Years ago I used to write about sport back in Yorkshire.
I asked a football manager about the difference between someone like me – who knew nothing – watching a match and someone like him, who had been in the game for years, watching a match.
“Largely the same,” he replied. “If you were going to say anything, it’s the difference between looking at something normally, or putting on a scratchy pair of sunglasses and looking at it through them.”
Profound. Admittedly, he was sacked a few weeks later, but you get the gist.
And it’s the same with politics. I wouldn’t be so bold as to claim any sort of expertise.
You and me probably read the same things about politics, watch the same news.
Maybe I speak to a couple more people, read some more niche stuff, study it a little bit more.
But in terms of what’s going on, your instinct is probably right. There’s no grand scheme, the myth of a well-oiled machine is a myth.
Last week was a case in point. Mr Johnson’s announcement about refugees is exactly what it looks like.
Nothing more than blatant distraction or “look-over-there” type behaviour.
Sending refugees to Rwanda is the political equivalent of a distraction burglary, only less subtle and infinitely more criminal.
I guess it worked, after a fashion.
It took the front pages away from the fact the PM has been fined for breaking the law, making him the first PM to get a criminal sanction while in office.
But how crass is it to exploit some of the most vulnerable people on the planet to save your own skin?
Shameless, horrific, beyond belief.
The Government’s own figures show two-thirds of those fleeing are from countries where war and persecution has forced them from their homes.
So we set a real example to the world. Send us your poor, huddled masses and we’ll pack them up and send them 6,000 miles away. For processing. Even the language is chilling.
Terrible, horrible policy. Roundly condemned, thank God, and unlikely to work due to various logistic and legal challenges.
But to even suggest it in the first place is beyond the pale. It puts some pressure, I suppose, on Labour who are unable to find an answer to blatant Trump-style populism.
Immigration has been a struggle for Labour for a long time.
Like a lot of things, the Right can reduce any nuance in the debate to a soundbite, in this case: “Send them to Rwanda.”
What can you say, short of: “Don’t send them to Rwanda.”
I understand why it’s tough but there are times I’d like Labour to be a bit braver and not leave the outrage to other people.
Don’t worry about offending the few Right-wing nuts that welcome this.
Half-garbled answers about shutting down people traffickers won’t cut it here.
Time to tell the public the truth. The majority of people are coming here because they need help.
Meantime, take down Mr Johnson and his cheap stunt.
David Davis called it “a moral, economic and practical failure”. Same as the Government, David, same as the man in charge.
