state of manic fugue, but give me the shadow cabinet in a room for a day and I bet we’d come up with something workable. Hell, there are enough issues to focus on – the country is in a truly, truly shocking state, and it is getting worse by the day. Here we go: ‘Better Lives For Everyone’. Where do we start? Sure, Brexit has happened, and that EU won’t be having us back any time soon, so we must forge a better relationship with Europe and get back some of the good things that the EU gave us. Rescue the NHS… Reform the electoral system… the possibilities are endless. It just needs a bit of commitment.
Oh honestly, I keep getting pictures like this one from Shaun on Facebook – he is already out there in Cirali, waiting for us…. Is it any wonder I feel impatient? And here I am rabbiting on about the Labour Party? Am I nuts? Oh Forget it.