Today, we saw a new prime minister set out her vision for the country. It was a classic reminder that while fine words matter, they are meaningless without deeds to back them up.
Theresa May claims she wants a Britain where it doesn’t matter where someone is from. But she’s unleashing the worst crackdown on immigrants in a generation.
Theresa May claims she cares about those left behind since the crash on stagnating pay. But she’s repeatedly supported the public sector pay freeze and won’t overturn it.
Theresa May claims her party is the party of the NHS. But she won’t bring back the student nursing bursary, invest in real training or give our health service the money it needs.
Instead she’d rather rely on ambitious ‘efficiency savings’ (or cuts as we’d call them).
Theresa May claims her party is the party of the working class and the centre ground. But it has consistently favoured the well off rather than those struggling to get by.
And while her political agenda might sound like that of a Labour leader, it’s really more like Margaret Thatcher’s.
Politics is not an exercise in wish fulfilment. Actions are what matters.
Poverty can’t be willed into extinction merely by asking for it. Nor fairness introduced to the economy through platitudes. Tax avoidance won’t end while she heads a government that actively encourages greed.
The centre ground can’t be claimed while pursuing an unashamedly retro right-wing agenda.
Theresa May is not a foolish politician. She knows exactly what she is doing. And that suggests that she is deeply, deeply cynical.