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Anas Sawar, Labour leader in Scotland on 19:54 - Feb 9 by Dubtractor
Labour have made a real pigs ear of governing, somehow managing to piss off almost everyone, whilst not doing enough to please many at all. The polls overwhelmingly show that too.
I cling to a slim hope that this current upheaval might change the approach at the minute, cos as it stands we are heading to a bad place in this country. See all that post truth nonsense in the USA? That'll be us under Reform. It scares me a bit.
Yep. And 2nd paragraph, I feel the same. They’ve got a chance to reset now and up their game. I’ll doubt they’ll take it but I hope they do. We need them too.
Anas Sawar, Labour leader in Scotland on 08:06 - Feb 10 by DJR
So the story goes.
And what Oborne says has been borne out by events, namely, that, even if Sue Gray were the issue, it was a mistake to replace her with a political strategist.
EDIT: As it is, one of the most damaging things they did was delay the Budget so long but that was nothing to do with Sue Gray who resigned some 7 weeks before. And the winter fuel payment fiasco which started it all was a Reeves/Treasury decision.
And I am sure that if Sue Gray had been in charge, Mandelson would never have been appointed because her propriety and ethics background would have trumped political considerations.
FURTHER EDIT: I have come across this on Wikipedia. Oh for a bit more of this when it came to the appointment of Mandelson!
"Rumours reported by The Guardian alleged that she adopted a "micromanagerial" leadership style with substantial control over ministerial and special adviser appointments, "
[Post edited 10 Feb 9:22]
So the story goes?
The idea that Starmer said, Sue, put together a plan for the first 100 days in office, and then didn’t check in on how the plan was progressing, until he walked through the door of No 10 on day one, is quite clearly just idle gossip for right wing commentators.
Nobody works like that at the top of any political (or any other serious) organisation.
It’s quite clearly bullshit, but lapped up by anyone with an agenda to wave about.
Anas Sawar, Labour leader in Scotland on 17:39 - Feb 10 by vapour_trail
So the story goes?
The idea that Starmer said, Sue, put together a plan for the first 100 days in office, and then didn’t check in on how the plan was progressing, until he walked through the door of No 10 on day one, is quite clearly just idle gossip for right wing commentators.
Nobody works like that at the top of any political (or any other serious) organisation.
It’s quite clearly bullshit, but lapped up by anyone with an agenda to wave about.
[Post edited 10 Feb 17:51]
[Post edited 10 Feb 18:53]
FREE IRAN FROM THE MULLAHS - FREE PALESTINE FROM HAMAS - FREE LEBANON FROM HEZBOLLAH
Wes is supposedly on manoeuvres, and it looks like he's trying to pre-empt Rayner.
If he does make a successful move, and it goes to the members, it is not clear to me who would be the other candidate or candidates put to the members: each needs the votes of 81 MPs.
I imagine Shabana Mahmood would put herself forward but a choice between two key members of Labour Together doesn't seem like the clean break that is needed.
The more that things emerges, the more it looks like Sawar's intervention on Monday was an attempt at a coup involving Streeting but it has ended up with what seems like a pretty sorry state of affairs.
This from the the headline article in today's FT, a paper which tends not to have a political agenda.
"Sir Keir Starmer is currently too “weak” to sack leadership rival Wes Streeting, the UK prime minister’s allies have admitted, as an uneasy truce descended on the Labour Party.
The health secretary, suspected by Number 10 of being part of a coup attempt, has been forced to put his ambitions on hold, declaring on Tuesday that Starmer had his “full support”.
Starmer urged cabinet ministers to get on with their jobs and to bring an end to leadership speculation, which was sparked after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on Monday for the prime minister to quit.
With tensions between Number 10 and Streeting running high, Starmer’s team said the aim now was to calm the situation and reach the relative safety of a House of Commons half-term recess, which starts on Thursday.
