Thoughtful articles from Labour MPs are about as rare as hen's teeth.
Clive Lewis MP is admittedly not a standard Labour MP, having shown himself to be willing on numerous occasions to criticise the party's leadership and direction of travel, and he has been particularly vocal in this regard of late.
This morning, he has written an article for the Guardian. It is well worth reading because of the sympathy it shows for many of the causes discussed here and that seem relevant to the leadership of this blog.
I should acknowledge that Clive and I were, for a number of years, both members of the now-defunct Green New Deal Group, because of those interests that we had in common.
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He totally gets it. But Clive Lewis has a brain and now finds himself in the wrong party, not because he has changed, but the party has changed. How long before he moves to the Green Party? His values are much more in common with the Greens and his seat vulnerable to them if he doesn’t defect.
I’m surprised that he hasn’t defected to the Green Party already, and have been expecting this for some time. Maybe he feels it would be disloyal to the Labour Party or to the constituents who elected him as a Labour MP, or maybe he feels that he should stay and try and pull Labour away from the right. Parliament needs him, whichever party he is in.
A very fine article.
I’m reading “The Fraud” and “Defeat from the Jaws of Victory” both deal with the gradual destruction of the Labour party. The development in the Uk of neo-liberalism paralleled the gradual destruction of the labour party (mostly via centralisation & the suppression of debate) which as history shows happily went along with neo-liberalism. There is nothing left of Labour now and the May elections will show this.
The only question to answer is: what comes next? the outer-darkness = Deform & Fart-rage, or greens plus others. One thing for sure, LINO under Starmer have put into place all the tools needed for more repression, thus do quasi-fascists like Starmer pave the way for the real-deal.
LINO delenda est.
I was banking on Alex Nunn’s book ‘Sabotage: The Inside Job that Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn’ for my read about Labour’s betrayal of progressive voters which was due in June 2025 but now seems to have dropped of the edge of world (was it ever printed?).
Same here, I had it on order for a LONG time, but my GUESS is that he dropped it after finding out about Paul Holden’s FRAUD (OR Books).
Between FRAUD & COMPLICIT (Peter Oborne, also OR Books), in any normal world, Starmer would have been out the door long ago, and, IMHO, “released under investigation”, along with a lot of other politicians.
But we don’t live in a normal world.
Could we get the Labour Party proscribed under anti-terror legislation?
Agreed, excellent analysis, hit the nail on the head so to speak. But he is whistling in the wind if he seriously expects anything to change with this Labour Government; it just isn’t listening.
I wish that he was my MP.
Clive Lewis is my MP, and if he defected to the Green Party I think it’s highly likely he’d retain his seat at the next GE.
Agreed
Well done Clive Lewis, and thank-you Richard for highlighting it. I wonder how his colleagues will respond?
A good article indeed, but one which I fear will be ignored by the Labour leadership. Maybe Clive should join the Greens?
A good question
Clive Lewis is indeed a rarity, an MP who thinks about issues and comments on them rather than parroting the party line. He is correct to identify Thatcherism and its continued influence as a major cause of many of our economic woes. At the same time the need to change the electoral system is essential as with other changes to our constitutional structure.
He needs to get out of Labour, and drag as many with him as possible. I am seeing the Right wing network turn hard against Starmer. The Tories and Reform are all in on war, using it to attack Starmer. Farage is in the States talking to Trump, coinciding with Trump’s criticism of Starmer. Even Blair is turning on Starmer, but Blair is in Larry Ellison’s pocket. Starmer needs to realise that there is support from the Left if he wants it, but he will likely just dither, trying to walk a middle ground that no longer exists. He has destroyed Labour.
Clive Lewis seems to be everything that the nodding donkeys around Starmer are not. Thoughtful, analytical, and looking issues and problems right in the face. Above all putting the crisis of trust in mainstream politics centre stage.
But he doesn’t assess how likely or unlikely Labour and other ‘mainstream’ politicians, or indeed the media – who seem to love the incentivised corruption of the present system – will clean up politics and the voting system.
There is absolutely no sign they are in the least bit interested in capping or eliminating donations – despite the £12m Reform gets from a couple of tax exiles, and the two thirds of Labour MP’s who get foreign lobbyist money.
Presumably Starmer and co will not read his piece or listen to him. Dooming themselves.
I have written to my MP with a link to the Clive Lewis piece. I am not really expecting him to read it – he is Doug Alexander – but his minions might, and I guess some of them are likely to have influence at some point. I wonder if I will get a reply? I didn’t to my last letter, which was about the government standing by while the Palestine Action prisoners starved themselves to death.
Wonderfully intelligent and perceptive article, with the added bonus of going beyond the “what’s wrong”, where critics often get bogged down, to “What to Do?”, with concrete proposals.
It, and recent events, simultaneously confirm and refute what I used to say, which was that I wanted Clive Lewis and Zarah Sultana as Leader and Deputy Leader of a renascent real Labour Party, and didn’t mind who was Leader, and who Deputy
This, and Zarah’s intemperate handling of her part in the foundation of Your Party, and her foreswearing of Corbyn’s more measured approach, have settled the issue – Clive Lewis is the one for Leader of a revived Labour Party, with Zarah not in the running.
However, alas, the chances of any such event taking place are zero, I’d say, so the above is a piece of unuseful waffle, so I’ll stick to what matters, which is that this man, Clive Lewis, must be part of the solution to the present mess.
He has too much to offer to risk being trapped in the hulk of M.S Labour, already holed below the waterline, as it deservedly slips below the waves into oblivion.
I have always liked Clive Lewis and I hope he remains in politics for many years to come. He is what an NO should be.
Craig
Do you mean MP?
Apologies, I should have said ‘He is what an MP should be’.
I didn’t notice that my device’s predictive text has changed it to NO. Error on my part.
Craig
I wasn’t so impressed.
We are not in a political crisis – quite the reverse. The Gorton byelection and other local council results show the left is finding its feet and when mobilised will defeat the right. The crisis is in the Labour and Tory parties…
Lewis recognises the domination of the Labour right but weirdly omits the name Jeremy Corbyn and the near 13 million votes Labour got under him in 2017. The ‘crisis’ was that European style social democratic policies could break through – not ‘far-left’ – and that had to be stopped. This is recent history not a century ago. Now we’re back, but not in Labour.
For anyone who doesn’t “Follow” Clive Lewis, here are some clips to check him out:
Clive Lewis in conversation with Owen Jones 9 years ago:
https://youtu.be/LnJem92ElK0?si=EtjHYoUXd5t28_Nf
Of particular note are his comments at the end about leading Labour.
Appearances on television:
https://fb.watch/9YlF4ONZCQ/
https://fb.watch/9YlhcgVf6d/
https://youtu.be/EGOeWin_pC4
Thanks
He has also written a thoughtful article in the Byline Times ( March) on the Mandelson Scandal. In particular links to wealth .