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Opinion

Cymrectitude*

11 Jul 2024 4 minute read
A photographer takes pictures of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (right) and Vaughan Gething, as they listen to a choir at the Senedd. Photo Alastair Grant/PA Wire

 

 

Ben Wildsmith

WhenChancellor Rachel Reeves was pretending to have had first sight of the government finances on Monday, her speech was an object lesson in performative indignation.

Pitched between Emile Zola and someone on a local Facebook group whose bins haven’t been collected, Reeves bristled at the irresponsibility of her predecessors.

The public ledger is in the worst state since World War II, I mean FFS, what have these people been doing?!?!?!

Shock

The data is, of course, available to anyone online and always has been, so the big reveal wasn’t quite the shock it was billed as, but well done to Rachel for carrying off the performance like the tipped-off recipient of a surprise party.

OMG!!!! I had NO idea…

The UK’s public finances aren’t, in fact, in their worst state since the war but that isn’t the point. We, the hardworking people, are outraged by mismanagement of the country and our new government is inhabiting that fury on our behalf.

The vibe is of parents returning from a weekend at Center Parcs to find the fallout from a teenage party in their suburban home. We hoped you were better than this…

Sir Keir himself is, of course, possessed of a potentially lethal sense of integrity. When he ties his shoelaces, he feels a greater burden of responsibility than you did upon becoming a parent.

He burps ethically. During one of the leaders’ debates, Starmer was asked whether he, a millionaire, would consider paying for private healthcare if a close family member was gravely ill.

How very dare you?! The putative PM looked as if he’d been stung by a wasp at the very suggestion. Stuttering a little, he explained that ‘in his house’, where he is the sole moral arbiter, nobody had even heard of BUPA.

His expression suggested a religious aunt who had been offered a line of cocaine at a wedding.

Inconvenient

All of which is wretchedly inconvenient for Vaughan Gething. Timing is everything in politics and his emergence on to the national scene as it embraces puritanical rectitude must be a proper ball-ache for him.

A few months ago, when Westminster was all popping champagne corks and Covid contracts, Gething’s ask-me-no-questions-I’ll-tell-you-no-lies style would have been of a piece with the wider scene.

One can picture Boris Johnson knowingly joshing him, you old roister doister, you…

Now, though, with the earnest, bequiffed Starmer wrapped in a Union Jack and turning national life into an interminable Morrissey concert, the shenanigans down the Bay look jarringly at odds with the zeitgeist.

Today, the Senedd Labour Group were off for an ‘away day’ designed to cohere them around the First Minister. One can only imagine the scenes in the minibus when Nation.Cymru confirmed that Hannah Blythyn was not the source of Vaughan Gething’s woes.

Reports that Mike Hedges attempted to lighten proceedings with a chorus of ‘Gin Gan Gooly’ are unreliable and possibly a result of incoherence.

Whatever transpired at today’s David Brent meets Richard Nixon corporate beano, we’re left with the impression that Labour in the Senedd is the ugly stepchild of the national party.

In Westminster, for now, everything is shiny-new and untainted by the sludge of realpolitik. Here in Wales, we are decades into entrenched Labour governance and the inevitable stench of complacency is about to waft over the border.

How the party deals with the multiple scandals enveloping the First Minister could have far-reaching consequences for devolution. Nothing that Keir Starmer or, more worryingly, Jo Stevens has said indicates any enthusiasm for Wales as a political entity.

On returning from their outward- bound course this evening, Labour Senedd members need to construct a case for their usefulness to the political process.

For all that Labour’s predicament might delight opposition parties; by embarrassing their Westminster bosses, they could disenfranchise the nation.

*With apologies to Peter Finch.


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Adrian
Adrian
3 months ago

The performance artist Reeves is the least of our worries. Within just 24 hours we’ve had notice of the end of domestic oil production, the early release of thousands of criminals, and leave given to 90,000 wrong ‘uns who were due to be deported to claim asylum. I thought Starmer & Co might stay under the radar for a while but no, the crazy train is off to a flying start.

Last edited 3 months ago by Adrian
blc
blc
3 months ago

Opinion pieces by this author are really beginning to put me off this website entirely. We tried the left-wing version of the Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn and it didn’t work. The electorate didn’t like him and he allowed the party to become mired in antisemitism. Regardless of how you feel about it, Starmer’s incarnation of the Labour party is about the most progressive or left-wing version that we will see for many years. The Overton Window has shifted too far and it will take time to claw it back. Even if we had proportional representation for the next Westminster… Read more »

Last edited 3 months ago by blc
FrankC
FrankC
3 months ago
Reply to  blc

You don’t like to read different opinions to your own?

blc
blc
3 months ago
Reply to  FrankC

Do you even care about having an earnest answer to that question?

There’s plenty more I could say, but the downvotes I’ve already had tell me that it’s a waste of my time. Quite frankly, I’ve got better things to do than attempt to discuss complex topics with people who would rather be dismissive than engage constructively.

Che Guevara's Fist
Che Guevara's Fist
2 months ago
Reply to  blc

Confirmed… you absolutely don’t like different opinions to your own.

That, and the fact you clearly are eager to drink the Kool Aid over lies about Jeremy Corbyn shows you know NOTHING.

blc
blc
2 months ago

Yes, I suppose you could see it that way if your definition of “knowing nothing” is not swallowing ideology wholesale and employing critical thinking. Indeed there are many things I “know nothing” about. Such as, for example, knowing nothing about the origins of the phrase “drinking the Kool Aid” being a reference to the mass murder suicide of nearly a thousand people in the People’s Temple cult when they drank a mixture made from a powdered drink mix (which, by the way, wasn’t actually Kool Aid) that was laced with cyanide and other poisons. Or, perhaps you could point to… Read more »

Last edited 2 months ago by blc

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