“I don’t think he can sack Wes, I don’t think he has the strength to sack anyone right now,” said one Starmer ally. “He’s too weak.”
A member of Starmer’s team said: “Sacking Wes would just uncork even more political chaos of the kind we’re trying to avoid.” Streeting told reporters that Starmer had not threatened to sack him.
Streeting’s team strongly denied the health secretary was working with Sarwar to bring down the prime minister, in what was seen by cabinet ministers as a failed coup.
One minister said there was a clear message to Streeting in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting. “The strong view around the table is that people need to buckle down and do their jobs,” they added.
Sarwar’s intervention had the effect of rallying ministers and Labour MPs behind Starmer. “The prime minister has my full support,” Streeting said on Tuesday.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been warning colleagues of the economic chaos that could be unleashed if Starmer were toppled, while senior Labour figures have claimed that a leadership contest would cost £1mn at a time when the party does not have a lot of funds.
Starmer put on a show of defiance on Tuesday, telling voters at an event that he “will never walk away from the country that I love”.
This is no way to run a country, and it seems to me that Labour's problem is that it doesn't have a safe and experienced pair of hands, like Rishi Sunak, to try to clear up the mess.
Or could Al Carns be an option? He clearly has leadership qualities and would represent a clean break from the Labour Together project, of which Streeting and Mahmood are integral part.
Anas Sawar, Labour leader in Scotland on 07:24 - Feb 11 by DJR
The more that things emerges, the more it looks like Sawar's intervention on Monday was an attempt at a coup involving Streeting but it has ended up with what seems like a pretty sorry state of affairs.
This from the the headline article in today's FT, a paper which tends not to have a political agenda.
"Sir Keir Starmer is currently too “weak” to sack leadership rival Wes Streeting, the UK prime minister’s allies have admitted, as an uneasy truce descended on the Labour Party.
The health secretary, suspected by Number 10 of being part of a coup attempt, has been forced to put his ambitions on hold, declaring on Tuesday that Starmer had his “full support”.
Starmer urged cabinet ministers to get on with their jobs and to bring an end to leadership speculation, which was sparked after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on Monday for the prime minister to quit.
With tensions between Number 10 and Streeting running high, Starmer’s team said the aim now was to calm the situation and reach the relative safety of a House of Commons half-term recess, which starts on Thursday.
“I don’t think he can sack Wes, I don’t think he has the strength to sack anyone right now,” said one Starmer ally. “He’s too weak.”
A member of Starmer’s team said: “Sacking Wes would just uncork even more political chaos of the kind we’re trying to avoid.” Streeting told reporters that Starmer had not threatened to sack him.
Streeting’s team strongly denied the health secretary was working with Sarwar to bring down the prime minister, in what was seen by cabinet ministers as a failed coup.
One minister said there was a clear message to Streeting in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting. “The strong view around the table is that people need to buckle down and do their jobs,” they added.
Sarwar’s intervention had the effect of rallying ministers and Labour MPs behind Starmer. “The prime minister has my full support,” Streeting said on Tuesday.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been warning colleagues of the economic chaos that could be unleashed if Starmer were toppled, while senior Labour figures have claimed that a leadership contest would cost £1mn at a time when the party does not have a lot of funds.
Starmer put on a show of defiance on Tuesday, telling voters at an event that he “will never walk away from the country that I love”.
This is no way to run a country, and it seems to me that Labour's problem is that it doesn't have a safe and experienced pair of hands, like Rishi Sunak, to try to clear up the mess.
Or could Al Carns be an option? He clearly has leadership qualities and would represent a clean break from the Labour Together project, of which Streeting and Mahmood are integral part.
'a safe and experienced pair of hands, like Rishi Sunak'; journalists, eh ?
Streeting might not go...yet, but it's almost worth me paying the twenty quid to attend the annual conference in Paisley at the end of the month just to see what the mood music around Sarwar is...if he survives until then.
