Banking on Herd Immunity: Where is Starmer’s Opposition?

And so (most of us) make it to another Sunday. 

Britain is still in a state of permacrisis, whether that be the cost of living crisis, the energy crisis, the NHS crisis, the supply of goods crisis, the climate crisis, and Lord only knows how many other Tory-made crises that are barely worth a mention in the mainstream press.

Second sentence in and I’m already blaspheming. 

I have a feeling the following thousand-or-so words might not be very pretty, it might be sweary, it will undoubtedly be Year 6 standard grammar, at best, and if you’re easily offended by the truth, you may as well fuck off now and save us all the bovva. 

Despite ‘Gazza from Barking’ insisting the killer virus has magically disappeared, or Sajid from Deutsche Bank insisting 200 deaths, every single day, is “mercifully low”, Covid is here, it is spreading, people are dying, and lives are being destroyed. 

Again.

While that utter fucking abomination Javid might be perfectly relaxed with the potential of clocking up 100,000 new infections a day, I am not. Are you? 

There is no public health leadership in this country. Literally none. 

Devout Thatcherite Javid, the yes-man puddle of neoliberal puke that he is, shouldn’t be telling you an urgent public health crisis is a private matter, let’s be absolutely clear about that. 

I don’t care if his dad was a bus driver. Why the hell would I? The Javid that matters is preparing to drive the British people over the edge of a great big fuck off cliff, wilfully, and without a hint of remorse.

And if ‘Saj’ has inherited any of his fathers bus driving skills, with just a little bit of training, there could be a career as a HGV driver waiting for him. 

He just doesn’t know it yet.

Plan A is business as usual. Just don’t forget to open your windows. This utterly ridiculous public health advice ranks alongside washing your hands for as long as it takes you to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice. 

Around 150,000 men, women, and children didn’t get to see another birthday following Johnson’s unforgivable negligence. 

Do we know what Plan B really is? Let the bodies pile higher, Mr Johnson? “B” doesn’t mean you bugger off to Barbados for a fortnight, without a legally binding guarantee that ensures your ticket is one way, and non-negotiable. 

When a government refuses to act in the national interest, AGAIN, despite the best available advice telling them to act NOW, and the cost of this refusal is the unnecessary deaths of our friends and family, they deserve to be hauled in front of a fucking Judge and Jury, not 13 points ahead in the opinion polls. 

And that brings me to the main course. 

18 months into the era of Starmer and nobody, not even his closest allies from the inner circle of beige, has bothered to tell him he is supposed to be leading Her Majesty’s Official Opposition. 

This isn’t an opposition. This leadership - if you could even begin to call it that - has seen more resets than a well-used Casio calculator and barely manages to stagger through a few weeks before needing yet another fucking relaunch of some sort. 

Team Starmer has got the British Press on side, after all, their boy is a columnist for the lying, repulsive phone hacking S*n, he used the refugee-loathing Daily Mail to demand kids were sent back to unsafe schools, against the advice of scientists, teachers, unions and parents, and he has absolutely no problem writing for the Murdoch Times, behind a paywall. 

I put it to you, without any hesitation or reservations, even if you are the only person to ever read this, that Sir Keir Starmer is an opportunistic, disingenuous, establishment boot licker, and I am yet to see any evidence to suggest otherwise. 

Yes, I am angry. Aren’t you? I’ve been angry for a long time now. I felt and watched austerity unfold - we lived in temporary accommodation for several years - I’ve seen them sell-off public assets for knockdown prices to their dodgy mates. I have watched them shit on every minority you can imagine from a fucking great height. I have seen them tell lie after lie, no matter the cost, to protect themselves from public scrutiny. I watched the Vote Leave cabal lie and cheat our way out of the European Union before marching on to Downing Street to see what else they can utterly obliterate. I have seen and felt the malicious vilification and demonisation of good people to ensure the very richest don’t have to pay a little bit more tax. 

I have every right to be furious, and so do you.

So, Starmeramas, does it make sense yet? Can you see why we wanted and needed your chosen one to show just a little bit of spine, instead of behaving like a petrified tortoise, only poking his head out of his shell to offer the government a bit more support? 

