A personal view from East Devon leader Paul Arnott.

It’s only about ten weeks since the General Election, and it’s only fair to give an incoming government a fair chance.

Equally, in that Anyone but The Conservatives win, they must realise that their massive majority was something of a freak phenomenon.

It looked by seats in the Commons like a landslide but Labour’s vote share was just 34%, the lowest since 1945 for any party winning a parliamentary majority. Factoring in the turnout of under 60% the proportion of the adult population who voted Labour box was just 1 in 5. It was not a Labour victory; rather it was an historic Conservative defeat written in the stars since the brief reign of Liz Truss.

So, you might think the new government would be careful in the “first hundred days”. I get why they have announced the cutting of the Winter Fuel Allowance for OAPs so early, to meet the looming winter deadline and get the bureaucracy sorted to make the cuts without delay. But given the relatively low saving to the exchequer, why not announce it to be implemented in 2025 rather than distress both pensioners and their own MPs this autumn with an action not even hinted at in their manifesto?

However, sad as the effects this may well have on our local elderly, just as worryingly to me is that the new government has immediately shown what I suspected throughout the GE campaign. Labour doesn’t have a clue on how to deal with the civil emergency in our waste water and sewage system.

Indeed, they have been hoisted by their own petard almost immediately. The Labour spin machine managed to persuade the prominent water campaigner and ex-Undertone Feargal Sharkey to make videos asking the public to vote Labour to sort this all out. I did wonder at the time if he had actually read their manifesto policy.

A few weeks on, in the face of well-known sewage horrors across East Devon, not least in Exmouth, Labour announced their planned measures. These would be blocking executive bonuses, the threat of criminal charges against water companies, automatic fining and increased monitoring. In other words, a few symbolic gestures over which water bosses would not lose a moment’s sleep.

Like a prince awaking from his slumber, Mr Sharkey belatedly realised that he’d been completely used. Welcome to the Labour spin machine, Feargal. It’s all a bit tougher than warbling Teenage Kicks and My Cousin Kevin back in the 70s.

Consequentially, he has given these plans a teenage kicking, blasting Labour for doing nothing more than what they can easily do under existing legislation. He’s also given them a broadside about Labour’s past complicity in privatisation of utilities, or allowing it all to roll on. I can only guess that before the election someone promised him real action and assured him that their lukewarm manifesto promises were all they could put in for fear of giving the right-wing press material. Just see what we do when we win!

I would argue that nothing will change until the entire corporate structure of water provision is re-legislated. Don’t nationalise, but instead make the water firms are made public benefit companies taking commands from us not offshore bosses and shareholders. You’d guess that’s just what a Labour government would think too. Instead, and alarmingly, I do wonder if they have the calibre of MP and minister who even know what they are doing. Everything changes, nothing changes.