Essential reading
I always enjoy the op-ed pages of the Telegraph. Not for the quality of the writing and certainly not for the common sense of the writers. It is just always handy to know what those who think they represent the zeitgeist of the government are thinking.
But the trend seems to be rather worrying, my word are these people unhappy or what?
12 years of Thatcherism, austerity, Brexit and smaller government should, you might have thought, have put a spring in their step.
Not a bit of it, the comments pages read like an agony column for angry gammons.
Every week you have to endure reams of rubbish on how: Brexit opportunities are not being seized, the blob controls the government, remainiac traitors are at every keyhole, big spending socialism is back, wokery is wasting taxpayers billions, climate change policies have caused higher energy prices (rather than the invasion of Ukraine natch), universities are running too many useless courses and educating to many stupid people while turning them into commies, Macron is our enemy, lockdown was a mistake and a conspiracy, privatised utilities work, Theresa May caused all the problems with Brexit and Liz Truss will bestride the globe as the real leader of the free world.
Only the last is a fantasy about the future, the rest are fantasies about the past. But I do detect in these increasingly shrill articles a common theme.
“We did everything you asked St. Margaret and still the sunlight uplands are as far away as ever. We have not been worthy, we must redouble our efforts.”
These people have had 40+ years to lead the country to the promised land and the country is instead a complete mess and none of it is their fault.
It would be nice if the shrillness increased until only bats could hear it, but as we found with Trump, it is more likely to get stupider, nastier, more radical and more paranoid.
But I do get a sense that they are increasingly, talking to themselves.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.