Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Tories, (the Conservative and Unionist Party in the ‘UK’ Parliament) said yesterday that with the carrying on in the Labour Party there is no governance in the ‘UK’ at the moment. She also said recently that it is a surprising change (those two words are this blog’s but she said words meaning that) from the election of the Labour Party in the huge majority in the last election (which was not even a blink of the eye ago in geological time) and the sycophantic adorers of Sir Kier Starmer to now everyone fighting amongst themselves. The word ‘sycophantic’ is the definite one she used, the others are an approximate exact, if there is such terminology.
The word sycophantic is absolutely spot on, and again, she is the one to say the obvious. (Is this writer a member of the Tory Party? No, it is not, (however it always does vote under its civic duty). That the Labour Party arrived in Parliament to their new seats as not opposition but ‘in power’ and spent the first year with the many female MPs openly adoring Sir Kier and adoring their new power, and alongside that having apparently nothing to say other than everything is all the Tory’s fault, an approx. two-year in power reality check is a useful timespan.
Many Moons have come and gone, and the Earth has nearly completed two whole circles around Sol in this vast unfathomable universe in which we spin.
Has the Westminster bubble burst? It would appear so. And before we ask if it has burst, we have to ask what it is in the first place. It is a term which loosely floated around in the 1990s to describe the growing network of humans in and around the Parliament of the ‘UK’ like advisors (special), lobby correspondents, researchers, civil servants, no doubt the Today programme journalists were right in the centre of that bubble, those who were coming into Parliament via Universities (real universities and real subjects like PPE or History) not via err work, probably the rise of the intern, and helped in its bubble formation no doubt by the increasing lack of intelligence in the House of Lords as Prime Minsters of both colours, red and blue, squeezed as many of their cronies into the House of Lords with its blurred boundaries which operated when everyone knew what they were doing but not when they don’t.
The Oxford English Dictionary in 2016 included the Westminster Bubble in its entries, thus making this bubble a fact of life in the ‘UK’. It was around the time of the Brexit vote, and in such confusions as went on in the lack of government jurisprudence it was easy to see how such a term as the Westminster Bubble would be formalised. And it is apt, because the Bubble in and around Westminster did show so totally removed from the general British public who when it goes to vote does so knowing which box it is putting that cross in, and why. Or it did back in 2016.
A bubble does exist in the natural world. It is a little bit of gas contained in a little film of liquid around. It is the opposite of a drop and a drop especially in these parts of 55′-56’N is usually a big drop of rain and many of them, but it can be a drizzle drop or a medium drop, and they can last a short time or a long, and if we still spoke native languages above 55’N then we would have about 99 words for rain like the Eskimo’s used to for snow (before the western consumer destroyed their environment).
A bubble also arises upwards, from fish blowing bubbles, snails blow bubbles to deter predators and this writer’s life long fascination with snails and spiders has seen many of these wondrous mechanisms within the life force, bubbles appear and disappear in running streams, waves as they break and as they lose momentum on the beach, in volcanoes, the Argyroneta aquatica, the diving bell spiders who expertly manages his life and bubbles, and the big mud baths in Rotorua in which this writer has sat a long time ago and experience, and smelt, the primitive sulphuric mud bubbles rise and burst, and which it acknowledges the site as sacred to the Maori tribe and offers its gratitude here for being allowed to enter.
Then there are the western bubbles, the soapy ones. They arise when washing up with Fairy liquid or any of the new other detergents available, or when blowing through the hoop of fun bubble liquid and blowing slow to get a big bubble or blowing fast to get many small ones. The point is to watch their beautiful (Sun)light catching dance and wonder how long they will last, because everybody knows it is not going to be long. And thinking about it, there is also the western bubble gum bubble and it could be a way less damaging to health and the environment to have developed a nicotine bubble gum and legally prevent the viral growth of vapes, and to have made a special bubble gum bag for disposal because it is annoying to walk over a discarded one, but that would be the job of a Health Secretary.
The reason this blog asks Has the Westminster Bubble Burst, is because it apparently has. There is no Health Secretary performing the role of Secretary of State for Health. ‘The State’ is a fairly serious matter in the ‘UK’ at the present time since the inception of the totally un-thought out National Health System of the Labour Party, and here in 2026, it is the Labour Party which has abandoned the governance of health. Kemi Badenoch is 150% right that there is no governance in the ‘UK’ at the moment. She does not put inverted marks because the Conservative Party is the Unionist Party.
The Radio 4 journalists speak of civil war in the Labour Party, and seem very excited by this. The different contenders begin their positioning for …. for what? For a battle which seeks to replace Sir Kier, by a Health Secretary who has resigned the role, and by a regional mayor (set up under Tony Blair’s idiot and chaotic legislation on devolution) who has yet to win a by election in a region which strongly voted to leave the EU yet the Labour hopefuls state they will bring the ‘UK’ back into the EU.
The constitutional chaos is extraordinary, almost impossible to believe, unless you live in a bubble. Funny how the term ‘Westminster Bubble’ arose from the rising of a group of people all engaging with themselves (as the rise of the social sciences allows, or encourages even) and the greater distance between the common man and those in SW1, or related through the airwaves, and the very bubble that was created is now sought by those who do not realise its burst! In the rapidly distintergrating constitutional structure of the ‘UK’, what exactly are they fighting over?
Would it not be more honest if an interim government were brought in from some other part of the world, like the UN peacekeeping troops goes off to various areas of the world to impose western values on what a society should be? And the ‘UK’ would not have a choice of where the peacekeeping troops came from? That would be a big shock to all left leaning citizens. Or if not that solution, then repurpose College Green into what it already is, the place where journalists interview MPs, and where much of the bubble business is carried on, turn into a jousting arena, put up tents with flags and ribbons, provide much beer and ale, and wait for the contest to begin. Contenders for the Crown of the Labour Party would have a three stage contest, the joust, on horseback with spear and shield, the arm wrestle, and the problem solving which is 25 fairly difficult scenarios and equations to work out on paper with no i-phone allowed. And if none of the contenders, at the moment there appears to be Sir Kier wishing to stay, Andy Burnham, and Wes Streeting, if they do not survive the contest or simply cannot manage it, then it’s open for anyone else wishing to enter the jousting ring and lay down their challenge. Some of the Reform folks would be big and strong, and as in times of genuine civil war in this country and all round the world and in the past Roman Empire and in our Kings and Queens, might was right, so are we back to that?
Given that governance has collapsed, the many new parties have no ready internal structure to step in, and democracy prevents any quick solution anyway, what is the alternative but an enjoyable day out on College Green, having a beer, watching the contenders make their case. The weather is heading into drier days, less raindrops falling from the sky, a local folk band could come and play, a hog roast be put on, just like the days of olde. It would be far more civilised to do it openly and transparently, and it’s worth a go.