According to the Guardian:
Labour must make “use of the [union] flag, veterans [and] dressing smartly” as part of a radical rebranding to help it win back the trust of disillusioned voters, according to a leaked internal strategy presentation.
The presentation, which has been seen and heard by the Guardian, is aimed at what the party calls “foundation seats”, a new term for the “red wall” constituencies that handed Boris Johnson a landslide in 2019, and other seats it fears could also turn blue. It will be seen as a marker of how concerned Labour is about its electoral position.
I think many might have uttered an odd expletive, or three, on reading that.
It is indisputable that Labour has an image problem right now. It is now apparent that Keir Starmer's greatest abilities are to be found in fence sitting whilst supporting government policy. And it is clear that as a consequence Labour is struggling for a poll lead when it should be miles ahead of a government whose policy failings have, without doubt, contributed to the early deaths of tens of thousands of people. So, I suppose we should be grateful that Labour has noticed.
But flag waving, for heaven's sake?
Let me state this as clearly as I can. Labour cannot win by out new-fascisting the neo-fascists in the Tories, who adopted this from UKIP.
Then let me state the obvious reasons for that, by referencing the Union flag it wishes to flaunt.
First, Labour is not in Northern Ireland.
And for all practical purposes Labour is dead and never to be revived in Scotland. Fifty years of its neglect has ensured that.
Whilst one third of Wales now wants an independence referendum.
Which means that in that case Labour is flying a Union flag in the cause of English nationalism.
And that won't just alienate Scotland and Wales even more; it is also true that nothing is more certain to alienate many in England. We do not still wish to be seen as a colonial power, which is exactly what Labour by doing this is answering that England still is.
And those it will alienate are on the left, not the right. And they might vote for others, just as those who once voted for Labour in Scotland now do.
And why might they do that? Because they really do not like this appeasement by the party of new-fascism.
If Labour wants a policy talk jobs, the NHS, housing and the Green New Deal.
Promise decent benefits.
Justify what it is going to do.
Explain how to pay for it, as I can do.
And then talk delivery, endlessly.
Hammer home that the NHS was not ready for the current crisis because of a failure of government preparedness that the Tories can never supply , but which is what Labour would be about.
But the Union Jack? Are we really all to succumb to the outright nastiness of the small-minded nationalist outlook now? Really?
I despair.
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So British or English nationalism is bad – you call it fascist – but Scottish nationalism is good? You seem to spend half your time agitating for Scottish independence which is driven by nationalism from a nationalist party.
Scotland wants to be free of English nationalism. That is something quite different.
Well this is the thing I don’t get.
Either nationalism is bad – you describe it as fascist (which the Tory party aren’t sorry to burst your bubble), or it is good. But it can’t be both at the same time.
And if independence for Scotland is good, which you seem to think it is, then surely independence from the EU is good for the UK.
You seem to be able to hold two totally contradictory views at the same time without blushing.
Or is it just a more simple answer? That anything the Tories are involved in is bad and whatever the occasion you support the other side?
With respect, if you think the world is that simple you won’t understand my answer, which in summary says it is not, and that your claims are in themselves false dichotomies.
But I know you know that already.
Which is why I also can’t be bothered wasting more time on this.
You are making a false equivalence between two different types of nationalism. ‘British’, i.e English nationalism is regressive, backwards looking, self-pitying, frequently racist and colonialist in outlook. Scottish civic nationalism is (generally) centre left progressive in outlook, and whilst it expresses pride in Scottish identity, doesn’t wish to impose this on others.
And as Richard says, it’s also about getting away from the rule of the idiots we now have running the UK.
With respect, my British nationalism is a respectful and welcoming union of nations which mutually support the others for the benefit of all. Just like my support for the European Union: we are better together. And that means accepting and celebrating our diversity, looking outward and not inward. Like other nations, mine has a flag and a national anthem, and a history, not all of which is great. It is a complex thing. I refuse to allow narrow-minded insular bigots to define my nation for me.
Labour may be right that waving the flag might win them a few votes, but I fear it is just as likely to lose them votes too.
There is a video of Merkel in which one of her exuberant male supporters is trying to wave a German flag next to her. She quickly takes it away and scolds him as just not the sort of thing they should be doing.
