I see the 2 Lefties are still at.
Now they have company.
The Left's hysterical 'confusion' over No 10's plan is utterly transparent
Whether or not someone saw the Prime Minister’s statement as clear fell down partisan lines
It’s finally happened. The partisan politics that was suspended at the outbreak of this crisis has returned in full force. Initially the opposition signalled, publicly at least, that it was going to be constructive and help the Government. The three devolved administrations of the United Kingdom moved in lockstep, and reciprocal praise and good will was abundant.
Shadow Chancellor Aneliese Dodds even
took to the radio before the lockdown to promote the Government’s line of following SAGE, resisting pressure to close schools or confine people to their homes.
Over the weekend, however, that all changed. Starting with Welsh Labour and the Scottish Nationalist Party, politicians decided that now is the time to unilaterally end the effective ceasefire our politics had been suspended in for weeks, and go on the attack. No longer were there warm words for the Government emphasising the challenges they face, instead the green light was given for politicisation.
The Labour Party have now curiously clearly positioned themselves as
the pro-lockdown party, seemingly ready to resist changes in messaging and shifts to any state of affairs that do not resemble house arrest. Ironically, Sir Keir Starmer was among the initial few voices to demand a route out of the lockdown in the first place. Now that the Government is doing exactly that, however, Labour’s mood music has shifted.
The political games were clear to see. Whatever Boris had said on Sunday evening, the Left wing parties were ready to spin it as uncaring, unscientific, incomprehensible, or a curious mix of all three. This became the moment that the lockdown divides truly became partisan.
Whether or not someone saw the Prime Minister’s statement as clear or helpful fell down precisely partisan lines. Opposition MPs have now fully broken from national guidance, continuing to push the out of date ‘Stay at Home’ slogan, which is arguably more confusing than any other messaging now that across the UK people are able to leave their homes for unlimited time.
The same Labour MPs who pretended their 2019 Brexit policy was the most straightforward thing in the world to understand are now expressing faux outrage over government communications. Perhaps they genuinely feel that the concept of the rate of infection helping determine how much of the economy can open up is somehow wildly incomprehensible. Perhaps they are just going along with the crowd. Either way it is back to politics as usual.
Labour’s Rachel Hopkins
tweeted a blurry picture of one of the Government’s simplified graph about the three announced stages of lockdown wind down with a bafflement that, if genuine, should seriously worry her constituents. Her job is to help the people she represents. Performative confusion helps no one. Hopkins followed up her tweet of the graph with the unrelated comment “Lack of clarity from govt, suggesting people go back to work if they can, although try to avoid public transport?”, suggesting she may need to become better acquainted with the country,
83pc of whom do not use public transport to get to work.
To some extent this resumed politicisation can be seen as good news.
We are past the peak. The Covid curve remained within NHS capacity. The sombrero was squashed. Case numbers, hospitalisations, and daily death tolls are gradually falling. It is only now we start to see light at the end of the tunnel that we can get back to bickering. Normal bad faith cheap shot politics is resuming as the road ahead becomes clearer and in a funny way that’s a good thing. Hopefully, the public will see it for what it is.
