It fell to Andrew Grice to make the formal declaration: Labour is now at war with itself. Keir Starmer has barely kept a lid on the dissent in his ranks over public spending, despite his partial U-turn on winter fuel payments. "He was right to do it," says Grice, "but it has opened the door to further such demands." The prime minister is now being needled by the rank and file over the two-child benefit cap, ahead of next month's spending review. He will also be pondering why he ever signed the accursed Chagos deal, an inheritance from the previous administration from which he ought to have walked away, as John Rentoul points out, more in sorrow than in anger.
Starmer is not the only one in Labour having a bad week. Writing exclusively in the Independent, Wes Streeting pleaded with junior doctors, who we must now call resident doctors, not to go on strike again. This, in spite of their most recent, inflation-busting 5.4 per cent pay rise, on top of the 22 per cent hike they received last year. Angela Rayner also finds herself in the crosshairs. Charlotte Cripps took the deputy prime minister to task after a leak suggesting she had been lobbying for a crackdown on child benefit. What, Cripps asked, would losing £26 a week really mean for "middle-class mums with a matcha latte habit", before elegantly summing up the vibe in Nappy Valley as: "Damn – now I'll have to cancel yoga at 1Rebel…"
The deputy prime minister was also crowned (by John Rentoul) as "this administration's Gordon Brown" – which is either a badge of honour or a diss, depending on your view. In his skewering, Rentoul depicted an ambitious but divisive figure who is "disarmingly personable", with a "sharp political instinct" that makes her a formidable opponent", but who is "always on manoeuvres". Read his masterful character assassination in full here.
Meanwhile, self-anointed working-class hero Nigel Farage this week unveiled the first full policy platform for his right-of-centre party, containing measures that, if enacted, would potentially cost the economy £80bn. Femi Oluwole wondered why voters would entertain Reform's "commitments" on pensions and child poverty "when Brexit has taken £1,000 from the average UK household". For Rentoul, Reform UK's policy launch was good news for the embattled prime minister, as its wild, mostly uncosted spending commitments showed how "the privately educated Thatcherite stockbroker" might yet be defrocked: "The real Farage thinks the state should do law and order, defence and nothing else," wrote Rentoul. "Labour needs to remind voters he welcomed Liz Truss's mini-Budget as the 'best Conservative Budget since 1986'."
There was actual war news, too. Sean O'Grady kicked the tyres on the government earmarking £1bn to pioneer new military tech powered by AI in order to fight futuristic cyber wars. The first "modern" war of the 21st century will be one "in which a variety of new and evolving technologies is deployed, and with devastating effect". While we all let that terrifying prospect sink in, it's tin hats, everyone. Until next week, hopefully.
.jpeg)
0 comentários:
Postar um comentário