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丹·霍奇斯：斯塔默正在玩世不恭地欺骗英国人民，但他应该小心——选民不会被愚弄
丹·霍奇斯，《星期日邮报》 2024 年 8 月 28 日
好了，现在够了。基尔·斯塔默规划未来艰难的道路是一回事。他试图将国家弊病的责任归咎于对手是合法的。历史总是由胜利者书写的。
但昨天在唐宁街玫瑰园阳光明媚的背景下，首相大肆宣扬的演讲并没有看到首相阐述他对英国的愿景，而是开始粗鲁而玩世不恭地欺骗英国人民。
如果你想知道他“巩固国家根基”演讲的真正目的，只需访问唐宁街网站，仔细阅读唐宁街 10 号公务员上传的文本即可。
至少有七次，你会遇到“[请注意此处删除的政治内容]”这句话。
尽管“服务型政府”的言论很崇高，但这并不是一次严肃或客观地解决国家现状的尝试。 而不是笨拙的政治推卸责任和后遗症。
选民明白这一点。 他们知道他们会演练。 政客在选举中陈述自己的观点。 他们赢了。 他们假装对所继承的烂摊子感到恐惧。 他们疯狂地违背承诺，但发誓要竭尽全力最终让事情好转。
尽管“服务型政府”的言论很崇高，但这并不是一次严肃或客观地解决国家现状的尝试，DAN HODGES 写道
更重要的是，他们特别明白这是 Keir Starmer 的策略。在 2020 年的领导人竞选中，他使用了完全相同的策略。他提出了 10 项左翼“承诺”，告诉所有愿意倾听的人杰里米·科尔宾是他的好朋友，并赞扬了他的前任在担任领导人期间所做的“非常重要的举措”。
然后，当竞选获胜时，他迅速抛弃了他们所有人，将科尔宾赶出议会党，并将他从工党的历史中抹去。
但抢劫一群戴着头巾的科尔宾派狂热分子是一回事。试图对付两个月前将权力托付给他的辛勤工作的男男女女又是另一回事。
“我必须诚实地告诉你，”斯塔默昨天严肃地说道，“事情比我们想象的还要糟糕。在最初几周，我们发现公共财政中有一个 220 亿英镑的黑洞。在有人说‘哦，这只是表演’或‘玩弄政治’之前，让我们记住。预算责任办公室对此一无所知”。
人们说这是表演政治有几个原因。其中之一是，6 月，财政大臣雷切尔·里夫斯告诉全国人民：“我们现在有了预算责任办公室 (OBR)。我们知道情况非常糟糕……你不需要赢得选举就能发现这一点。’
还有财政研究所（IFS）的保罗·约翰逊等受人尊敬的金融分析师的分析，他在本月初写道：“财政大臣不能诚实地宣布她在 10 月份预算中将增加一系列税收，并将其归咎于她刚刚发现的这个漏洞，并声称她在选举前不可能知道需要增加税收来维持公共服务。这一事实对所有关心的人来说都是显而易见的。”
基尔·斯塔默昨天声称，他想坦率地告诉人们他们面临的挑战。但他却在愚弄他们。
然后是实际的预算责任办公室数据本身。据称令里夫斯和斯塔默震惊的“黑洞”的一个主要组成部分是公共部门薪酬结算的无资金成本。
那么他们声称的是什么？他们在反对党中认为里希·苏纳克计划给米克·惠兰和他的火车司机提供 15% 的通胀补偿？还是他们认为一旦工党掌权，惠兰和他的成员就会屈服，满足于得到一些表扬和一袋猪肉零食？
基尔·斯塔默昨天声称，他想坦诚地告诉人们他们面临的挑战。但他却在愚弄他们。
上周，英国天然气和电力市场办公室宣布取消能源价格上限，此举导致预计从 10 月份起平均账单将上涨 149 英镑。能源部长埃德·米利班德对此怒不可遏：“价格上限的提高是我们继承的失败能源政策的直接结果，该政策使我们的国家任由独裁者控制的国际天然气市场摆布。”
但他在进入政府之前难道不知道这项政策吗？这些暗地里的独裁者直到 7 月 4 日才夺取了全球能源市场的控制权？如果他知道的话，为什么他和斯塔默在竞选期间到处承诺，只要大家投票给工党，能源账单就会减少 300 英镑？
我们
我们知道为什么，选民也知道。和其他政客一样，斯塔默撒谎是为了获得权力。
人们明白这一点。他们知道斯塔默在撒谎。他们实际上并不相信他的任何新政治主张——“服务型政府”、恢复对公共领域的信心之类的废话——他们只是希望保守党下台，我们准备在工党旁边打勾来实现这一目标。
但我们的首相似乎无法理解这一事实。事实上，他和他的部长们似乎是唯一真正对苏纳克和他愚昧的政府保持信心的人，他们真的很惊讶他们让国家处于这样的状态。
英国人民不是白痴。他们会接受一些选举后的编排，但他们希望看到他们的政府停止运转，开始治理。他们不想看到他们的首相像经典电影《卡萨布兰卡》中克劳德·雷恩斯饰演的腐败警察局长，大声宣称他“震惊！”发现赌博正在进行，而他的奖金却被塞到他手中。
斯塔默在玫瑰园道歉中的目的是为了维护他的正直。但他却展示了他的谎言。例如取消冬季燃料补贴、能源价格上涨和税收上涨。
首相对他的有毒遗产进行了如此多的抗议，他现在面临着创造自己的乔治·H·W·布什时刻的风险。这位共和党总统候选人在 1988 年竞选活动中期承诺，“读我的唇语，不征收新税。”
当时人们并不真的相信他。但他对此大肆宣扬，人们最终相信了他的话。然后，当他违背诺言时，四年后他最终被赶下台。
基尔·斯塔默在议会中拥有如此多的多数席位，因此他不会面临这样的命运。至少目前如此。
