Whatever we think about the Israel/Hamas conflict (and views seem markedly polarized) it’s very noticeable how mostly one-sided the response from UK politicians, world leaders and the media has been. Many more Gazans have been killed in air strikes this week and the ground invasion hasn’t even started yet. And despite President Biden’s intervention in pressing for admitting humanitarian aid, the convoys waited for days at the Egypt-Gaza border. But there has been some useful broadcasting of programmes documenting the complex history of this area, which not everyone will have been familiar with. We have to hope that escalation can be prevented. At least it’s good news that some hostages have been released and the aid convoys are finally on the move, albeit slowly.
Meanwhile, it sticks in the craw that Rishi Sunak and James Cleverly are using this as a photo opp, attempting to revive the flagging fortunes of the Conservative Party. On Friday’s late afternoon news Sunak bullishly reported that he’d met six Middle East leaders and seemed to imply that his visit would positively influence the decisions around unblocking the aid to Gaza. This kind of hyperbolic self-aggrandisement is not only a national embarrassment but, as the Tamworth and Mid-Bedfordshire byelections have shown, simply will not work. Sunak’s attempt to present himself as an agent for change is just risible. One X user tweeted: ‘An heroic Sunak en route to Israel where the atmosphere is less hostile than Tamworth or Mid Beds. There cannot be anything more sad than Rishi Sunak using the Israeli crisis to prop his failing PM career up’.
When Sunak finally turned his attention to the appalling byelection results, he seemed to underplay them, describing them as ‘disappointing’ but not unexpected ‘mid-term’. Swings of more than 20% to Labour cannot be so easily dismissed. This X user got it in one: ‘Sunak can’t even come up with an original response to what Osborne described as a prelude to Armageddon for the Tories. This is the standard statement every PM has given to every by-election loss for the last several decades. It’s not mid-term blues it’s terminal decline’. Drawing attention to the impact of these results, another said: ‘Mid Beds has been Tory for almost a century while Tamworth was party’s 55th safest seat. Terrible result for Rishi Sunak’. John Crace puts it so well, deconstructing the party chair’s media round performance as ‘deranged’. ‘Greg Hands and fellow party apologists spin themselves in circles in search of positive twist on historic defeats…. it’s not a lot of fun being chair of the Tory party these days. Just one damned thing after another. Trying to keep people’s spirits up as the party lurches from one disaster after another. It’s really not that bad, you keep saying. But it is. It really is. It’s worse than that, in fact’.
Once Hands had made an absolute fool of himself, still saying Rishi was the man with the big ideas, ones the country was enthusiastically embracing and that he would ‘lead the party to a bright new future’, it was then the turn of other Tory stalwarts like Danny Kruger, Gillian Keegan and David Frost, whose twisted logic was based on the idea that their failure was not having been right wing enough. Not only a great beginning to this article but also a striking coup de grace by Crace: ‘Greg, Gillian, Frosty and Danny are the best recruiting sergeants Starmer could want. More and more, the Tories resemble a death cult. Scrabbling for their own extinction’.
But on Saturday it emerged that, faced with boundary changes and the byelection results, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is seeing to his own political extinction by deciding (according to senior Tory sources) that he won’t stand again. If he does actually go, who else could then follow suit? The Conservative Party is imploding. Meanwhile, a bullish Robert Jenrick appeared on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg (actually presented by Victoria Derbyshire again), continuing to sit on the Israel/Palestine fence and struggling to defend his party’s record, dismissing the byelection results and conflating the PM’s priorities with the public’s. A tweeter said: ‘Robert Jenrick being interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire couldn’t be more out of his depth if he was set adrift mid Atlantic without a dinghy’.
Besides the mid-term malaise con, amongst the pathetic excuses given for the historic Tory losses, were suggestions that it’s local issues, ‘our people’s stayed at home’ (but why?!) and more. An Any Questions response from Labour was categorical – it wasn’t ‘local issues’, it’s one major problem, that people are fed up with this government. As a listener tweeted: ‘14 years to deliver, all we got is poorer services highest cost of living crisis on record and we are paying highest taxes than anyone has seen’. Not to mention the non-stop corruption, cronyism, lying and incompetence, the extent of which is being further revealed via the Covid Inquiry. We have to wonder what planet Scottish Conservative Andrew Bowie, doing the media rounds all day Friday, is on: ‘Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt have brought competence and professionalism back into government’. 100% delusion and denial.
Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer is even franker about the Tories’ electoral chances:
‘Unless there is a highly dramatic shift in the political weather, the byelections confirm the message of the polls that the Conservatives are heading for the exit and Labour towards government. Rishi Sunak promised his party that he could alter this trajectory. He’s approaching the first anniversary of his time at Number 10 having failed. Initially, he presented himself to the country as the fixer who could sort out Britain’s many problems. That strategy has unravelled because those problems are so palpably unfixed. None of the five pledges that he made at the beginning of the year have been fulfilled and he’s going backwards on the commitment to bring down NHS waiting lists… The prime minister’s attempt to relaunch the government and rebrand himself at the Tory conference in Manchester has flopped. Presenting himself as “the change” that Britain needs after what he called 30 years of failure has succeeded in aggravating every living former Conservative prime minister from John Major onwards. What it has not done is persuade voters to change their view of him and his party’. Let’s hope Robert Jenrick sees this article, as he is still maintaining in the face of all evidence that progress is being made on these pledges.
When their boss finally returns from jetting around the Middle East and elsewhere (anything than face the Commons) they will no doubt have a post-mortem (along with consideration as to whether their leader needs changing), though in public they affect puzzlement about the results. Quite a few would be prepared to help them out and ease their mystification: one tweeter said: ‘Rates of corporation tax are *not* what troubles the average British voter sat at home worrying about… 1. How to pay their bills 2. Job insecurity 3. Our health services 4. Loss of confidence in our police force 5. Tory #corruption 6. Govt funding of foreign wars’.
Meanwhile, strikes continue and RMT has announced that rail workers at English train operating companies have voted overwhelming for another six months of potential strikes; a shocking report by the National Infrastructure Commission that underinvestment in public transport, home heating and water networks has been in the region of £30bn; a further 40 schools have been found to have RAAC; the NHS continues to crumble and the government’s deliberate undermining and weakening of the UK’s regulatory framework means that no regulator, from Ofgem to Ofcom to Ofwat is operating as it should, leading to continuing profiteering, media mismanagement and continuing sewage dumping.
Another issue proving increasingly alarming has been the growth of a police state here, the Met and other forces failing to do their actual jobs of detecting and dealing with crime (despite some positive-sounding statistics the Tories boasted about there’s been a massive increase in recent times, including shoplifting, but fewer are reporting it, knowing it will lead nowhere) but taking the Public Order Act to absurd lengths. We saw examples of this during the Not My King and other protests and the latest example is the arrest of Greta Thunberg at the Mayfair venue of Tuesday’s Energy Intelligence Forum (EIF), which brought together fossil fuel executives and government ministers. ‘Addressing journalists before joining the protest, Thunberg said: “Behind these closed doors at the oil and money conference, spineless politicians are making deals and compromises with lobbyists from destructive industries, the fossil fuel industry. People all over the world are suffering and dying from the consequences of the climate crisis caused by these industries who we allow to meet with our politicians and have privileged access to’. Such protests should be considered a legitimate part of our democratic process, but increasingly they are cynically criminalised, such arrests also serving to deter other potential protesters.
But never mind all this, as the desperate Sunak now thinks tax cuts for higher earners and lowering stamp duty will be the answer to lure voters back to his fold. ‘A senior Tory told the Times that reducing stamp duty would be “aspirational” and improve the economy in addition to attracting middle-class voters who had left the party’. It will take a lot more than that.
