Stand & Deliver; Don't Stop Believing

It’s time to up the ante on UK Party Politics and, as a general introduction to this subject, these are two very popular numbers and excellent bed-fellows for the article as they were both recorded in 1981, but they are also bed-fellows for very different reasons.? You are going to have to read on to discover their significance.

Stand and Deliver by Adam and the Ants and from the Prince Charming album is a nod, not just to the poor Governance in the UK, but also a nod to the chameleon like Labour Party that seems to have all of the answers the Conservative Government appears to lack but also, arguably, ?has none of the solutions.? You could even say that Labour has all the gear in its locker but in reality with little or no idea.

The second number is Don’t Stop Believing by that well named Group, Journey.? This isn’t really a nod to die hard Bristol Football supporters but more a nod to the populous at large that there really is an alternative to the sterile alternative choices of Labour and Conservative Party Policies.

However, on the subject of football, I just wanted to put on record that I don’t have a problem with these die-hard football supporters but I have always been a? little intrigued why everyone has to support a football team.? I remember when I was on Summer Camp in the States – the older generation will remember Alan Sherman’s classic recording, Hello Mother Hello Father here I am at Camp Granada - and if you don’t know what I am taking about just Google it; it’s a classic.?? Everyone at Camp asked me ‘Which Football team do you support?? My response was ‘none’ but if I had to support a football team as a local, my nearest would be the Red Devils aka Manchester United.? I was born less than six miles from the Stretford End at Old Trafford.? Twenty years later I also used to find it highly amusing, when I was working in the City that many highly paid individuals were either motivated or de-motivated by the success of their football team at the week-end.? I only wish I was joking but, as an honorary Bristolian, and having lived in the City for 46 years, it is sometimes difficult not to absorb some of the culture both from the Gas Heads aka Bristol Rovers and the Robins aka Bristol City.? I sincerely wish both teams the very best, if only for sake of their die-hard fans but I will continue to retain both a tentative and somewhat marginal link to my local team.? So my message to both sets of Bristol die-hard fans is Don’t Stop Believing – your day will come albeit we just don’t know where or when this day will be.

However, my apologies, as I have gone off-piste but, a little bit like ‘Just A Minute’, at my age I am very much entitled and allowed to deviate, repeat and hesitate and those who know me well enough will also appreciate that everyone is entitled to my opinion, whether you agree with it or not.?

Getting back on track, I was always taught both at Grammar School and in Further Education at Manchester, never to ask a closed question if you wanted a responsible answer but when it comes to asking question of our Governors/Politicians, the problem that I have is that you will never ever get a straight answer to any question, whether this is closed or open.

My concern is highlighted by the recent Sunday Morning interview with Laura Kuenssberg and the Prime Minister just before the Conservative Party Conference which, whether by design or otherwise, was scheduled to be based in Manchester, the key example of a Northern Powerhouse and, arguably, a key beneficiary of levelling up, whatever levelling up is indeed meant to mean.? We finally got an answer to HS2 in the Prime Minister’s address to Conference but not before a plethora of closed questions from the Great British Brainwashing Corporation -?or, as Jim Davidson prefers to call it, The Bring Back Communism – simply demanding a yes or no answer that resulted in some extremely woolly responses from the Prime Minister.? We’re all acutely aware that MPs can generally be economical with the truth and their demeanour can often be likened to the proverbial iceberg, so much so, the public never sees ninety percent of the lies that linger below the surface.? However, couldn’t the Prime Minister, when asked about the future of HS2 the day before his big moment just have said to his interviewer that he had actually made a decision on HS2 and all would be revealed when he addressed the Conservative Conference rather than provide a woolly response where it was profoundly clear that a decision had already been made.? This just made him/them look ridiculous fanning the electorate’s contempt for politicians whose only real job, lest they ever forget it, ?is to serve the best interests of the populous and their constituents.

I have said it before and I don’t mind saying it again, the masses are simply fed up to the back teeth with the two principal parties supported by a WOKE media, where the policy differential is about as thin as the filter paper on a cigarette.? I am so incensed by the way this country has been governed pre and post COVID and I would also hasten to add that it will arguably be no better under a Labour Administration led by the ennobled SKS who seems to have no charisma and has very little different to offer us other than the colour of his blood.? At least Rishi Sunak has finally had a light bulb moment and now realizes the importance of the electorate; hence he is, not before time, taking on board the feelings of the silent majority with his rowing back on Net Zero and is also adopting a much more realistic and pragmatic approach to the axing of HS2.? Arguably, the HS2 project was always built on aspiration over expectation; and it will be interesting to see SKS’s response to the savaging of Green Policies in Bavaria’s forthcoming elections which will be headline news when he gives his address to the Party Faithful this week.

In contrast to Bristol Football’s die-hard supporters, we need to Stop Believing in this crass two party game of Paddle Tennis. ?They have had their opportunity to Stand and Deliver but all that has been delivered to the electorate is a plethora of vague platitudes.? In my opinion we need a fresh approach via a new Party to take up the mantel on behalf of the silent majority.? These views may indeed rub salt into the wounds of the Woke Media but then I am so appalled with all the possible outcomes from the existing process.? In fact, I am very much in the camp of Professor Tim Wilson who is adamant that the Prime Minister has surrounded himself with a Cabinet Full of Clowns and I doubt whether SKS will produce a Cabinet with any greater intellect or authority.? It just reminds me of the old joke many years ago when Cecil Parkinson resigned from Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet after admitting to an affair. The joke was as follows; what did Cecil Parkinson and an MFI flat pack have in common? The answer was ‘One Loose Screw and the Whole Cabinet Fell Apart’

In summary, we need a radical change of direction as to how this country is managed and governed.? In my opinion, both of the principal parties are way past their sell-by dates and perhaps this is an opportunity to REFORM the direction of the country’s governance.? It may of course be a difficult task but, living in a Democracy, as the late great Hughie Green used to remind us on Opportunity Knocks, ‘Folks, It’s Your Vote That Counts.? Maybe this is therefore the opportunity for The REFORM Party to Stand & Deliver a solution to the Political Stalemate. The Status Quo is not a sensible option.