Coming out

+As I was saying a while back, one thing to hope for in Starmer’s new Parliamentary Labour Party packed with Starmeroids is the possibility that some of them may have concealed a rebellious nature. The vote on the two child benefit cap didn’t do much to flush them out, perhaps because the vote happened so soon after the election. But the Winter Fuel Allowance cut could be the moment for a more significant rebellion. Fingers crossed! That cut, sprung on 10 million pensioners without any thought given to the alternatives has focused attention on the unnecessary straightjacket the Starmer/Reeves duo have made for themselves. One idea on which the left and Reform seem to be coalescing is to stop paying interest (or at least so much interest) on bank deposits with the Bank of England—which apparently runs to £40 billion. Some of that would wipe out the so-called ‘black hole.’ The fact that there are alternatives demonstrates that the ‘tough choices’ we hear so much about are no more than political decisions. The courageous duo might reflect on the fate of the LibDems after they fell in with the Tories and u-turned on their pledge to scrap tuition fees. I think this could be an equivalent moment.
 
+Re. Schweizer’s book (see yesterday’s blog) Profiles in Corruption. I dived with bated breath into the chapter on Bernie Sanders. What I came away with was that—surprise, surprise—big money plays as big a role with any politician in the United States regardless of their party background or indeed their rhetoric. In the latter regard, Sanders emerges as something of a hypocrite. Perhaps Bernie might recall Mephistopheles’ remark to Dr Faustus: ‘why, this is hell nor am I out of it.’ (Marlowe)