Yesterday morning, being a Saturday, we made our way down the hill to meet up with friends in Waitrose. On our way down the hill, I bumped into our Irish friend who reminded me that her husband was due to go into hospital as a day patient next Tuesday. However, he had been asked to take with him an overnight bag in case he needed to be stay in hospital for the night. With a certain degree of black humour, we joked that soon the hospitals would request that you also take with a body bag in case this should be needed after the procedures had been undertaken - but we said that our friend would be in our thoughts and prayers nest Tuesday. When returned home, we did a 'quickie' lunch that turned out to be delicious - it was the remains of bits of chicken cooked in a white lasagne and chicken gravy mixture that we served up on a bed of rice, itself enhanced by some petit pois, The whole thing turned out to be quite like a risotto without my starting out with this intention but it was delicious all the same.
The newspapers yesterday were full of the fact that the new Labour administration had been in power for their first 100 days - and the verdict was anything but favourable. Keir Starmer's personal ratings had dropped like a stone to -33 (disapprove over approve) which is a drop of 44 points since his post-election high, while one poll put Labour just one point ahead of the Tories. A poll out this weekend by YouGov finds nearly half of those who voted Labour in the last general election feel let down so far, while six in 10 disapprove of the government's record so far, against one in six who approve of the Starmer government. It is interesting to reflect why the first 100 days in office is important and this is for three reasons. Firstly, it sets the tone of what the new government is likely to achieve. Secondly, it demonstrates the momentum of the new administration - when governments have been in office for a long time as the last Tory administration, then they run out of ideas and look tired and jaded, whereas an incoming administration is bursting with new ideas and policies. But the most important factor about the first 100 days is what has actually been achieved. The first 100 days are when a newly elected government is at its most powerful as it has the goodwill from the recently won election to fall back upon and some of the vicissitudes of office have not yet had to chance to hit them. In the case of the Starmer government, there has been one notable success which is the way in which the riots fuelled by the far right swept across the country but some fast and decisive action by trying the perpetrators quickly and putting them in gaol certainly did the trick. But this one success has been completely overshadowed by the perception of sleaze in accepting free gifts from wealthy donors with which to buy clothes and holidays. The Labour sleaze is miniscule compared with the Tory counterpart but in the public's mind, it feels about the same which is unforgivable. The new government does not seem to have a grip on affairs as is demonstrated by the shambles inside No. 10 and Keir Starmer has demonstrated a completely 'tin ear' to the public mood. For a recently elected Labour government to reduce the winter fuel payments enjoyed by old age pensioners, including the poorest ones, and then accompany this by surrounding oneself with 'freebies' shows a lack of political disconnect which is astounding. What else are political advisers for if not to issue warnings to the Prime Minister and the power centres of the new government about the public mood and what people are saying on the doorsteps? No wonder that those who support the Labour government and may have wished it well are metaphorically holding their hands to their heads in disbelief.
This whole episode of the early days of the Labour government has reminded me forcibly that governments are at their most powerful when recently elected and I could resonate with this. When I accepted the position of head of a (small) department in what is now the University of Winchester, I appreciated that the earliest days of my tenure were probably the most important to me. The then head of Faculty had made the journey to Leicester before I took up my appointment both to get to know me better but also to stress the priorities that lay ahead of me. It was stressed that the most important thing was to get a Business Studies degree validated and recruited as soon as possible. I had been thinking my way into the role of a Head of Department for many years and accordingly, I set to work in the construction and writing of a Business studies degree very much in my own image. I needed to recruit people around me who shared my image of the future and to sideline those who bitterly opposed my appointment by being the unsuccessful candidates for the post that I was to occupy. To cut a long story short, I managed with the able assistance of some willing colleagues to write and get validated a Business Studies degree which then recruited a couple of dozen students all within my first year. This was an almost unprecedented pace for a small and rather inexperienced college but I had a fair wind behind me and took every opportunity whilst I could. I learnt later that this speed and decisiveness of action excited some admiration, particularly as I was teaching almost a full timetable at the same time. I reflected ruefully that when the college came to establish a Law degree, they recruited a Principal lecturer to write it but he took two years to do it and had no students to teach in the meantime. I offered him the hand of friendship and collaboration when he was first appointed which he declined so I had little to do with him. I did this because in the past, I had taught sociology on the Law degree at Leicester Polytechnic (the CNAA demanded that even a single subject degree had to be 'liberalised' by exposure to another discipline) and I shared an office and taught alongside law colleagues on the Business Studies degrees at Leicester and hence my disappointment at the rejection of my hand of friendship. But had I dithered or acted less decisively when I first took up my post, my subsequent career and that of the Business Studies department would have taken a very different course.
© Mike Hart [2024]