Anas Sawar, Labour leader in Scotland on 07:24 - Feb 11 by DJR
The more that things emerges, the more it looks like Sawar's intervention on Monday was an attempt at a coup involving Streeting but it has ended up with what seems like a pretty sorry state of affairs.
This from the the headline article in today's FT, a paper which tends not to have a political agenda.
"Sir Keir Starmer is currently too “weak” to sack leadership rival Wes Streeting, the UK prime minister’s allies have admitted, as an uneasy truce descended on the Labour Party.
The health secretary, suspected by Number 10 of being part of a coup attempt, has been forced to put his ambitions on hold, declaring on Tuesday that Starmer had his “full support”.
Starmer urged cabinet ministers to get on with their jobs and to bring an end to leadership speculation, which was sparked after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on Monday for the prime minister to quit.
With tensions between Number 10 and Streeting running high, Starmer’s team said the aim now was to calm the situation and reach the relative safety of a House of Commons half-term recess, which starts on Thursday.
“I don’t think he can sack Wes, I don’t think he has the strength to sack anyone right now,” said one Starmer ally. “He’s too weak.”
A member of Starmer’s team said: “Sacking Wes would just uncork even more political chaos of the kind we’re trying to avoid.” Streeting told reporters that Starmer had not threatened to sack him.
Streeting’s team strongly denied the health secretary was working with Sarwar to bring down the prime minister, in what was seen by cabinet ministers as a failed coup.
One minister said there was a clear message to Streeting in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting. “The strong view around the table is that people need to buckle down and do their jobs,” they added.
Sarwar’s intervention had the effect of rallying ministers and Labour MPs behind Starmer. “The prime minister has my full support,” Streeting said on Tuesday.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been warning colleagues of the economic chaos that could be unleashed if Starmer were toppled, while senior Labour figures have claimed that a leadership contest would cost £1mn at a time when the party does not have a lot of funds.
Starmer put on a show of defiance on Tuesday, telling voters at an event that he “will never walk away from the country that I love”.
This is no way to run a country, and it seems to me that Labour's problem is that it doesn't have a safe and experienced pair of hands, like Rishi Sunak, to try to clear up the mess.
Or could Al Carns be an option? He clearly has leadership qualities and would represent a clean break from the Labour Together project, of which Streeting and Mahmood are integral part.
Does anyone have theories on why Ed Miliband is never mentioned when it comes to leadership candidates? How he subtly read Starmer the riot act whilst simultaneously telling him what he needed to do to survive was masterful. Well, much more masterful than we see from most frontbenchers across the House these days. He seems less toxic, more genuine and more mature than Rayner or Streeting who keep getting mentioned despite their flaws.
Anas Sawar, Labour leader in Scotland on 08:23 - Feb 11 by Swansea_Blue
Does anyone have theories on why Ed Miliband is never mentioned when it comes to leadership candidates? How he subtly read Starmer the riot act whilst simultaneously telling him what he needed to do to survive was masterful. Well, much more masterful than we see from most frontbenchers across the House these days. He seems less toxic, more genuine and more mature than Rayner or Streeting who keep getting mentioned despite their flaws.
He's done the party leader job once but with obvious flaws (no, not the bacon sandwich hatchet job that the gutter press smeared him with) so maybe Prime Minister is beyond him now, especially with the rabble rousing that would follow his broad brush approach to renewable energy..So kingmaker rather than King would fir what he has been up to.
[edit: thread title changed to correct misspelling]
Anas Sawar, Labour leader in Scotland on 08:23 - Feb 11 by Swansea_Blue
Does anyone have theories on why Ed Miliband is never mentioned when it comes to leadership candidates? How he subtly read Starmer the riot act whilst simultaneously telling him what he needed to do to survive was masterful. Well, much more masterful than we see from most frontbenchers across the House these days. He seems less toxic, more genuine and more mature than Rayner or Streeting who keep getting mentioned despite their flaws.
he's very often mentioned. he always rules himself out (whether that's real or not, who knows). his previous stint as leader was an utter disaster (no, not the bacon sandwich etc - syria and changing the rules for the leadership election (which were just about the two most consequential errors made by anyone not in government.)
