While we wait for the Second Reading of the Bus Services Bill, taking place on 31 January, I’m reflecting on the wider political landscape. The first couple of weeks of January has, from a political perspective, been almost as tumultuous as was 2016.
From Jeremy Corbyn’s hopeless attempt at a ‘relaunch’ with a major speech on 10 January designed to clarify the Labour Party’s position on immigration, to Theresa May’s set piece speech launching her ‘shared society’ initiative, to a lurid dodgy dossier on Donald Trump leaked by the intelligence services, to Tristram Hunt’s surprise resignation as Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, 2017 got off to a cracking start – and all before January is out.
Even if you are a loyal Labour supporter, you would have to admit that Jeremy Corbyn’s speech seeking to relaunch his leadership credentials was one of the most inept political initiatives in recent UK political history.
It simply exploded in his face on the launch pad and was all entirely of his own making. Tristram Hunt’s surprise resignation a few days later (to follow a fresh career outside politics) followed shortly after the resignation of fellow moderate Labour MP Jamie Reed (also to take up a fresh career away from Westminster).
It has got tongues wagging that moderate Labour MPs are lining up to follow suit. To resign one-by-one, rather than collectively, to trigger by-election after by-election to show that Jeremy Corbyn is incapable of winning electorally.
For the Conservatives, Theresa May’s ‘Shared Society’ speech will have many Conservatives worried that she is a firm believer in state intervention.
This is the second time she has delivered a speech of this kind, extolling the virtues of government stepping in as a proactive and positive instrument of national government.
When she became Conservative Party leader many jumped to compare her to Margaret Thatcher. Yet this ‘shared society’ stuff is closer to Ted Heath than anything any Conservative leader since has articulated.
And, last week Theresa May finally started to lay out her plans for Brexit.
Regardless of where you stand on Brexit or how you voted, one has to acknowledge that her Lancaster House speech was an absolutely masterclass.
It was clear, powerful and unambiguous, even if some of the fine detail has yet to be filled in. If you haven’t yet read it, I urge you to do so.
It may yet become the speech that defines her premiership, much as Margaret Thatcher’s dramatic “you turn if you want to, the Lady’s not for turning” speech to the 1981 Conservative Party conference did for Mrs T.
If this is a foretaste of what’s to come for the rest of 2017, it’s going to be quite a year.
- For the full speech (text and video) see here
