When You Should’ve Picked A War With The Tories Instead Of The Left

And so arrives another Sunday. 

I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen and heard enough royal commentary over the past 36 hours to last me a lifetime. 

The Saturday Daily Mail contained 144 pages, which means you’d only need to glue 4 of them together and you can make your very own tribute to the much-missed Argos catalogue. But like an anti-refugee, Corbyn-hating, Markle-cursing, Morgan-spouting, hateful version, that even thinks Keir Starmer is alright.

The S*n has changed its normal ‘red top’ to a UKIP-like purple top. This could be seen as a tribute to the billionaire owners phallus-like features, or simply a nod to Phil’s Faragesque racism. 

Are we allowed to call it racism yet? Or do we follow the media line and call it “gaffes”? 

Like most of you, I have nothing but sympathy for the people that loved him, especially his lifelong partner, and third cousin, the Queen. 

Now, I’m guessing you’ve had it up to your eyeballs with all things royal, and so have I, so this is where we swiftly move on to something else.

The local elections are less than a month away, and we, as in the left, need to land some hefty blows on the treacherous centrist hijackers masquerading as the Labour Party. 

Keir Starmer declared war on the left of the Labour Party within his first few days as the leader of the opposition. Any Labour shadow cabinet that includes Rachel Reeves, for example, isn’t going to be a Shadow Cabinet of various talents from across the broad church. It will be a Shadow Cabinet of warmongers, careerists, lobbyist playthings, anti-socialists and the type of MP that shouts at the Tories during work hours, but shares a glass of wine and a bit of Westminster gossip with them when the cameras stop rolling. 

I would say this doesn’t apply to around 10% of the Parliamentary Labour Party. The likes of Zarah Sultana and Ian Lavery are good socialists, trapped up in a bad anti-socialist and pro-establishment Labour Party. 

While they still see the Labour Party as the best possible vehicle for progressive change, many of us look at the Labour left and we cannot see a clear challenger to current failed leadership, so we are considering our options.

We have seen plenty of disagreement, naturally, and some robust challenging, but nobody seems prepared to step up to the plate and lead a resistance to this Tory-lite monstrosity that nobody really wants, likes, or needs. 

Yet. 

So now we look at the local elections and wonder what to do with our votes, and how we can best ensure maximum socialist representation at local authority level - and of course, the Hartlepool by-election. 

Labour are in a state of panic. Losing Hartlepool to the Tories would’ve been unimaginable during the Corbyn years - he won it twice - and it is unimaginable now. Starmer cannot afford to lose Hartlepool. 

But as it stands, the Labour Party may well lose Hartlepool to the Conservatives, and the buck stops with Keir Starmer and his “new leadership” nonsense. 

The excuses are already lined up. 

•It’s all Jeremy Corbyn’s fault - 18 months after he handed his notice in. Jeremy Corbyn pulled 8 points ahead of the Tories, even with 80% of his own MPs offering less support than a Poundland bra. Starmer isn’t 20 points ahead, he’s not even 8 points ahead, and he’s not even level pegging with the Etonian ghoul, in fact, he is so far behind even the Lib Dems are thinking about getting back together again.

•The “vaccine bounce”. Not only does it protect you from a killer disease, but it apparently makes you think the last year never happened and Keir Starmer isn’t up against the worst leader of the worst government in living memory. 

•The Northern Independence Party. Nothing says “we don’t fear you, NIP”, quite like a WhatsApp group orchestrated attack on being a Northerner, or sending every available MP to Hartlepool to canvas for Saudi Paul, because so many activists refuse to dirty their hands delivering his leaflets. Starmer knows Thelma Walker can be the difference between a Labour hold and a Tory gain. 

They’re right to be scared. 

Despite the Electoral Commissions apparent inability to process the necessary paperwork in time, Thelma Walker *will* be standing as the NIP-backed independent candidate in Hartlepool. In reality, very little has changed, and Thelma Walker remains a massive threat. 

So what can you do to help deliver a brutal but absolutely necessary message to the Labour leadership? The only way is through the ballot box. 

This means not voting for Labour candidates at the local elections, unless you believe them to be against the leadership of Keir Starmer. 

But I would personally prioritise Independent socialist candidates, because I believe this is the clearest way of delivering our brutal but absolutely necessary message to the Labour leadership. 

I think I’m voting for a Green candidate. I’ve not heard a word from the local Labour Party candidate, so I’ve no idea who they are or what they stand for. I’ve only ever voted for the Labour Party in the past, despite coming from a very-Tory Mail reading household, but I see my vote as an endorsement, and I’ll be damned if I endorse this version of the Labour Party. 

The Green candidate is a young socialist, very unlikely to win in a strong Tory ward, and I have no fondness for the Green Party in general. But I’ll be voting for the candidate and not the party. 

I’m not fully up to date with which smaller socialist outfits are fielding candidates next month, but I would urge you to check out some of the people I mentioned in a recent blog, such as the TUSC, Breakthrough Party, Harmony Party, Resist, and of course, the Northern Independence Party - who I am a member of, because some of my closest friends are based in the north of England, and I fucking adore whippets.

But dig a bit deeper if you can, because you will find lots of independent socialists on the ballot. Some of these committed souls have been knocking on doors for several months, in wind, rain and snow, just like they used to do for the Labour Party when they had a leader worth getting behind. But not for you, Sir. 

One good example is my friend Rod Grimmer. He is standing as an independent candidate in the Derringham Ward up in Hull. He has got the endorsement of the Northern Independence Party, Reverend and The Makers, and me, the poor chap. 

But I have seen the incredible effort that he has put in to his campaign, and all of the people who have gone out to support him. He is taking socialism in to the community and showing how it can be applied on a local level, for the benefit of the many. 

And although there is only one Rodney Grimmer there’s lots of other good socialists doing exactly the same thing. Look them up, consider lending them your vote. The Labour Party isn’t your problem now, but you are their problem, because you have the power. 

Starmer has misused the power afforded to him by the Labour Party membership, that’s why so many have left and continue to leave every day. Today’s membership number isn’t anywhere near reflective of the active members with an interest in Party affairs, and more direct debits will get cancelled. 

It’s hard not to notice the plummet in support for the Labour leadership from younger people. Lots of younger people used to get involved in doorstep activism. We used to be able to send coach loads of activists to different parts of the country to help out with a local campaign, now they have to send MPs from the south of England to canvass for Saudi Paul in Hartlepool. 

And this is simply down to the hapless hobbit, Keir Starmer. 

The Labour leader needs much more than their activism. He also needs their votes. 

Although the centrists don’t like to acknowledge it, Jeremy Corbyn added 3.5 million votes to Labour’s vote in 2017. The austerity-lite almost-centrism of Miliband and Balls was drubbed by the anti-austerity common sense socialism of Corbyn and McDonnell. 

If team Starmer thinks those thousands and thousands of extra activists and millions and millions of extra voters weren't mostly made up of younger people, empowered by Jeremy Corbyn’s simple message of being able to do things a better, fairer way, they’re even more naive than you ever thought possible. 

Vote for a socialist next month. Local elections can often be a tight race, and one or two votes might just make the difference. 

Keir Starmer chose a war with the left - not before the Tories - but instead of a war with the Tories - and that must come at a very heavy cost when the polling stations open on May 6th.

Take care, 

Rachael x

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