The prevailing atmosphere inside Labour MPs currently echoes Edgar's law. It affirms that the magnitude of any misfortune is solely measured against unknown future disasters. As the Bard has the banished son of the visionless lord of Gloucester say in King Lear: “The worst does not exist, so long as we may declare ‘this is the worst’.”
A Chain of Intensifying Crises
As per this principle, you won't find any opinion poll so dismal regarding the party that won't be succeeded by one even bleaker; no economic projection so terrible that the exchequer won't exacerbate via contradictory signals on tax; no reservations regarding the leader that can't be amplified through malicious leaks concerning a bid for power.
Refugee Measures Declaration
Against this backdrop, the latest revelation of strategies that aim to restrict the quantity of displaced persons allowed into the United Kingdom, based upon an infamously harsh Scandinavian model, was received less badly by representatives than predicted. There appeared glimmers of parliamentary discontent however no blaze of opposition.
Hardening immigration policies is far from Labour's comfort zone, but the current system is evidently broken while citizens are furious. Numerous parliamentarians grasp the reasoning that open-mindedness and community cohesion are simpler to foster if assurance exists that the country's boundaries remain protected.
Increasing Dissatisfaction
Quiet backbenches may also represent foreboding. Parliamentarians have realized that everything is negotiable with a directionless leader of adaptable beliefs. Current proclamations might be reversed shortly. There's no requirement to rush over the top if successes can be achieved by attrition.
A regular criticism concerns the Prime Minister is barely running the cabinet at all, following the transfer of political judgment to his chief of staff. That isn't to say the leader misses managerial vigor, he merely chooses not to mediate between ministry conflicts or engage in extended discussions.
Management Method
The leader joined political parties during later professional life, originally joining the legislature during his early fifties. He has no feel about movement history – the body of former discussions, initiatives, personalities and cultural references that connect a leader to the wider movement and its sense of shared purpose.
His innermost beliefs stay concealed even to the cabinet. As one senior Labour figure puts it: “Keir is highly unusual as head of government by creating the perception that his individual beliefs are not for public consumption.”
Governmental Outcomes
The image presented as the Prime Minister in the recent polling battle has similarly not produced its purported benefits: managerial competence leading to societal regeneration. Had the UK maintained a dual-party structure, the recollection of how bad things were with the previous government might prolong patience with Labour.
This foreshadows a massacre among government contenders in municipal and devolved elections in the coming spring. It shall represent an instance of significant risk for the Prime Minister, assuming he survives until then.
Future Considerations
Absent in these assessments is agreement regarding the person of a replacement and their intended agenda may differ from the current government's agenda. This weakness within succession arrangements is cited by the prime minister's defenders among numerous justifications to remain with the current leader.
Even as unhappy parliamentarians might recoil from such cautions, they also hear through them the well-known, empty ringing of modest goals that induces despair with current conditions. It represents the noise of inability to define Starmerism as merely a series of strategies for maintaining position.
Final Considerations
It is hard to generate allegiance for such an objective. And most Labour MPs have endeavored. They have adhered to the party line, justified it to constituents, followed party discipline, trusted promises that their issues received attention.
Prime ministerial ousting is fraught with risk, but is it riskier compared to feigning that the present leader possesses solutions about important matters which he doesn't identify? Edgar's law suggests prudence in ousting an incumbent leader. The alternative may turn out poorer.
“The weight of these difficult days we need to follow; State true sentiments, instead of proper declarations.”
