All Flags, No Fixes - Reform’s agenda is crippled by short-term policy and made-up solutions, but helped by a government telling voters they’re wrong

Doubling down on the current strategy is not going to work for the government. Doing so is Westminster Brains’ way of interpreting the local election results, and saying that it is the voters that are wrong, not the government.

It’s a familiar approach. The Conservatives followed it for nearly two years, right up to their near wipeout in the 2024 general election.

Back then, Rishi Sunak endured two years of local election drubbings and historic by-election defeats, only to conclude that the country needed more of the same. He retreated to his bunker, hoped for different results, and when they didn’t come, asked privately: “Why can’t voters see that I’m right?”

Now, if Labour’s response to last week’s results is any guide, they’re adopting a similar stance.

After the general election, Labour seemed to believe they could settle into government slowly—that any real shift from the previous Conservative governments would have to wait for a second term. Early signs backed this up, indicating that the bigger picture was to focus less on government in the short-term, but to be able to go into an election in 2029 showing results.

But here lies the problem: if no meaningful ‘Change’ is delivered in the first term, why would voters grant a second?

As I argued in my first piece after Labour’s win, they may have time—but they underestimate voters’ impatience.

That impatience is rooted in over a decade of public service decline under the Conservatives. And when Labour, after ten months, seem to offer no clear or visible answers, you get results like last week’s.

Yes, many voters still blame the Conservatives for the country’s problems. Labour’s line about inheriting a broken system still resonates.

But—