What is Labour for now? I keep asking the question and still I can find no answer.

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As The National in Scotland reports this morning:

A senior Labour MP has said that the party would not repeal the Tories anti-protest legislation if they form a government after the next General Election.

David Lammy, Labour's shadow foreign office spokesperson, was asked for his party's position by a republican caller on his weekend LBC radio show, following arrests at King Charles's coronation.

Lammy said:

“We can't come into office, picking through all the conservative legislation and repealing it.”

“It would take up so much parliamentary time. We need a positive agenda.”

So, with a golden opportunity presented to him to make the news agenda and stand up for the inviolability rather than the conditionality of human rights, Lammy ducked it.

Even the FT has noted this issue, as have all mainstream broadcasters. There is considerable disquiet about 52 people being arrested for literally doing nothing but hold a placard or wear a T shirt this weekend.

Labour, though, don't get it. What, after all, would a party born in the basis of protest want to do supporting the right of those who do so?

And what, incidentally, is the “positive agenda” Labour will promote? Apparently it is growth, the cost of living and inflation. But inflation will go away anyway as it always does; Labour can do nothing about the cost of living unless it redistributes and it is already staying it will not; whilst on growth, we all know that the benefit of this will all go to those already wealthy.

So, what is Labour for now? I keep asking the question and still I can find no answer.


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