Here it is. “Merkel wirft BRD Fahne weg!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8PNgxbTE0o
That was 2013, immediately after the CDU/CSU won another 72 seats, their best result – arguably better than – since 1990, taking them to 5 seats short of an absolute majority in the Bundestag (and only one party has ever won an absolute majority, in 1957).
Yet still no flag-waving.
England: ethnic nationalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_nationalism
Scotland: civic nationalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_nationalism
Of course there are some civic nationalists English nationalism, and some ethnic nationalists in Scottish nationalism, but in neither case does the minority perspective have any significance.
I am wondering if there is a negative correlation between love of the flag and respect for people in general.
In Ireland, wasn’t the Union Jack called “The Butcher’s Apron”?
That’s Scotland you’re thinking of!
“Labour’s new strategy is based on extensive focus groups from Watford to Grimsby conducted in September alongside nationwide polling. ”
Starmer does not appear to have the beginnings of an understanding of what leadership is. Who was in the focus groups- a bunch from UKIP?
AliB.
Indeed!
You’ve got to laugh. Are Labour really so dumb!
Interesting. I wonder if those were the same focus groups I came across in a blog about how they were put together? The gist of it was that the groups are largely self-selecting from the only people who would ever bother to have their time wasted, i.e. activists and attention seekers. They are then fed leading questions, which are written up to match whatever pre-existing ideas are being sought. The head of such useless information gathering would be one Claire Ainsley, head of Policy. She had been an author for BrexitCentral. This seems to be the way Labour are going. In lieu of any ideas of their own they are soliciting the views of random people in need of a sandwich and a free lunch.
Oh dear.
They really are devoid of ideas.
Why vote for fascist-lite, when you can vote for the full fat version?
They are going to make Labour an irrelevance, as it now is in Scotland.
We live in a one-party state in all but name.
Oh joy! 🙁
It’s so depressing.
You’re absolutely right.
I fear we are going to spend the next four years with both major parties focusing all their attention on a million or so people who they think represent the swing vote on any election victory.
Which means all Tory policy and all Labour policy will be targeted at a small group of mostly white over 50s who own property and live fairly comfortably, but identify as working class.
Starmer supporters will say this is just about winning elections and once they are in power it will be different, but do they really think those people are so dumb they don’t know this? That it won’t be a massive turn off?
I share your despair
Well said.
Oh dear…….. I am embarrassed. Is there really nothing more meaningful for the Party to stand on?
I hate analogies with the war….. but I will make one anyway.
In the 1945 election the previous 6 years had demonstrated that the country survived through the efforts and sacrifices of ordinary men and women – and they wanted a different future that respected the importance of their contribution to society. The result? A Labour landslide against all predictions.
In a much smaller way, COVID has shown who our “key workers” REALLY are – and it is not bankers or accountants…. it is the army of health workers, delivery drivers, supermarket workers and many more who have been overworked and underpaid for years.
If Labour cannot articulate a better future for these good folk then it should hang its head in shame.
I so agree
Bravo!
But the problem is that our current version of capitalism, developed overe the last 40 years, is structured to reduce labour’s share of total income, to reduce the role of the state and to maximise the generation and capture of economic rents through the exercise of economic and organisational power.
If labour’s share of national income had remained at previous historical levels – or even increased – opportunities for productive investment would exist and be increasing. But opportunities for productive investment have been in decline and there is a wall of money looking for a return. Some of this money is so desperate for a safe home that investors and savers are prepared to accept negative interest rates. But much of this money is chasing highly leveraged returns in stocks, shares and mainly real estate and this is driving asset prices through the roof.
This, of course, is unsustainable in the longer term and there is a fundamental irrationality in the workings out of this latest version of capitalism. But, as Keynes reminded us, markets can stay irrational for a lot longer than one can stay solvent.
Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser, is seeking to pivot away from this misnamed neoliberal consensus and to restructure economic policy at both a national and international level with a focus on increased public investment, industrial policy and balanced trade deals that compensate workers who might lose out. There is also some evidence of movement in this direction in France and Germany.
If there is to be a significant change in economic policy here it will have to run with the grain of any emerging consensus in the western advanced economies. We won’t be able to do a solo run that conflicts with the emerging consensus (as Corbynism would have or as the Brexiteers will soon find out – in the opposite direction – at all our expense) or get too far ahead of the emerging consensus.
