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Freud has a word for it. Thanatos. Up till now it’s been tempting to give Labour the benefit of the doubt. That being in opposition for 14 years has made them ring-rusty. That they’ve forgotten how this government thingy works. Hadn’t quite realised they were supposed to be in charge.
But now it’s beginning to look like Labour has a death wish. Not that it doesn’t quite know how to run the country, more that it is hell-bent on self-destruction. This isn’t a matter of incompetence: it’s a deliberate act of self-sabotage. Almost as if it doesn’t quite believe it deserves to be in office, or is too self-conscious to be in power. The opposition benches are its feelgood safe space.
How else to explain the feeling of chaos that has underscored much of the last year and a half or so and drowned out the good things that have been achieved? First it was the freebies – from a party that had promised to be different from the Tories. Then there were the U-turns over cuts to benefits.
But this was all a warm-up for the main event. The budget megashambles. Months of leaks, briefings and press conferences, some of which only took place to reverse-ferret on what had been said in previous leaks, briefings and press conferences. A timeline on when the Office for Budget Responsibility delivered its report that is at best confused.
OK, the reaction from the Tories and some lobby journalists has been deranged. The idea that Rachel Reeves was somehow deliberately misleading the country and was guilty of market manipulation is a characteristically desperate response from Kemi Badenoch.
There’s no stick that Kemi can’t find the wrong end of. She now has the alarm set on her phone to remind her to call for the chancellor’s resignation every four hours. It’s also a bit much for her to expect the country to forgive and forget what the Tories did to the economy quite so quickly.
But a less shambolic lead up to the budget could have nipped all this in the bud. Done away with days of speculation about the budget process and focused people’s minds on the substance instead. The arguments could have been about the choices made, and forced the Conservatives and other opposition parties to defend themselves.
Instead Labour’s Thanatos turned it into open season on Keir Starmer and Reeves. A licence for everyone to miss the point and give them a kicking.
Still. While there is life, there is hope. On Monday, Keir was to be found raging against the dying of the light as he popped up in a London community project to give the budget speech he rather wished Rachel had delivered last Wednesday. To cut through the nonsense and frame the debate on his terms. To escape the laughable idea that the economy had never been in better shape before Labour got their mitts on it, which Kemi and Mel Stride are trying to peddle. If they believe that, they need help.
This had been a budget to unlock the country’s potential, Starmer began. To mend public services that had been broken by the Tories. To fix the cost of living crisis. It was a matter of personal pride to end child poverty by lifting the ‘abhorrent’ two-child benefit cap. A moral mission.
All of which sounded good, until you remembered that this had never been in the Labour manifesto. It was less than a year ago that Keir was suspending the whip from backbench MPs who were rebelling against government plans to keep the two-child cap in place.
So, if it was a moral mission, it was a relatively new one for Keir. But better one sinner that repenteth and all that. And it did put clear blue water between him and Kemi. The Tories had put an extra 900,000 children into poverty. Labour would cut that by 500,000.
And Starmer wanted to hear a little less from Kemi about the “Benefits Street” budget. Not only was it a bit much coming from the party that had increased the welfare bill to record levels, but also the Tories had no idea that two-thirds of payments went to people already working. This wasn’t about giving handouts to people who couldn’t be bothered to find work.
“This was the story of the budget,” he said. Yes, he knew he was asking a lot by raising taxes. But better that than cutting public services and not having adequate fiscal headroom.
And while he was on the subject, it was the Tories who had been responsible for Britain’s low productivity. Growth had been weak for years and it would have been helpful if the OBR had done a productivity review at the end of the last government rather than 16 months into the new one.
But he was getting used to clearing up after the Tories. He would beat the gloomy forecasts. He would grow the economy with a customs union with the EU that wasn’t a customs union. If only someone had told him Brexit was a disaster.
Predictably, most of the questions from journalists ignored the speech and went back to the process. Had the chancellor been guilty of misleading the country by claiming there was a “black hole” in the finances when the OBR had already told her the outlook was not so bleak?
You’ll be astonished to hear that Keir didn’t think so. There was still the productivity gap. There was still the fiscal headroom. And there were still public services to maintain. Though the welfare bill would be going down at some stage without cutting the welfare bill because that might upset his backbenchers.
It was like this: there was no deliberate attempt to hoodwink the country. It was just Labour’s death wish at play. People just had to get used to the chaos. It was hardwired into the government. Just learn to look past the shambles and try to see the good things. Through a glass darkly. Keir was hopeful, he said doubtfully. We were over the worst. Labour was looking for a reason to believe in itself. Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3.
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A year in Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa Crerar
On Tuesday 2 December, join Crace, Hyde and Crerar as they look back with special guests at another extraordinary year, live at the Barbican in London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here
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The Bonfire of the Insanities by John Crace (Guardian Faber Publishing, £16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
