The current mood among parliamentary Labour members nowadays adheres to a literary maxim. It affirms that the extent of any misfortune is solely gauged relative to yet-to-come catastrophes. As the Bard lets the exiled child of the sightless nobleman state in King Lear: “The direst does not exist, as long as we are able to utter ‘this marks the bottom’.”
A Series of Deepening Difficulties
According to Edgar's law, there exists no opinion poll so gloomy regarding the party that won't be coming after another more depressing; no budget prediction so bad that the finance ministry can't aggravate it with mixed indications on tax; no doubts concerning the Prime Minister that won't be heightened by malevolent briefing concerning a bid for power.
Refugee Measures Declaration
Against this backdrop, the latest announcement of plans designed to restrict the quantity of asylum seekers granted entry to the UK, patterned after a famously strict Danish system, was taken better among party members than predicted. There emerged flashes of parliamentary discontent but no conflagration of opposition.
Hardening immigration policies is far from the party's natural territory, but the current system is evidently broken while citizens are furious. Numerous parliamentarians understand the reasoning that open-mindedness and community cohesion are more readily developed when there is confidence that the country's boundaries remain protected.
Growing Discontent
Quiet backbenches can also be foreboding. Parliamentarians have realized that each issue is discussable with a directionless leader of malleable conviction. Today's declarations might be reversed shortly. There's no requirement to rush over the top if successes can be achieved via endurance.
A common complaint concerns the Prime Minister is hardly managing the government in any meaningful way, having delegated political judgment to his top aide. This doesn't imply the leader is without administrative energy, he merely chooses not to mediate in departmental disputes or engage in protracted arguments.
Leadership Style
The leader joined party politics during later professional life, initially becoming an MP when he was fifty-two. He misses understanding regarding party traditions – the canon of former discussions, drives, characters and cultural references which link a chief to the broader organization and its sense of collective mission.
His deepest convictions stay concealed including to ministers. As one senior party member states: “The Prime Minister is quite different in his role by creating the perception that his private opinions is none of your business.”
Political Consequences
The product packaged representing the leader in last year's election campaign has also not delivered its promised advantages: administrative capability culminating in societal regeneration. Had the UK maintained a two-party system, the recollection of how bad things were with the previous government may continue acceptance of the administration.
That presages a devastating defeat of Labour candidates in municipal and devolved elections in the coming spring. It will be a moment of extreme peril for the leader, if he endures until then.
Succession Concerns
Absent in these calculations is agreement on the identity of a successor and how their programme might contrast compared to present strategies. This weakness within succession arrangements is mentioned by supporters of the leader as one of many reasons to remain with the incumbent.
Although discontented representatives could hesitate regarding such cautions, they likewise detect through them the well-known, meaningless sound of limited aspiration which causes hopelessness with current conditions. It is the sound of inability to describe the approach as simply a series of strategies for maintaining position.
Concluding Thoughts
It proves difficult to inspire faithfulness toward such a purpose. And most Labour MPs have endeavored. They have adhered to the party line, defended it on the doorstep, followed party discipline, believed assurances that their concerns were heard.
Prime ministerial ousting is fraught with risk, however, does it present greater hazards versus acting as if that the present leader possesses solutions to big questions which he doesn't identify? The Shakespearean principle invites caution regarding the replacement of an incumbent leader. The successor may turn out poorer.
“The burden of these difficult days we have to accept; Speak what we feel, rather than expected statements.”
