So, they limp on, and Corbyn is justified in holding aloft the Queen’s Speech in jubilantly derisive fashion. Some of you Tories are no doubt hoping that Theresa May ‘recovers her mojo’ and that the past six weeks have been some weird transgression from her norm. No, sorry. She does not have a mojo. She has never had a mojo. Theresa May with a mojo is about as probable as Ruth Davidson getting it on with a hunky fella. The rest of you – me included – wonder who she will be replaced by. Only Davies and Davidson would improve the current position. And even then not by much.
But nor should Labour be too smug. Not least because it comprehensively lost the election. But also because a cannier socialist party would have co-opted the DUP. It is, after all, a tax-and-spend redistributive party of the working class. Never mind its laudable social conservatism – that doesn’t, in the end, amount to hill of beans. But liberal leftie obsessive loathing of social conservatism put Labour off, or meant the notion never occurred in the first place.
And yet on most issues – i.e. spending money – the DUP and Labour are not far apart. Further, a Labour coalition with the blue-noses would be less damaging to Northern Ireland, because I’m sure Corbyn and McDonnell could pull a few strings with the Shinners. A deal in which SF did not take their seats but played some minor role in government relating to the province. There could be no realistic complaint from the DUP involving Sinn Fein, could there? They’ve been power sharing for years. So, with the Lib Dems, Scottish Nats, Plaid Cymru and Lucas that makes 331 (inc Sinn Fein) seats – home and dry. But I bet dealing with the DUP never even occurred to Labour.
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