Keir Starmer – you remember him?
The guy who dreamed up that brainiac maniac kamikazee fudge-ball Brexit strategy that delivered us a Johnson government via a hatrick of own goals? The guy who plotted with Sky News against his own leadership? The guy who even now is in The Guardian saying that Labour ought to campaign to rejoin the EU – which shows a terrific sensitivity towards the Leave voters who abandoned Labour in droves doesn’t it?
Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that The Guardian, the BBC and the rest of the corporate media have just spent the last five years smearing and undermining Corbyn’s Labour – while giving a fawning platform to Tony Blair and anyone hostile to the values Corbyn represented.
The hope for a socialist human alternative to the neoliberal closed shop now rests not with Corbyn but with the people who gathered around him in the Labour movement – in truth it always has.
The new youthful engagement with politics – nearly all staffed by savvy progressive thinkers has been shamefully patronised by the establishment because it retains human values – they haven’t sold out, they actually still care about people and the environment.
We can be absolutely certain that whoever The Guardian et al now wants to take over from Corbyn will be utterly hostile towards socialism and democracy in the Labour movement – thus they will back Starmer as the ‘centrist’ (faux Tory) man to deliver the electoral ‘credibility’ that Starmer himself was pivotal in destroying.
Starmer has the backing of the careerist right, he will make Labour a tool of capital again – he will be as pointless as Ed Milliband. As we outlined in these pages – Labour’s embrace of a second Brexit referendum was a Blairite trap – part of an ongoing plan to create a hostile environment for socialism within Labour .
Novara Media noted the links between Starmer and big pharma sales rep Owen Smith – Starmer was part of the media orchestrated chicken coup that tried to oust Corbyn in 2016. Starmer resigned on cue to try and overturn the mandate of Labour’s membership – a little trick that set him up perfectly to try and overturn the Brexit referendum result – at least he is consistent.
Starmer is plausible at the dispatch box – his lawyerly affections will doubtless appeal to some – but you don’t reward a guy responsible for electoral defeat with the leadership – at least not if you care about winning.
If Starmer becomes Labour leader – he will drag Labour back inside the narrow range of views deemed permissible by the establishment – those who were inspired by Corbyn to re-engage with politics will drift away – their representation betrayed and destroyed.
The Guardian – which has danced with unrestrained glee on Corbyn’s political grave is warning darkly against ‘sectarian temptations’ which is media-speak for ‘you must elect who we say’ or else.
The final loss of the Labour brand to the red Tories may not be such a bad thing – there is a clear need to reboot the energy and unity of socialist politics anyway and if recent events have proved anything – it is that the old tribal loyalties have gone .
A new UK workers party – united and un-apologetically socialist could do very well indeed against the tired re-heats of the Blair era spadocracy.
If Keir Starmer is the answer to the Labour leadership then we presume the question can only be – how to destroy the Labour brand once and for all. If that is the plan then I say lets bring Starmer in – he’s done a terrific job of wrecking the Labour brand so far.
Pardon my ignorance (I don’t live in the UK), but hasn’t George Galloway started a new UK workers party?
Yes indeed – but long before that there was the creation of Left Unity (of which i was a founder member) – but the need for that was thought negated because of the Corbyn project – now it may be time to abandon Labour – certainly the fantasy that it is fit for purpose was dangerous back then and may have become dangerous now – i am undecided.