Starmer’s Socialism Distancing - A Pitiful Lack Of Principle

I start this blog with a mouthful of tea leaves. Bet you didn’t think you’d read that sentence anywhere today. But I just took my last gulp of what was a lovely brew, and can only assume the bag split while I was provoking it with a teaspoon. 

But anyway, enough of my tea tribulations, it’s Sunday, and we usually have a rant about something or another, rather than put ourselves through the Andrew Marr show, or Ridge on Sunday, with the usual guests, and very little representation from the vast British left. 

In fact, on Marr this morning you’ve got Robert Jenrick, he’s the Secretary of State for Richard Desmond, and you can also catch Lisa Nandy. 

So your choices are somewhat limited. It’s either a right-wing, socially conservative, nuke-friendly, establishment champion, or Robert Jenrick.

Mainstream media, particularly the British Press, is dying. The sales of tabloids are plummeting. We live in an age where you can watch most of the news being made as it happens, for free. I give them 10-15 years at the very most. Things are so bad for Mr Murdoch they to publish their circulation figures for the S*n and Times. Boo-fucking-hoo.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

I’ve spent much of the last few weeks criticising the leader of the opposition, and in my opinion, I have been right to do so. I know that is a fairly obvious statement, and it is an opinion I’ve backed up with multiple tweets, blogs, interviews, and sources. 

But of course, not everybody agrees with that point of view. That’s how it works. Opinion is the medium between ignorance and knowledge. Opinions may well change, but principles don’t, much like a tree will change its leaves, but the roots remain intact. 

So let’s clear up a few things. 

If you want to criticise Sir Keir Starmer, you are not a Tory. There’s every chance the person calling you a Tory has failed to acknowledge their part in telling the world Jeremy Corbyn was a terrace sympathiser (never did understand why they didn’t like adjoining properties anyway), and they fail to acknowledge the fact you did everything that you could in 2017 and 2019 to deliver the people the proper Labour government that we so desperately need. 

So we’ve established your criticisms of Sir Keir are your opinions, which you have every right to hold, and you’re not a Tory for objecting to Starmer’s humiliating parliamentary abstentions, for example, because your principles are non-negotiable. Good. 

Another petty insult used to describe people on the left who expect a Labour leader to be principled, decent, and honest, is the word “crank”. Some folk find this term thoroughly offensive. It is a word often used by wokey-cokey blue-tick hacks with Trump-sized egos and flea-sized abilities. Perhaps they think it’s cool? I’m in my forties so what would I know? But what I do know, through listening to other people’s opinions and experiences is that it is meant as a derogatory slur on your ability to think for yourself. 

You are not a “crank” for having the audacity to criticise the new establishment golden boy Starmer. Or Keith - if you prefer.

You’re not a Tory, you’re entitled to your opinion, you’re not a “crank”, and you certainly not going to be told by a fucking Lib Dem activist how you are “working against achieving a Labour government”. 

It’s a Labour government we want, of course, but with a Labour leader and a Labour Cabinet, and not a collection of capitalist odds and ends, warmongers, racists, inept social conservatives, lobbyist-influenced careerists, and anyone unable to proudly say that they are a Democratic Socialist, because that is what the Labour Party is supposed to be. 

Read the back of your membership card, and then take a look through Starmer’s Shallow Cabinet. Can you see the next Nye Bevan? Because that’s what our NHS needs. I can’t even see the next Owen Smith. That’s how bad things are.

There are one or two exceptions, but they know exactly which side their bread is buttered, and that is how it must be. The current Shallow Cabinet have distanced themselves from socialism. The current leader of the opposition favours The Mail and Murdoch over The Morning Star, and millionaire donors over party members. Who in their right mind would want to pay hundreds of their hard-earned Pounds to have a coffee with Keith, apart from a few Lib Dems clinging on to the Remain dream? 

And they have the nerve to call you a Tory?

Does this sound like a Labour Party that is guided by the simple principles of Democratic Socialism? Or does it all sound a bit Cameron and Cleggish? 

The Corbyn leadership would often listen to the grassroots, yet the Starmer leadership listens to the focus groups and the think tanks. Who pays for this shit? Is anyone surprised Unite are starting to reduce their funding? 

The moral bankruptcy from Starmer is quite frankly, fucking staggering. At the current rate, the Labour Party will face bankruptcy of their own. You can’t replace a passionate and committed mass movement with a few Lib Dem placard wavers, as they are beginning to find out for themselves. 

So let’s round up what I have just covered. 

You’re not a Tory, you’re not a “crank”, you are not working against the interests of a Labour government - because nobody is offering us a Labour government - and you are entitled to your opinions, without being jumped on by a beigeist hit squad. 

Let’s be absolutely clear. Keir Starmer’s Labour not being quite as despicable as Boris Johnson’s Conservatives is hardly a reason to rush out and vote Labour, or even campaign for them. 

It’s not Labour, and it is simply not good enough.

 

Give us something worthwhile to get behind and we will get behind it, that’s what we do. But we do not sit in the corner of a dark room with our fingers in our ears while Keir Starmer whispers sweet nothings to the shambles of a Prime Minister. We will oppose the government, and if the opposition are incapable of opposing, we will oppose them too. 

We are staying true to our principles, because power without principles is worthless. 

Sir Keir Starmer can abandon Democratic Socialism, but it will still be around long after his spell of dragging the Labour Party kicking and screaming to the wastelands of the centre ground. 

So no, your disdain for this pathetic version of the Labour Party doesn’t mean you want another ten years of Tory rule, it means you want better a version of the Labour Party. A version of the Labour Party that you can be proud of once again. 

And no matter how much you might want it to be true, this is never going to happen under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer. 

Enjoy your Sunday - and don’t forget, it’s #RecognisePalestineNow day on the 13th of October. Please join in and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Rachael

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