The clocks go back in a few weeks and chilly nights start moving in. Thoughts will turn to energy bills or, more specifically, how to pay them. After rampant Chancellor Reeves launched her crafty hit-and-run attack, plundering pensioners’ winter fuel benefits Labour thought the smoke would blow over eventually, but we could build a bonfire from the angry readers’ letters still rolling into the P&J.
Many pray Reeves and Starmer will come to their senses and perform a u-turn. But backtracking is not popular among public bodies because it magnifies the poor quality and damage of the original decision. It’s not unheard of, however.
Highlands Council has just set a shining example by u-turning in the face of sustained public condemnation over traffic plans. More of that later. Aberdeen City Council is in a similar bit of bother with its long-suffering citizens, but shows no sign yet of copying Inverness.
Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” would be a good Labour theme following the outcry. It came from her Heart of Stone album, which is quite appropriate in the circumstances after their double-crossing out-of-the-blue assault on vulnerable older people. After condemnation of the cuts and demands for a u-turn by a majority of their own members at the Labour conference, Reeves and Starmer now look more like comic duo Reeves and Mortimer.
Except it’s not funny; if they have an arrogant disregard for even their own party what do they think of the rest of us? Many pensione.