This is from one of my better leaflets, though I must give due acknowledgement to the then LD HQ for the Punch-and-Judy illustration. The slimline "Libby" at the head gives away its origin in the days of Paddy Ashdown, but merely substituting the visages of Johnson & Starmer for Major & Blair would make it relevant today. The irony is that there was little to choose in terms of practical philosophy between Thatcher-Major and Blair-Brown. Today, Starmer is closer to Johnson that he is to Corbyn.
My experience of those days was that, come election time, the average voter wanted to know what candidates and their parties stood for, what their real differences were. Between elections, he or she expected the best interests of the country to be served and that MPs should work together to achieve those aims.
The Labour opposition and the Lib Dems in Westminster were clearly right to abstain over the latest anti-virus measures in England, but the government needs to be challenged on the facts, not on personalities. In particular, the reasons for targeting the hospitality sector need to be dragged out of this government (this applies to Wales as well). People in the business need to be assured that there is sound scientific evidence, not just that they are an easy target. The apparent corruption of awarding Covid-19 contracts without tender also needs to be pursued. Otherwise, the opposition should be seen to be cooperating in bringing an end to the epidemic - not to mention ensuring that Brexit, inevitable as it now is, proceeds with the least disruption to traders and travellers.
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The aims of the 1997 campaign still hold good. Post-devolution, the concerns about the NHS (GIG) now need to be directed to Cardiff, rather than Westminster, but the suspicion continues that the strategy for hospital trusts benefits senior health service professionals rather than their users, or locally-recruited staffs. If anything, police presence is even lower in 2020 than it was in the late 1990s. This is something we can surely improve on it policing were also devolved.
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Since posting the main message, I watched PMQs. I must say that Starmer was remarkably statesmanlike, rising only once to the ad hominem attacks which Johnson initiated. There was also one ad feminam shaft which ludicrously fell short as the PM had not bothered to check his inquisitor's voting record.
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