OPINION: What an almighty political mess we're in says Hitchin's respected Judi Billing

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For today's opinion piece here's a must-read piece from the inimitable Judi Billing, Hitchin's highly-respected councillor, who shares her take on the political mess we are in...

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What an almighty political mess we are in.

Seems to be afflicting the UK and the USA in varying degrees of scary depending what day it is and whether Boris Johnson and/or Donald Trump are having dreadful bouts of hubris, vanity, conceit and arrogance.

I recently heard an Irish EU minister describe the state of the world as "uniquely unprecedented" and I wouldn't argue with that but as citizens we have fairly basic requirements for honesty, clarity and competence from our political leaders and we are currently getting none of that at any level.

A bit of dictatorial and some clear rules are just about bearable if delivered by a government and leaders who know what they're doing.

Back in March it was frightening but clear. We knew what we had to do in the UK and lockdown at least made our responsibilities crystal clear. The Prime Minister did and said some stupid things but we were tolerant and scared and compliant. A bit of dictatorship is OK in a crisis as long as we are indeed all in it together.

In the USA the President started on a catastrophic level of delusion and stupidity leading to endless absurd statements about the pandemic, from its lack of importance and severity to mind-numbing suggestions on cures and outcomes.

Trump's deranged rage, lies and accusations...

I'm reflecting on all this today because I actually couldn't sleep last night as Trump tweeted endless examples of deranged rage, lies, accusations, ancient grievances and seemed bent on some kind of political suicide.

This hopefully will be realised in less than four weeks and we can only pray for a calm transition.

Our blustering PM

But in the UK the blustering PM making wild predictions of future joy in his conference speech, a government so incompetent that it can't manage to establish track and trace, help our students, leave the EU without breaking international law and wants still to blame everything on asylum seekers, 'do-gooders' and lefty lawyers – absurd and meaningless slogans - which leave me pretty bereft of hope for another four years.

Any chance this government had to steer us with serious intent ended with Dominic Cummings trip to test his eyesight at Barnard Castle.

Labour's rise amid government incompetence

The fact that Keir Starmer's leadership of the Labour Party has turned round the country's views of last December's general election is of course of considerable comfort, but still we have to plough through years of this incompetence from a PM and bunch of ministers who appear daily more clueless.

The relationship between central and local government is at an all time low I'm afraid

Local government has delivered to the highest standards throughout Covid with promises of recompense for the astonishing costs of keeping our communities safe, fed, housed and educated.

We have been rewarded by centralisation of public health when local structures are more responsive and knowledgeable.

We have not been financially recompensed and many councils face impending bankruptcy.

To add insult to injury government has taken decisions about local measures for local communities without any discussion with those on the ground with the knowledge and experience of what is happening in their local communities.

Lovely Hitchin keeps on keeping on

And then there's lovely Hitchin where the voluntary sector, local government and the business community continue to do their absolute best for their town and the communities they care about, but with unhelpful interference, financial starvation and total lack of care or empathy from national leaders about what it's really like on the ground.

So all in all I suppose it's not all that surprising that I couldn't sleep last night.

Thank goodness for my cheerful, bubbly charismatic puppy who doesn't need to know about any of this...

Judi

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