And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show
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Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 08:42 - Feb 11 with 542 views
Anas Sawar, Labour leader in Scotland on 20:57 - Feb 9 by Clapham_Junction
It's a bit ridiculous to blame them when they've had control for less than a year and not even had a chance to deliver their own budget yet. Councils of all colours have gone bankrupt in recent years. Some (e.g. Thurrock) due to incredibly poor management choices, some due to the long-term effects of the massive cuts in the Cameron years.
But isn't Reform the quick fix that Britain needs ?
'The deputy leader of Leicestershire County Council has been removed from the role after three months in the job...Reform UK's Joseph Boam has also been removed from position as cabinet member for adult social care,..The Leicestershire Conservative group - the main opposition on the authority - has now branded Reform UK's local leadership a "shambles"...leader Deborah Taylor said it was "no surprise" to her Boam "has been shown the door after just three months...He was wholly unqualified for such a critical role and lacked the experience or judgement to bring anything of value to the position."'
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 08:11 - Feb 11 by WeWereZombies
'a safe and experienced pair of hands, like Rishi Sunak'; journalists, eh ?
Streeting might not go...yet, but it's almost worth me paying the twenty quid to attend the annual conference in Paisley at the end of the month just to see what the mood music around Sarwar is...if he survives until then.
[edit: thread title edited for misspelling]
[Post edited 11 Feb 8:43]
Sunak didn't really stand a chance after 14 years of an increasingly unpopular Tory government but Labour have only been in power for 18 months, so it does seem to me that the ship could be steadied and even set sail with the right person in charge, at the same time hoping for things like the economy to improve and the cost of living to come down.
But it is very difficult to identify who that person is with the current crop of MPs.
Added to that is the fact that Labour rules require a leadership contest which would only contribute to the chaos, not something that happened when Sunak took over from Truss.
As it is, this article by Rafael Behr (a natural supporter of the Labour right) is pretty damning of the current situation.
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 09:01 - Feb 11 by DJR
Sunak didn't really stand a chance after 14 years of an increasingly unpopular Tory government but Labour have only been in power for 18 months, so it does seem to me that the ship could be steadied and even set sail with the right person in charge, at the same time hoping for things like the economy to improve and the cost of living to come down.
But it is very difficult to identify who that person is with the current crop of MPs.
Added to that is the fact that Labour rules require a leadership contest which would only contribute to the chaos, not something that happened when Sunak took over from Truss.
As it is, this article by Rafael Behr (a natural supporter of the Labour right) is pretty damning of the current situation.
Keir Starmer is the bandage that Labour can’t rip off for fear of opening old wounds
The party’s MPs know their leader is failing but they are paralysed by fear of a contest with no obvious successor
[Post edited 11 Feb 9:04]
Labour’s rules also require everything is done in an open way once a move is made. Wouldn’t be surprised if there were already talks taking place behind closed doors.
With 80+ MPs required to support a nomination going to be difficult to do that without any leaks.
No chance this time of a left winger getting on the ballot and an outsider, like Al Carns, would be a good choice and appeal to party members but a risk.
The way Carns ripped into Trump over Afghanistan was impressive.
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 09:27 - Feb 11 by Pinewoodblue
Labour’s rules also require everything is done in an open way once a move is made. Wouldn’t be surprised if there were already talks taking place behind closed doors.
With 80+ MPs required to support a nomination going to be difficult to do that without any leaks.
No chance this time of a left winger getting on the ballot and an outsider, like Al Carns, would be a good choice and appeal to party members but a risk.
The way Carns ripped into Trump over Afghanistan was impressive.
And the first minister to take that sort of line with Trump.
Indeed, it was nice not to hear the usual cow-towing.
