Among the loud political debate over the King’s Speech, the continuing drama from the US and the relationship setting at the European Political Community at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire today, there will be few column inches given to the Conservatives this week. Or next. Even the week after. Many reading this — and certainly London’s many Labour supporters — will say good, 14 years was enough. The Tories had their turn. And that is true. But a healthy Opposition is the backbone of a functioning democracy, and without a figurehead no serious opposition groundwork can begin.
There may be those of you who, like me, feel deeply uneasy about the manifesto pledge to lower the voting age to 16 in a time of aggressive political social media targeting. Local communities will be in uproar over imposed housing measures. Forty bills will begin their long journey today, many of them highly contentious, and they need proper scrutiny, not Liberal Democrat high-fiving or Nigel Farage grandstanding.