Further shocking revelations are emerging daily from the Covid Inquiry, again demonstrating just how ignorant, dishonest, incompetent and reckless our leaders were. This second stage of the Covid Inquiry is examining political decision-making during the pandemic, including the timing and effectiveness of lockdowns and other social-distancing restrictions. Flurries of WhatsApp messages between the main players showed the level of confusion and incompetence: what a contrast to then see extracts from the diary notes of Sir Patrick Vallance, eg in one entry alluding to ‘chaos as usual’ after a meeting on social distancing; in another he described Boris Johnson, as ‘… all over the place and so completely inconsistent’. Last week it emerged that Boris Johnson had scrawled ‘bollocks’ on a paper about Long Covid, with which thousands continue to suffer, often without NHS help.
Apart from the inappropriate language, it’s simply not the act of a serious politician. Perhaps even worse was the implication by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case (himself thought to be too involved in various manifestations of wrongdoing in recent years) that during those months in 2020, Downing Street was in chaos and it was actually Carrie Johnson making the decisions. Meanwhile thousands were dying unnecessarily as incompetent and reckless politicians engaged in ego battles. An example of the dishonest denial of politicians at the time is Rishi Sunak declaring at Prime Minister’s Questions early last month that ‘This government put its arms around the British public’. A tweeter observed: ‘That’s one of the most egregious things Sunak has come out with. On a par with Hancock saying the government ‘threw a protective ring around our care homes’.
As Rishi Sunak continues to claim that he cannot access his WhatsApp messages of that time, his Eat Out to Help Out scheme came in for more flak and Professor Dame Angela McLean (now Chief Scientific Officer) alluded to him as Dr Death. What’s clear is how perturbed some scientists were about government policy and recklessness, clearly in this case prioritizing helping the hospitality industry and the wider economy regardless of rising infections. A tweeter observed: ‘Boris Johnson would have been an appallingly bad PM in the best of times. To have a shambolic, deeply dishonest narcissist in Number 10 during a major pandemic was catastrophic & led to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths’. The Inquiry continues and it’s apparently possible for anyone interested in attending to ascertain who is appearing when and to book a seat for that session. Will there be any empty seats at the Johnson session? Close perusal of the current timetable suggests a gap next week – after such a long summer break, during which it could lose momentum, they’re surely not taking a half term break as well? Life doesn’t stop for half term!
Regarding Covid, this article is useful and timely as cases are rising and, with no free testing, the ONS infection survey having stopped in March, boosters only available to the over 65s and the clinically vulnerable and with no government policy, we feel on our own – not for the first time, capturing the survival-of-the-fittest ethos of this government. The article quotes Professor Christina Pagel of University College London, one of the most prominent experts in this area: ‘We’re not in 2020 or 2021 and that’s a good thing. But we’re also not in 2019. We’ve still got a new disease that’s killing thousands of people each year and we’ve got long Covid’. What’s also alarming is hearing that some NHS trusts and schools are urging staff not to test and still to attend work when they could be Covid positive. Madness. And Long Covid continues to be overlooked: at the last ONS survey in March (another piece of madness was ending this) 1.9m people believed they had long Covid. So much for Boris Johnson’s vulgar dismissal of it, especially when thousands are struggling to access NHS treatment.
Hardly a week passes when there isn’t a new report about the poor state of the nation’s mental health – demand for NHS treatment has continued to rise markedly for years and of course this is partly connected to the poor state of the country and the cost of living crisis putting people’s finances under considerable strain. Due to longstanding underinvestment in mental health and misdirection (in my view) of those resources waiting lists continue to grow and for serious conditions like eating disorders it seems one of the methods used by trusts to cope with the demand is to raise the threshold to qualify for treatment. Meanwhile, only some can afford to pay for private treatment and, with still no statutory regulation of counselling and psychotherapy in this country, there is the risk of inadequate help or even harm because some practitioners have insufficient quality training and experience. Mental health is too important to leave to this kind of lottery.
What brought this home even more was World Mental Health Day on 10 October, yet zero coverage by the BBC. NHS bosses are calling the situation a ‘national emergency’. ‘A historic lack of investment in community mental health facilities and places in supported housing facilities means that “there is simply nowhere else for people to be referred on to quickly enough, at which point the only viable option is an admission to acute bed…People in the midst of a mental health crisis are spending up to 50 hours stuck in A&E because NHS support for them outside hospitals is so limited, the confederation said. However, acute hospital bosses voiced concern that their doctors, nurses and other staff are not well-placed to respond to all the needs of people suffering from severe episodes of conditions like depression or psychosis, because their expertise is primarily in managing physical illness’. As usual, we get a typically disingenuous statement from the Department of Health and Social Care: ‘We’re transforming our country’s mental health services and investing an additional £2.3bn annually to expand services so an extra 2 million people can get support’.
