By Daviemoo
Yesterday, I went to return some books to the library as the Saturday of easter weekend is the only time the library is open. As it was a British “nice day” for March I decided to wear my customary “Anti Tory” top (which I got from SadGirlStudios on Instagram, for those who wonder).
Normally I get the odd glance, smirk or frown when I wear this top but nobody has ever actually spoken to me about it- until yesterday, when I had a conversation I think should alarm Starmer and his loyalists.
There I was, holographic anti tory slogan on display, wondering if I should have fizzy water or a coffee. Whilst I was queuing a very nice man and his wife stopped me to ask “do many people argue with you about that”? He pointed at my top and I smiled and said “you’d be surprised to be honest”. He said “surely at this point nobody sane can be backing them”. I laughed and said “again, it’d shock you, some people will defend anything”. We smiled at each other, then he paused and said conspiratorially, “mind you… Labour don’t seem to be much better these days, do they”. I shook my head, quietly surprised that this conversation I was told never happened in real life and was just a figment of my chronically social media addled brain was playing out in real terms.
“Seems so” I said, stating that I was disappointed with Labour myself. He and his wife agreed readily and then we all went our separate ways.
It should probably bring concern to labour loyalists that this discourse about labour not really making themselves distinct from conservatives is spreading to daily discourse. I have tons of political discussion and when it comes to the ant farm tunnelling that is internet discourse I of course hold prudence, sure that just because a few people agree with me about my revulsion for labour’s direction doesn’t mean that’s a wide sentiment. But it seems that as that fateful election looms closer, public opinion is souring on Labour.
Of course the usual white knights of Starmer will ride to their defence and give me the usual storied repeats of why it just HAS to be this way. It doesn’t, and I’m tired of people who call themselves politically savvy and literate trying to repeat defunct talking points.
For many, Labour’s pathetic stance on Palestine has been a bone of contention for months. The usual response to this was originally to repeat the Israeli state spin that’s been so roundly debunked that the famed purveyor of it, Elon Levy is currently scrolling LinkedIn to find a role where he won’t profoundly embarrass Netanyahu by lying on the internet and being easily called out for it by politicians like Alicia Kearns. My personal favourite response to mass dissatisfaction with Labour’s take on Israel is to metaphorically ball up and start snivelling “but Labour aren’t even in power yet”.
If nothing labour says matters until they’re in power, it’s no wonder we have a party offering poor take, position and promise on so many of the key areas of the UK state who still seem to embody the largest pool of support.
Labour’s stances on Palestine, NHS funding & resolving the wait list, their stances on tax, green energy, infrastructure & economic reform and more have been woeful- supply side reform and private investment or enmeshing public entities with private capital, again. Where have we seen this before?
Waiting until it’s too late to encourage a change in stance to something better that will also be effective is ridiculous! It’s the same trite nonsense as “you haven’t seen a manifesto yet”. By that logic I haven’t seen the tory one so maybe I should just let them say any old guff because ItS NoT In A MaNiFeStO. I’m judging them by their actions and telling you I find them wanting.
I have by the way read what apparently is Reform UK’s prospectus- it reads like Elmo’s “how to really finish the job of gutting the UK”, where the sweet red puppet has decided to offer tax cuts but promise economic growth, with one stitched paw knowing nothing about what the other is doing.
People too readily assume I am pulling for one of the parties opposed to labour- I’m actually pretty set on joining the greens, and as much as people will decry that as perpetuating FPTP I have nothing but scorn for people who seem to think being part of the winning team is good even when they bankrupt most of the reasons why they should win in order to get there- not to mention, engaging in the fantasism of brexiters, thinking they’ll be able to change labour for the better by enabling Starmer’s cabal by supporting him unabated and pretending you’ll turn into an activist post election.
Ultimately, even today I found a video of an ex member of the party who worked internally talking about her experiences of corruption under Starmer- from dropshipping favoured candidates and suspending those with credulity to the local electorate and even questions of the closed door vote counting done to choose candidates, it’s all well for people to look to the Forde report (which I reread two weeks ago) to point at the obvious ineffectual nature of a party torn apart by two warring factions, but to posit that an improvement is ruthless silencing of leftists in the party by the right of labour is absolutely comical.
The question people need to ask is as simple as this: if Labour have moved to the right – which if you don’t agree they have there’s very little point in us discussing this- exactly how beneficial is their win for us?
We’re told to be pragmatic, so let’s do that. If labour’s intent to allow private entities greater use of NHS facilities and increase what I would call unseemly practices like insourcing to upscale staffing shortages, rather than make the NHS better through funding and targeted campaigns to attract talent, it’s just allowing the NHS to lean on a private service that then is all which stabilises it- no moves to bring the NHS up to demand whilst, or without, this private entity investment, means the NHS becomes unable to stand on its own and will fail.
