Keir Starmer is quoted in the Observer today saying that keeping the Labour Party united is more important than getting Brexit right.
I have one simple message to Keir: no it is not.
A majority of Labour members want to stay in Europe.
Even more Labour supporters want to stay in the customs union and single market.
The overwhelming evidence is that Brexit will cause economic harm.
The ability of this government - or any government, come to that - to deliver Brexit is in considerable doubt in the timescale available.
The impact of Brexit in Ireland is uncertain, but few see any upsides of any sort.
The likelihood that the Union with Northern Ireland will end is high.
The probability that the Union with Scotland would then end is also high.
But despite all this the greatest priority for Keir Starmer and the Labour shadow cabinet is Party unity.
There are numerous ways to evidence dereliction of duty. Of the many available this has to be one of the most graphic.
What Labour is making clear is that what matters to them is Party not country.
I regret that. This is the wrong priority. And the country will remember it.
If ever there was a time that the UK needed an effective opposition this is it. Keir Starmer is saying he will not help provide it even though be knows that is what is needed. It does not do him much credit. And it lets us all down.
It looks like we still need to wait for the courageous politicians we need.
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“It looks like we still need to wait for the courageous politicians we need.”
Unfortunately, it might be a very long wait. One expects the Tories to put party before nation. They’ve been doing that for most of the past 184 years. But one always hoped the Labour Party had a more principled political agenda. Of course that is ridiculously naive. However, I’m appalled that Keir Starmer would publicly make such a statement.
Viewed from the outside, the current internal bickering within the LP seems to have reached epic proportions, at a time when the country is in urgent need of an effective, functioning opposition. As you say, it’s a dereliction of duty, allowing the Tories enough political space to continue their destructive, regressive socio-economic policies, in spite of a wafer-thin majority.
If there is any light at the end of the tunnel, it’s a very long, dark tunnel (:
Jeremy Corbyn is not a John Smith or Tony Blair, he’s not even a Neil Kinnock. As much as I admire him as a decent caring human, in a pragmatic sense I think labour need an ambitious, dynamic, forceful leader with a better public image than JC has. Could be a man or woman, but has to say and do the right things for the good of all the rich and poor, young and old people of this country today, not tomorrow.
You neglect to admit to one salient point. The only thing that has stopped us from already having a Bluekip ultra neolib hard brexit is the Labour Party. More to the point – a back-to-basics anti-austerity greatly enlarged & emboldened Labour Party that’s no longer in the control of the neolib-light blairites. (Bluekip called an election last year that was going to annihilate all opposition & pave the way for Maymageddon. Remind me what happened instead)
As for dereliction of duty, that’s not coming from the likes of Keir Starmer, but from the zombie remnant of the chicken coup cabal. The Owens & the Yvettes. False outrage at some obscure blogpost 6 years old, or some dramatic rediscovery of ‘principles’ in the pathetic hope of positioning for leadership of – what? the much vaunted middle party?
Labour is on course to whack the bluekip Tories off their perch in the local elections. But what happens? The usual suspects manufacture a ‘crisis’ in the Labour Party. There is none – it only exists among the chatterati. Everyone else is out knocking on doors. And what they’re hearing is that for every one person that says they can’t vote for Labour because of Corbyn there are three that say they’ WILL vote Labour because of Corbyn.
Labour is NOT failing to provide an effective opposition. Quite the opposite. They are going to provide a government.
This really does not add to debate
If anything it rather proves my point
Why not address the issues rather than Labour Party issues?
Of course I agree, it’s about issues.
As I understand it, you argue that the issues are that Brexit will damage the UK economically; that it will damage Ireland (North & south) economically & politically & that it will break the Union – no more UK. A Bluekip Brexit most certainly will do all those things & worse.
But Labour is not arguing for a Bluekip Brexit, because that would be a disaster. Neither is it calling for a second referendum. The Lib Dems did & that was a disaster.
It’s a conundrum. But one I think Starmer & Corbyn have been unpicking with a great deal of political skill.
The other issue you raise is about courageous politicians with principles, putting country first. Ending austerity & neolib madness will do the country & its people a great service.
When Corbyn got elected party leader, the ‘moderates’ (moderately what?) said ‘It’s all very well having principles, but they’re no good if you don’t win elections.’ Now his principles have put him on the verge of winning an election, they are saying ‘It’s all very well winning elections, but it’s no good if you don’t have principles. Our principles.’
Corbyn’s Brexit will divide Ireland, will alienate Scotland, will impose all the costs of being out of the single market and will offer no gains
Where is the skill in that?
