(De)form(ed)

I really think that the country has suffered enough; what on earth have we done to deserve this? Between the disastrous and divisive European referendum in 2016, and 2024, we have had six prime ministers, five of them Tories. Only one of the latter came to power via a general election and two of them were obliged to resign in disgrace. There was the pain of austerity following the financial crash, seasoned up by bickering, uncertainty, and general discontent with negotiations over our departure from the EU. And on the basis that—if you lose your job and your wife runs off with your best friend, it doesn’t stop your house burning down—we had the 2020 Covid Pandemic. No wonder people were dissatisfied.
 
Cue the 2024 general election: the Tory vote halved, and the Labour vote for Starmer et al was less than the popular vote for Jeremy Corbyn (remember him?) in the 2019 election. Labour did not really win, the Tories lost. Labour inherited a dire mess, and proceeded to make one disastrous decision after another, culminating in the truly unbelievable decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. 
 
A perfect opportunity for a ‘White Knight’ to come along and save the country, but who did God send? Farage! A man straight out of Trump’s play book. Give him his due, he is very clever; he has focussed the extreme discontent among the electorate onto a tiny minority of unfortunates, viz the stream of illegal crossings of asylum-seekers. They are a very easy target and form the tiniest part of the tiniest part of the enormous stress on the country’s finances. If, Heaven forfend, Farage and his cronies ever do get into government, they will find that out.
 
Meanwhile, hoards of Labour supporters and MPs, after less than two years in government, are seriously calling to change the PM again! Seven prime ministers in ten years? You really couldn’t make it up, as I thought when Mandelson came crashing down for the third time. It seems almost that we are totally unable to govern ourselves. The danger is that when such things happen in a country with bankrupt finances, cf 1930s Germany, very nasty things can happen. Given the conflict in the world, unpleasantly close to home as the prices at the petrol pumps attest, this is not a time for weak government.