A 'local' guy

+Where to start with Labour’s manifesto? I think we need to start with what it says about democracy: the foundation of everything that is said and done to earn votes. The manifesto says ‘Labour has been transformed from a party of protest to one that always puts the interests of the country first. Now we are determined to do the same with our politics, returning government to the service of working people. This will require a reset in our public life; a clean-up that ensures the highest standards of integrity and honesty.’ Apart from reminding us that he is a toolmaker’s son, these words are at the  core of Starmer’s message. To do what he says he’s going to do, he has to ensure ‘the highest standards of integrity and honesty.’ It barely needs repeating that he has failed these tests multiple times over the last four years. There is something of the headmaster in Starmer (he looks like one) when we’re told ‘British people are understandably cynical about appeals to come together in the national interest. But the challenges we face demand nothing less – it is the lifeblood of national renewal. This plan recognises that politics must make the first move in repairing that bond.’ ’Coming together’ in Starmer’s world has so far meant little more than carrying out the largest programme of purges in the Labour Party’s history. ‘Coming together’ here means being ‘one of us,’ in Thatcher’s famous phrase. Not a good start.

​What else appears in the chapter entitled ’Serving the People?’ A few long overdue reforms of the House of Lords, such as getting rid of the remaining hereditary peers is, well, long overdue. A retirement age of 80 might also be a start in cutting the size of the upper house, but there’s no suggestion that Prime Ministerial patronage is to be ended, so as soon as some peers are ousted they are sure to be replaced. I am confident Starmer will want to use that power asap. Abolition of the Lords? Someday, never. Proportional representation for Westminster elections? Not a hope. If Starmer hopes to address public cynicism then he needs to think again. This won’t cut the mustard. More on the manifesto soon!
 
+Trust in politics? Let’s return to our friend Roberto Weeden-Sanz, the Tory carpetbagger for the Scarborough and Whitby constituency. His refreshing comment in his leaflet that ‘Too often it feels like we are forgotten at the end of the A64. We need an MP who will enthusiastically champion the coast and our community’ sounds like a fitting tribute to his predecessor the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Goodwill, Conservative MP. Truth to power! But sadly our celebration of Roberto’s implicit criticism of Robert cannot last. He doesn’t seem to want to level with us about his background. He says ‘My family are from just north of Leeds and having spent much of my career working for a youth charity in London, I now live in Scarborough and work at a local café in Scalby.’  I imagine his volunteering ‘for years at a soup kitchen’ has prepared him well for that job. Elsewhere he has said that three generations of his family were in farming, but he doesn’t specify in which country, since his mother is Spanish. In fact as regards his parents it seems they were as near to farming as I am to performing in a rodeo in Wyoming. His mother worked at Santander bank and his father was an accountant. In London, which is where Roberto went to school, Latymer no less. The phrase ‘much of my career’ may also be usefully examined, since as he’s only about 30 years old Roberto’s career has hardly been formed. Did he choose youth charity work before or after he went into banking? Perhaps CV building came into it. Who knows?