It was always going to be a tough start for the new labour government….

With so many knives sharpened and waiting for them, even before they won the election, it was always going to be tough for them. However, after 14 years in opposition, I was hoping they would at least avoid the very missteps they had spent 14 years criticising the previous government for. Jess Phillips one of the Birmingham MPs did; she got something wrong and she promptly apologised. She will no doubt misspeak again over the coming 3 years, but if she continues to know when to pull up and say sorry, she would at the very least, have demonstrated how to be different

There is nothing wrong with making mistakes. Knowing you are making a mistake but ploughing on, is what’s wrong. The winter fuel saga is a major error of judgement by this new government and they know it. The intention is right, but the execution should have started with a request to pensioners; many of them may have actually volunteered to give it up. Many of them do not need it. But some clearly do. To make such a unilateral decision has opened this government to such collateral damage that could cost them the next election. Pausing and saying sorry, proposing an alternative, would have been the wise thing to do. Similarly this unending stories of freebies accepted by labour MPs, including the Prime Minister; why is it ever so difficult for politicians to say sorry??? It is NOT a sign of weakness, if handled properly. They have not done anything wrong. But, the apology is not to accept wrongdoing, it is for the perception of hypocrisy. Taking winter fuel payments off pensioners and whacking on VAT on private schools, while staying in freebie accommodation in NYC (albeit in the past) and the rest, at the time they were heavily criticising the previous government, is indeed worthy of an apology and then promptly drawing a line under it. Instead, just like the government they replaced, they are making the exact same mistake of stubbornly dragging it out. Then I am sure a belated apology will come, by then, the damage is done. They will now be seen as no better than the government they replaced. A label that’s likely to prove costly at the next election

I am quite saddened by this, as I had high hopes for this government and I believe they could have indeed done well, but it appears power does indeed get to people’s heads, regardless of preparations. Can they do a sharp turnaround, do the decent thing and apologise, then try to avoid this needless adversarial approach? I hope they can. They are of course not getting much help as many are simply waiting to see them fail, which is most unfortunate, as their failure is to no one’s benefit and we should all help them succeed, which to to everyone’s benefit! They should pause the removal of winter fuel assistance, stop the VAT on private schools (it is a grave error of judgment that appears increasingly to be solely out of misplaced envy and a lack of understanding of the dynamics of CHOICE and sacrifice. An overwhelming majority of parents who send their kids to private school are not wealthy. They make sacrifices that some poorer folk choose not to make e.g. not going abroad on holidays), stop taking excessive freebies etc.

I sincerely hope they can make this change.