Quintin Jardine's blog

Watching Stephen Kinnock, an English/Welsh Health Minister, this morning, it occurred to me that it’s time Labour stopped blaming previous Tory governments for all the country’s ills. This morning it was children’s dental health.

To be politically incorrect, if kids go to school not knowing how to brush their teeth properly, that’s not the fault of Rishi Sunak, Boris, Theresa or anyone else. It’s the fault of their parents, clear as daylight seen through Keir Starmer’s expensive specs.

In shovelling all the shit they can into Kemi Badenough’s front garden the government is hiding from the electorate a very obvious truth. The Tories’ years in power might have been curtailed if Labour had offered an acceptable alternative. But they didn’t. First they were led by Ed Miliband, the less able of two uninspiring brothers, then they took a lurch to the far left, and to the utterly unelectable Corbyn.

It was only when common sense took over and they moved back into Tony Blair territory that they recovered government potential. Even then Starmer would have nothing like the majority he enjoys had it not been for the unexpected intervention of Nigel Starmer.

So my message is, stop deflecting, for it’s your fault too. If you’re that good, go on and fix it.