Political

Peak Farce, Jumped The Shark, surely Labour can’t top this?

Having a former Mayor locked in a disabled toilet whilst journalists shout questions through the door about what he thought of the younger Hitler* might, you think, be the most absurdly farcical moment Labour was able to conjure up last week.

But you would be wrong, as The Times‘s Red Box email reports:

Naz Shah

There is a serious point in all this, as being Prime Minister (or indeed party leader) means having to juggle numerous different issues competently, quickly and with little clear time to concentrate on just the one thing.

That was partly Gordon Brown’s undoing, because as Chancellor he was used to clearing his agenda free of most events, concentrating instead on just a few big moments in the year. As Prime Minister, that was impossible and his chaotic style turned from manageable to major hindrance as a result.

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Jeremy Corbyn is running into a very similar problem. The slightly endearing administrative incompetence that makes me smile when I receive yet another casework reply from him with factual errors and other blemishes is what fuels the farcical abandonment of Naz Shah for 40 minutes.

Except that it is no longer endearing when the job is leader of a party and the stakes are rather higher than writing a letter to me.

* Worth noting, by the way, that Mein Kampf was published in 1925. The younger Hitler had already written Mein Kampf.

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