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Opinion

A Blue Moon for Red Tories

By Mark Mansfield
Photo Nation.Cymru

Ben Wildsmith

Were you all out for the blue supermoon on Monday night? If you enjoyed it then, truly, I’m happy for you.

Personally, I’m done with supermoons. Every month or so a new variant seems to come along, heralded in the papers as if it were the portent of the Age of Aquarius, promising delivery from the riot-beleaguered, Ed-Sheeran-soundtracked, have-you-forgotten-your-password hellscape in which we somehow persist.

There’s only so many times, however, that you can work up a spark of celestial optimism only to find yourself standing on the patio in wet socks peering up at the clouds and asking, ‘Is that it?’ before trooping back inside to resume recreational doomscrolling.

It’s not the despair that gets you; it’s the hope.

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Change

The prospect of change is the currency of elections. It’s all going to be different, we’re told. Our best days are ahead of us! If only we’ll belieeeeeeeeeeeve enough to put a cross in a box next to the right name, happiness and contentment will return to the realm. The chaos will stop, no return to boom or bust etc. etc. etc.

After our first electoral victimisation, we naturally become more sceptical about political promises.

Having been led up the garden path once, we realise that we’re not going to be unwrapping a new bike on Christmas morning.

It is reasonable, however, to expect something when we elect a new government; some token measures to acknowledge that we weren’t happy with the previous lot.

So far, Labour seems to be sending the message that voting is for suckers. Feigning shock at an £18 billion hole in the public finances that was widely reported during the election campaign, the government has resisted measures, like lifting the two-child cap, that would signal a change in moral priorities in the nation’s governance.

Indeed, by cancelling the winter fuel payment for all except the poorest pensioners, it seems to be ramping up performative impoverishment as if it accepts the fundamental ethics of Tory politics.

Money has been found, however, to settle the pay claims of junior doctors and train drivers.

Justified as these demands were, the government’s stated rationale for meeting them – that prolonged strikes are disruptive – is neither moral nor sensible.

Precedent

As well as setting a clear precedent for other unions to follow, it rewards two groups of workers that enjoy sufficient financial security to sustain indefinite strike action.

Those in jobs that pay less are unlikely to secure the majorities required to follow suit simply because they can’t afford to lose regular days’ pay.

We also learn that Labour plans to fund the building of social housing by increasing rents above inflation for ten successive years. If you can find a Labour voter who expected that when they left the polling booth, I’d be very surprised.

Housing is a devolved matter, so if you encounter Baroness Morgan on her ‘listening exercise’ around Wales this month, please ask if she can rule out taking this approach here.

The viability of devolution rests upon decisions like this, and the glib assumption that a Westminster government will act in the interests of people who voted for Labour in the Senedd will be tested as soon as the summer recess ends.

Nobody doubts the economic challenges facing the country. It’s clearly going to be a tough job to reverse the decline we have suffered during 14 years of incompetent government, and the financial crash that preceded it.

Politics is increasingly being done online and, recently, on the streets. If people are to believe in democracy, an incoming government should demonstrably reflect the values of its voters.

A failure to do so in the name of caution is recklessly complacent in troubled times.

‘I personally can’t tell the difference between a supermoon and a regular moon,’ Fred Espernak, scientist emeritus for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center told Morning Edition this week. ‘And I’ve been looking at the moon all my life.’

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12 comments

Keith Parry

Its all Moonshine. The Tories and Labour are one and the same thing. Its time we had a FREE WALES! CYMRU RYDD! run in the interests of the Welsh people, not the City of London or Globalist dictators.

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Frank

Yes I agree, but first we need to clear the decks in the Senedd. The competence of most of the current lot is questionable and if ever we did have independence would be well above their ability. We need strong, forceful, educated, HONEST members who know how to run a country. The ones we have now are just playing at trying to do the job and many are in office just for financial gain. They don't really give a damn. We need to be ready to provide for ourselves and not rely on someone else to hold our hand. We need to be self sufficient especially in feeding ourselves. We need to provide high end training in all skills and not depend on imported tradespeople.

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Annibendod

Spot on again Ben. I'm not surprised. I've spoken to many Labour supporters who all insisted that "getting the Tories out" was THE big priority. Every time I pointed out that Starmer and his team promised nothing more than more competent management of the status quo I was slapped down. "We can't give everything away before the election. Just wait till we're in government. Then you'll see all the progressive things we've got up our sleeves." What a steaming pile of tail tarw. I took them at their word and have not been proven wrong yet. Why do otherwise intelligent people expect socialism from people who promise to conserve the status quo? Those same people are so blinded by the belief that the Labour Party is THE vehicle for socialism that they effusively engage in apologetics for what is an abject failure in their politics. They would be better off in the Green Party. A hung parliament would have been more useful than a whopping majority on the back of just about a quarter of the electorate. We have the unedifying spectacle of a nominally progressive party CONSERVING an utterly dysfunctional status quo and telling us how much better they are at it. Spare me. Britain needs radical change. The present constitutional, economic and political models need to be torn up and binned. This post-imperial malaise is going on for far too long. Release us for the love of God! Establish new, functional models and rebuild Britain with democratic parliaments and States for its constituent nations. Return to the social market model that once closed the inequality gap and write constitutions that ensure politicians are fully accountable.

