The first sign that someone you’re talking to has no idea what they are talking about is that they say something like, “ Politicians are all the same.” Anyone who says this, probably while sitting in an awful Slug and Lettuce bar, should be ignored, shunned, and disregarded without remorse. To make such a statement is to declare oneself an intellectual vacuum and an incurious, pointless, vapid calamity.
Anyone who can look at Labour , the Tories, the Liberal Democrats and the other, smaller, lesser parties and declare them identical has little chance of redemption. The differences are stark, obvious, and clear. Take, for instance, working from home.
It’s an issue that has never really gone away since the COVID-19 pandemic made it ubiquitous and it is back at the forefront. Labour’s new Business Secretary, Johnathan Reynolds, has made it clear that he supports working from home/flexible working to the extent that it is to be enshrined as part of Labour’s employment rights package. It is to be included alongside removing restrictions on trade union activity and the right to sick pay and to sue for unfair dismissal from the first day of employment.
It is a quietly radical piece of policy. The debate on flexible working shows just how different Labour and the Tories are. For the Conservatives, allowing employees to work remotely and flexibly was a begrudging necessity.
Who could forget former Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency, Jacob Rees-Mogg.