I suppose the issue for him is a lack of political experience, or indeed even Parliamentary experience. But he was adviser to three Defence Secretaries and tipped to be chief of the defence staff.
[Post edited 11 Feb 9:34]
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Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 09:40 - Feb 11 with 424 views
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 08:29 - Feb 11 by WeWereZombies
He's done the party leader job once but with obvious flaws (no, not the bacon sandwich hatchet job that the gutter press smeared him with) so maybe Prime Minister is beyond him now, especially with the rabble rousing that would follow his broad brush approach to renewable energy..So kingmaker rather than King would fir what he has been up to.
[edit: thread title changed to correct misspelling]
[Post edited 11 Feb 9:19]
Fair points. It’s quite frightening to think he’s now of the age where he’s starting to become one of the elder statesmen steering from the passenger seat. Time flies.
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 09:01 - Feb 11 by DJR
Sunak didn't really stand a chance after 14 years of an increasingly unpopular Tory government but Labour have only been in power for 18 months, so it does seem to me that the ship could be steadied and even set sail with the right person in charge, at the same time hoping for things like the economy to improve and the cost of living to come down.
But it is very difficult to identify who that person is with the current crop of MPs.
Added to that is the fact that Labour rules require a leadership contest which would only contribute to the chaos, not something that happened when Sunak took over from Truss.
As it is, this article by Rafael Behr (a natural supporter of the Labour right) is pretty damning of the current situation.
Keir Starmer is the bandage that Labour can’t rip off for fear of opening old wounds
The party’s MPs know their leader is failing but they are paralysed by fear of a contest with no obvious successor
[Post edited 11 Feb 9:04]
That was a 'sort of interesting' read but I have to say 'journalists, eh ?' again. All opinion and not much hard reference to the numbers and the changing geopolitical World (which with the exception of the Mandelson stench Starmer seems to have negotiated well for a newly arrived Statesman. On the numbers, I thought the last budget was a good detail job, we don't hope the economy to improve, we put measures in place to help it improve and Reeves did that, especially for those on a low income with children.
When the election was won I thought, 'yeah, Starmer for a year and then get in a more progressive candidate to crack on with what needs to be done.' Thank goodness that didn't happen, with the chaos caused by Trump and other Authoritarian leaders the United Kingdomn would have been somewhat weakened by a less procedural Prime Minister (and I say this as a pragmatic retired accountant who gets very impatient with lawyers taking forever to dot an 'i'.)
Likewise, changing leader whilst the Mandelson/Epstein affair is still unravelling can only lumber the incoming Prime Minister with a poisoned chalice. Better to have dull as ditchwater Keir for another year and get as much bad news dealt with in that tenure, there is still time for a new cabinet and a new set of policies to engage the electorate in Spring 2027 with a good chance of winning an election in the summer of the following year.
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 08:11 - Feb 11 by WeWereZombies
'a safe and experienced pair of hands, like Rishi Sunak'; journalists, eh ?
Streeting might not go...yet, but it's almost worth me paying the twenty quid to attend the annual conference in Paisley at the end of the month just to see what the mood music around Sarwar is...if he survives until then.
[edit: thread title edited for misspelling]
[Post edited 11 Feb 8:43]
After the sh1tshow of Johnson and Truss, Sunak was a safe pair of hands. Whether you agree with his politics or not he was a serious and hard working politician who kept of top of his brief. He was leading a party destined to lose the election and is ministers/ backbenchers were an absolute rabble in the dying days of the Tory government.
FREE IRAN FROM THE MULLAHS - FREE PALESTINE FROM HAMAS - FREE LEBANON FROM HEZBOLLAH
Anas Sawar, Labour leader in Scotland on 08:23 - Feb 11 by Swansea_Blue
Does anyone have theories on why Ed Miliband is never mentioned when it comes to leadership candidates? How he subtly read Starmer the riot act whilst simultaneously telling him what he needed to do to survive was masterful. Well, much more masterful than we see from most frontbenchers across the House these days. He seems less toxic, more genuine and more mature than Rayner or Streeting who keep getting mentioned despite their flaws.
