I am no fan of Rod Liddle, a right-wing head banger and Millwall supporter. But he make a good point in his latest Spectator article. Keir Starmer has the worst ratings of any prime minister in modern history, but Liddle points out that each successive prime minister in recent times has had worse ratings than his or her predecessor.
This leads Liddle to the question, is Britain ungovernable? Of course, there is a risk of reinventing he wheel: there was such a debate on ungovernability in the 1970s featuring the late Tony King and Sam Brittan. The general conclusion was one of government overload: government tried to do too much and ended up doing little of it well.
However, government today probably faces an electorate than has more expectations and sense of entitlement than in the 1970s. One can see why many voters are disillusioned: taxes are up, but public services are seen as deteriorating. Young people cannot get on the housing ladder in a way that was still possible in the 1970s (inflation paradoxically helped by reducing the real value of loans).
An analysis carried out for Hope not Hate shows that Reform voters are a rather variegated and in some ways contradictory group. What I suspect does unite them is a 'none of the above' feeling: all other parties have failed, so Reform couldn't be worse.
This week Reform has to appear at the CBI conference to explain and justify its economic policies. There has been some rowing back from the rasher promises, but will the attempt to appear responsible undermine their raw populist appeal?
Given that they are billed as the government as waiting, it is surprising that they are not winning more local government by-elections. It is the Lib Dems and Greens who seem to be doing well with even the Conservatives winning the odd seat. In line with the polls the Labour vote has tanked.
