You've got to ask how much longer can the farce of this premiership stagger on for. Over the weekend, Starmer said the next election would be between Labour and Reform and he's the man to lead that campaign. He went on to say that the "patriotic values of tolerance, decency, live and let live, diversity, are under challenge like we’ve never seen before." He should know,. His government is at the forefront of stirring the pot.
Unfortunately, Starmer's manifest unsuitability and dishonesty is something Labour are stuck with. Such are the consequences of the party's Faustian pact with the Mandelson-led, and City-funded coterie who Starmer played front man for. The election victory was brought at the price of stripping the party of the remnants of its social democratic soul, and now all the electorate can see is something abominable. A veritable picture of Dorian Gray without the witty prose. The question about who would replace Starmer is as unresolved now as it was when the NEC blocked Andy Burnham from standing in Gorton and Denton. MPs, despairing at Starmer, are now apparently warming to the King of the North's seizing the Iron Throne. Yet the path back remains as convoluted as ever. Meanwhile, Wes Streeting is still damaged goods because of his Mandelson associations and oligarch-friendly politics. And Angela Rayner is still waiting for her tax issues to go away. Matters are so bad that Ed Miliband's name continues to float around the lobby gossip columns.
I'm almost reminded of that weird moment in British politics when Theresa May's position had completely disintegrated but, at the same time, because none of her rivals wanted to inherit the tough job of negotiating a Brexit deal and selling it to a deeply divided Tory party, she was afforded a strange but time-limited autonomy independent of the warring factions. A very weak sort of Bonapartism. But I said almost reminded. In all essentials, Starmer and his possible successors are on the same page politically. Streeting offers no change at all, the same dead-eyed joyless politics that treat the interests of the rich as sacrosanct. Rayner and Burnham offer more character and less racism, but that's their lot. Most of the PLP and ever-so-wise commentators think change means dumping Starmer and getting someone else in, but this just isn't going to cut it. Nothing less than a political turn around and a complete reinvention in office will do, but with these heirs apparent and this PLP? It's would be a kindness to book them into a Swiss clinic now.
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9 comments:
Even in relatively "normal" economic times , domestically and globally, the utterly nowadays "stage-managed facade democracy" nature of UK politics would make it hard to predict where both the Labour party as a whole, never mind serial liar , Starmer, are heading.
However , these are not normal times. The consequences of the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz , ie, inevitable catastrophic global energy shortages , linked key resources shortages (like fertilizer and helium for microchip production) , and a baked in now , huge inflation spasm, and a global financial crisis, will, within no more than six short months or so, have thrown all major economies, including the UK, into a socio-political crisis that will make all current political turmoil look like a mere ripple , compared to the febrile times ahead for us all.
This will provide a good excuse for all sorts of undemocratic, "national government" type responses , and yet more major curtailments of our collective democratic rights. The authoritarian ex DPP , Deep State functionary creature, Starmer, may well be just the chap the UK Deep State will be only too happy to remain in post as a useful front man PM. Such turmoil does provide an opportunity for the Socialist Left of course, but where is it currently ? Nowhere , if Your Party is any guide. The Greens are not of the genuine socialist Left, so expect little but posturing "Left" from them.
It is hard not to gloat at the mess that Mandelson has caused to his project of making Labour safe - though when it wasn't safe for the staus quo is hard to determine, maybe between 1906 -14. He had to work consciously every day to undermine Corbyn. He just had to be himself to discredit Starmer and Streeting et al.
And what a legacy he has left. Labour MPs can't find a replacement for Sir Keir. The 'talent' pool is shallow and they all seem to have embarressing baggage. So unless someone can pull the sword from the stone Labour will stagger on for a while with Starmmer then replace him with a stopgap. You could say it serves them right but the consequences for the rest of us are dire if the polls stay as they are - Farage as PM and the Make England Geat Again SA unleashed.
Speaking as a genuine Green I can asure yet another Anon (why so many shy posters on this site?) that whatever the "genuine socialist left" might be in Anon's imaginary, what the Greens are definitely NOT is a continuity neoliberal outfit. This makes them unique among the parties contesting.
Now Anon may be dreaming of the socialist utopia we were all promised, but in the obvious absence of any coherent movement to deliver that I will take a non-neoliberal, socially progressive, economically distributive, environmentally sustainable approach.
Anon's so-called "genuine" socialists have had 100+ years to get their act together and have consistently failed - preferring infighting to revolution. What the Greens have is a genuine appeal, an understanding of what the problems are, and an open-minded approach to finding solutions that may not be perfect, but it is a start. What we need now is recognition that real change is needed. What replaces the status quo is open to discussion, but neither fantasy perfection nor nuanced adjustment is going to get it done. Rather than pretending to have all the answers, we are concentrating on asking the right questions.
I'm going to throw Clive Lewis' name out there again. Precisely because nobody else is doing so, not even him. If the party wants a turnaround from here, it needs someone who might be able to appear as a reluctant saviour acting more from a sense of duty than greedy ambition. And someone who can muster some credibility as a potential wartime leader, without looking like a member of the class of hated ghouls who caused the war in the first place. The pressing need for a wartime leader is something which the PLP certainly should be paying attention to. Perhaps the King could send them a memo in that regard.
I believe that Jess Philips is still around too, and maybe still maintains some of the leadership ambitions which she has paraded in the past (though as mentioned, under present circumstances that also counts against her). Is she too damaged by the Birmingham bins clustershag? Nationwide, there certainly used to be some quarters which were inclined to warm to her.
Sorry to differ , Uaine, but the actual historical record of every Green party across Europe, from Ireland to numerous German Lander and National coalition arrangements, and the Green led Council in Brighton not so long ago, is that they ALWAYS support the status quo push for austerity measures. Always.
The Green party collectively are no sort of socialists, with a middle class , all over the place, often incoherently at odds with each other , ideological pot pourri of positions - despite, in the UK, that there has been a big influx of Left wingers recently , out of despair at the failed Your Party opportunity . The recent rapid climb down by the UK Greens from a previously clear commitment to renationalise the energy companies - to a vague wishy washy load of slippery verbiage about umpteen Left liberal versions of ownership options , is just one more sign of the slipperiness of middle class Green policy offers. See the transformation of the initially very radical German Greens into one of the most , austerity-supporting, war-mongering, parties in Europe - and see the future of the UK Greens if ever offered ministerial positions in a coalition.
Clive ,Peoples Vote, Lewis, and Jess , stab Corbyn in the front, Philips, and old Blairite hospital privatiser, Andy Burnham, as the three potential saviours of Labour you can think of ??? The Labour Party is sooo fucked !
I suspect that the particular Anon which you are replying to may belong to the "reopen the coal mines and run the intellectuals out of town" school of socialism.
repeating the term 'middle class' isn't class analysis.
as for the Greens, I wouldn't be so sure as to the impossibility of more moderate factions ratfucking any left movement at the smallest sniff of blood. Granted, they don't have the institutional power that they had in the Labour Party, but you can guarantee they will have a sympathetic ear from the media/think tank ecosystem as soon as they choose a strategic moment to raise their heads above the parapet.
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