‘Swamped’ - The warning signs that the public may be growing weary of Labour's 'inheritance' narrative
There was a prescience in discussing ‘Operation Brinker’ several weeks ago during my election coverage.
'Ok, now what?' - New beginnings, and how time and patience will be required from a nation that feels like it's running out of both
One of the more interesting departures from government (and indeed the Commons itself) was former MP for Cheltenham Alex Chalk.
Essentially, the concept behind ‘Operation Brinker’ was that when operational capacity in prisons reached its peak, as a contingency measure, the government would seek to ferry prisoners around the country in the hopes of finding a holding cell for them in police custody until a space became available on the prison estate.
It’s a desperate measure in tough and desperate times.
It would, however, seek to build on other measures such as ‘Operation Early Dawn’, which, as of last week, had been implemented in certain parts of the country as a short-term response to the prisons crisis where offenders would be summoned to the magistrates’ court but only when it had been confirmed that there was a space for them.
Focusing on the story highlighted two things:
Firstly, it was a metaphor for neglect, and explored the the continued dilemma about what Labour stood to inherit upon entering government, and how that dilemma continues to stifle movement or progress in the more favourable direction - not just in justice but across all departments.
Secondly, how the Conservatives - as a means of pre-empting the inevitability of a spell in opposition - could use the time they had left in government to deliberately lace the legislative landscape with various future crises for the sole purposes of pointing at them at a later date to say how Labour have managed them poorly.
Following this, Labour would point back at the Conservatives and say:
"We inherited a justice system in crisis and exposed to shocks. As a result, we have been forced into making difficult but necessary decisions to keep it operating."
Of course, for both parties, there doesn’t really appear to be any strategy behind it, and for most voters, the ‘Spiderman meme’ finger pointing exercise will be incredibly toxic.
It will be toxic for obvious reasons -