At the time of writing this, stagnant Starmer hasn’t pushed Johnson to get on with Plan B. Scientists and doctors have, of course, but the seeker of the flag vote, the son of the toolmaker, he who would be 20 points ahead, seems to think he knows better. 

At least 120,000 Labour Party members have either directly or indirectly told Starmer exactly where to shove his corrupted, gerrymandering, anti-socialist shambles of an opposition, because they too have realised the lesser of two evils is still evil, and Starmer’s brand of stand for fuck all centrism is no more appealing than a date night with Stanley Johnson. 

Starmer has saved himself from being removed by the Labour Right by simply being a good Keith and doing exactly what he is told. If he wants to keep the job he’ll carry on supporting Johnson’s latest killing spree and continue to do his utmost to crush whatever remains of the left with the Labour Party. 

This is no opposition. Why the fuck of all fucks are we having to oppose the opposition? Quite simply, because the opposition opposes us. 

That’s really not good enough, and I will not give up on opposing the many Conservatives within the Labour Party, because they are the infiltrators, and each and every one of them need removing to ensure we can get the Conservatives out of government. What is the point of swapping one bunch of useless chancers with another? Nobody will benefit beyond the wealthiest and most privileged. 

Seriously, look at Starmer’s virtually unknown shadow cabinet for just one moment. It’s that stall at the car boot sale, they’ve got absolutely nothing to sell, just a few pitiful worn out books and a couple of broken records. If Starmer’s shadow cabinet wasn’t quite so wholly inadequate and deplorable you could almost feel pity for them. 

I cannot see a spine on the front bench. I haven’t seen one on the front bench for quite some time, and right now, today, we need an opposition with a spine more than ever before. 

Once again, we find ourselves in a dark and dangerous place. Britain has one of the highest excess death rates per population of any advanced economy. This hasn’t happened by accident, this has happened because of repeated failures by those in power - and the distinct lack of public health leadership is a fucking disgrace, only made worse by the Labour Party’s inability to oppose the worst government in living memory. 

Time is running out. The professionals have demanded the implementation of Plan B, you know, people who are paid to get this information right, but the cloth-eared arrogance of Johnson will ensure this expensive advice is trashed and dismissed, remember, no more lockdowns, let the bodies pile high.

The sociopath Boris Johnson is a seriously dangerous liability. He is a hazard to the wellbeing of every single one of us. This is where the opposition is supposed to step up and show a bit of leadership, instead they queue up to offer Boris Johnson a bit of moral support. Arseholes. 

Each and every one of them supporting the government through this latest killing spree must be held accountable for their actions. This means campaigning against them, robustly questioning their decisions. and demonstrating to people how there really is a better way of doing things. 

Democracy is our ally, not our enemy.

No politician, regardless of the colour of their rosette, is above public scrutiny, because you employ them. You are their bosses, they are not yours. It’s very easy to forget this, but we must not forget the politicians that voted to cut Universal Credit while planning a new £200 million Royal Yacht in the same way we must not forget those that failed to show public health leadership when it was needed the most, and equally, those that refused to demand public health leadership the most. 

I have more faith in you, the left, to hold this fucking rancid government to account than I do in this tragically pointless dogs breakfast of an opposition. 

The Gary Neville’s and Marcus Rashford’s have used their privileged platforms to raise awareness, and in Rashford’s case, played a major part in shaping government policy, but they cannot do this alone. 

Left unity has never been so important. Sure, some folk on the fringes will constantly look to attack the left, what’s new? But the real left - the Resist Movement, Red Labour, Ordinary Left, TUSC, Momentum, and dozens of other factions with whom we have more in common - this is where the unity will come from, grassroots upwards. You are the opposition.

There is common sense in a common purpose. Our purpose is to get the Tories out of the Labour Party, and the Tories out of government. That’s common sense to me. 

Yes, there is a long and winding road ahead of us, but our unbreakable solidarity and our common purpose will be the vehicle that carries us forward to a better tomorrow. 

Let’s ‘ave it. 

Rachael x

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