Thank you, Wes Streeting: every sneer you utter is another vote for the SNP |
Labour’s Health Secretary says there will be no independence referendum regardless of what the Scottish people say. Wes Streeting is doing the work of the Yes movement, argues Writer at Large Neil Mackay
We hear a lot about national stereotypes being affirmed these days.
There’s much talk of how Donald Trump has resurrected the "Ugly American" trope. Richard Stengel, the former under-secretary for public diplomacy in Washington and ex-editor of Time magazine, was bemoaning the death of US soft power recently thanks to the MAGA President pushing a global image of America as the archetypal ignorant, insular oaf. Wes Streeting, the Labour Government’s insufferable Health Secretary, is doing his bit to bring back another unnecessary national cliché which should have long ago been laid to rest: the sneering English colonialist putting uppity subjects in their place.
When Streeting appears on TV it’s equivalent to chewing tinfoil with new dental filings. He manages to somehow be both dim and arrogant, condescending and oleaginous, and devious and obvious simultaneously. The collision of extremes is nauseating, like swinging upside down on a rollercoaster whilst being force-fed salty chips and candy floss.
It’s as if a plodding undergraduate saw a TikTok video about Machiavelli and decided they could rule the world. He’s a cross between Tigger and Hannibal Lecter: an endlessly gobby, high-energy, low-info menace to society.
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Streeting has adopted a very "Last Viceroy" approach to Scotland. No matter how the Scottish........