Things Can Only Get 33

Many people think politics to be really easy. More wish it was. In a recent debate candidates were asked a series of yes/no questions. But some of them were not really yes/no.

One such, in a recent debate, was ‘Will you in the future consider rejoining the European Union?’ Angela Rayner said ‘no’. But I think it impossible to say ‘no’ for all future conceivable circumstances. The answer ‘don’t know’ was not an option and people hate it anyway. Complete silence was the only answer.

Politics is complex and nuanced. It is why I am not a member of any political party. I am a pragmatist or at least want to be banging my head against the right wall. ‘Relevant martyrdom’ was what the late Tom Smail called that. So I would refuse to accept the premise of the question far more often than I gave a straight answer, would often say ‘It depends what you mean by’ and consequently would be hugely unpopular.

Graphs rarely go up or down in a straight line. Looked at in detail various trade, manufacturing and employment figures are a series of small peaks and troughs from which a trend can be observed. It allows one party, looking at the trend, to say ‘Crime is up’ and another, looking at a trough after a peak, to say ‘Crime is down’. Both are looking at the same figures. Both are, technically, right.

But forensic analysis looks at trends, not peaks and troughs on the journey, and Starmer is good at it. Sunak got in a mess about this the other day when he said hospital waiting lists were down. They were down recently but the trend (as Starmer pointed out with a good grasp of figures) remained up. Sunak was forced to say ‘They are down from when they were higher’ which was correct, but sounded petty.
In international negotiations you sometimes have to give in order to get. The Brexit negotiations had to absolutely shaft our farmers but specialised parts manufacturers got a good deal. Complex, see.

Facebook used to have as a choice on the state of your relationship ‘It’s complicated’. Politics is complicated. If you can manage to be unselfish please vote for the party that will bring the most benefit to the most people for the most time. It may not be simple to work out because politics isn't easy.