Returning the Sausages
Keir Starmer’s speech to conference was one of the most stage-managed and vapid addresses I’ve ever seen. He is not a natural public speaker but could someone – some rich donor say – not have paid for a better speech writer?
Sure, anyone can make a mistake, but to confuse ‘hostages’ with ‘sausages’ is beyond embarrassing, it speaks to his general lack of seriousness, his complete lack of credibility. The trade unionist Howard Beckett called it: “This slip sums up the most uninspiring speech anyone has given as their first speech as a Prime Minister. In calling for a return of “sausages” held in Gaza, Starmer reveals he is absolutely vacuous and unmoved by the opportunity of Government. He is devoid of vision.”
The PM appeared to be being engulfed by the Union Jack, now a key component of Labour party iconography. As the political content goes down the size of the flag increases. At some point the entire conference will just be one giant flag.
The Black Hole
Here are some of the highlights from this strange speech:
“It will be hard. That’s not rhetoric, it’s reality. It’s not just that financial black hole, the £22bn of unfunded spending commitments, concealed from our country by the Tories, it’s not just the societal black hole – our decimated public services leaving communities held together by little more than good will – it’s also the political black hole.”
Starmer says net immigration too high, and government will ‘get tough’ on this.
He says “Competition is a vital life force in our economy.”
He confirms Labour will legislate to tackle benefit fraud and “do everything we can to tackle worklessness.”
Promises more pylons.
These are Tory talking points. The conversion is almost complete. He gives the strong impression of someone who had a plan for winning power but no real idea why. This is an odd collection of ideas thrown together by a focus group “Get tough on immigration” – “Say you’ll clamp down on the work-shy” – “Announce the British Energy thing, say it will be in Aberdeen” – “Tell them its going to be hard”. The stickit notes were like a blizzard of neon yellow.
If this weird word-salad of ideas seems empty, it’s because it is. But it also stands beside the revelation earlier in the week that the party had banned attendees from using the words genocide and apartheid. The International Court of Justice has just recognised that Israel is an apartheid state, agreeing with the United Nations and human rights groups across the world, but Labour has decided it’s racist to accurately describe apartheid.
The overtones of the reaction to protestors was also weird:
Protester escorted out after shouting “what about the children of Gaza”.
PM says ” I think this guy got his pass for the 2019 conference” pic.twitter.com/iy2aiKzIbI— Alexander Brown (@AlexofBrown) September 24, 2024
It’s not enough to have hollowed out his party, the idea of being a protestor – or having values – or even using accurate language to describe the horrors going on in Gaza must be banned and mocked.
Return the sausages.
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Shades of the Tory party. But we knew that. Vacuous comments are a trademark of them and he has, possibly by a process of osmosis, learnt the Tory way of governing to suit his own ends. This is indeed a great shame.
“Four legs good, two legs better”
Would it be better if the Tories were still in power? It is easy to lose perspective, but so quickly? I do not believe that beyond offering another referendum on independence the moment he stepped into office, Starmer would ever get a fair hearing here. Labour are hated and hate clouds judgment.
I thought it a fairly decent speech and that the vitriol against Starmer at the moment from the press in general is hysterical in both tone and substance.
Would it be better if the Tories were still in power? No. The question is why the alternative is so dire. I this it?
Niemand – the last Tory government was one of the most (possibly the most) corrupt and incompetent government in my life so not being as bad is a very low bar.
This Labour administration have made some serious missteps in first few weeks such as:
1)The constant doom and gloom is not only depressing many voters but potentially affecting investment in the country. This is a fairly cynical political move mimicking Cameron & Osborne post 2010 election. Probably not necessary this time as electorate have kicked the Tories out with lowest percentage vote in history.
2)Labour government keep banging on about financial black hole post election after denying its existence in relation to their manifesto prior to election. The IFS, not to mention SNP, pointed this anomaly out prior to election. This deception is transparent to most voters and was used to avoid talking about awkward tax choices which will inevitably come in Budget.
3)Rachel Reeves has mean tested the WFP without this being mentioned in the manifesto or without any risk assessment being undertaken. All organisations representing the elderly agree the level has been set so low that it will potentially adversely effect nearly 2 million pensioners this winter. The further North you live the worse you will be affected. Anas Sarwar then tries to pass responsibility and blame into Holyrood without explaining how Holyrood can mitigate when there has been no prior warning while legally having to balance budget. The government also implement this at the same time energy prices are rising. It is also politically inept as it is unpopular with large sections of society. It will come back to haunt government when the reports of pensioners dying start being reported not to mention the previous statements of members of government decrying any suggested means testing by previous governments.
4)The recent reports of ministers accepting gifts is another misstep especially when the same ministers are telling public how hard times are and they were quite rightly attacking previous government for sleaze. This type of thing might seem minor to ministers but previous experience (eg expenses scandal) shows how seriously public view this type of thing. It was obviously going to be picked up by press yet these ministers did not have awareness to see how this would look.
I am tiring now but will add the failure to repeal 2 child cap on benefit, failure to disclose the legal advice re selling arms to Israel, the acceptance of donation of large amounts of money from private healthcare are more examples of being a serious disappointment.
While they have initiated some improvements from previous government I have to say that for the first few weeks they have made a large number of missteps and proven a disappointment to many even though they are not as bad as the Tories were.
They have a large majority based on a pretty low vote.The electorate are already disillusioned with politicians and if they don’t see an improvement in economy and public services within first few years they will reject Labour at next election and I fear what may come next at Westminster. They have done very little so far to inspire confidence that they can avoid this scenario.
As the speech amply demonstrated, Labour’s problem in picking Starmer is that there really is nothing there. He might be seen as the ultimate ‘Niemand’.
Obviously it’s not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturer of meat products.
wrt Monty Python.
Perhaps Labour speakers are animated by the same ventriloquist behind the talking dog on That’s Life?
Disagree with the article, he was probably having small talk with someone about sausages just before so it isn’t all that shocking. However a better ‘save’ would have been if he blew a raspberry and then corrected himself, instead of just immediately saying the right word.
Between the devill and the deep blue sea
How could one choose?
Any snorkels on sale?
Seems to me the K Starmer and Labour didn’t have to do much to win the election over the catastrophe of the tories. A sausage could have won it with very little effort.
Labour hubris will be there eventual undoing.
(aside: if the SNP was not so bland and uninspiring…now is really a time for the independence campaign to take advantage of stupid Westminster politics and make great strides forward for independence. But…)
@Sandy Watson, I’m not sure what Labour has in store after a rebranding as the Sausage Party?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sausage_Party