But, even if Labour cottons on to this, I still don’t think the required number of voters is there. There is a reasonably comfortable, home-owning, often quite socially conservative majority (with a declining number who traditionally supported Labour) that the Tories reassure and Labour worries, irrespective of the incompetence and mendacity of this Tory government. It is very difficult to counter the influence of the Tory press and the broadcasters who have been cowed in to following the line they set. Just imagine the outcry if a Labour government were presiding over 100,000+ Covid deaths.
I don’t think we’ll ever see a Labour government again – and certainly not on its own.
Hear, hear!
Great point. Really gets to the heart of Labour’s problems. I was listening to Clive Lewis on novara media last night. As an MP he does not know what Labour’s strategy is to win the next election. Only those in the ‘inner’ circle know. So PLP is not pulling together as they have no direction to pull, beyond wear a flag. They’ve also handed notice to community organizers, a few months before local elections. Local elections that Labour need to do well in to make a little buzz. Doesn’t not look good.
I believe we entered into a period of great economic and political turmoil arising from 2 major events, the Great Financial Crisis (Adam Tooze – historial discontinuity) and consensus on fact that climate change is real. The Establishment (for want of a better word) cling to what was and is devoid of ideas that can address the two major issues that face humanity – keeping the planet alive, and keeping people alive with some dignity. Unfortunately, being devoid of ideas does not mean being devoid of power, but it does mean that social contracts disintegrate and chaos reigns. The Labour Party is full of well-meaning people who are devoid of ideas (hence focus groups), but sincerely believe that no-one else can do the job better than they can.
True
Nell.
Well put.
If these people are the best we can come up with to steer humanity away from the cliff edge, then God help us all.
Starmer is no leader, he is a follower (of focus groups).
It is the “establishment” for better or worse, who’ll have the ability alone, to tackle Climate Change. If they really don’t “get” it, then there isn’t a plan B.
What can you say about Labour’s hopelessness as a so called progressive party? This is driven by, yet again, the results produced by the rotten FPTP voting system, and Labour’s ridiculous tribalism.
So now they’re going to go grubbing after the votes of a pack of backward looking petty racists because that’s what they think they have to do to win in these ‘key marginals’?
Well, if New Labour had done the right thing in 1997 and got rid of FPTP and replaced it with PR, we would not be in anything like the situation we are now. The 2010-15 coalition’s austerity, the 2015 Tory victory and the Brexit disaster, the 2019 disaster….all enabled by FPTP and Labour’s ridiculous, petty, arrogant tribalism.
Work with the SNP, Lib Dems, Greens and others you fools, not jump up and down yelling about yellow tories, tartan tories, and telling green voters to vote tactically for your party.
Agree with Vinnie and others, Starmer is not up to the job, appart from a fine impression of Geoffrey Howe.
However I remain a member of the Labour Party solely to further the cause of PR, 150+ constituency parties have already signed up to the cause and if things are to change I urge others to hang on ( despite ‘Land of Hope and Glory’off Starmer & Evans).
A move to PR can enable a Progressive Alliance as suggested by Compass and others. The Progressive parties have much in common, and its the only way to see Johnson & the ragbag of neo cons.
Thanks for the blog – sure beats the status quo Guardian
Regards
Paul Wright.
I’m in for the long game as well. Still paying my membership fee in the hope for something better. 🙂
Starmer is behind in the polls and the MSM haven’t even started to sink their teeth into him yet.
But they will, come the next GE!
I would draw your attention to the duplicitous integrity initiatived Guardian publishing on this story.
The link that you have above is to the promoted piece. What looks like the original piece by Chakrabortty was instantly gatekeepered and had Elgot added to the byline. It was since further edited earlier this morning.
This is the original by Aditya:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/02/keir-starmer-patriot-act-risks-turning-off-core-labour-voters
I have a rant to post – but will hold back to try and keep the focus on the above observation. It is vital to understand that the Guardian is not on the side of actual progressive social democratic change here in the U.K. or in the world, bar a few fig leaf stars such a as Aditya who are muffled when they write anything counter to the DS agenda that the Guardian follows.
