9 December 2021

Diary of a Corbynista

So far so bad Keir

by Don Urquhart

2 to 8 December

In Shaw Sheet 303 J R Thomas reviewed the Labour Party’s chances following the reshuffle and was generally approving.

So far, so good Keir.

I don’t think it is too farfetched to describe JR Thomas as right wing.  Approval from political opponents has to be a Red Flag but not the kind that my lot like to keep flying here.

After the 2010 election Gordon Brown stood down and Ed Miliband took over as Labour Party Leader.  Dave’s political views were very different from mine.  Why didn’t you go for that Alan Johnson? – He seems a good bloke.

Red Flag!

I was reminded of Dave’s remark while watching Sir Keir Starmer telling the CBI how pro-business he was.  Sitting with him companiably on the platform was CBI President, Baron Bilimoria who had been on Question Time opining that the Labour Party at last had an electable leadership.

Red Flag!

Sir Keir Starmer came across as a competent member of Corbyn’s shadow cabinet and after the failed chicken coup spoke only supportively of the leader and his policies.

His pitch for leader majored on two things.  One was a commitment to eradicating anti-Semitism in the party.  The other was a promise to pursue the policies of the 2019 manifesto.

The anti-Semitism issue was a fabrication.  I will say no more.  As an Arsenal fan in Tottenham I would not get a hearing.  And to be fair nor would a Spurs supporter in Finsbury Park.  That’s what it’s like.

Once elected as leader he changed tack rowing back on many of the pledges he made during his campaign.

Having been brought up on a diet of Dan Dare and Roy of the Rovers I have loyalty to your mates as a categorical imperative.  A couple of years ago we visited the family home of Lawrence Oates who famously walked out of the tent into an Antarctic blizzard saying:

I am just going outside and may be some time.…

At the other end of the scale is Michael Gove who shivved Boris Johnson in the back during the 2016 Tory leadership hustings.

What really marks Starmer out as a wrong ‘un is the systematic vilification of his former leader.  He focussed on anti-Semitism and declared that he was the new leader who would eradicate this evil.

By all accounts Starmer was a successful barrister.  But this is a profession that prides itself on being able to present either side of the case with equal enthusiasm and force.  That’s how he looks in Parliament, a relentless prosecutor with an open and shut case.  I guess it’s a tossup between him and Sir Geoffrey Cox as cleverest barrister in parliament.

But this is not a man I can support, regardless of the worthies (I see George Monbiot is the latest) calling me self-indulgent for not getting behind him to battle the far greater evil currently polluting Downing Street.

Starmer was happy to brand his former leader as the person who led the party into racism and as the sole architect of the General Election failure.  I regard that as treachery. His attempts to rewrite history with himself as the party’s saviour are pure narcissism.

So far, so bad Keir