You get two impressions of Britain at the moment. First, that nothing works. Second, that the state is not on the side of those who try to work for a living and generally do the right thing, but on the side of those who intend to ride on the backs of others and generally take the mick. Keir Starmer today leaves the country in a worse place on both counts. Let us take them in turn.
People are understandably coming to the conclusion that they might as well not bother, and instead take the dole from the outstretched hand of the state
Starmer did not cause the broken state but, as one of the bureaucracy’s chief princelings, he has done nothing to fix it. He got as far as a few pointed words and sacking his cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald (only to elevate him to the Lords in his final days of office. Such is the gilded life of a mandarin). But of serious attempted reform of the civil service and public services, there was none.
What of the other charge, that of unfairness? Starmer has hiked taxes on work while continuing lavish handouts. We are forecasted to have more people claiming long-term disability benefits than ever before. Even the Economist now reports on the madness of council house tenants effectively being subsidised to the tune of £32,000 per household per year to live in Kensington and Chelsea. Meanwhile, debt-laden graduates in top jobs are relegated to flat shares in scuzzy outer zones.
