Corbyn on the buses

When Eric Dier scored that penalty last night, and broke the hoodoo on shootout, it felt like England had already won the whole competition. Just as the pub erupted, I found my mind withdrawing from the scene. I felt like I was part of some sort of ridiculously ecstatic film montage, replete with Danny Dyer-style cockney voiceover: “For one glorious summer it felt really great, like we’re all in it together. Football really had come home and, in a sense, so too had England etc etc…”

It’s a well-documented piece of psychology – in moments of extreme elation, the brain seals time in aspic.

See Jonny Wilkinson’s reflection on his 2003 World Cup victory: “The whole thing was taking place without me in it … As the ball was in mid-air, for me, that’s my paradise right there … and just as the referee is about to blow time on my dream, as he lifts his whistle up to his mouth, just when it’s on its way up, I want to hold him just there … but every second moves you away from the now of being in that moment.”

That’s right Jonny. Every second moves you away from the now, and so, with a heavy heart, it’s time to talk PMQs, a much drearier contest. Today, Jeremy Corbyn started off on the NHS: “The NHS is great, let’s fund it properly.” He then mangled his sense with a passing reference to England’s football success. His attack on spending doesn’t quite work as it allows May to just state that there will be increases, which doesn’t sound so bad: “We’re giving it an extra 3.4 per cent a year.”

He then refocussed on a genuine injustice: the parlous state of the UK bus network. “With fares rising above inflation, passenger numbers falling and services being cut, does the Prime Minister accept her failure on yet another public service? The buses.” She dismissed this as an issue for “local authorities.” Not my problem, guv. But he’s right – since 2010, bus fares have risen by 13 per cent while central state funding has been cut by 46 per cent.

He then framed the issue as a question of the Left’s supposed  respect for “public responsibility” and the Right’s allegiance “to the market.” This stuff always comes off as a slightly half-arsed caricature of real Leftist politics. He should drop it.

Speaking of half-arsed, we are slowly getting some facts about May’s ideas for Brexit. It will be soft, retaining alignment on goods, but diverging on services, and entering into a period of managed transition after the exit date. There may be some high-profile resignations but my hunch is that the party is basically over for the Hard Brexiteer rump in the Tory party. Infighting doesn’t sell and forcing a PM resignation and even triggering another general election off the bat of the fudge would open up a route for Corbyn to attain power. Whether the EU accepts it however is another matter entirely.

Alastair Benn

News editor