1. From Comrade to Renegade
2. The Complacency of Tory Royalism
3. The Faces of Wes Streeting
4. Why Isn't Labour 20 Points Ahead? (Again)
5. Keir Starmer's Monarchy Fetish
News that Paul Mason has channelled his inner George Orwell in a personal vendetta against sections of the left dominated the audience figures. Under the guise of combatting "disinformation", leaked/hacked emails show his active collaboration with former spooks, wannabe spies, and academic witchfinders to target and besmirch his critics. A miserable but inevitable end to the pro-NATO path he's been on for some time. Next up, the celebrations surrounding the Queen's platinum jubilee secured two entries on this month's round up. At two, we looked at how Tory defenders of the crown have given up offering a political defence of the indefensible. And at five, Keir Starmer's gushing tribute is examined and located in his politics of state worship. Moving back up to three, the rail strikes were a hot topic in the latter part of June and Wes Streeting got into a spot of bother for publicly backing striking workers on Question Time. Our Wes, normally the most Blairite of continuity Blairism, certainly turned heads. This post looked at the contradictions of his politics and located them in the paradoxical character of Labourism itself. And finally, despite suffering two by-election defeats the polling gap between the Tories and Labour remains relatively modest. Why? I take a stab at providing an answer.
The second chance post is a return to the themes staked out in the Streeting piece. At the weekend, David Lammy made a fool of himself intoning against British Airways workers who are taking strike action to restore the 10% of their salary they gave up during the acute phase of the covid crisis. He has since apologised, but the episode again shows up Labour's conflicted soul. We take another trip through the bowels of Labourism to understand the implicitly anti-worker strand running through the official workers' party and how Lammy's sentiments are a commonplace, not an exception.
No idea what this time next month I'll be reflecting on. Hopefully more Tory woes, and even better a successful conclusion to the RMT's industrial action. If you haven't already, don't forget to follow the weekly newsletter, and if you like what I do (and you're not skint), you can help support the blog too!
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3 comments:
Er, I just read this before turning here, in an article about shenanigans over selection lists.
“They (LP spokesperson) pointed to the longlisting of avowedly leftwing commentator Paul Mason for Stretford and Urmston, in Greater Manchester, as proof that candidates from that wing of the party were not all being vetoed.”
So there we are, avowedly left wing in the eyes of official Labour.
Yes, Ken, by this measure of 'leftness' , if Mussolini had ever got to the Nuremburg Trials (rather than being shot with his mistress and hung upside down for display by partisans) , his defence attorney could have argued that " Signor Mussolini cannot possible be a fascist - as he used to be editor of the socialist newspaper, 'Avanti' " ! If Mason ever was a genuine leftwinger which I seriously doubt - (from music teacher and revolutionary Trot to economic editor of that BBC propaganda tool, Newsnight ?), rather than a deep state plant all those years, his recent past of rabid pro NATO and paranoid anti Russian, warmongering bullshit, and cynical , Peoples Vote/Remainer, undermining of Corbyn in 2019, witch hunting media Lefties with the intelligence service, and uncritical supporter of Starmer, nowadays firmly relegates him to the ranks of 'useful tool of the establishment', and an ideal new NuLabour2 future MP. I see Mason getting the post of a rabid warmongering new Labour Shadow Defence Secretary to match bonkers Liz Truss, if he becomes an MP.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c5bp0IHWIEo - Mason's meltdown - Workers Party broadcast with Red Star Radio's Alexander McKay
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