You have read the Putin speech Professor and say it is worth reading, the Guardian has not even reported it happening, nor Xi’s, in the heart of the neoliberal forum Davos.
The problem of mainstream political leadership in the U.K. is that it is fully controlled; the media is used to gate keep that control by gaslighting the populace through pushing of the emotional buttons of lies built up over generations. Every minute of everyday. The lies around Covid, excess deaths and rushed vaccines. The lies around the EU and Germany and Russia and Empire and WW1 &2.
Believing and treating the lies and liars and keeping our thinking within the parameters they set is thus playing into their hands and immediately defeats any chance of moving the conversation to the reality of the human condition; Which Putin clearly stated in his speech, almost as if he read ‘the riot act’ to these gathered at virtual Davos. I would appreciate your critique on it if you feel like it.
That is not the rant btw – I may post that later.
re Guardian – totally agree. It’s been a long time now since I was a ‘Guardian-believer’.
This was a leak of a study from some advisory focus group, no doubt getting well paid, it is not official Labour party policy as of yet. Reading it I would say it was probably written by some young post grad marketing person with little experience of politics or much else to be frank.
One would hope that Starmer does the right thing and throw it in the bin.
However there was one point teased out that actually was worrying and of most concern;.
“The research also concludes that voters believe Labour is the party of “spend, spend, spend”, blamed on the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The result, according to the heading on one slide, is: “No part of the brand is insulated from lack of economic credibility.”
This is the image Labour has to shake. Brown was actually the first chancellor in a long while to actually pay down the national debt, before the banking crisis hit. So you have to really wonder at how these myths persist.
I agree with Richard that the Labour party has to concentrate on the big tickets it will spend money on and keep repeating that message. Sadly Labour’s economic credibility is like a ghost that always hangs around them and means they feel the need to justify every single penny, which is really hard to do when we have a population who still see the nations economy like a that of a household. Until we break that myth into a million pieces Labour will always feel the need to justify every pound they spend. The nation has to get its head around MMT. Which is not an impossible task after recent bouts for QE, even the Tories are starting to get this, even if they would deny it.
This Guardian article sums up what the Labour party has to push. We can learn from history on what needs to be done. There has to be an answer to the accusation of Labour being labelled as the party of “extravagance; inflation; bankruptcy.” There seems to be no acknowledgement that that same party built the NHS and welfare state during a period of massive post war National debt.
“The ghosts in the Treasury may still be whispering their three-word mantra, but the historically low interest rates at which he can borrow mean Britain is not going bankrupt; inflation is below 1%; and the big risk lies in not being extravagant enough.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/03/what-we-can-learn-from-british-history-about-unemployment
There is an open goal right now. Even if Starmer is only about competence, then he is about saving 50,000 unnecessary deaths since 21 September when Johnson/Sunak rejected the science advice to halt exponential growth in infection before it got out of control. Why on earth doesnt he and Jon Ashworth hammer this point – and campaign for a ‘suppress the virus entirely’ strategy as in NZ, Australia, S Korea etc. ‘Living with the virus’ a la Johnson /Sunak will condemn the country to be locking down into the forseeable future as variants emerge.
I wish I knew
An open goal indeed. There are many voids where a loud and angry voice should be. Here’s a more trivial example, but no less telling. When Johnson crossed the border, against the wishes of Sturgeon, Starmer actually supported him. He had a golden opportunity to call out the PM for reckless opportunism – a man more interested in public image than human lives. Unbelievably, he threw the chance away. Worse still, he sent the message to Johnson that he’s a weakling and to the rest of us that he’s an appeaser. Starmer has no political antenna. Nor much idea of strategy. As many have commented, his myopic pursuit of the mythical red wall ignores Scotland and the other swathes of voters he’ll almost certainly lose.
You can’t suppress the virus entirely.
Stopping travel from South Africa will not keep out the South African variant, because that variant is only named for the place it was first noticed. A similar variant will mutate into existence here, without transmission from South Africa, because virus does that. From my viewpoint, the main hope is that this virus will mutate into irrelevance eventually. It won’t though. It will be a more transmissible and more fatal version of flu, with its annual “jab”. From a govt point of view, the virus is not that bad though. Its main effect is felt in a group the govt has no interest in generally, the costly group in society; the state pension group. As soon as it is felt that sufficient dislike of that group exists in society, because of lockdown, it will “accept the public view that it is necessary to open the economy” and tolerate the increase in deaths. That dislike of halting your life to protect others lives is growing. I give “lockdown” another month, before people just ignore it totally (and many groups are now doing just that. Locally, there are large groupings of young people in carparks/parks at night, and picking-up large fines sometimes (£800 each for a young courting couple)). Road traffic is now back to normal, day and night. Even the traffic jams are now back. Atmosphere pollution is now back. Lockdown is now just a name.