但他需要小心。我们在玫瑰园看到的正是一场表演性的政治游戏。选民不会被它愚弄。
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DAN HODGES: Starmer is cynically gaslighting the British people but he should beware - voters won't be fooled
By Dan Hodges, Mail on Sunday 28 August 2024
Alright, enough now. It’s one thing for Keir Starmer to frame the tough road ahead. It’s legitimate for him to attempt to lay the blame for the country’s ills at the doors of his opponents. History has always been written by the victors.
But yesterday's heavily trumpeted speech against the sunlit backdrop of the Downing Street Rose Garden didn’t see the Prime Minister setting out his vision for Britain so much as embark on a crude and cynical attempt at gaslighting the British people.
If you want a clue to the true objective of his ‘Fixing the foundations of the country’ address, simply go to the Downing Street website and peruse the text uploaded by the No.10 civil servants.
On no fewer than seven occasions you will encounter the phrase ‘[Please note political content redacted here]’.
For all the noble talk of ‘a government of service’ this wasn’t a serious or objective attempt to address the state of the nation. Rather than a clumsy exercise in political buck-passing and posterior covering.
The voters get it. They know they drill. A politician presents his or her case in the election. They win. They feign horror at the mess they have inherited. They frantically back-pedal on their promises, but pledge to move heaven and earth to eventually make things right.
For all the noble talk of ‘a government of service’ this wasn’t a serious or objective attempt to address the state of the nation, writes DAN HODGES
What’s more, they especially understand it’s Keir Starmer’s drill. In the 2020 leadership contest, he used exactly the same playbook. He set out 10 Left-wing ‘pledges’, told everyone who would listen what a good friend of his Jeremy Corbyn was, and praised ‘the very important moves’ his predecessor had made during his time as leader.
Then, when the contest was won, he promptly ditched them all, threw Corbyn out of his parliamentary party and air-brushed him out of Labour’s history.
