Can we blame Boris Johnson for this or is it a lot longer in gestation?

You mean Starmer finally tapped in an open goal ? Shocking !

If there is a moment to hop on the bandwagon, it is now.

I read it in the voice of a quizzical Darth Vader.

Happy to see the return of the Abyss as a speaking character!

I wouldnequate “convenientism” with not willing to spend energy to figure out the underlying system but instead choosing to believe the explanation “most convenient to suit their fiction”. An intellectual laziness if you like. The opp is true for us:we want to understand+approximating is a way.

i know you are semi-joking (?), but often times when Labour come up with one of their crazy "focus-grouped" ideas, I would think "do they fucking think voters are econs"?

What we do though, is to invoke "spherical cows", which are over simplifications, not to explain the details, but to illustrate salient points. I think McSweeny/Starmer et al would have done a lot better if they think like these, instead of "let's believe this delusion because it suits our fiction"

Maybe! But we are never deluded though (although, ok, sometimes we are, but we got reasons!)

That sounds like "meat-shield", not "ally".

Great sum-up. But I take umbrage in "convenientism has its uses in mathematics..."!

Thanks Chanda!!!