Simon Hoggart's week: It's like being nabbed by the Keystone Kops

Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands: not best equipped to make balloon animals. Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Allstar

I suspect that, like me, habitual Labour voters deep down fear that, while the Tories might be horrible, hard-faced exploiters of decent working people, they are reasonably competent at what they do. Labour has its heart in the right place, it believes in fairness and equality, but somehow it gets things wrong in the end. Look at the last government.

And now look at this one. Competent? It is a bit like watching the Keystone Kops effecting an arrest. This week's cack-handed rescue operation in Libya. The privatised forest debacle. The coming catastrophe of NHS reform. The complete failure to do anything about bank bonuses except whinge. Almost everything they touch comes to pieces in their hands. As I've probably said before, it's like watching Edward Scissorhands trying to make balloon animals.


Simon Hoggart guardian.co.uk,