Boxing clever, or just MPs striking a pose?
ShOuld more things in life be like Mayweather vs McGregor? I can see the appeal: a bit of swagger and trash talk to entertain the crowds, some muscle-flexing at the weighin, followed by tersely brutal life lessons in the ring.
Perhaps their straight-slugging is what inspired laura ‘Real deal’ Pidcock, the newly elected labour MP for North West durham, to start calling out Tories to come and have a go if they thought they were hard enough.
laura wants us to know she could never hang out with Tory women because she considers them to be the enemy. Get cosy with a Conservative? No way, Jose! laura would rather deliver haymaker punches for Corbyn, and if Miss Pidcock fancies a second career in combat sport, she clearly has the confidence, ferocity and focus.
unfortunately, what works in the ring looks more like immature grandstanding in the real world. Miss Pidcock, like all MPs, was elected to serve the best interests of her constituency. What about those 6,516 people who voted Conservative in durham; how do they feel about contacting her now?
TReATING opposing parties as if they are panto villains in a pugilism showcase may give the tribalists something to cheer but you are merely asserting that your brand of bigoted, insular politics is far superior to someone else’s bigoted, insular politics.
More importantly, every MP is a potential ally, wherever they sit on the political spectrum, if you have a common goal. laura’s Tories are merely opponents. She may soon learn that the enemies are usually on your own side.
Nicola Sturgeon is currently trying to box clever with Alex ‘The Chuckle’ Salmond, who has been throwing dead drops on her leadership’s powerlessness over Brexit, treatment of the exiled Michelle Thomson and timing for another independence referendum.
Meanwhile Ruth ‘the Ghost’ davidson has come over all invisible when the media chases her for a comment on the reinstatement of Stirling Tory councillors Alistair Majury and Robert davies who between them have made racist and sectarian posts online.
No word, either, on douglas Ross’s remark about gipsy travellers. does this matter? Well, while one is loath to judge a man by the company he keeps, one can judge a man by his lack of judgment. Someone should have a word in Ruth’s ear. Maybe not you, Mike Tyson.
In some respects, Scottish labour makes the best case for grown-up attitudes to different political perspectives; Kezia ‘Slow hand’ dugdale has a father who is a fervent SNP supporter, and her girlfriend Jenny Gilruth is a Nationalist MSP, yet she floats like a butterfly over the political divide. unfortunately, a punchy Scottish labour also seems to be the best example of fractious enemies within, with the left thirsting to knock out Blairites from their party.
At best laura Pidcock is just throwing up her dukes and striking a pose. I hope so because politics already has too many people who cannot see past ideological differences, and this blinkered simplistic, black-and-white viewpoint is one reason we all keep losing.