From Liz Two to Liz Truss

Putting my cards on the table:

I am an ardent believer in the EU (for all its flaws, I still believe in the ideals it was founded upon, and rejoice in so much that it has actually delivered).

I believe in a fairer-for-all society, and so have never voted blue in my life.

Now you see the cut of my jib, I'll add...

I long for a more left-leaning 21st-century savvy government. It breaks my heart to say this, but I believe only the end of the Labour party is likely to deliver this.

Labour has recently (since being out of power) served best to keep the Tories in power by dint of being too large to let any other parties succeed within FPTP, and yet too weak to win. They are also too 'broad a church' so they consume far too much energy in tearing themselves to bits from within.

Labour failed to acknowledge the fundamentals of Brexit insofar as it pivoted UK politics from "Left vs Right" to "Leave vs Remain". Whereas the Tories adopted a UKIP stance and wholly adopted Leave and wrapped it in a flag-waving faux patriotism that quickly soured on the street into nationalism, Labour catastrophically remained in "Neutral" and accordingly, went nowhere.

Indeed the extremes of both parties ended up in collusion in backing Brexit (Corbyn's use of the three-line whip in triggering A50 before any consequences had been researched is testament solely to his Eurosceptic out-of-date flag-waving absolute sovereignty stance) (For all the man's great qualities, this was and remains a fatal flaw).

Labour in their journey to their laudable goals, seem predisposed to always take the wrong path when faced with a fork in the road. I believe they are doing the same again now with "Make Brexit Work" (I hasten to add, that rejoining is not an option until the whole country can convincingly deliver a supermajority in favour of rejoining).

The UK economy is being trashed, it's heading into tin-pot dictatorship territory with a mini-budget that has been tailored to accelerate wealth inequality. So, there is a good chance Labour can take the next election, but they do so not through any well-planned strategy of their own, but simply because the people can take no more of the Tories)

But if Labour does get into power, I will bet real money that they will be in for just a single term simply because their attempts to pull the UK out of the mire will fail to deliver within that period. Indeed putting right the wrongs, like many a medicine, will be unpleasant (to borrow Liz Truss' word) in the time of one term. No political party can wave a magic wand and pull an economic miracle rabbit out of the hat.

And then, four years on, Tories will be waiting in the wings with more false promises and ridiculous tax cuts. People drowning, will as always grab any straw in the hope of change for the better. (Cf. Trump)

The country needs political reform (PR, written constitution, upper house change for starters) and it desperately needs a viable, nimble, focused left-leaning alternative to the current extreme right (they are not really Tories, more UKIP2/BNP/Billy-Smarts-Circus).

First and foremost a new party needs to be courageous enough, to be honest in explaining how bad things are and that they will indeed get worse before getting better. And if no party can survive that test of honesty (due to rampant popularism), then perhaps tragically, the country does indeed deserve the leaders they get.

Brexit, I believe, heralded the final chapter of what was once known as the British Empire. Perhaps it is the inevitable, inescapable parabolic trajectory of empires to rise and fall into flag-waving, popularist hyperbole.