Love’s Labours Won

The first flushes of love are so spurred and intoxicating
That the lovers’ worlds move at a quicker pace

The aftermath of a general election is a bit like the start of a love affair – go with me on this one. You begin, all starry-eyed and flush-faced, your heart fluttering, convinced that this time, it really is ‘the one’, that whatever the object of your ardour is promising will make your world better, for ever. You both start out full of vim and enthusiasm for the job in hand, all gung-ho and keen to get on with things.

If you don’t believe me, think about the attitude in the country back in 1997, when Tony Blair swept into power on a chorus of Things Can Only Get Better, the anthem of the sexy scientist Professor Brian Cox. Remember the bro-mance in the Downing Street Rose Garden when David Cameron and Nick Clegg held their first coalition press conference? When we naively believed that by working together, the Lib Dems would soften-up the hard-nose edges of the Tory Party, and, in turn, the Tories would turn the wishy-washy Liberals into a proper functioning part of the government.

It didn’t turn out like that, of course, Clegg lost his seat five years later and high-tailed it after the money to Facebook, while David Cameron scooped up those disaffected Lib Dem constituencies, and got his majority mojo back, until he bottled it in the face of Farage and his UKIPers.

Think about the December 2019 election, when the Labour Red Wall turned blue, as Boris Johnson promised the earth – well, Brexit anyway – and the wave of optimism in a great many quarters that that heralded.  Then it all went a bit pear-shaped.

All I’m saying is that Sir Kier Starmer has the county at his feet at the moment. That slightly excited feeling when you find a really shiny, newly minted pound coin in your pocket?  That’s how many are currently viewing the pledges, speeches and ideas coming out of Whitehall. The Prime Minister and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have promised to speed up planning decisions, reduce red tape, bring back housing targets, and to get Britain building again. All good news for this industry, if it can be managed.

However – there’s always a however with this column – he needs to be aware of that very British trait of building up our loves, bolstering our feelings for them with our hope and expectations, and then turning on our love once it appears that they have failed to live up to those dreams, no matter how they made us feel in the interim, or what they may have achieved for us.