Successful political leaders hold in their minds some idea of what Mrs Thatcher called ‘Our People’. In this context, I do not mean the whole population of the country they seek to lead, or the core of the party they belong to. I mean that group of people with whose aspirations they most wish to identify. In making that identification, they combine direct self-interest – getting their floating vote – with a wider view about who are most important for the nation’s future prosperity and good order. In the Thatcher era, such people were the famous C2s, first-generation home-buyers, millions who could expect not only to earn but also to own. In Tony Blair’s time, the group was not so different, but a bit softer, as one expects when growth has seemed secure for many years. David Cameron made a mistake, I think, in eschewing the Our People idea in favour of a vaguer One Nation view. Obviously leaders must care about the whole nation, but if they do not advance any particular interest strongly, their support may be quite wide but never deep. In winning the election, Sir Keir Starmer tried to identify with ‘working people’, but then crushed the hopes of many of them with national insurance rises and attacks on farms and small businesses. Who are Sir Keir’s people today? Public-sector workers, you might think, but they seem rebellious, despite above-inflation pay rises. Not Muslims, because of Israel/Gaza; not Jews, for the same thing the other way round; not police, armed services, Border Force; not Welsh or Scots; not oil and gas workers or car workers, but not net-zero fans either; not the young; not the old (even though Rachel Reeves reinstated the winter fuel allowance she had herself cut); not feminists, but not trans fans; not the Red Wall. Perhaps not even academia, as foreign students fall away and even the great liberal-lawyer blob has its doubts because of Labour’s Faragiste noises about immigration. Successful prime ministers have periods – Thatcher from 1982-88; Blair from 1997-2003; Boris (much more briefly) between Brexit and mid-Covid – when they seem to chime with the way the country wants to go. Despite his vast majority, Sir Keir never chimes. Some may still think: ‘Well, we could do worse’ but almost no one thinks, ‘Ah, yes, he understands what I and my family want.’
Anas al-Sharif, the Al Jazeera reporter whom Israel blew up, intentionally, last Sunday, left what he described as ‘my will and final message’ to be published on Twitter once ‘Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice’. Allah knows, says Anas, that ‘I gave… all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people’ since he was born in the Jabaliya refugee camp. Allah will also ‘bear witness against those… whose hearts are unmoved by the scattered remains of our children and women’. (Anas was less moved by the scattered remains of children and women on 7 October 2023, when he sent out an exultant post on Telegram: ‘9 hours and the heroes are still roaming the country killing and capturing… Great God, how great you are.’ Being in close contact with the Hamas Nukhba brigade that day, he could post a picture of a Hamas terrorist placing his foot on a dead Israeli’s head and comment ‘All you feel is just high spirits. Remember, we hit them right on their heads in the midst of their military positions.’) His testament continues: ‘I entrust you with Palestine – the jewel in the Crown of the Muslim world, the heartbeat of every free person in the world.’ Don’t let ‘borders restrain you. Be bridges towards the liberation of the land and its people’. ‘O Allah,’ he prays, ‘accept me among the martyrs…and make my blood a light that illustrates the pathway for my people… I kept my promise and never changed or betrayed it.’ The IDF says Anas was a Hamas operative and have produced evidence. I am not in a position to judge the exact truth. But he clearly loved Hamas, worked with Hamas, propagandised for Hamas, and was seemingly unacquainted, as Al Jazeera also seems to be, with clause I. iv of our own dear Editors’ Code of Practice, which says reporters ‘must distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact’. His bias was all-consuming and his desire was martyrdom, not scoops. He was a jihadist, not a journalist.
In the past three weeks, I have been sent 26 emails from the Tucker Carlson Network telling me my request has been received ‘and is being reviewed by our support staff’. I have never sent a request to the Tucker Carlson Network. This assiduity in reply, absence of content in the reply and response to a request never made (or never made by the recipient of the replies) is a uniquely 21st-century form of customer service.
British waters are 0.2 per cent hotter than in 1980, says a BBC analysis of Met Office data. This causes some species (cod, whelks) to flee and others (octopus, bluefin tuna) to burgeon. Obviously, this creates some problems (‘Swarm of jellyfish shuts French nuclear power plant’ was a good headline from Reuters), but there are benefits from the slightly higher temperatures. When my wife began keeping records of moths in our Sussex garden about 25 years ago, few beautiful southern species were to be found. Today, the exotic arrivals have increased, including Zelleria oleastrella – which traditionally inhabits olive groves – borne across the sea on the warmer air currents. The Jersey Tiger, admired for its orange hindwings and black and cream forewings, was excitingly rare then. Today, it has given up tax exile in the Channel Islands and is well ensconced with us. Its range is extending north.
Nicola Sturgeon says she is moving to London because she ‘can’t breathe freely in Scotland’. That is how a great many of her fellow countrymen and women feel. Her party, the SNP, has now been in government in Scotland since 2007. Could these two phenomena be related?
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