Political campaigning is far more enjoyable than governing, especially when you already enjoy a generous taxpayer-funded salary and a chauffeur-driven car. Campaigning involves speeches, handshakes, applause, and the excitement of the political fair. Governing, on the other hand, entails long, tedious meetings, reading dense documents, and battling committee-room rivals who have equal claims on the funds you wish to spend. It means listening to dissenters, making tough choices, and then being forced to justify them to the Opposition.
It is no surprise, then, that politicians often veer into rows with each other, resignations, by-elections, and the like. For them, this is a sort of holiday. But for the rest of us—the voters who pay their salaries—it is anything but. Every five years, we consider it right to hold a general election to determine who is best suited to run the government. However, once the votes are counted, we expect the elected government to get on with the job they promised to do.
Compared to the lives of most voters, the rewards of a political career are hardly small. Yet here we are, embroiled in an endless wrangle over who should implement the promises made by Labour in 2024, less than two years ago. Those who stood before us in the last general election should stick to their tasks unless forced out by scandal or other misconduct. They were the ones who received the mandate.
The hundreds of Labour MPs elected on that mandate also have a strong duty to stand behind the pledges they made. As the Labour top deck is consumed by mutinies, squabbles, resignations, and threats thereof—and now Andrew Burnham’s curiously delayed discovery that he ought to be Prime Minister—the functions of government suffer. Rulers from Beijing to Washington wonder what our real policies are. What is our position on the Iran War and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz? Where do we stand on Net Zero and the exploitation of the North Sea? Do we want a new dalliance with the EU, or is the renationalisation of the railways a true policy change or superficial badge engineering? How serious is the rebuilding of our defences after years of neglect?
All these issues impact our need to raise taxes and borrow money, and the likely future of our wobbly economy. That is why crucial sources of global power, such as bond and currency markets, question whether we are a worthwhile risk. This costs us money we can ill afford. It really cannot go on and on. The Makerfield by-election on June 18 may decide the matter for now. But whether it does or not, our politicians have had quite enough costly fun at our expense. They must get back to governing before serious damage is done.
