Best Of

Although my depression continues to fog my brain, I am cheered by the grotesque chaos of a Labour government, a LABOUR government hiring special advisors to scuttle round the Commons handing out redundancy notices to its own workers.

The Budget is sunk and there's still a week and a half before they unveil it. McSweeney will go, Reeves surely must go, I struggle to see how Starmer doesn't go.

The LabCon in full effect. Labour are the Tories, Labour are the Tories, naah naah naah naah etc

Marvellous

First, I'm sorry to hear you are struggling. If coming on here and arguing with some tired old hacks helps, more power to your keyboard, my friend.

I lament the failure of this incarnation of Labour to be radical much as I did that of Blair in 1997. Perhaps there was going to be a radical second term pace Thatcher after 1983 but the events of September 11th 2001 changed everything as we know.

The lesson, and I think it's one of Stodge's Political Laws (seventeen or eighteen), is it's never too early to be radical. Both Asquith and Attlee were radical from the minute they got into Government but it seems political timidity in the face of a hostile media (whether written, broadcat or social) is the order of the day for non-Conservative Governments - presumably there is a sense of the fragility of the voting coalition which got them elected.

From my earliest political stirrings in the 1970s doing my homework by candlelight, I had the sense Labour and the Conservatives were two cheeks of the same arse. Not sure it's as true now as it was then back in the days of the duopoly and let's not forget they still got 58% of the vote and won 532 seats out of 650 between them last time so rumours of its demise may yet be exaggerated.

This year has been horrible in general. A seriously bad patch in the spring. I've then recovered somewhat but this autumn has been brutally hard as well. Sadly I think it is work related, specifically money, specifically Big Client not paying my invoices remotely on time or to any pattern. They've promised to behave better going forward but I'm once again sat here with months of work unpaid. Its coming to a head - they will sort it or they will be dispensed with.

Anyway, what else am I doing about it? Growing a tache for Movember and raising money for mental health. £660 in the pot so far and we're only half way through the month.

Against my better inclinations I watched QT for a bit last night, more in hope than expectations of Sultana putting up a decent show, unfortunately hopes and expectations were dashed. She’s not a supple or subtle thinker and reverts to slogans at the drop of a hat. Strangely there’s not much difference between what Sultana and Polanski are saying, but it shows you need something extra to front a party, or a movement as Zarah would no doubt say.

Seen some of it as well. Thought she was very ranty whenever she spoke. Looked a sympathetic audience for her views too

I've seen a few clips now from QT. Have to say Ken C may be getting on a bit but he still speaks great sense and with authority.

Where are today's politicians with such talent and ability for the frontline?

Certainly not in today's Treasury.

I thought the same too, KC spoke sense on migration. He's 85 now, a good few Tory politicians would do well to heed his words.

The way the Treasury have handled this upcoming budget is astonishing, I put some of it down to a poor standard of advisors - too many fresh out of uni with PPE degrees and no experience outside politics under their belt

The dearth of talent is deep and affects all political offices from local government upwards. The ability of a lot of our local councillors is not a patch on what it was 20 years ago, that is despite less people putting themselves forward (I'm aware I sound very old saying this!)

Haven't special advisers normally been relatively recently outside of uni? Say what you like about Starmer and Reeves they both had experience outside politics, Reeves isn't known as 'Rachel from Complaints' for nothing

They should just be called advisers. Recent history has shown there is nothing special about them.

Not sure, I think they're very special.

A serious point, before I descend into Cats Does Countdown and cheap Spanish wine-

Starmer and Johnson both look set to be broken by their choices of Chief of Staff. Jeeves and Wooster rewritten by Harold Pinter. Possibly also TMay and Nick Timothy.

At what point does this become a systemic problem, and what's the answer?

Anyone at a very senior level is to a very large extent reliant on the capability of the people they appoint to delegate doing things to. The issue here is that power in the British government has become so concentrated on the Prime Minister that a single point of failure has been created, and they can only hope not to fail completely if they have a very capable assistant, as Chief of Staff.

The solution is to somehow achieve the impossible and distribute power more widely - across the Cabinet, to local or regional government, to the people doing the work.