[OJFord]

This doesn't sound good, but I wish shadow ministers (whoever's in government) wouldn't bother with such shitty content-less anti-government quips like:

> Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, said: “Once again we see this government’s sheer incompetence and lack of planning holding British businesses back and slowing our economic recovery. “They’ve got to get a grip on this now and stop leaving our businesses out in the cold.”

Brilliant, if only they'd thought of 'planning' and 'not leaving businesses out in the cold', thank god for that contribution.

Sir Keir Starmer (opposition leader) actually seems pretty good on this front, especially in re coronavirus which is what I've mostly seen him speak on. Not afraid to say (the situation's diabolical but) the government's doing the right thing etc. His predecessor Jeremy Corbyn was by far the worst offender I've seen.

[desas]

I don't think that the point is that HMG haven't thought of "planning" and "not leaving business out in the cold". I think the point is that HMG's execution hasn't been very good.

[OJFord]

But that's useless and boring. If they haven't got a solution to offer that they believe is better, why bother saying anything?

[desas]

It pushes HMG towards executing better or changing priorities.

That and it raises the their personal and party profile while highlighting the opposition doing poorly.

I'd argue that UK politics don't tend to be won on ideas but mainly on perception of competency.