Keir Starmer is unpopular. You may have noticed this from his record-breakingly low approval ratings. The weekend just gone brought pungent public confirmation: booing at the mention of his name at the Royal Variety performance at the Albert Hall and a spirited chant among the crowd at the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, which threw an accusation of onanism on to the critical palette.
This is not a new phenomenon. You will remember that George Osborne was booed at the Olympics. And older readers will recall that Margaret Thatcher’s name was greeted with hisses and rumbles even in politer times. But above the street level, in the broad flow of our popular culture, where is the outrage?
There is much to be outraged about, as if you need reminding. Let’s get the charge sheet out. On the admin level, Labour has passed laws to expel its political opponents from the second chamber of Parliament, simultaneously flooding that same chamber with their own loyal lickspittles. They have cancelled elections that they were extremely likely to lose, for the second year running. They are trying their damndest to abolish trial by jury. This is the same Labour party that regularly denounces Putin and Viktor Orbán, happily adopting the same tactics because… well, it’s ok when Labour do it, apparently.
There is so much public anger against Labour, but virtually none on display in the culture
There’s more. They don’t seem to have noticed the wave of open anti-Semitism that has mysteriously appeared in Britain. And these are the people who never, never stop talking about racism – except when working-class whites cannot be blamed for it. Their plan to ban trail hunting is similarly revealing. They keep forgetting that literally thousands of children were raped for decades; the party had to be dragged protesting to even acknowledge that, and its implications. Now, it seems that a few foxes might be being pursued – and here Labour come, enthusiastically waving legislation about. They are desperately concerned for animal welfare, apparently. Halal non-stun slaughter on a massive scale? Too rich for their blood. Not a dickie bird on that.
We have farmers planning their deaths to avoid the inheritance tax raid – Labour’s attitude? ‘Let’s get ‘em’ – to pay for benefits. We have a clinical trial to see if it’s a good idea to sterilise small children who don’t conform to ancient sex stereotypes. (Why stop there? Let’s do a controlled experiment into kicking kids in the face, and see if that maybe snaps them out of it.) They are cooking up a plan to outlaw ‘anti-Muslim hostility’, and addressing the urgent matter of people on benefits who cannot afford a TV licence. Or there is mere silly trivia like taxing milkshakes.
The pattern is clear. The targets are always easy ones, people who cannot defend themselves, who were working hard and saving prudently, who expected to be treated fairly. Labour are the puppets of the New Powerful – the unions, the boondoggling quango class, Muslim ‘community leaders’.
The big horrors besieging us in 2025? Forget it. Instead, Labour are legislating for the problems of the 1980s, going all-in on Orgreave and Hillsborough. This is like taking an urgent stand against home taping or The Thompson Twins. At this rate, today’s big problems will be addressed by a prime minister who is currently a twinkle in their father’s eye.
But remember when the Tories were in power, similarly squeamish and hopeless – the culture was awash with uproar. Russell Howard’s Good News, The Mash Report, Frankie Boyle’s New World Order – hours and hours of televisual fury. A year into Labour’s reign, and there is more anger expended by such types at Reform – a party that currently has 5 MPs – than at the government, which has 404.
The culture just isn’t boilingly angry like it was with Thatcher, or with Boris, Truss and Rishi. You would have thought Liz Truss had strangled a kitten on live television, for example. (At least she had the decency to be over and done with quickly, like a blink-and- you’ll-miss-it fad of old.) The cultural clamour to remove Truss was deafening and irresistible. But now, Starmer – even less popular – lingers on, like a cold that drags on into its third week, or something you need a plumber to clear.
The angry are quiet. I don’t mean the Corbynite wing of public life, who are always agitated. Their criticism, that this administration is not so very different from the previous one, at least has the virtue of being true, even if they think the problem is that neither was nor is left-wing enough. I mean the Good People, the upper middle-class progressive taste-makers and shakers. This time, they are nowhere to be seen, or getting aerated about Trump or Israel.
Why? Because they are aligned with Labour, and of the same class and political creed. In the specific cases of Islamism or political transvestism, they are similarly terrified and pretending not to be. Led By Donkeys have fallen pretty much silent since Labour came to power. Even mainstream celebs like Ant and Dec, who helped to pour the agony on to Boris and Truss, are mute on Starmer and company.
There is so much public anger against Labour, but virtually none on display in the culture. Somebody that didn’t watch news or current affairs would not be aware that the government is hated, or that anything much is wrong in Britain. And it is very hated, and there is so very, very much that is wrong.
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