the corner office

Had election day been a week or two later, we may yet have descended to the headline "Sun rises in blow to Sunak". The news people were trying their best to make it all dramatic and nailbiting, but I think the only two questions anyone really had were "how much will Labour win by?" (and now we know the answer: lots), and "how much will taxes be going up by?" (and to that we can probably guess the answer: lots).

Tax rises. Much poring over manifesto promises and speeches trying to divine just what is in store for us, but how seriously does anyone take manifesto pledges? Today, Rachel Reeves rolled out the dreaded "difficult decisions" line (deployed repeatedly during the early Tory/Lib Dem coalition days in 2010, as I recall), and it's not a stretch to imagine what comes next: "omg things are so much worse than we imagined who could possibly have foreseen this?" (edit: 4 weeks later lol that didn't take long)

And then, how long before something something regrettably, something something broadest shoulders? (edit: 8 weeks later do I laugh or cry?)

Either way, Sir Keir is now in charge. He seems a serious-minded and well-meaning fellow, and his successes will now be our successes, and all that. But so will be his failures, a detail the platitude omits. His rosette may be a different colour, but the chalice is no less poisoned than before.