Lindsay Hoyle, Lee Anderson and Angela Rayner: none of these political dramas solve ordinary people’s problems.
Lindsay Hoyle accused after breaking pledge to give SNP new Gaza ceasefire vote. The official NHS waiting list stands at 7.6 million, although the true figure is thought to be far higher. Rishi Sunak struggles to contain Islamophobia fallout over Lee Anderson’s comments. The United Kingdom has fallen into a technical recession, with real wages still lower than pre-financial crisis levels. Rayner hits back after being branded ‘hypocrite’ over house sale. Britain’s 4.3 million “missing” homes renders housing as unaffordable as it was in 1876.
The gulf between Westminster’s chattering classes and ordinary Britons has never been wider. Politicians and politicos have spent recent days gossiping about personalised political dramas of little wider significance – from Lindsay Hoyle to Lee Anderson and Angela Rayner – all the while, Britain becomes an objectively worse place to live. The public wants a reason to hope, but ideas and action are foreign currency in a Westminster bubble where gossip is the unit of exchange. Soon, the pressure will be on Keir Starmer to stop the rot.
Some will say this is unfair; that the controversies of recent days are genuine scandals that require wall-to-wall investigation. But even where this is true, the important details are squeezed out so all that remains is a meaningless, gossipy pulp.
Whether the Speaker dispensed with convention due to threats from pro-Palestinian extremists is a matter of constitutional importance, yet most of the discussion has focused on the politics of the debate, i.e. why the SNP amendment was problematic for Labour and whether it should be re-tabled. Who cares? The public deserves to hear about a genuine constitutional crisis, but instead they’re handed a blow-by-blow account from inside the spin-rooms of each party, and lessons in arcane parliamentary procedure to rival Brexit prorogations.
The same is true for the Anderson story. Obviously, Anderson was wrong to suggest London Mayor Sadiq Khan was in the pocket of Islamic extremists. He refused to apologise, so had the whip removed. Case closed? Of course not. There’s seemingly unlimited mileage in the Palestine/Israel vs Labour/Conservative story – despite the issue having no direct relevance to the lives of most Britons – so on it goes. Whether Anderson joins Reform is treated as a matter of national importance.
Likewise, Rayner may well have questions to answer about the information she provided local authorities about her living arrangements. As she’s Deputy Leader of the Opposition, it’s reasonable for that to be newsworthy. But given the potential infraction appears minor, and one that occurred before Rayner entered politics, it’s hardly groundbreaking. And of course, the ‘revelation’ has only come about because of an unofficial biography by a former Deputy Chairman of the Conservatives.
At this point, I feel I should apologise for this tired account of the Westminster news cycle… because it is tiring. Britain faces very real problems: from ‘our’ sclerotic NHS, to the stagnant economy and exorbitant housing costs. All of these are making life in this country measurably worse, yet the only conversation Westminster is capable of having is: to scalp, or not to scalp?
Westminster seems incapable of solving any of these problems. With endless recesses, Parliament barely sits, and even when it does, it passes very little legislation. Take a look at the active Bills in Parliament that have made it beyond second reading and witness the sparsity of the legislative agenda. What big ideas is Rishi Sunak rushing to implement before the election? You’d get a better sense looking at the front pages than Hansard. All talk, no action.
Westminster losing its capacity to discuss and address important issues isn’t new. Rather, there’s been a gradual erosion in politician’s confidence – and the media’s expectations – in their ability to effect change within their role. How could you not, when all the problems we knew about 10 years ago have steadily got worse? In response, many politicians now see themselves more as entertainers and commentators than legislators, with Anderson and Jacob Rees-Mogg hosting shows on GB News, Jess Phillips starting a podcast, and Neil O’Brien taking up Substack.
The result? An ever changing sea of politicians cum-media talking heads, fortunes rising and falling with meaningless stories, preaching about what needs to be done to a despairing public who just want them to actually do something. Frivolous, introspective and decadent, it gives end-of-days vibes.
Should he win the coming election, Keir Starmer will face huge pressure to turn this around and show the problem is the Conservatives’ and not Westminster in general. Even if Labour are content to play the gossip-game for the moment (there’s no incentive for them to show their hand this early), one can hope the radicalism of the National Policy Framework’s draft manifesto translates to action in government. Whatever your politics, surely movement in any direction is better than the present paralysis.
Andrew Neil went viral for describing Britain’s situation as “dangerous”, suggesting mass unrest. I disagree. If Starmer fails, don’t expect Britain to go out with a bang, but with a whimper. Yeats was wrong for saying the centre will not hold – sometimes it does. Civilisations don’t always fall and burn like Rome. Sometimes, they just decay. Look at Venice. We should all hope Starmer can be bold when it counts.
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