There’s a palpable sense of whiplash in the air. After nearly a year and a half in power, Keir Starmer’s Labour government is being met with a torrent of criticism. From betraying promises to continuing with austerity-lite policies, the anger from the right and left and the commentariat is fierce and, in many cases, entirely justified.
But it begs an overwhelming, frustrating question: Where was all this righteous fury for the last 14 years while the Conservatives were actively using the country as a wrecking ball?
A close look reveals a deeply uncomfortable truth. Many of the policies now being proposed by Labour – fiscal rigidity, a tough line on public sector pay, a cautious approach to spending – bear a disconcerting resemblance to the Tory blueprint. The key difference isn’t necessarily in the policy itself, but in the reaction from the powerful right-wing media ecosystem.
When the Tories imposed a decade of brutal austerity, slashing public services to the bone and pushing millions into poverty, where was the front-page outrage? When they chaotically dragged Britain out of the European Union, damaging our economy and global standing, where were the searing editorials condemning the act of national self-sabotage?
The answer is simple: they were largely silent, or worse, actively cheering it on. The Conservative party and its media allies are, for the most part, one and the same. They share the same ideological project. Austerity wasn’t a tragic necessity in their pages; it was “common sense economics.” Brexit wasn’t a catastrophic error; it was “the will of the people.” They gave the Tories a perpetual pass, turning a blind eye to the devastation because they were part of the same team.
Now, a Labour government is in charge, and the same outlets have suddenly discovered their banshee shrill. It is a breathtaking, grade-A display of hypocrisy.
They are not acting as impartial observers but as political combatants, hypnotising the nation into believing that the economic pain began not with 14 years of Conservative rule but on the day Labour took office. They created the crisis and are now mercilessly attacking the new management for the state of the ruins they inherited.
They are perpetuating a myth that the small boat crisis began in the summer of 2024, when the worst year for numbers was in 2022, under a Tory administration.
This is not to say Starmer’s government should be immune from scrutiny. It must be held to account, especially by those who expected genuine change. (I was not one of them, but many were fooled). But the sheer volume and selective amnesia of the current backlash reek of a political game. The same forces that enabled the Tories to run riot are now sharpening their knives for Labour, not out of principle, but because it’s a different team wearing the crown. Many of them are crowing for the Truss economics that ripped the heart out of the economy to continue under Reform UK. We should despise that double standard just as much as we despise the betrayal of political promises.
We must smell the roses, not the anal excrement that flows much more rapidly from the mouths and fingers of the corporate media. Otherwise we only have ourselves to blame when the next disaster overwhelms us for generations.
