Seven Deadly Sinners

The newly formed Independent Group of ex-Labour MPs say they want a new politics, not driven by ideology. But wait, what is politics, after all, if it doesn’t pursue a vision? Mere governance need not cleave to left or right, but simply acts in the best interests of the majority, surely? Yes, look after the helpless, but otherwise act for all. Ideologies on the other hand seek more, well, ideological outcomes. And Labour comes from the soak the rich, kill the rich, tax the rich, banish the rich (but still tax them), hate the rich, harry the rich end of the spectrum. Where does this put the band of seven?

There were said to be seven capital vices, otherwise known as the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. Just for a bit of fun, let’s look at the sinners a little more closely.

Pride, they say, goes before a fall and Chuka Umunna simply can’t help himself. As a closeted gay Tory in real life, he clearly chose the Labour Party as one in which his dusky skin tones gave him more of a leg up than his natural parliamentary home. Alas his bid for leadership fell at the first hurdle and consigned him forever to be the bridesmaid and never the bride. No doubt he sees himself as leader of this new group... watch out for that tumble!

Chris Leslie, who supports a deeply unpopular soft Brexit with a customs union and single market membership, has criticised Labour for not demanding a second referendum, with Remain an option. He claims his Constituency Labour Party has been infiltrated by the intolerant hard left which seeks to deselect him. It doesn’t look as he has much to lose by quitting. Oh how he must envy Chuka’s suave, Tory presence and winning ways with the, er, laydeez.

Gavin Shuker (who he?) at only 37, is the whippersnapper of the gang of seven. But greedy for power he has founded a secretive company  ‘Gemini A Ltd’ who are said to be the backers behind The Independent Group. As the sole director, wee Gavin clearly hopes his grip on the purse strings will deliver him the attention he craves. And as for Mike Gapes carrying, as he does a few extra pounds, are we to detect a touch of the glutton?

Then we come to the ladies and who would wish to feel the wrath of a woman scorned? Still less the incandescent fury of Luciana Berger – the anti-anti-Semite’s anti-anti-Semite. Or indeed Angela Smith whose slip of the tongue over ‘funny-tinge-gate’ betrays, maybe, an obsession with the dusky. Methinks, however, her lust will go unanswered by the chhekily mocha Chuka. As for Ann Coffey, in a vox-pop from her ward a constituent claimed she had never done a thing for the area, so a sloth in sheep’s clothing, or simply the left, ever quick to turn on their own?

Still waters don't always run so deep

Of course, Ms Coffey has form in backing losers. She nominated Liz Kendall for the Labour leadership in 2015 and endorsed Owen Smith in same failed endeavour in 2016. Whatever the truth behind it all, what seems by now abundantly clear is how few ripples this has really caused in the political talent pool. If you are going to start a breakaway movement you really need some bigger headline acts than this. Maybe seven deadly sinners was too big a label; they are more like the seven dwarves, which begs the question: which one is the most Dopey?

It's the stupid economy!

I’m not going to get embroiled in all the emotive hoo-ha that is Jimmy Savile’s dubious legacy. Nor the bereavement machine rumbling into mid-Wales right now. That’s dodgy ground for other people to dig over, although I would question the morals of a society so prurient as to want to know all the grubby details, all the time. Really, society? You really want to go down that route? All the best with keeping your own family skeletons firmly in their cupboards, then. 

Nope. No way José. Instead, we’re going to do economics. Again. 

Much chatter on the LBC 97.3 FM this week about paying mums to stay at home. The whole business of child benefits and fiscal social engineering aimed at procreation is simple idiocy. That’s not how economics works and we know this policy area is doomed simply because Harriet Harman likes it so much. 

It’s very easy really, the price of a ‘good’ is dependent on simple supply and demand. Demand is driven by one of two things, need and want; stuff you can’t live without and stuff you THINK you can’t live without. And it doesn’t matter how much you desperately WANT children, it is absolutely, unarguably true that you will not expire for lack of them. 

In fact, people want to have children so much there is absolutely no need to pay them to do it. They will do it all by themselves, sometimes without even realising it, often without thinking it through. At the moment our supply line is overflowing with excess product spilling out all over the place. But it’s worse than that. The state paying more than market value for production encourages most those who are unfit producers. So, the market is flooded with an excess of such poor-quality stock we actually have to import foreign labour. 

As a result, the monetary worth to the country of a new child, is negative. In fact, over its lifetime it will cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money. That’s Socialist economic intervention for you.

In the same daft vein a gentle lunatic we tolerate on Twitter last night suggested – nay demanded – that the minimum wage should be £20 per hour. Well, in time it will be, either by diktat or by inflation. But, here’s the thing, when the minimum wage is £20 a loaf of bread will cost you a fiver. 

The moral of this tale? Simply that if you rely on the government to make your life comfortable, you will end up with the government controlling your life. You don’t like Tesco? Don’t patronise them. You want to earn more? Make yourself a more desirable product. You want freedom? Then go out and get it. But if you expect the Labour Party to come good on Miliband’s ‘One Nation’ pledge then you’ll get exactly what you deserve. 

Golden Bread - The Loaf of the Future!

I did say there would be a test. 

The minimum wage is raised to £20 per hour. Does this mean

1. Chuka Umunna’s been at the rum again, 
2. Harriet Harman (Just Harriet harman), 
3. We are ALL millionaires, or,
4. There’s trouble at’mill.