We know Starmer is in No 10, the Tories in disarray but what lies beneath should worry the entire political class
Don’t forget that the word landslide has another meaning, freighted with danger. Soil comes loose and the ground fails. Solid land turns semi-liquid under your feet. Without warning, rocks come crashing down. A vast river of mud covers roads, levels homes. What was once safe territory turns lethal.
No one at Westminster this week wants refreshers in geology, and who can blame them? Much more pleasant to talk of mandates, of Britain as an oasis of political stability, of the orderly transition of power in the mother of all parliaments. Yet this general election shows us that the landscape for both government and official opposition is growing ever more treacherous.
It’s not just the fact that Keir Starmer has scooped a Tony Blair-style majority on Jeremy Corbyn-style polling. It’s also that this country’s two big parties took their lowest share of votes and seats alike in more than a century. There hasn’t been such weakness at the heart of the party system since Lloyd George’s Liberals were on their deathbed.
Long before the side slides off a mountain, the conditions build up until, finally, just a little rainfall can trigger calamity. Many of the biggest names around the new cabinet are dreading a downpour in their own back yard. Consider those representing Labour’s real heartlands: the big cities, with their electoral coalition of renters, ethnic minorities and established leftwingers – a coalition that is coming apart.
We know Starmer is in No 10, the Tories in disarray but what lies beneath should worry the entire political classDon’t forget that the word landslide has another meaning, freighted with danger. Soil comes loose and the ground fails. Solid land turns semi-liquid under your feet. Without warning, rocks come crashing down. A vast river of mud covers roads, levels homes. What was once safe territory turns lethal.
No one at Westminster this week wants refreshers in geology, and who can blame them? Much more pleasant to talk of mandates, of Britain as an oasis of political stability, of the orderly transition of power in the mother of all parliaments. Yet this general election shows us that the landscape for both government and official opposition is growing ever more treacherous.
It’s not just the fact that Keir Starmer has scooped a Tony Blair-style majority on Jeremy Corbyn-style polling. It’s also that this country’s two big parties took their lowest share of votes and seats alike in more than a century. There hasn’t been such weakness at the heart of the party system since Lloyd George’s Liberals were on their deathbed.Long before the side slides off a mountain, the conditions build up until, finally, just a little rainfall can trigger calamity. Many of the biggest names around the new cabinet are dreading a downpour in their own back yard. Consider those representing Labour’s real heartlands: the big cities, with their electoral coalition of renters, ethnic minorities and established leftwingers – a coalition that is coming apart. Continue reading… US news | The Guardian