It's hard to blame British voters for holding their noses and voting Labour, even knowing how bad a new Labour government could be ... they've been voting Tory and getting Labour policy anyway, and nothing seems to persuade the Tories that they should actually _do_ any of the things they promised to do. Between Rishi's Labour-lite and Farage's I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Conservative, Labour is likely to win huge numbers of seats by tiny margins ... yet I predict they'll pretend their huge number of seats is a "firm mandate" to implement all of their wilder policies. I suspect in Starmer's mind, this is his chance to be a "Second Attlee" and impose generational changes on the British state.
Blair already changed the country, failure to realize that was why the Tories failed in government. They spent 14 years being stymied by Blairite bureaucracy. I think Starmer's plans to radically reshape things will end up being massively watered down because they'll do things i9n the wrong order. One of Starmer's plans is to make US style lawfare easier and he expects to pass that one fairly quickly. That means all his other laws are going to hit judicial reviews by courts and get bogged down with parts of them being found illegal
In most of the Anglosphere, the bureaucracy are breaking the chains and becoming the monster that "Yes, Minister" lampooned. The government here in Canada has been hiring people as fast as they can and at the same time providing worse and slower service in every aspect. We're looking at flushing Justin Trudeau's Liberals from power at the next election, but the opposition Conservatives will quickly find that very little of their plans will ever get implemented because the permanent government opposes almost everything the Conservatives do. Starmer's innovation sounds awful on the face of it, but it's quite in line with giving tools to obstruct and frustrate the desires of the voters.
A friend of mine in Japan often rants about her stupid government is. My yea but; ours is even stupider. Her OK yea but but; hers always does whatever the U.S. wants so her is even stupider!
I wonder how your family discussions go, Japan, UK, Frances.
But again, don't make no nevermind, t'ain't no thang. Tory/Labor/democrat/Republican/Jiyū Minshu-tō/Rikken Minshu-tō....
The non existent, or at least never ever spoken of Sacred an Loyal International Brotherhood of Bureaucrats and their don't assume my gender, sibling Lodge; The Masters Of The Universe, Lords Of All The Screens Display, Elite, Bankers, Buskers, Doctors, Shockers, Rockers and Corporate Operators actually have the first and last say.
We can't even play, let alone win the game unless we've know the other team's lineup.
In Japan I am actually slightly more LDP (Jiyū Minshu-tō) inclined compared to my wife. My view is they have basically bumbled along without doing too much that is actively harmful. That is, I admit, a low bar but it is one that many other governments (e.g. the subject of this post) have managed to limbo under. The wife wants more and I don't precisely blame her, I'm just not convinced that the Rikken Minshu-tō, who are the likely replacements, will actually do anything positive in that regard.
It's hard to blame British voters for holding their noses and voting Labour, even knowing how bad a new Labour government could be ... they've been voting Tory and getting Labour policy anyway, and nothing seems to persuade the Tories that they should actually _do_ any of the things they promised to do. Between Rishi's Labour-lite and Farage's I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Conservative, Labour is likely to win huge numbers of seats by tiny margins ... yet I predict they'll pretend their huge number of seats is a "firm mandate" to implement all of their wilder policies. I suspect in Starmer's mind, this is his chance to be a "Second Attlee" and impose generational changes on the British state.
Blair already changed the country, failure to realize that was why the Tories failed in government. They spent 14 years being stymied by Blairite bureaucracy. I think Starmer's plans to radically reshape things will end up being massively watered down because they'll do things i9n the wrong order. One of Starmer's plans is to make US style lawfare easier and he expects to pass that one fairly quickly. That means all his other laws are going to hit judicial reviews by courts and get bogged down with parts of them being found illegal
In most of the Anglosphere, the bureaucracy are breaking the chains and becoming the monster that "Yes, Minister" lampooned. The government here in Canada has been hiring people as fast as they can and at the same time providing worse and slower service in every aspect. We're looking at flushing Justin Trudeau's Liberals from power at the next election, but the opposition Conservatives will quickly find that very little of their plans will ever get implemented because the permanent government opposes almost everything the Conservatives do. Starmer's innovation sounds awful on the face of it, but it's quite in line with giving tools to obstruct and frustrate the desires of the voters.
Yes. The Tories failed to figure this out and will reap the consequences in the next 24 hours. I hope your Canadian equivalents are paying attention
It all don't make no nevermind.
A friend of mine in Japan often rants about her stupid government is. My yea but; ours is even stupider. Her OK yea but but; hers always does whatever the U.S. wants so her is even stupider!
I wonder how your family discussions go, Japan, UK, Frances.
But again, don't make no nevermind, t'ain't no thang. Tory/Labor/democrat/Republican/Jiyū Minshu-tō/Rikken Minshu-tō....
The non existent, or at least never ever spoken of Sacred an Loyal International Brotherhood of Bureaucrats and their don't assume my gender, sibling Lodge; The Masters Of The Universe, Lords Of All The Screens Display, Elite, Bankers, Buskers, Doctors, Shockers, Rockers and Corporate Operators actually have the first and last say.
We can't even play, let alone win the game unless we've know the other team's lineup.
In Japan I am actually slightly more LDP (Jiyū Minshu-tō) inclined compared to my wife. My view is they have basically bumbled along without doing too much that is actively harmful. That is, I admit, a low bar but it is one that many other governments (e.g. the subject of this post) have managed to limbo under. The wife wants more and I don't precisely blame her, I'm just not convinced that the Rikken Minshu-tō, who are the likely replacements, will actually do anything positive in that regard.
I am thankful for the Tories proving that the Republicans (sans Trump and a few others) aren't the most useless people in the world.