DisMember writes
One hopes the removal men have simply installed a revolving door and left the engine running.
The historical echo
Philip Davies
20 July 2010 · House of Commons
What they said
Davies manages to attack the performative nature of his colleagues while simultaneously pointing out that their only true goal is looking busy.
"If a politician can find a solution that incorporates looking as though they are doing something and not offending anybody, they will jump on it at the first possible opportunity."
DisMember on 20 July 2026 — why this matters today
Andy Burnham is about to become our seventh Prime Minister in ten years. One hopes the removal men have simply installed a revolving door and left the engine running.
Burnham arrives clutching a utopian prospectus: an end to briefing wars, 'more breathing room', and a pledge to be pro-business while executing a distinctly left-wing vision. It is a masterpiece of political levitation.
Kemi Badenoch has sourly dubbed him a 'people pleaser'. She isn't wrong, though she might have consulted the archives for a clinical diagnosis. In 2010, Conservative backbencher Philip Davies offered a defining thesis on Westminster cynicism. 'If a politician can find a solution that incorporates looking as though they are doing something and not offending anybody,' he declared, 'they will jump on it at the first possible opportunity.'
Sixteen years later, Davies’s thesis is the governing philosophy of the new administration. Burnham promises the earth, clinging to his mayoral vibes and his 'bezzie mate' Steve Rotheram, while avoiding the tedious business of explaining his plans for housing or utilities. Mr Davies should demand royalties: the incoming Prime Minister has turned his cynical observation into an election-winning formula.
The contemporary echo
Philip Davies's 2010 definition of performative politics perfectly captures Kemi Badenoch's attack on Andy Burnham's detail-light ascent to Number 10.
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