{"id":85909,"date":"2025-09-14T17:15:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T16:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=85909"},"modified":"2025-09-14T17:15:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T16:15:49","slug":"labour-sinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/09\/14\/labour-sinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour, sinking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have read some political nonsense in my time, and this, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2025\/sep\/14\/britain-far-right-protesters-flag-keir-starmer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">from the Guardian this afternoon<\/a>, reporting on Starmer, takes some beating:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Britain will \u201cnever surrender\u201d to far-right protesters who use the English flag as cover for violence and to instil fear,\u00a0Keir Starmer\u00a0has said, condemning attacks against police officers and the racist intimidation of minorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Starmer said the St George\u2019s flag \u201crepresents our diverse country\u201d and he would not tolerate people being \u201cintimidated on our streets because of their background or the colour of their skin\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>To be very polite, I don't give a damn about the cross of St George. I most certainly do not want to fight over it. The far-right claimed it long ago. Anyone who does not recognise that is deluding themselves.<\/p>\n<p>More important is the fact that, yet again, Styarmer is choosing to fight on the far-right's territory, and it is impossible to win from there.<\/p>\n<p>They want to fight over flags. They are meaningless, hollow gestures, after all. That is precisely why a fight over flags would really suit them.<\/p>\n<p>Starmer should be fighting on what really matters, and that is taking away the fear people have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Of not having a job<\/li>\n<li>Of not having security<\/li>\n<li>Of not having a home<\/li>\n<li>Of not having healthcare, education and a pension<\/li>\n<li>Of not having a future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Those are the issues that matter. Tackle them and we will have a country that will leave at ease with itself, which is what everyone should want. Those are the conditions for freedom from fear, for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Starmer could do something about them. But he won't. He'd rather fight over meaningless flags.<\/p>\n<p>That is how far Labour has sunk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have read some political nonsense in my time, and this, from the Guardian this afternoon, reporting on Starmer, takes some beating: Britain will \u201cnever<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2025\/09\/14\/labour-sinking\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,16,118,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic-justice","category-ethics","category-labour","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85910,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85909\/revisions\/85910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}