It was refreshing to hear about the winner of RIBA’s 2023 Stirling Prize for the UK’s best new building – the John Morden Centre, a retirement home in South London. RIBA’s press release reads: ‘An inspiring example of architecture enabling elderly living without isolation, the John Morden Centre has been designed to encourage connection and movement among residents, supporting healthier and longer lives. This 300-year-old residential and nursing facility has been given a new lease of life with treatment rooms, a hair salon, nail bar, events space and wellbeing facilities in a beautiful setting in Blackheath, London….Dedication to creating an environment that lifts the spirits and fosters community is evident at every turn and in every detail. This robust building provides comfort and warmth, with thoughtful features designed to prevent isolation. It illustrates how buildings can themselves be therapeutic – supporting care and instilling a sense of belonging. Great architecture orients people so they can thrive, and this building is exemplary at achieving exactly that’. While all of this sounds exemplary, RIBA does not state and seems unperturbed by the exclusionary quality of the place – only those having occupied managerial or leadership roles can qualify.
It could be argued that our need for mental respite is stronger than ever at the moment so it was a delight to read about the amount of volunteer effort being put into running Britain’s 1500 tiny cinemas. Jaq Chell, CEO of the charity Cinema for All, which ‘supports them with everything from licensing and insurance to equipment’. Some are apparently just pop-ups in pubs or community halls. Chell says: ‘It’s a hidden world, especially in rural places: anywhere you can set up a screen you can have a cinema’. ‘She attributes the growth to a combination of lighter, more user-friendly equipment and successive changes to licensing laws, which have cut the bureaucracy for community venues with fewer than 500 seats’. The article poses the question as to why are so many more community venues opening when others are closing. As an arthouse cinema fan not interested in many blockbusters, hooray for this response, I thought: ‘We show films that are of cultural significance,” says Rod White (head of programming at Edinburgh Filmhouse). ‘There’s a whole stream of films that wouldn’t exist in this country if you didn’t have these sorts of venues that are prepared to show ones that are not commercial’. Getting a regular mention is the cafes and bars in these venues and of course these catalyse an important social connection for filmgoers. My local one is great for this, at least two film discussion groups meeting there regularly, whereas one visited a while back outside London had no café or bar and you could sense the difference. I thought this captures the essence of these places: ‘For all the beauty of old cinema buildings, film is not just about bricks and mortar: it is about ways of being as well as seeing’.
Finally, for those preferring a different kind of escape, though unaffordable for many, there are two new hotels in London, one where room prices start at £1000 a night (Raffles London at the Old War Office, on Whitehall). An article in The Week (based on a longer one in the Financial Times) described this ‘temple of luxury’, which has 1,100 rooms, two and a half miles of corridors, 3000 people working there and three basement floors excavated to accommodate a glittering ballroom and massive swimming pool. The entire project has cost the Hinduja Group £1.4bn and it’s telling that the CV of the French MD, Philippe Leboeuf, includes the ‘three Cs’ – Claridge’s, the Hotel de Crillon in Paris and the Carlyle in New York. Some track record there. The enormity of this project is perhaps conveyed by his view that in order to find a precedent ‘you’d really have to go back to The Ritz (1906) and The Savoy (1889)’.
As if this wasn’t enough, more luxury hotels have opened recently in London or soon will, including The Peninsula, a new Mandarin Oriental, The Emory, a Rosewood and a Six Senses. It begs the question who is going to occupy all these hotels, the cheapest at Peninsula being £1300 per night? Not including breakfast, which is an additional £41 if you want ‘the full English’! The word sybaritic comes to mind – some may suggest alternatives!
Politics and mental health - the missing link? 