He's be spoken about quite a bit. He does have that general election loss as baggage, along with reneging on preventing the deaths of tens of thousands of Syrians, the 'Ed Stone' and his late night meeting with Russell Brand in order tro win the youth vote.
FREE IRAN FROM THE MULLAHS - FREE PALESTINE FROM HAMAS - FREE LEBANON FROM HEZBOLLAH
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 09:31 - Feb 11 by DJR
And the first minister to take that sort of line with Trump.
Indeed, it was nice not to hear the usual cow-towing.
I suppose the issue for him is a lack of political experience, or indeed even Parliamentary experience. But he was adviser to three Defence Secretaries and tipped to be chief of the defence staff.
[Post edited 11 Feb 9:34]
Turned down promotion to Brigadier and resigned his commission to stand for parliament.
Would assume climbing to the top of the pile in the military is on par with doing similar in politics.
He seems to be baggage free, which would’ve a bonus.
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 09:56 - Feb 11 by GlasgowBlue
After the sh1tshow of Johnson and Truss, Sunak was a safe pair of hands. Whether you agree with his politics or not he was a serious and hard working politician who kept of top of his brief. He was leading a party destined to lose the election and is ministers/ backbenchers were an absolute rabble in the dying days of the Tory government.
I've got the Nick Robinson 'Political Thinking' interview with Sunak set up to watch next in my never ending battle to catch up with the BBC iPlayer so that I am only eleven months out of date so I'll see what I think of him after that.
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 09:31 - Feb 11 by DJR
And the first minister to take that sort of line with Trump.
Indeed, it was nice not to hear the usual cow-towing.
I suppose the issue for him is a lack of political experience, or indeed even Parliamentary experience. But he was adviser to three Defence Secretaries and tipped to be chief of the defence staff.
[Post edited 11 Feb 9:34]
Would be a brilliant antidote to Reform but as you say, his lack of political experience could be a drawback. Especially as that has been one of Starmer's weaknesses. One for the future.
FREE IRAN FROM THE MULLAHS - FREE PALESTINE FROM HAMAS - FREE LEBANON FROM HEZBOLLAH
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 09:42 - Feb 11 by WeWereZombies
That was a 'sort of interesting' read but I have to say 'journalists, eh ?' again. All opinion and not much hard reference to the numbers and the changing geopolitical World (which with the exception of the Mandelson stench Starmer seems to have negotiated well for a newly arrived Statesman. On the numbers, I thought the last budget was a good detail job, we don't hope the economy to improve, we put measures in place to help it improve and Reeves did that, especially for those on a low income with children.
When the election was won I thought, 'yeah, Starmer for a year and then get in a more progressive candidate to crack on with what needs to be done.' Thank goodness that didn't happen, with the chaos caused by Trump and other Authoritarian leaders the United Kingdomn would have been somewhat weakened by a less procedural Prime Minister (and I say this as a pragmatic retired accountant who gets very impatient with lawyers taking forever to dot an 'i'.)
Likewise, changing leader whilst the Mandelson/Epstein affair is still unravelling can only lumber the incoming Prime Minister with a poisoned chalice. Better to have dull as ditchwater Keir for another year and get as much bad news dealt with in that tenure, there is still time for a new cabinet and a new set of policies to engage the electorate in Spring 2027 with a good chance of winning an election in the summer of the following year.
EDIT; wrong thread.
[Post edited 11 Feb 12:20]
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Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 12:35 - Feb 11 with 230 views
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 09:31 - Feb 11 by DJR
And the first minister to take that sort of line with Trump.
Indeed, it was nice not to hear the usual cow-towing.
I suppose the issue for him is a lack of political experience, or indeed even Parliamentary experience. But he was adviser to three Defence Secretaries and tipped to be chief of the defence staff.
