How much is a pint of milk? I have no idea, actually. I normally buy milk from a local shop and pick up something else as well – bread, a paper, whatever – and I pay with a debit card. So I have no idea what milk costs. That doesn’t matter because in in real life no-one never asks that question. But in politics they do.
If you are a leading politician planning a campaign on the cost of living then you had better know a bunch of the obvious questions – price of a loaf, a stamp, a gallon of petrol, a pint of beer, a pint of milk. Ridiculous questions, I know, but so, if you think about it, is a Canute-like campaign about the cost of living. Politics, in many ways, is no profession for a human being – but senior ones have chosen it and must play by the rules.
These thoughts have been prompted by the extraordinary performance of Emily Thornberry on Sky’s “Murnaghan” programme yesterday. Thornberry was once famous only for her condescending tweet of a house in Kent draped with England flags and with a white van outside.
This lack of empathy with ordinary, decent working class voters would normally have been a career-limiting move – but in the Labour Party these are far from normal times.
As a consequence of the mass resignations from Labour’s frontbench, Thornberry has been elevated to the dizzy heights of Shadow Foreign Secretary. This is one of the great offices of state and because of Brexit it is at the centre of politics.
Thornberry is in demand by the media – and is clearly regarded as a “safe pair of hands” by Corbyn’s office, as she is often fielded by them.
So yesterday, she was on “Murnaghan”, which led to the following exchange:
Dermot Murnaghan: Have you called the French Foreign Minister for example?
Emily Thornberry: No, but they are in the process of arranging for me to go to France and to Germany.
DM: Do you know who he is?
ET: Don’t start pub quizzing me, Dermot.
DM: The French Foreign Minister, do you know his name?
The answer came quickly:
ET: No
And then Thornberry’s tone changed. She accused Murnaghan of sexism:
ET: I’m not going to start answering questions on this. Do you know what really upsets me about your attitude to me is you do this with me, I don’t remember you doing it with anybody else? Have you ever done it with David Davis? Do Sky journalists have a go at Boris Johnson on this basis, how about Liam Fox?
The answer is that they do, as Murnaghan pointed out. Then Thornberry doubled down, demanding:
Why don’t we talk about some serious stuff? Why don’t we talk about Syria, how about talking about North Korea? Do you really want to spend this time pub quizzing me?
Murnaghan agreed:
I won’t then, let’s talk about North Korea, let’s talk precisely about … what about the South Korean President then, if you want to talk about North Korea, do you know the name of the South Korean President who has been talking about nuking Pyongyang.
Of course, Thornberry had no idea of the name of the South Korean President either. But she had raised the issue of Korea herself.
The Thornberry case is ridiculous – the French Foreign Secretary is, like his German equivalent, a member of one of Labour’s sister parties.
Not meeting them, let alone knowing their name is criminal in itself – changing the subject and then not knowing who you are talking about makes it clear that this is sheer stupidity.
Why, apart from the embarrassment of any Labour Party member watching, does this matter? Because it is not just an issue of competence, it is the symbol of a culture. The Corbyn team does not measure itself against, let alone measure up to, any of the normal standards of political campaigning.
Choose any recent event at random. The “Traingate” video was launched in the knowledge that the train where Corbyn sat on the floor had empty seats and in the belief that this would remain a secret.
Or the repeated line from Corbyn and McDonnell that Labour had been ahead in the polls before resignations from the Shadow Cabinet – despite the fact that the 85 polls in which Labour were behind the Tories had actually been, you know, published.
Or, the case of the press officer being told to remove the Hebrew phrase “Chag Kasher VeSameach” from Corbyn’s Passover greeting because it might look “Zionist”.
Jeremy Corbyn promised a new politics and we are seeing it. It’s like the old politics, just done really, really badly.