Starmer’s Darkest Week - Can It Get Much Worse?

Think back over the last week for just one moment. 

Has there been a day where the Labour Party haven’t left you feeling disappointed, or disgusted, or even apoplectic with rage? 

I see three different opinions. 

The first opinion, which seems to be an overwhelming minority, believes that Keir Starmer’s Labour - while having many faults - is still a better option than any Conservative government. The lesser of two evils, if you like. They might even slightly feel enthused by his leadership.

Bless ‘em.

The second opinion, one still held by close friends, believes the Labour Party is still the only realistic vehicle for societal change, so they’re hanging around in the hope of dislodging the monotonous Starmer, and then a lefty MP comes crashing to shore, carried by a wave of optimism, and the Labour Party, once again, returns to being a party of the people, for the people. 

Then there’s the third opinion, one shared by a vast majority of respondents to this poll I put together on Thursday, and they believe the Labour Party is finished. 

Deceased, lifeless, stiff, dead and buried, call it what you like. The Labour Party has shuffled off this mortal coil and has been reincarnated as a wishy-washy, stand-for-nothing, reduced-to-clear Tesco Value Tories. 

Whatever your opinion of the current state of the Labour Party, I think most of us agree with the simple fact that our archaic parliamentary system means you’ll either have a Conservative government or a Labour government, with the potential of the Lib Dems propping up either party, now there’s absolutely no chance of them having to agree to any left-wing policies. 

Look at the Greens, for example. In 2019 they picked up 2.7% of the overall vote, but this gives them just one MP for their 860,000 votes. 

And look at Scotland. Election after election the people of Scotland vote for an SNP government. They realised some time back that the Labour and Conservative Party really have so very little separating them. But they still have to answer to the Westminster establishment, and for me, this is fundamentally wrong.

But, should our anachronistic voting system dictate how you cast your vote, must it be blue, red, or urinary tract infection orangey-yellow? - or should you allow your principles to guide you - even if that means there’s nothing worth voting for?

For me, the answer is clear and simple. I am a socialist, and I am proud to be a socialist. 

For some, the answer is somewhat opaque. 

To quote Marx, that’s Groucho, not Karl - “Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.” 

I find myself agreeing with Dwight D. Eisenhower when he said “people that value its privileges above its principles soon lose both.” 

I used to firmly believe that any Labour government, no matter how ineffective, no matter how malevolent, would always be better than having a Conservative government. Maybe you still do? 

But then I look at the Labour Party, and it is hard to see beyond the authoritarian targeting of Jewish people. It’s hard to see beyond the iron fist of the establishment throwing punch after punch at anyone who is brave enough to identify as a socialist. It’s hard to see beyond the circus surrounding the delayed release of the Forde Report. Still. It was just a bit too independent for your liking, wasn’t it, Mr Starmer.

And even if you can see past that - more the fool you - I still can’t see beyond the cap-in-hand approach to the billionaires. Come and buy your own little bit of influence, because the Labour Party wasted the £13 million kindly left to them by Jeremy Corbyn. How? Why? Look at the fucking mess you’ve made, Mr Starmer.

I can’t see beyond them opening up the Labour Party Conference to the S*n tabloid, and to GB News. Have they considered offering the Football Lads Alliance a stand yet? Tommy Robinson handing out free Labour/Union Flag car bumper stickers? 

A reminder: These shitpots haven’t got a place in their party for Ken Loach, and thousands of other socialists, yet they are happy to open up their conference to Rupert Murdoch. 

I cannot see beyond the utterly shameless attempts at changing the party rules to favour the Labour Party establishment, for the rest of our living days. Can you? 

Do you want to get an idea of what a Labour government, led by Keir Starmer, or any of the other right-wing vultures circling over him, would mean for the people of this country?

Just look at how they treat ‘their own’ - and lower your expectations ten-fold. 

See, you expect the Tories to behave like this. But when it’s the Labour Party - a party you have supported throughout your adult life - it genuinely hurts, because you expect so much better from them. 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll undoubtedly say it again, no matter how you try and spin it, the lesser of two evils is still evil.

I have absolutely no doubt a number of you will read this and immediately launch into a list of all of the achievements of the Blair government - just to show it’s not all bad in the centre-right wastelands. So bring me your list. 

Just don’t forget to mention some of the other colossal achievements of the last Labour government, including: 

Council house building. Between 1997-2010, of the 2.61 million homes constructed, only 0.3% were local authority tenure. Milk snatcher Thatcher's government supervised the building of a similar number of houses (2.63 million), but 18.9% were LA or 'council' properties.

Disability Assessments. The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) was introduced in October 2008. The shock plans for ‘simplifying’ the work capability assessment, drawn up by a DWP working group, included docking points from amputees who can lift and carry with their stumps and assessing people with imaginary wheelchairs. 

Tuition Fees: The Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 was published on 26th November 1997, part of which introduced tuition fees across the UK. 

PFI: The PFI refers to a strictly defined legal contract for involving private companies in the provision of public services, particularly public buildings. It was introduced under the Tories in 1992 but did not take off until Labour took office. In 2001-02 the PFI accounted for 9% of public investment.

Iraq. Sir John Chilcot has said he does not believe Tony Blair was “straight with the nation” about his decisions in the run-up to the Iraq war. I think this is an establishment way of trying to say Blair went into Iraq on the back of a lie, and not only did hundreds of thousands of Iraqis die, 179 British Armed Forces personnel or MOD civilians tragically lost their lives. 

And that’s on you, Mr Blair. 

Apparently, you can only win elections from the centre ground. Nobody passed that memo to Johnson. He won the last election promising to get Brexit done, but nobody really believes a government stacked with people like the beach-dweller Raab, and the refugee-loathing Patel, is anything but slightly to the right of Genghis Khan. 

This isn’t 1997. Things aren’t about to get better. Your Labour Party, with the media onside, is behind the worst fucking government ever, and it is no more electable than the Labour Party of Corbyn in 2019. 

Murdoch has got Starmer exactly where he wants him. Corbyn wouldn’t give Murdoch an inch. 

If your only route to power is Conservatism - climbing over the working classes, trampling on the poor - then you have power without principles, and this is a power simply not worth having. 

This Labour Party will be remembered for all of  the wrong reasons. When the country needed an opposition to this Tory Covid nightmare, it got an opposition to the socialists within the Labour Party. Why?

I published this blistering resignation letter from Councillor Stephen Smith a couple of days ago. I do not think you will find a much better take down of the abysmally ineffective Starmer, and the cabal of galoots that he has chosen to surround himself with.

Starmer has had an absolutely disastrous and humiliating week, and I cannot seeing it getting much better in the near future. Can you?

The Labour Party has an insurmountable problem, from where I am sitting. If you manage to get rid of the unelectable leader there is every chance he will be replaced by a figure to the right of him. 

The Labour Party will not win an election by lamely attempting to out-Tory the Tories, and they will not win an election by throwing punches towards the left, because the British left will long outlive the era of Starmer, and whatever right-wing nonsense that is likely to follow Starmer’s demise. 

You will not get the Tories out of government until you get the Tories out of the Labour Party. 

It’s not a particularly controversial point of view. 

Until next time. 

Rachael 

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