Centrism: One Of Many Reasons Why Starmer Is So Far Behind

Imagine the scene. 

Boris Johnson has just snatched the Queen's handbag, sprayed graffiti all over Phil’s headstone, denounced Diana as a satanic goat, set fire to Great Ormond Street hospital, nuked the Isle of Wight, and announced he will be applying for Britain to rejoin the European Union. 

Then a opinion new poll comes out:

CON 54% (+8) 

LAB 24% (-5) 

Or you see a new set of personal approval ratings: 

Boris Johnson +34% (+5) 

Keir Starmer -10% (-4) 

I think you can see the point I am making here. 

Boris Johnson could torch your local blue cross, steal every charity box in the land, make horrendous racial slurs towards more than half of the global population *AND* send thousands upon thousands of our loved ones to an early grave through a diabolical lack of accountability and a complete and utter inability to act in the national interest - because they wanted a fucking horse racing festival to go ahead - and still, STILL, he would be a country mile ahead of the hapless leader of the opposition, Sir Keir Starmer. 

Now it’s hardly a secret that I’m not Keith’s biggest supporter. Lord only knows how many words I have penned in anger every time the useless establishment back-up device stumbles aimlessly from one self-inflicted crisis after another, or as an ‘avid reader and fan’ put it, “Swindon is a writer of opinion pieces, (observant dude) regurgitating pro-Palestine and Starmer bashing articles (like that’s a bad thing?) made up of information that is already widely available on the internet. That is all she has to offer“.

They’ve literally just described how to write an opinion piece. Most of us gather our information from the internet, and we also speak to sources to validate something or offer an opinion to go with a particular piece.

Now I know I don’t have much to offer, I’m not a writer, I’ve got an opinion, and given a worthwhile campaign to work with, I enjoy the activism side of it immensely, and I have made some brilliant friends along the way.

I appreciate my First Series of exclusive interviews with Jeremy Corbyn, released as 5 separate video clips, covering the hostile media that we faced, our awful Brexit position shift that cost us millions of votes, and the huge divide between the Labour Party membership and the “Parliamentary caucus” - the PLP, might be not much to offer for some, but I fucking loved it, and they’ve been seen nearly 100,000 times already, so I’m guessing someone else loved it too. 

And Series 2 is shaping up to be an absolute cracker. 

I digress. 

Now I don’t rate Starmer, and thousands of you reading this probably feel much the same. I find him incredibly dull, I genuinely have no idea what he stands for while having a good idea of who he stands for. 

Let’s think of Labour’s foreign policy for a moment. I seriously haven’t got a clue what they stand for. Would they or wouldn’t they launch the beginning of the end for humanity? What’s their position on the illegal and utterly immoral occupation of Palestine? I knew what Labour’s position was between 2015-2019. I was in absolutely no doubt whatsoever. 

I look at centrism and all I can see is the firm grip of the establishment. Centrism is unappealing, uninspiring, and wholly unpalatable. If centrism is the only dish on offer I would prefer to go hungry. 

I found this quite excellent description of centrism just recently. 

There's a political concept called the "Overton Window", which is whatever spread of opinions a political culture views as acceptable - or at least likely to accomplish something - at any given time.

The objective of extremists is to move the Overton Window in their direction so that people will regard them as less extreme despite having the same viewpoints as before.

Many (not all) centrists are in the centre because they move with the Overton Window in order to avoid pressure from the extremes. They allow their political environment to define them, and are usually complicit in whatever crimes result from radicalisation of the Overton Window. They "go with the flow," even into hell. Hence the perception of cowardice - these types of centrists are easily bullied and have no moral compass. 

Read that last paragraph again, but this time, put today’s Labour Party in your mind as you read it. 

They go with the flow, even into hell. 

“We support the government”. 

“Now isn’t the time”. 

“We’re not telling you our policies because they’re a secret.” 

I started writing this piece wondering how on earth Boris Johnson and the Conservatives could possibly be so far ahead, and I’ve pretty much answered my own question. 

The business with Cummings for example. You can take your pick of which liar you choose to believe, or you can choose to believe neither of them, but regardless of your own view, the former chief advisor to the Prime Minister has made some pretty serious and not entirely unbelievable allegations regarding the conduct of Boris Johnson, and the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock. 

The severity of the allegations would normally be enough to take a serious shot at any government, but I cannot see this making the slightest bit of difference to a population made up of people who believe Johnson is just like they are - and they haven’t got a clue who Keir Starmer even is. 

Starmer has the charisma of an avocado. It’s painfully noticeable when he speaks and utterly cringeworthy when they let him out to meet members of the public. 

Every intervention is too little, too late, he’s trashed the Labour Party’s finances, divided vast swathes of the membership and he has put so much effort into purging the left of the Party he doesn’t have any time or energy left to take the fight to the hard-right Conservative government. 

So maybe that’s why the Conservatives are a mile ahead? 

It’s certainly not down to the appalling way that they handled the Covid crisis, and it’s certainly not down to the £37 billion Serco test and trace palaver. 

It’s certainly not down to the way the Conservatives have failed to “level up” and I doubt it has anything to do with the billions of billions of your Pounds handed out to their friends, donors, family, and even themselves, to companies that barely exist and have absolutely no experience in supplying what the NHS needed to get their incredible staff through this horrendous pandemic. 

I mean, come on, this wretched rights-stealing cabal of ineptitude and corruption are undoubtedly the worst government of my lifetime. What about yours? 

So, unless this apparent “feel-good factor” really does exist, I’m failing to see the attraction towards Boris Johnson, or his Party. 

And that just leaves Starmer. The man is a voter repellent. It’s the only logical explanation. The stand-for-nothing centrism thing just isn’t cutting through, no matter how much they think it might one day, if their lucky. 

We yearn for bold thinking. A people-powered movement that really can take the fight to this shithouse of a government, rather than just nodding along like one of those parcel shelf Churchill dogs. 

It’s just not there. The Labour Party is back under the full control of the establishment, and until they get rid of the vacuous Starmer, the hateful lump of awfulness Johnson has a free reign, and that, my friends, is a crying shame for the people who need a *real* Labour Party and a *real* Labour government the most. 

People like you and me. 

Save our democracy by getting rid of Starmer. He really isn’t any form of robust opposition to the government, but he is an opponent of aspiration, an opponent of principles, and an opponent of socialism. Get rid, the rot is well and truly beginning to set in.

Take care, 

Rachael x

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