Keir Starmer has already gifted Reform UK the opportunity to become the largest party following the next general election, but whoever thought there would be an sudden thunderbolt from the left, threatening to confine the Labour Party to history’s dustbin?
A year of Keir Starmer
Isn’t it fantastic? We have suffered a year of Keir, and what a ghastly, but entirely predictable year it has been, but a new poll suggests a newly-formed left-wing alliance could pick up 18%, including one in three Labour voters.
This is without a launch, without policies, without a confirmed party, and without a confirmed leader. For what it’s worth, I would expect a new left-wing alliance to be exactly that, with little emphasis on a figurehead and more of a focus on groups of leaders
Did I ever mention the time in 2017 when we came together to deliver a message of equal opportunities, public ownership, free lifelong learning, a National Care Service and real change that had foundations built upon hope?
I might’ve done, once or twice.
We had a political leader that actually offered a genuine alternative to this perpetual cycle of capitalism governance, and it went down particularly well with the people of Britain.
Curse you, Brexit.
But now, the appetite is growing.
The winds of change are blowing again
Fourteen years of Tory rule and a year of Keir will force the politically homeless left to come together and thrash out a way forward, because we cannot go on like this.
The left has got to get its shit together.
Some might say the Noel and Liam style of relationship is entertaining to watch from a safe distance, but we have to focus on the bigger picture, because the chance will slide away before we know it.
Okay, no more daft puns, you can stand by me on that one.
Think about that bigger picture for a moment. Look at the diabolical state we find ourselves in right now. Are your personal differences with so-and-so from blah-dee-blah of greater importance than ensuring our poor and disabled people aren’t killed off by the state and whatever hellish nightmare is to come in a few short years from now?
Inward looking factions win absolutely nothing. Arguing over ideological purities does precisely fuck all to help the hard-pressed working classes relying on Food Banks or the disabled people forced into poverty by this abhorrent and cruel Labour government.
The change that was promised by the Prime Minister isn’t the sort of change that millions of Labour voters supported, just over a year ago. I think we’re all sick of saying it now.
Starmer: a mess of his own making
A number of leftists held their noses and voted for Starmer’s Labour, just to remove the Tories from power. They will come home to the left if the left has a place to call home. Believe me, there is only so much guilt and regret that a person can live with.
It’s been a year, and Keir Starmer’s government has achieved very little of note in that time. His administration was riddled with tales of extravagant freebies from the first day, and it’s only gone downhill ever since.
You have seen Israel first Starmer’s genocidal complicity with your very own eyes. You have watched his “island of strangers” government go full Reform UK on immigration and prime Iain Duncan Smith on disabled people.
It’s been a year, and Keir Starmer’s government has lurched from one devastating crisis to the next. Ministers routinely brief against each other and factional warfare is well and truly alive at the top of the Labour hierarchy.
All of the time the Labour Party itself had some undeserved good will from the electorate, the deeply unpopular leader could get away with a few minor indiscretions.
But we have moved on very quickly. There was no honeymoon period, and I’ll stick my slightly sunburnt neck out and say that Keir Starmer’s government blundered through the worst start of any British government in living memory.
Call Corbyn and quick
The Labour Party is despised, across the political spectrum.
The left don’t want a fiscally conservative, business friendly, reactionary machine that has been co-opted by global elites.
The right don’t want a ‘woke Remainer’ that has ‘lost control of our borders’, incapable of delivering economic deregulation, and a little bit too progressive on certain social issues.
And the centre ground? They don’t really know what to think at the best of times. Just leave them to worry about their poster boy, Zelenskyy.
If you have followed events surrounding the Labour Party for a few years, you will know that Keir Starmer is particularly fond of a relaunch, so you will be pleased to hear that this is set to continue as we head into the summer recess, which gets underway on 22 July.
It’s been a year of internal rebellions, policy reversals, declining public approval, and self-inflicted economic pressures. Labour is trailing in most, if not all of the opinion polls, public discontent is growing and for me, above almost anything else, it has been a wasted year of opportunity to deliver the bold, progressive reforms that are needed to make Britain a better, greater place to live.
Anyone have a number for Jezza?
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.