Is it the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent? Because I think he gets a pass for Nicholas Cageing the hell out of that one

TLDR: Lab needs to keep the fiscal trust Reeves/Starmer have built. But the debate needs to be about something wider than spending, and they need to offer and deliver better standards of living and public services. Prudence with a purpose as someone once said. (4/4)

‘Blame the last lot’ is a good strategy; but it should be for the state or Britain, esp Britain’s public services. Hopeless to make it narrowly about fiscal policy - not credible and doesn’t set up Labour to pursue its priorities. (3/4)

Swing voters were able to vote Labour because they felt they could trust it with £ again. But that isn’t why they voted Labour. There’s a risk of mixing up necessary and sufficient conditions. (2/4)

(I’ve kept a diary on Twitter of every gig I’ve been to over the last 5 years - with a Covid hiatus in the middle. Picking that up here as I’ll miss it when/if I finally leave Twitter.)

Then last night PJ Harvey at Terminal 5 in Manhattan. Played the new album in full and it was beautifully warm and mesmeric - Nick Drake meets Meredith Monk on a Punchdrunk set. Then a second set ripping through the back catalogue. Wearing a cloak daubed with her own artwork, she’s a category of one

Indeed, but without re-litigating all of that; I’m just saying that the political context in 2024 is v different to 2010 and so the playbook that worked so well then is unlikely to work as well now.

Now that isn’t the case, and so it is naive to think a politician on a soapbox can convince the country the last lot - who cut deeply - have left things needing more cuts. There’s nothing to tap into. (And patience is gone)

Osborne didn’t make it up - after 1999, Lab met every problem with more money (often + reform). Budgers were looser in the public sector and there was waste people could touch.

It’s not true. It wasn’t just Osborne + Tory press. Focus groups around 2010 were full of public servants describing waste. Stories of hundred mile taxi journeys instead of trains in the NHS; PFI inefficiencies in schools; etc. Those stories don’t exist now. Teachers now are rationing pencils. 2/x