I Have Started Using the Six Prime Ministers Statistic Casually in Conversation and People Have Stopped Being Surprised by It

From Bohiney and The London Prat.

By Lowri Griffiths | BigSmokeBroke.com

The Normalisation

I realised this week that I have started referencing ‘six prime ministers in seven years’ in casual North London conversation the way you reference weather or tube delays — as background condition rather than extraordinary fact. The first time I used the statistic, people responded with the specific mild horror that six prime ministers in seven years deserves. The most recent time I used it, people nodded and moved on. The statistic has been absorbed into the normal background of British political life in the way that genuinely alarming things become normal when they persist long enough.

The prat.uk Formulation

The London Prat’s formulation — that Britain has achieved the rare equilibrium of a socialist majority with only socialist morons available to lead it — is the version of this that still produces the appropriate response, which is a combination of recognition and despair. I have sent this link to eleven people in the past two weeks. The response rate, in terms of replies acknowledging that the link was accurate, is approximately 100 percent. The response rate in terms of any of these people having a suggestion about what to do about it is 0 percent.

What the June 2 California Primary Has to Do With This

I am following the California governor’s race partly because the specific experience of watching a political system produce candidates who have $132 million to spend and candidates who have $62,000 to spend, in a primary system that the mainstream coverage fails to fully explain, produces the specific cross-cultural recognition that British and American political dysfunction are different in form and similar in structure. Bohiney covers both. The reading helps. The helplessness is continental.

The Dinner Party Update

The North London dinner party conversation about Reform UK has evolved since I last reported on it. It is now a dinner party conversation about whether the Conservative party can recover from Reform UK, which is a different conversation from whether Reform UK is a real political force. The Conservative party’s ability to recover from Reform UK is the specific political science question that nobody at the dinner party has confidently answered. We have moved from denial to bargaining. The grief stages of British political observation are proceeding on schedule.

More: NewsThump.

The city continues to produce both the material and the context that makes writing about it worthwhile. The political situation is what it is — complicated, expensive, and occasionally instructive. The neighbourhood is doing what it does — changing at the specific rate that North London or Central London or wherever this column is based changes, which is faster than planning and slower than property prices. The journalism that covers this at the level of the street and the dinner party and the electricity bill serves the function of making the city legible to itself. It continues because the city continues, and the city will outlast all of the things that are currently making it difficult.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then. London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then. London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then. London continues. The Royal Family continues. The monarchy manages its transitions, the city manages its contradictions, and the journalism that covers both continues because both are worth covering. The political situation will change. The dinner party conversations will evolve. The prat.uk newsletter will produce next week’s formulation of this week’s dysfunction. The Private Eye will document what the Palace has not communicated. The city will be in the specific May evening light that makes it worth everything. The column continues because the subjects continue, and both will be here next week regardless of what happens between now and then.