Martin – just wondering who that might be and not coming up with an answer. Any idea for someone who would wholeheartedly support the manifesto but not buckle under constant assaults from the media and the “moderate” wing of the PLP?
Hi Jan. Well, no, to be honest. I like Yvette Cooper. Jeremy Corbyn isn’t actually buckling from assaults, but simply being badly mis-represented in the media and he probably knows the issues within his party that, as Richard says, need dealing with, so anyone with his characteristics will be fine. I have friends who have full faith in Corbyn, he could well be a successful prime-minister. I think most people would sleep better at night with him as PM than they do with Theresa May anyway.
“I like Yvette Cooper”
Well you certainly picked the wrong place to say that. During the 2015 leadership contest Yvette Cooper made a series of deliberately misleading, haphazard and hysterically exaggerated claims about the supposed dangers of Corbynomics and People’s Quantitative Easing.
This wasn’t simply Yvette being her usual shrill-excitable, over-emphatic, unlikable self. She repeated these claims knowing full well that they were rubbish. Anyone with that complete lack of honesty and sobriety should not aspire to leadership.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/23/yvette-cooper-criticises-jeremy-corbyn-renationalisation-plan
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/09/01/jeremy-corbyn-yvette-cooper-economics_n_8072126.html
I have to agree
The claims were absurd and if she did not know so she was not fir for the job
If she did she was also not fit for the job
And that failed Labour
I don’t really get Corbyns anti EU Brexit stance. It seems to be based on a doctrinal belief that the UK imported Neoliberal policy from the EU when in my recall the opposite was the case: both Tory & Labour UK governments did all they could to promote Neoliberal ideas in the EU. The other plank of their opposition argument seems to be based on a notion that Corbyns supposed/ intended state ownership of major public services would not be possible under EU rules: strange when you consider how much of the UK’s PS’ s are now in the hands of European state owned enterprises: including 70% of the railway services.
I think the last point highly relevant
SNCF is one of the bidders for the West Coast Route, I note
Labour just need to get on and work out how to do things
There is no UK-wide political party defending the interests, promoting the rights, or representing the concerns of the 48% of the electorate who voted Remain in the referendum; that is a simple fact, and incontrovertible. We have been cut adrift, and left to drown. Effectively half the population has been deserted by the Westminter Parliament.
I do not think I have ever seen anything so utterly preposterous in British politics before. The Conservative Party, which was prepared to peddle Leave or Remain (whichever kept it in power}, is beneath contempt. The Labour Party is a disgrace. Public respect for politics is now being destroyed by ‘psyops’. This is the lower depths to which Britain has finally succumbed.
Keir Starmer gets pulled in a variety of different directions.
To begin with he has to contend with the “Hackney vs Hull” problem (Hackney: 80% Remain, Hull 70% Leave) which has come to symbolise a seemingly irreconcilable divide nationwide. Then there is the fact that two thirds of Labour supporters prefer Remain while two thirds of Labour constituencies are majority Leave (which, by the way, is a remarkable examplar of how hopelessly undemocratic Westminster FPTP really is).
So he gets the hard job. Partisan critics get the easy job.
If politics is not about principles it is ultimately nothing
Regarding Yvette Cooper, yes, your criticisms are correct, I should check up more. I don’t vote labour anyway. ( nor Conservative ).
So, most Labour voters back staying in EU,SM,CU, while Labour constituencies mostly voted in favour of Brexit.
Conundrum for Labour Leaders: do they let down their supporters and party members or their constituents?
Yet both Starmer and Corbyn decide to favour letting down their party supporters so that their constituents may enjoy the benefits of a flawed referendum vote, while the country braces itself for the consequences.
So logically, one might deduce that Corbyn/Starmer put constituents first, party second.
As for putting the UK first, that’s another issue.
That would require politicians capable or willing to expose all the referendum flaws, and they are numerous. Capable of exposing all manipulations and disinformation, capable of explaining why all this happened, and of offering long term solutions to the reasons behind the discontentment.
But instead, we have no leadership. No vision. No intelligence. Just dogged populism. Whether in good faith or not, well-meaning or not, it matters not.
Results do. And results of any sort of Brexit will be negative for those who voted for it most. Alea jacta est?
Oh give up
The very fact you say so gives me reason to keep going
“It looks like we still need to wait for the courageous politicians we need.”
They used to be called Statesmen that’s what we need not another politician (That is what Keir is.) and as you say a courageous one.
M