I absolutely think the Tory Government emptied the coffers with Covid contracts. It was like writing blank cheques to your family and mates. That's why the Tories chose to not fight the last election. They knew what a crocking mess they'd left, and didn't want any part of sorting it out.. All the big orchestrators of the mess, promptly fled into retirement, leaving the current Tory party with an unblemished party.
However, a fairly massive point which was missed just prior to Covid, was that independent analysts were saying the UK economy was heading for a big(ish) crash. So Covid wasn't really responsible, it just accelerated the decline the Tory Government had initiated.
But I am only quoting others. Perhaps Neillo could enlighten
I don't profess to know any more than the next man !
Just my opinion, but Covid and the Ukraine war have both had a negative financial impact on our lives.
I had some practical experience in my career about how my organisation would react to a pandemic - remember Bird Flu and SARS ? Without actual experience in managing under those circumstances we were floundering. The Tories at least had access to medical experts, but as we have seen, even they have been challenged retrospectively in terms of decisions made. Wise after the event but not so much during.
Some of those spurious Covid contract awards were corruption borne out of ignorance. But inexcusable whichever way you look at it. Then we come onto ' Eat Out To Help Out ' and the Furlough schemes. There was always going to be a bill that needed to be paid for those schemes - both of which, to my recollection, had the support of the then Opposition. I remember thinking then that the financial burden will be passed onto future generations.
Now, we have not - again to my recollection, had any consistent evidence that Starmer inherited that infamous £22m ' Black Hole '. He rarely manages a PMQT without referring to it nearly a year into his government. This is not a defence of disastrous Tory governments , but please - enough already. Shift the focus on how your government is going to address the issue and stop deflecting. And this is where I think it starts to go wrong.
This government had a massive mandate because the people wanted Change. Nearly a year later and I think the People are probably wondering what the hell they voted for. The Winter Fuel Allowance decision was political posturing by Starmer. '' Look at me, I can make the hard decisions ''. Having to make a U-Turn on that makes him look weak. Reeves's Fiscal Rules were pragmatic and prudent. But through her own actions, endorsed by Starmer, that looks like another U-Turn in the making.
Governments rarely do well in local elections, and this one really didn't. Reform are Labours most formidable opponent right now. As they are The Tories. I can't see Reform being elected, but then again I didn't think the country would vote for Brexit ( neither did David Cameron ! ). But a message has been sent out to Labour - this simply isn't good enough. And, as I said earlier in this thread, waiting in the wings is Angela Rayner. If she ousts Starmer as Labour Leader we may even get nostalgic about the good old days when he was PM.
Apologies for the length of this post.
Wales