In terms of labour playing into the rhetoric of tories on queer people and small boats crossings, it’s doing exactly what Phil Moorhouse of Labour social implied in his recent video about Rachel Reeves perpetuating the nonsense of country budgets being similar to household budgets. The line seemed to be “Reeves has to say this stuff because other people said it first, so she’s not responsible for the lies she’s saying- she’s just continuing it”- which has all the exculpatory flavour of “I didn’t murder him, I just held up an axe and let him run into it til he was fricasseed”.
When it comes to green investment- which an enormous number of polls indicate people want, Labour have more than halved their intent to upscale green investment, which ties us further to the fossil fuels which we can easily link back to some of the unseemly actions of politics we see now- including their maddening stance on Palestine. It’s clear that western powers hope that having a stronghold of sorts in Israel ensures energy security. Trying to move us away from dependency on fossil fuels would mean an overdue ceasing of deference to regimes like Saudi Arabia whose human rights records are appalling, all so we can purchase the oil that’s burning the world. Refusing to invest in these vital initiatives is a flat refusal to create jobs, stimulate the economy and start to move us away from the fossil fuel reliance that ensures future generations will pay for our lassitude in innovation. Support for Israel seems less bent on the belief in Zionism and more on strategic need to ensure safety in the Suez and in our steady exchange of unfathomable capital for fossil fuels.
The point here, is that many who have fiercely clung to Labour as the salve to cool the wounds of tories are starting to zoom out and question what we’ve been cautioning all along- perhaps the time is ripe to think about what comes after the election, because the idea that we’re in a state of emergency that will end on day one of a new primacy is simply not useful thinking- whilst it’s vital we purge the poison of tories, replacing it with more poison does little. And the fact that more are becoming truly aware of how much danger uncritical backing of Labour is putting us in should terrify the avatars of Starmer’s leadership.
It is natural for the Labour Party to veer slightly left or right in ideology. The never ending irony is that many will state that the Starmer cabal’s actions are necessitated by Corbyn’s dragging the party to the unelectable left. Odd then, how the same people asking for pragmatism and gentle, small shifts in national politics also seem to cheer an extreme turnabout of party rhetoric?
Is it moderation we need or an extreme change? Seems odd to push for both and not one specifically.
The problem isn’t a general realignment of labour with center right voters- it’s the determined and ongoing refusal to adhere to the broad church rhetoric we’ve heard for so long.
Here’s the rub- perhaps I’m talking nonsense and the UK is actually just a conservative country that likes the Starmer rhetoric. It doesn’t seem to based on polling of what matters to the electorate, nor the party members considering their utter flippancy over PR or voter reform, or commitment to repealing the tories ridiculous voter ID law that reports stated were tantamount to totalitarian silencing of the electorate.
I don’t believe the UK is conservative- I believe the UK’s populace is forced into indenture under the guise of democracy. We don’t want supply side reform if it means suffering more austerity, whether in or out of the EU we want better ties to smoothen trade and give the economy a much needed boost, people want green investment, people want a move away from culture war guff and an unequivocal calling out of Israel’s disgusting war crimes, people want PR- are we being offered this, or are we being proselytised to by a Labour Party convinced by old Blairites that they know better in the face of the taciturn base currently poised to lubricate the doorway for labour to squeeze into power. that doorway narrows every time Labour refuse to offer these reforms and refuse to fall back into the very important order we need to restore- that politicians are public servants, that parties are consolidations of public will. We are not here to have our politics cut out and pasted to us by a party- we are here to form or coalesce around a party which offers us a vision of better- be it ways to bring long neglected private utilities back to public control, either through stealth, competition or legislation. We are not here to let labour offer us static instead of policy that will remediate our suffering under the conservatives. And it’s not just the tofu cultivating lefties amongst us who think so now- for even labour supporters are voicing their displeasure, however late that may be coming.
So many times now I’ve written articles just like this that I feel like I’m going insane, chiding and appealing to and reaching out to labour’s supporters either enthusiastic or coquettish, begging for reason to be seen. Labour is not part of your identity- it is a party, which should be in thrall to its members: Starmer is rumoured to have tilted the scales, removed the oversight and taken away the democracy from within, and whilst you may want to look at Corbyn and blame him, the end result is backing a party which refuses to play by the rules of plurality it has loudly claimed to abide by publicly for years. The time is beyond perfect to muddy the waters, demand more and better- every poll indicates a towering lead for a Labour government. Threatening to dent that unless they offer you something isn’t political realism- it’s weakness. Time to get strong.
Politically Enraged 