Add-up the savings to govt and pension industry through the large amount of deaths. I’m sure people don’t do that. But govt and industry does.
Will someone please get this over to Paul Embery and others?
And right quick.
Well this is about Starmer’s level of ability. Having seen the response of the public to the late Sir Tom Moore ( a life-long Tory) raising extra money for the NHS (which the Tories under-funded for ten years) Starmer with his belief the government operates on a credit card and has no money creating powers of its own (despite the Bank of England being given them in 1694 in the form of banknote creating powers and subsequently used in the 19th century repeatedly to avoid private bank induced national financial crashes), thinks he can get some phoney jingoism to rub off on him. Pathetic!
Starmer is trying to make Labour electable having being unelectable for so long..of course many are not happy with him or what he does. Well this merry band of “progressive thinkers” are the main part of the problem.. in truth an “electable “ Labour Party will never give you what you want so why not form your own Party and mould Ito the shape you exactly want it to be. Then we will be rid of the faction which has led to a succession of Tory Govts.
I am wondering how Labour ever happened without progressive thinkers
“I am wondering how Labour ever happened without progressive thinkers”
I agree 100%..but the Islington Momentum Owen Jones set are a million miles away from those who refer to
You are displaying all the characteristics of a troll and will be dented from now on
Let’s elect a brain-dead Labour Party so you can sleep soundly at night? Surely that’s not you message is it Sarah? If not what exactly is it? You’re telling us nothing of any substance whatsoever do you understand that?
Sarah.
Was it the “merry band of progress thinkers” that caused Labour’s losses under Brown and Milliband?
Labour has had a problem for a long time.
Blair’s vote share went down and down. He won his last election with 36% of the vote. It was the fact that the Tories were so bad, that got Blair over the line. Not because his policies were popular.
“Why don’t you go and form your own Party”
That why I want to see PR!!!!
Is this the beginning of the end for Labour?
Footnote : if we don’t spend spend spend, there’s no pounds, pounds, pounds.
If even the CBI are asking for a 1945 economic re-set – well – what can you say – except ‘Yes’.
But I still wonder why it ever had to become the way it has – if we re-set to 1945 (or thereabouts) then it needs to stay that way and not just lead to another sell off bonanza for the private sector who will have avoided all the risks of setting things up and get the outcomes at knock down prices and then only to squeeze more profit out of it.
Covid has not just revealed how badly funded the public sector has been, but also that the contemporary mode of capitalism just does not make any sense unless you are a banker, fraudster or thief.
In the time before Covid we would, as a family, go sailing in the Med (yes, lucky us) – the best of times were when we pulled together as a crew and discussed how we would approach e.g. mooring up, which route, what time for lunch etc. It wasn’t always fun and there were disagreements, but we owned our mistakes and learned from them.
On occasion we might be guided in by someone standing on the quayside – in those moments it was incredibly easy to put all of your decision making into that persons guidance and lose any sense of what you were doing or should be thinking. That usually ended in a bit of a muddle and some embarrassment once you realised how hopeless you had been and just how many people seemed to have gathered to watch the ensuing drama.
Just as Corbyn should not have been following the advice of Milne so slavishly, Starmer should engage more with a range of voices in Labour and work through what it is they can stand on. As all have noted here; it isn’t a bl##@y flag.
And, Just looking at FPTP, Labour must realise that only a coalition with other ‘progressive’ parties is going to achieve anything useful for the country and a chance to lead.
Life goes on:
““Consequently, the U.S. military must shift its principal assumption from ‘nuclear employment is not possible’ to ‘nuclear employment is a very real possibility,’ ”
https://nypost.com/2021/02/03/admiral-warns-of-possibility-of-nuclear-war-with-russia-china/?utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=SocialFlow