Things can only get worse. Yes, that was Keir Starmer's speech today.
Gosh, we're a long way away from the heady optimism of the early days of the Blair government.
Now it's fair to say, of course, we're living under different circumstances, but it was a pretty grim speech.
Let's begin with law and order and his analysis of what led to the riots.
Nigel Farage blasted Keir Starmer's speech
GB NEWS
He said: "These riots didn't happen in a vacuum. They expose the state of our country, revealed a deeply unhealthy society.
"The cracks in our foundations laid bare, weakened by a decade of division and decline, infected by a spiral of populism which fed off cycles of failure of the last government.
"Every time they faced a difficult problem, they failed to be honest.
"They offered the snake oil of populism."
I've never heard more nonsense in the whole of my life.
The last Conservative government was the least populist government I think I've ever seen in the whole of my life.
Keir Starmer blamed the previous government for UK riots
PABut he's perfectly clear that the reason for the riots is your fault. It's all your fault. It is society's fault.
Nothing to do with government policy whatsoever.
But moving on, this is the man who was going to be tough on crime.
Starmer said: "Now they're learning that crime has consequences. That I won't tolerate a breakdown in law and order under any circumstances."
Really? Is that right? Is that why 147,000 people in the last year had been given community resolutions, which means nothing will appear on their police records.
That includes offences such as minor sex crimes, violence and possession of weapons such as knives.
Oh, and by the way, if you want to go shoplifting, that's absolutely fine. Unless you nick 200 quid's worth. We won't even bother to have a look.
And whilst he's getting tough on violent disorder on our streets. Well, Prime Minister, what about the 61 police officers that were assaulted over the weekend at the Notting Hill Carnival?
That's nothing to say of many of the other things that went wrong during that so-called festival.
And I just wonder, I want you to answer this question for me. Is this two tier policing from two tier Keir?