But mugging off a bunch of keffiyeh-sporting Corbynite cultists is one thing. Trying it on with the hardworking men and women who entrusted him with power two months ago is something else.
“I have to be honest with you” Starmer sombrely intoned yesterday, “things are worse than we ever imagined. In the first few weeks, we discovered a £22 billion black hole in the public finances. And before anyone says ‘oh this is just performative’. Or ‘playing politics’. Let’s remember. The OBR did not know about this”.
Well, there are several reasons people are saying it’s performative politics. One of which is that, in June, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the country: ‘We’ve got the OBR [Office of Budget Responsibility] now. We know things are in a pretty bad state… You don’t need to win an election to find that out.’
There is also the analysis of respected financial analysts like Paul Johnson of the Insttitue for Fiscal Studies (IFS), who wrote at the start of the month: ‘The chancellor cannot honestly announce a series of tax rises in her October budget, blame them on this hole that she has just discovered, and claim that she couldn’t have known pre-election that tax rises would be needed to maintain public services. That fact was obvious to all who cared to look.’
Keir Starmer claimed yesterday that he wanted to level with people about the challenges facing them. But instead he’s playing them for fools.
Then there are the actual OBR figures themselves. A major component of the ‘black hole’ that has supposedly shocked Reeves and Starmer is the unfunded cost of public sector pay settlements.
So what are they claiming? That in opposition they thought Rishi Sunak was planning to award Mick Whelan and his train drivers an inflation-busting 15 per cent pay deal? Or they believed that once Labour secured power, Whelan and his members would fold and settle for a pat on the back and bag of pork scratchings?
Keir Starmer claimed yesterday that he wanted to level with people about the challenges facing them. But instead he’s playing them for fools.
Last week, Ofgem announced a lifting of the energy price cap, a move that resulted in a projected average hike in bills of £149 from October. In response, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband raged: ‘The rise in the price cap is a direct result of the failed energy policy we inherited, which has left our country at the mercy of international gas markets controlled by dictators.’
But wasn’t he aware of that policy prior to entering government? Did these shadowy dictators only seize control of global energy markets on July 4? And, if he was aware, why were he and Starmer running around during the election campaign promising everyone a vote for Labour would actually mean a £300 cut in their energy bills?
We
know why, and so do the voters. Like every other politician, Starmer lied to secure power.
And people understand that. They knew Starmer was lying. They didn’t actually believe any of his new politics - a ‘government of service’, restoring faith in the public sphere nonsense - they just wanted the Tories out and we’re prepared to put a tick next to Labour to deliver it.
But our Prime Minister seems unable to grasp that fact. Indeed, it appears he and his Ministers are the only people who actually retained any faith in Sunak and his benighted administration and are genuinely astounded they left the country in such a state.
The British people are not idiots. They will accept some post-election choreography but then they expect to see their government stop the spinning, and start governing. And they don’t want to see their Prime Minister acting like Claude Rains’ corrupt police chief in the classic film Casablanca, loudly proclaiming he is ‘shocked!’ to find gambling going on just as his winnings are thrust into his hand.
Starmer’s objective in his Rose Garden apologia was to assert his integrity. But he instead showcased his mendacity. As exemplified by the abolition of winter fuel payments, energy price hikes and rising taxes.
The Prime Minister is protesting so much about his toxic legacy, he is now at risk of creating his own George HW Bush moment. ‘Read my lips,’ the Republican presidential contender pledged in the middle of the 1988 election campaign, ‘no new taxes.’
People didn’t really believe him at the time. But he banged on about it so much, they eventually took him at his word. Then ended up booting him out of office after four years when he broke it.
Keir Starmer has such a large parliamentary majority he doesn’t face quite that fate. Yet.
But he needs to be careful. A performative political game is precisely what we saw in the Rose Garden. And the voters aren’t going to be fooled by it.
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