And so it comes to this (again)

Even though politics rarely makes it to the top of the agenda, sometimes I feel that the lads who frequent the corner table beside the fireplace in the saloon bar of my local pub accurately represent the views of Mr Joe Public, the average Brit elector.

They don’t trust politicians, period.

They know that politicians are playing a game in which the public are treated only as polling station fodder every so often (i.e. when election time comes around) and otherwise ignored.

The various organs of the media are all biased in favour of one political party or another – and of course we all read the papers that most reflect our own views – but at least occasionally one or more of them uncovers some outrageous scandal or another which embarrasses those in power and shows them up for being the shamelessly hypocritical charlatans that they are.

This will probably have the Brit Establishment on both sides of the Brexit debate tearing its hair out in frustration, but overall – whilst being actually pretty neutral about being in or out of the EU in principle – what they’re absolutely sure about is that they object strongly to ‘unelected federal fat cat centralist bureaucrats’ effectively telling the UK what it can and cannot do from a position where their own budgets and accounts are seemingly out of control and every year that goes by the auditors yet again refuse to sign them off.

Politicians, strategists and those philosophers who care about ‘where Western democracy is going’ can research and theorise all they like about how to get the public more ‘involved’ in the political process but (the truth is) the vast majority of the 64 plus million British voting age public is convinced that – whomever they vote for, if they can bother to, that is – it won’t make a halfpenny’s worth of difference to the outcome or indeed what happens in the future, so what’s the bloody point?

And, er … that’s politics done and dusted in two minutes … so now let’s get on to the real issues of the day, such as the England football team’s display against Malta, the fact that Wayne Rooney’s been caught out on the razzle yet again, the weather and, of course, the state of the pot-holed local roads and when are the council going to do something about them [for the next four pints and three hours].

My point is – taking my above preamble as being the case – Mr Joe Public regards what is has been going on generally for the past couple of years (Brexit, the arrival of Donald Trump as US President, North Korea, Hurricane Harvey et al.) as no more than straighforward confirmation that the world has gone temporarily mad.

Which brings me to the current state of British politics, post the EU Referendum, the General Election, Mrs May’s caretaker government and where the hell are we going next?

Chaos, in other words.

The General Election surprised many – not least the politicians and political parties – and has left the Labour Party struggling internally to believe its luck and work out what it all means. Has there been a political shift towards the Left? Some think yes, others no. But the result – and the Tories’ own internal strife and incompetence – has left Labour (with Jeremy Corbyn at the helm) tantalisingly close to gaining power if the Tories should falter, as is quite possible they will.

The Tories, of course, are deservedly in total disarray.

HMS Mrs May is terminally damaged below the waterline but still limping along apparently because the Party dare not risk removing her and thereby prompting another General Election that might result in Labour getting into Number 10 – which the Tories all agree [well at least they agree about something!] would be a disaster for the country.

After the Election, Mrs May was allowed by her party to remain in power on a generally-avowed short-term basis but now – as of this last week – she’s announced she wants to stay for the long term, whatever that means.

Here are two articles from the media on the topic:

James Kirkup, writing for – THE INDEPENDENT

Andrew Rawnsley, writing for – THE GUARDIAN (OBSERVER)

Today I have just two pithy observations to make that may not take anything forward in any particular direction but at least may be relevant.

Firstly, I don’t think it is possible to over-emphasise the importance of image and perception in politics.

Mrs May is hobbled by her general appearance, her lack of charisma, her general awkwardness when exposed to the general public and most of all her personal version of by-the-yard ‘politics-speak’. Whenever she is in a press conference, or a reporter sticks a microphone under her nose and asks for a comment she spews out cliché after cliché ad infinitum in an automaton-like fashion that instantly cures insomnia in any listener/observer.

If every Rust reader was given a pound for every time she used the phrases ”I’m very clear …” and/or “… and that’s why I/we/the Government am/are/is … [add whatever it is they’re doing, which is never very much] …” we’d all be billionaires living in penthouses overlooking the harbour in Monaco.

Secondly – fifty years or so ago, a highly-intelligent history master at my school – at a time when the state of UK politics seemed (if memory serves) just about as hairy as it does now, with a major financial crisis upon the country and the union barons lining up to attack the Labour Government’s proposed strategy for industrial relations (set out in a paper called In Place Of Strife) – suddenly caused the majority of my class to sit up straight when he instigated a discussion on current affairs at the beginning of a lesson by offering an opinion that on the face of it appeared ludicrous.

He simply said that, if we took the time to think it through, there was something to be said for the theory that – when times are really tough and you’ve got to get ‘the majority’ to accept some pretty unpalatable medicine – it’s far better to have Labour in power.

How so?

Well, because – whereas if the Tories had to try and force through the policies that the great and good had all agreed were necessary to resolve the crisis – there’d be protests, opposition and rioting in the streets. However, arguably, continued the master, assuming that the aforementioned ‘tough medicine’ really was/is the only salvation/solution, it would be far more likely to be accepted by ‘the majority’ if it was proposed by their own people.

I’m no Tory, but here I’m offering the Tory Party some advice.

Amidst all this current angst and rampant speculation about what is going to happen to Mrs May – or not – might it not be ‘better’ in the (Tory) long-term to force her demise and thereby another General Election as soon as possible?

When you think about it – the argument would run [and I’m only making the case for the hell of it!] – there’d be nothing so calculated to convince the British electorate to vote Tory overwhelmingly at the next Election after that than by then the Labour Party, with Jeremy Corbyn at its helm, having been in government for five years.