Leadership Failure

The Labour Party Conference, even more than the other parties' conferences, is a ritual event where the tribes can come together and pretend that the erosion of their collective power - which has been going on since Harold Wilson's time [or earlier] - does not matter. Thus it is a feast of fatuity.

Traditionally the Leader's Speech has been a central feature of the event, and duly the Scribes and Pharisees of the movement [the journalists and political analysts] have to pretend that they consider it important. This year they have been made to appear more ridiculous than usual because The Leader 'forgot' to mention both the economy and immigration in his speech. He did remember, fatuously, to emphasise the word 'together' more than fifty times; which can be interpreted to mean that he expects the party to succumb to its ancient fissiparous tendency as the election looms closer.

His own painful inadequacy for any position of leadership was highlighted by the entire, hour-long performance. Party aparatchiks have tried to mitigate the situation by saying that Bully Balls did cover the economic issue adequately in his speech on Monday. He said a few things of marginal relevance. But the sum total of the Leader's and the Shadow Chancellor's offerings is to show that they have no formula for eradicating the deficit on state spending, or the deficit on the balance of payments, or substantively funding the National Health Service to meet the aspirations set out by Aneurin Bevan in 1947.

In the coming weeks we will see the fandango of fantasy at the Lib-Dem Conference, which a few Grauniadista lovies will  ensure becomes over-reported. And we will see the stage-managed pretence of unity and loyalty at the Tory Party Conference.

The sum total of these events will be to emphasise the uselessness of the political class, the vacuity of their supporters and the sycophantic irrelevance of most of the media .... and the country will continue to sink in the ocean of economic failure.