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Padi Phillips

We've always been told to vote Labour in and see what they'll do, always "Jam tomorrow". Sadly all that Starmer & Co are achieving is becoming very adept recruiting sergeants for Reform UK. Wales does have an alternative in Plaid Cymru, but unless Plaid sheds itself of that awful tendency towards Respectability (and growing more of a backbone wouldn't come amiss either) and starts to go for Welsh Labour's jugular then it's quite likely we'll see significant numbers of Reform in the Senedd. On the ground Plaid has a good record. My 90 year old mother, who lives in Ceredigion, votes for Plaid at all election levels, not because she's a died in the wool nationalist but because Plaid politicians are bloody good at constituency work. I witnessed similar where I live in what used to be the Cardiff Central constituency where during the 90s, where the area I live was misrepresented by Labour, and most of the councillors didn't even live in the area, the Lib Dems came in from nowhere and gradually worked at a grass roots level and gradually changed the are for the better and reaped the reward of taking the consituency at every level, from county councillor to Euro MP. However, 2010 arrives and the LibDems go into coalition with the Tories and the LibDems lost it all. We now have Welsh Labour (including the Welsh Secretary who refuses to issue any constituency communication in y Gymraeg, and is even insulting enough to respond to correspondence from constituents in Cymraeg in English) who at a council level do at least seem to have learned something from the LibDem era: don't take the ward for granted, have locally resident representatives, and above all, be visible and clearly champion local concerns. I'm not sure how well Plaid would do in this area now, we're told (largely by the LibDems) that only Labour and the LibDems can win here, but interestingly on the street I live on there were more Plaid placards than anything else in the run up to the recent General Election, so maybe there could be a place for Plaid here? Certainly Plaid hasn't done much work here over the years, but that doesn't mean anything: once upon a time Labour took the ward for granted, and was displaced for about a decade by the LibDems. So who knows?

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Annibendod

It all depends on who you've got on the ground locally Padi. In my constituency we came close to beating Labour recently after years of rebuilding. Padi, we need people like you with us knocking doors. Plaid needs good members and activists willing to put the graft in.

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Nia James

Another good piece Ben. Labour has always been a centrist British Nationalist party with its mission control in London. Wales just plays the role of service provider and blanket voter for this organisation. Keir's visit this week to Cardiff and Brechfa was part of this colonial mission. In economic terms, we should expect a lot more on the Austerity / Red Tory front in the months and years ahead.

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Y Cymro

UK Labour like the Tories before them will over the next 5 years play on the fact the Conservatives bankrupt Britain to excuse any broken promises, decisions made to increase taxation, etc, as done with Labour when the Tories used the winter of discontent that led to Thatcher coming to power in 1979. Also Welsh Labour naively thought a Labour government in London would be more agreeable to further devolution requested but didn't factor in that Keir Starmer is a Conservative & Unionist at heart, who's an authoritarian centrist, and not dissimilar to Boris Johnson & Rishy Sunak. Already the signs are there for Wales where Whitehall has deployed their English overseer Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens to remote control the Senedd. It's already happening with our once EU Structural Funding where Labour promised to devolve back administration. powers taken by Boris Johnson's regime but then decided that shared powers was they say forward. Basically it's direct rule through the back door. Labour hold Wales with utter contempt.

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Annibendod

I remember when Plaid was campaigning for Wales to have Objective One funding as it was called then. Labour, along with the Toraidhes and Liberals, said we didn't need it! I remember Redwood sending £150M back to the treasury saying we didn't need it. Look at them now, two cheeks of the same backside - HS2 "benefits Wales". "HS2 hasn't been built." "There's no money left." The money it would take to bring the Welsh economy up to speed is miniscule in comparison to the UK's GDP, yet we are continuously denied the investment we need or the political agency to sort it out for ourselves. Absolutely disgusting. So much for this so called "union". Spare me the unionist apologetics. Do something meaningful or otherwise disband this infernal State.

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Old Curmudgeon

Once again a thought provoking article, thank you. I have a deep feeling of unease about this government not dissimilar to the feeling post Brexit vote. I wonder how many voted for a change from the previous incompetent, out of touch, corrupt government that the Tory party were running and have voted for a Labour government to hopefully redress the balance without realising what a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ they are. I feel there is something quite threatening in the way things seem to be turning out. Is there a ‘social Democratic Party ’ anymore to uphold the principles that our leader’s namesake formed? I voted Plaid at the last election as they appeared to me to actually be interested in wales and the people of Wales. I only hope that the few MPs they have can make enough noise to encourage people to vote for them in 2026

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CaptChris

I agree with most of the comments already posted but at the end of the day, who is really to blame? How many people bothered to vote at the last general election? How many people voted at the last council elections? How many people will even know that Senedd elections are coming up? The voting numbers show that too many people are happy to moan about their government/council when they're up the pub but when it comes to doing something about it, they're too lazy to get off their a***s and go out and vote. As long as the government are supporting them through the list of benefits - too long to mention here - they're happy to just keep on getting their handouts and then moan about their provider when they hear about something that they consider unacceptable. I appreciate that many people are in dire need of government support and need whatever help is available to them but until a large chunk of the population actively try to influence the direction of government, instead of just moaning about it, we'll never see an improvement in the state of the country.

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Frank

Spot on.

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CaptChris

Thank-you Frank! I appreciate your comment but our problem is that the people I was referring to would not be the sort of people that would be visiting this site and reading the opinions that it generates. They'll spend hours browsing the gossip and malignant posts on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and whatever social media platform is their preference but it seems that this sort of mind numbing exercise is more preferable to taking an interest in the welfare of their family - present and future. For many years, it has been a requirement in Australia for citizens to vote - you are fined if you don't. Could this be a way forward in the UK? At least then people would only have themselves to blame!

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Thank-you Frank! I appreciate your comment but our problem is that the people I was referring to would not be the sort of people that would be visiting this site and reading the opinions that it generates. They'll spend hours browsing the g...

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