Labour’s first 100 days have reeked of greed, stupidity & pure spite – so do you feel like you’ve been cheated?
AFTER their first 100 days of power, Tony Blair’s New Labour government was flying.
Blair surrounded himself with talent. Everywhere there was slick, smart, competence.
Gordon Brown became Chancellor, a post he would hold for more than ten years, immediately making the Bank of England independent.
David Blunkett was Education Secretary. Robin Cook the Foreign Secretary.
Two-fisted, “Two Jags” John Prescott was Deputy PM.
New Labour were caring, socially aware — but fanatically pro-aspiration, pro-growth, pro-prosperity.
The nation felt good.
But what will we remember about the first 100 days in office of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government?
Labour depriving ten million senior citizens of the winter fuel allowance even as they buy off the party’s union paymasters.
Labour giving sovereignty of the strategically crucial Chagos Islands to Mauritius — 1,300 miles away — emboldening every nationalist politician in Argentina and Spain with designs on the Falklands and Gibraltar.
And greedy, freebie-loving Labour politicians raising their snouts from the trough and asking — so what?
There was a revealing exchange on Sky News this week between Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and presenter Kay Burley.
Squirming under Kay’s interrogation that so many senior Labour figures enjoyed free tickets to see Taylor Swift, Nandy — vehemently rejecting all accusations of wrongdoing — attempted to make a counterattack.
“Most of Sky News were at these events and in these same boxes as well,” Nandy sneered. “You were there.”
Big mistake.
“I paid for my tickets up front eight months earlier,” Kay replied quietly, as the ground opened up and swallowed the stunned Labour Minister.
Because Lisa Nandy could clearly NOT CONCEIVE of a world where a public figure might actually pay their own way.
This is the Imelda Marcos school of socialism.
Whatever you want, from new frocks for the missus to spectacles, suits, Taylor Swift tickets, great seats at the football — somebody else will always pick up the bill.
Labour’s first 100 days have reeked of greed, stupidity — and pure spite.
From January, private school fees will no longer be exempt from VAT.
Spiteful policy
The rich will not notice, but an estimated 13,000 kids of ordinary working people will have to find state schools.
Many of them will be in the middle of their GCSEs and A levels.
It is unforgivably cruel that Starmer’s Labour chose not to delay their spiteful policy until the start of a school year.
There was never euphoria around Starmer, but the country wished him well. We were relieved he was not Jeremy Corbyn.
And after the chaos of the Tories, five years of boring stability and competence seemed appealing to even those of us who did not vote for Labour.
A Labour government had seemed inevitable.
The Tories were doomed from the moment on April 17, 2021 that the Queen was pictured at her beloved husband’s funeral — a tiny figure in black, masked and alone, following the rules that we all followed.
When we knew that behind closed doors, Boris Johnson and his flunkies had not been following the rules with quite the same rigour — even on the eve of Prince Philip’s socially-distanced funeral — then BoJo was toast, and so were the Tories.
They call it the optics. But really it is about basic human decency.
And that is why there is something so repulsive today about this gimme-gimme-gimme government who fill their boots even as the country counts the pennies.
In Keir Starmer, we thought we were getting the sober prosecutor, a dull but decent public servant light years away from Tory sleaze.
Ever feel like you’ve been cheated?
PERSONALLY, I am sad that James Cleverly, the candidate who frightened more than just Reform UK, did not make it to the final round of the Tory leadership contest.
And the way the Tories burn through their leaders, James Cleverly will probably not get another chance to become leader for, oh, at least 18 months or so.
Britt’s right – it’s Goodnight, cinema, unless you’re Bond
BRITT EKLAND was a good Bond girl in a mediocre 007 film, playing Mary Goodnight in 1974’s The Man with the Golden Gun – the dog days for the world’s favourite spy.
“This series, which has been scraping the bottom of the barrel for some time, is now through the bottom,” sighed one critic of Roger Moore’s second outing as 007.
But Britt – Swedish, blonde, consummate swinging Sixties icon – always seemed born to be a Bond girl.
So when the former Mary Goodnight reflects on the future of the Bond franchise, the world listens. “I believe cinema will fade out and streaming is the way to go,” Britt says.
“Yes, a new Bond film will sustain cinema for a while, but I am sure the way to make money in the future is streaming.”
Our viewing habits have changed out of all recognition since Bond was raising an interested eyebrow at Mary Goodnight’s bikini in The Man with the Golden Gun 50 years ago.
But when it was released in the cinema in 2021, the last 007 film made £600million.
James Bond will never have a problem packing your local cinema.
Just as soon as they work out how to revive a hero they killed off in his last outing.
A NUMBER of Oasis fans in Manchester have been preparing for the band’s homecoming gig in Heaton Park next year by burying recreational drugs in the bushes.
This seems a bit optimistic.
By the time Oasis begin their tour next summer, it will be 25 years since I saw them play Wembley in the company of 90,000 mad-for-it lads and lasses (but mostly lads).
All those Oasis fans who were in their teens and twenties in 2000 will be in their forties and fifties now, where – trust me, lads – your short-term memory is the very first thing to go.
By the time the Oasis tour finally rolls around, they will never be able to remember where they buried their stash.
MOVIE SNOW STORM
COLOMBIAN-American actress Rachel Zegler, star of the remake of Disney’s Snow White, says her character’s name has nothing to do with the colour of her skin.
Rachel insists the name comes from a little- known version of the tale when Snow White survived a snowstorm when she was a baby.
“And so the king and queen decided to name her Snow White, to remind her of her resilience,” says Rachel, unconvincingly.
Rachel Zegler is a terrific actress.
She was astounding as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story.
But sorry – Snow White did not get her handle because she was unlucky with the weather.
The original 1812 fairy-tale by the Brothers Grimm specifically talks of, “Skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony.”
This new Snow White has already run into controversy about – well, everything really.
The Seven Dwarfs are computer-generated imagery, provoking fury among actors with dwarfism that their community is being erased.
The handsome prince has been described as a “stalker” by Zegler, which doesn’t inspire much hope for their relationship.
But then Snow White is an early 19th-century fairytale made globally famous by a 1938 Hollywood animation.
And it can never be as woke as modern Hollywood wants it to be.
THIS week a bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales will be introduced in the House of Commons, with a debate and vote to follow later this year.
If you have ever watched a loved one die, you will know that in the end, life narrows down to nothing but suffering.
Morally, legally, medically – assisted dying will always be an impossibly difficult subject.
But if someone has come to a point in their terminal illness where their suffering is unbearable, they should not have to go abroad to die.
Harry staying power
IN 1953, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh left their two children for six months when they embarked on a tour of the Commonwealth.
Before her first birthday, Queen Elizabeth herself had been left for six months while her parents went on a six-month tour of Australia and New Zealand.
When the Queen left her children behind, Prince Charles was five and Princess Anne was three.
Exactly the same age as Harry and Meghan’s children, Archie and Lilibet, are today.
There has been speculation about the state of Harry and Meghan’s marriage because these days they often make solo appearances.
But I reckon they are simply doing their best to ensure that when one of them is away, the other one stays at home.
Parenting has changed in our lifetime – for the royals and the rest of us.
If royals left their small children for six months today, someone would call social services.
On the rise
THERE is hard evidence that counterfeit Viagra is now the UK’s No1 fake drug.
But experts say that counterfeit little blue pills – 2.6million of them were confiscated last year – often contain no active ingredients.
So the industry for fake erectile drugs may be booming.
But clearly not much else is going to be on the rise.