Johnson’s “build build build” speech was good politics. Yes as been documented already on social media, it was full of lies, reheated old “promises” and fake numbers. But it sets an agenda, a vision for what happens #AfterCovid...
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2/ As opinion polls show people don’t want things to go back to the way they were before #COVID19 and want to see change. The pandemic has exposed flaws with the way things are and shown new options, eg new ways of working. Both the need and appetite for change are clear. https://twitter.com/centre4the99/status/1264471203093282821

3/ Johnson’s speech with all its flaws and inaccuracies captures that desire for change and its gives it shape and form with policies and catch phrases. Yes, pure politics and nothing but a polished turd. But it gives the Tories the appearance that..

4/ get the need for change and have some kind of plan. Ministers will able to hide behind it for ages, eg when an interviewer raises a problem with the way things are, Tories can trot out “build build build” jam tomorrow.

5/ As deficient as it is, it is an agenda, a plan. What does Labour have against it? Nothing. Yes, there’s rightly a critique of Johnson’s fake numbers but beyond what is there? What’s the plan, the vision? Like the 2008 Great Crash, the pandemic crisis is..

6/ a political gift for the Left. It’s exposed massive failings with the economic system, from the failures of privatisation, the low wage economy, weak employment rights etc. It’s shown hitherto unimaginable options as viable, eg many can work at home, CO2 can be reduced. https://twitter.com/centre4the99/status/1258310612096028672

7/ A big crisis demands big answers. Johnson’s speech is a cheap fake attempt at that. Labour should be seizing this opportunity to put forward a radical alternative. Under the shambles leadership of Miliband, they accepted the Tories..

8/ austerity is the answer big plan. The best Labour could offer as an alternative was a slower, less deeper version of austerity. The failure of establishment politics to challenge austerity and its consequences to a great part enabled Brexit. The best political opportunity..

9/ the Left had since 1945 was squandered. The Labour Party of 1945 understood that and offered radical change versus a return to life before the War. They won a landslide against “war winner” Churchill. Miliband’s wasted a similar chance, will Starmer’s Labour...

10/ be any different? On current evidence, not at all. There’s not a single sign of any vision or big picture. Starmer, like Miliband, thinks his job is to accept the Tory big picture, ask questions about it and tweak it at the edges. This is entirely not what is required...

11/ A bold, radical plan to shape a future economy that work in a much fairer and environmentally sustainable way is what’s needed. Without establishment politicians, Right and Left, not offering the way is left open again to anti establishment challenge, as with..

12/ with Corbyn’s surge after Miliband, with Brexit and Trump. In the way we couldn’t have called any of those developments in 2010, no one today can call what will happen in 2025. But don’t be surprised if the none of the usual suspects makes a breakthrough then.

This Thread on the opportunity for change #AfterCOVID as a blog post for easier reading and sharing: https://dravalblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/30/the-opportunity-for-change-after-covid-is-massive-has-johnson-seized-it-before-starmer/