This week's profile of Morgan McSweeney, the new Labour right hatchet man in the Golding/Spellar tradition must have provoked similar mutters from that wing of the party. Thanks to his efforts, Keir Starmer's or, to be more accurate, the Labour right's writ reigns supreme. And of the methods employed to this end, the article isn't backward about being forward. It baldly states that McSweeney's aim was the removal of all the Labour left's institutional influence. The sacking and attempted removal of candidates had nothing to do with spurious concerns about "quality". The parachuting of Labour right notables into constituencies they have zero connection to is confirmed as "rewards" for services rendered. So much for the idea that being an MP is a selfless act of service.
How McSweeney came to prominence had little to do with assimilating Golding's rambling tome. Instead of backroom chicanery, what he pushed was a brazenly dishonest political project. As the former organiser for Liz Kendall's leadership campaign, his chief take home was that if you want to win in the Labour Party from the right, you have to lie. And this is what he did through the Labour Together vehicle, which for a while posed as a soft left organisation with the faces and endorsements to match, and then Starmer's own Corbyn-lite bid for the party's top job. It's an unsubtle strategy, but one that has worked over the last four years. That the press are uninterested and remain so, knowing they need a stable government that will pander to their interests now the Tories are no longer available has proven handy. But so has the quiescence of the trade unions who, despite a bit of chuntering over workers' rights, have been largely disciplined in not wanting to make life difficult for the Labour leader. But this only has so much mileage where mainstream politics are concerned, and Starmer has already copped unwelome questionning regarding past fibbing.
This record of skulduggery puts a question mark over McSweeney's future use. When his "genius" is built on manufacturing departures from the truth, what does he offer when the political costs of getting caught out are much higher than telling porkies about party malcontents? The article talks about him deserving a "big job", and with the unwelcome return of Nigel Farage and the rising polling fortunes of Reform, this is supposedly one of McSweeney's "concerns". How a felicity for bullshitting Labour activists and pressing deselect buttons could protect his boss's flanks from the far right remains to be seen. Likewise, one of his reputed superpowers is to mind read middle England and have a feel for their instincts. We know that's code for consuming the content of very important centrist personages and yes, reading Ian Dunt and listening to James O'Brien on the daily requires preternatural fortitude. But how will their stunning insights help fend off electoral opposition to a Labour government from the Liberal Democrats and the Greens when, let's be euphemistic, their read on politics leaves a lot to be desired?
The best way a Starmer government can see off attacks from the right and the left is through delivery. Not the weak sauce printed on a pledge card or the changey vapourware of the manifesto, but through real, tangible improvements to public service and the living standards of "working people". Political science isn't rocket science, after all. What does McSweeney bring to this table? With the party sewn up and the magical transformation of right wing NEC members into Labour MPs, he is functionally obsolete. But he needn't worry much about his immediate future. The favours banked and the secrets buried will see him given a role where, like his allies, he gets to feel important and in charge. He might even enjoy the status of feted guru, like dear old Peter Mandelson. But to all intents and purposes, his very useful uses are now at an end.
5 comments:
«real, tangible improvements to public service and the living standards of "working people"»
But that is... COMMUNISM! :-)
Instead the argument of the Mandelson Tendency (which is not the "Labour" right, which is the brownistas, who are still mostly just inside the "Labour" big tent) is that Johnson got an 80 seats majority pandering only to "Middle England" hard-thatcherite rentiers and brexiters, so the Militant Mandelsonists can do the same, also thanks to the hardcore 20% of voters who just vote anybody with the red rosette because they still think it is on the side of the lower classes (which 20% will eventually whittle down as PASOKification progresses, but slowly, as in 1997-2010).
I don't know, didn't he have some key role in the defeat of the BNP in 2010? Maybe he will have some use against Reform after the election.
As a fellow Corkonian, I find it very hard to get a grip on McSweeney. Macroom is one of these typical rural 'large' towns in Ireland, where everyone would know each other and there would be a distinct youth culture, mainly around drink, soft drugs and the GAA. He's only a few years older than me, but it just seems strange to me that someone from his background would up sticks and move to London at 17 and work on building sites. That would have been the mid '90s. Also, he's from a Fine Gaeler family, which would mean he's probably very much on the right. It just seems strange he would move like that, then stay and get so heavily involved in Labour politics.
«What does McSweeney bring to this table? With the party sewn up and the magical transformation of right wing NEC members into Labour MPs, he is functionally obsolete.»
He still has a very important role, "to [reward] 1 to educate 100" ("pour encourager les autres" in an earlier version) as the saying goes: giving him much reward will motivate the loyalty of many people to become like him.
Wes Streeting is another examplar, and I was horrified to read that New, New Labour's biolabs have already produced the first of his clones:
https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/labour-astonishes-science-by-cloning
“Labour astonishes science by cloning Wes Streeting
The Wes clone was sent to Oxford University until Labour was confident he could talk and act like a real boy who backs child hunger of his own volition. He then spent one year being groomed by Wes Streeting to behave exactly like Wes Streeting. Clearly, this kid is going to be the career politician everyone who has no friends loves. Johnny Mercer compared mini-Wes to the Inbetweeners and called him an identikit politician who parrots Labour lines, and oh god, I feel so dirty about agreeing with Johnny Mercer, but he’s absolutely right.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keir_Mather
“According to Paul Martin, Mather's politics tutor at Oxford, Mather was specifically interested in New Labour and "had a lifelong interest" in its major figures. Intent on becoming an MP, Mather studied for the MPP at Oxford's Blavatnik School of Government as a Political Leadership Scholar in a scheme that was "open to applicants from the UK and Republic of Ireland who intend to run for public office". [...] Mather worked as a public affairs adviser for the Confederation of British Industry for 18 months before entering Parliament and, was a parliamentary researcher for Labour MP Wes Streeting from 2019 to 2020.”
It seems to be described as a political genius you need to be able to roll a stone down a hill. Up until Ms Truss' premiership Labour was trailing in the polls. Her genius has been to turn that lead into a deficit that has persisted and been stabilised by Sunak's poor showing. Without Truss McSweeney may not have won the title of genius.
Still, better to be lucky than not. He will need to bask in the glory until he enters the Lords where he will mix with other genius' who manged to roll stones down hills for Blair, Cameron and Johnson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cameron
«Cameron left his role as Special Adviser to work as the Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications. [...] Cameron resigned as Director of Corporate Affairs in February 2001 to run for Parliament for a second time, although he remained on the payroll as a consultant.»
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Smith
«In 2006, while still Head of Policy and Government Relations for Pfizer, Smith fought the 2006 Blaenau Gwent by-election.»
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Streeting
«He was subsequently a public sector consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)»
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keir_Mather
«Mather worked as a public affairs adviser for the Confederation of British Industry for 18 months before entering Parliament»
"Personnel is policy"? :-)
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