LONDON LETTER MAY 20 2012

I returned to a grey London, cold in the morning, the apartment block encased in scaffolding, with green cladding wrapped around it as if the block was in a plaster cast; all very depressing.

A momentous week internationally with the Greek people being scapegoated for a capitalism system that appears to be imploding. Now I am not an economist[1] but even I can see the madness of trying to produce economic growth through austerity. As the Greek economy lies prostrate the German Chancellor demanding ever greater austerity reminds me of the 18th century ‘physicians’ hurrying to further bleed the dying patient.

These are as I say momentous days, the equivalent of those periods in history like the 1929 Stock Market Crash. Of course what people actually living through such events are pre-occupied with is trying to sort out the garden, preparing for a funeral or wedding, searching for mislaid keys or bank statements, history like life taking place when you are busy doing other things.

I watched Ed Miliband at PMQ’s[2] on Wednesday. Much to the considerable chagrin of the overwhelming bulk of the lobby he refuses to stick to the script that they have so generously printed out for him, he was to be the damp squib, not so much the nearly man as the never was, Duncan Smith number two. The Sun already had the headlines ready, Head in The Sand Miliband, The Whining Looser, Bye Bye Ed The Red, you get the drift. Only this week he is out polling Cameron on personal ratings, The Labour Party already considerably ahead in the polls, following the local election triumphs. As I say all of this was not supposed to happen and has fed through into his growing confidence at PMQ’s. My only anxiety is that he lacks the killer instinct; this week he had Cameron on the ropes, as Cameron stood bespattered with the debris from Leveson and the incompetence of his administration, Miliband failed to deliver the killer blow. He seemed more content to remain amused by his own jokes and by House of Commons standards they were good jokes[3], but if the roles were reversed Cameron would have not hesitated to go for the jugular. Politics is a ruthless business and Ed needs not only to develop a good verbal left hook but the savagery to use it.

What with the so called Jubilee celebrations for the woman who has achieved the remarkable triumph of staying alive and the looming Olympic fest the government is clearly delivering on the circus front, it’s the provision of bread that is lacking.



[1] And what an over inflated and self important set of individuals these are. I often mocked Sociology for its ‘scientific’ pretensions but never before did economics so deserve the prefix voodoo.
[2] Prime Ministers Questions.
[3] I thought the suggestion that Cameron consider anger management particularly apt, as the latter constantly looses it at PMQ’s.
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