[Post edited 11 Feb 9:34]
bit off topic, but the image of cow-towing brought a spot of levity to a depressing thread!
Anas Sarwar, Labour leader in Scotland on 10:06 - Feb 11 by GlasgowBlue
Would be a brilliant antidote to Reform but as you say, his lack of political experience could be a drawback. Especially as that has been one of Starmer's weaknesses. One for the future.
Desperate, desperate stuff.
Dan Jarvis repeat.
You can't elect a leader on the basis he has a square jaw and (thrillingly for some of the prof man class no doubt) has been in the army.
It's over.
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Anas Sawar, Labour leader in Scotland on 07:11 - Feb 12 with 59 views
"Finally, there is of course the landslide of 2024: a historic and remarkable turnaround, yet not the triumph that McSweeney and Starmer hoped for. They believed that flags and tanks might win over “hero voters” who had once been red but then turned blue. It didn’t. Labour’s overall vote share only rose by 1.6 percentage points on the great wipeout of 2019. The person who actually won the 2024 election for Starmer is clearly Liz Truss, a disaster in office while splitting the rightwing vote.
The net result is that Starmer has a bigger majority than Clement Attlee in 1945, but a platform closer to Sunak’s. In a forthcoming textual analysis of the manifestos of the two parties down the decades, York University’s Kevin Farnsworth observes that Starmer’s manifesto for “change” was strikingly similar in language and positions to Sunak’s manifesto at the same election. It was, he writes, “a decisive embrace of positions historically closer to Conservative than Labour platforms”.
Politicians and journalists love myth-making, but the danger of preferring legends to history is that you have no guide to take you forward. One of the guiding attitudes of Starmer and McSweeney’s regime has been that grave danger lies in looking even a few millimetres left, which is why he and his team have felt no compunction in taking pops at Andy Burnham and Sadiq Khan, and trying to kick out of their party anyone who even looked like a dissenter. Not just Jeremy Corbyn but peaceable figures from the soft left such as Neal Lawson (threatened with expulsion for endorsing a call on Twitter for cross-party cooperation).
I’ve watched every minute of the hour’s worth of footage of the former Labour metro mayor Jamie Driscoll getting browbeaten by party bureaucrats for simply sitting on stage with the legendary leftwing film-maker Ken Loach. I’ve also read the accounts of long-serving councillors and community figures barred from even being considered as a Labour candidate for parliament for such apparent misdemeanours as “liking” a tweet from Nicola Sturgeon saying that she was free of Covid.
This is McCarthyism dressed up as election-winning politics and it has failed. The result is not much of a government, and barely even a party. It’s a faction, a nasty narrow rightwing faction of what was once one of democracy’s great pluralist traditions. In place of real politics, it has office politics. The refrain that Starmer is a “decent” man does not fit his record of deceiving his way to the top of the Labour party, sitting on his hands during the massacre in Gaza or clamping down on protest against it.
This government is already toast, one Labour heavyweight told me this week, but the Labour party – a 125-year-old political project – may not survive Starmer and McSweeney. The diminution of the party’s horizons is clear when one considers the leadership election to come. Fifty years ago, the battle to replace Jim Callaghan drew heavyweights from Tony Benn to Roy Jenkins. In 2015, the range went from Corbyn to Liz Kendall. This year we are likely to have Streeting, a former student politician, versus someone from the soft left. There are no ideas in contest here, little semblance of a plan for change.
Now the shrinking is being done for them by us, the voters. Labour’s polling is disastrous. At each election, leftwing voters ask: who is the candidate to stop Farage’s candidate? In Caerphilly, it was Plaid Cymru. In Gorton and Denton this month it may be the Greens. But it rarely seems to be Starmer.
Voters are actively searching out alternatives. Because why should they settle for less?"
The worrying thing for me is that the entire political and media establishment went along with what was going on, and look where it has left us.
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