Tuesday 29th March

I should imagine that though for most of us we would rather have it later in April with better weather possibly Easter couldn’t have come soon enough for Mr. Cameron.  He has had a torrid time of it since the Budget.  But I don’t really feel sorry for him at all, this is all of his own making.  Our Prime Minister may be a good talker like Blair before him, but he is far too careless, or lackadaisical really, and he gives his Ministers far too much rope with which to entangle both themselves and him of course.  One of the big criticisms of Blair was that he was a control freak, the Prime Minister’s department vetted every single speech and proposal from his Cabinet, and consequently there were fewer cock-ups.  Twice now huge reductions on the Benefits bill have been hastily assembled and then just as quickly had to be dismantled amid public outcry.

And it is no use blaming George Osborne, his budgets are notoriously Political and Cameron should really have made sure that he knew all the ramifications well before Budget Day itself.

Well the controversial proposals to reduce the Independence payments for some disabled people have been shelved, though maybe not completely forgotten and there is yet another gaping hole in the Budget projections to get rid of the deficit by 2020.  And we have a new (kinder) face in charge of Benefits and Pensions, though closer examination shows that he is actually a homophobe who believes that being gay is an illness which can be cured.  He also told his local Constituency only a few weeks ago that he thought that people who had suffered strokes or had mental illnesses should still be made to work.  So, if we thought that the much hated Iain Duncan Smith and all his nastiness was in the past, we may be in for an even nastier regime now with Mr. Crabbe.  And actually the haste with which he was promoted shows that he was being lined up anyway.

But Easter will soon be over, and then we have the local elections and soon after the European Referendum.  Already the Tories are tearing themselves apart.  Now is the time for Labour to wake up and really start making an impression, let us hope so, though they are showing little sign of it yet.