Sunday, 4 February 2024
The Midwit Cuckoos
Ben Sixsmith has a fine Critic piece on the looming disaster that is Keir Starmer.
Fear the Keir
Starmer is Blair 2.0 — but this time, things can only get worse
Most Conservatives, I think it’s fair to say, have all but given up on winning the next election. No, it’s not impossible. Keir Starmer could suffocate a kitten on live TV while announcing his membership of the Church of Satan. But it would probably take an incident on the scale of gleeful Satanically-inspired felicide for Sunak to have a realistic chance...
Still, this does not mean that we should be complacent about the prospect of Prime Minister Starmer. It is tempting, given the Labour leader he replaced, to see him as serious and responsible. Liberal Conservatives respect him for rooting out the Corbynites and exiling their hero with Soviet relish.
Frankly, I think that it has been an ignoble affair. Claiming that you wouldn’t wave across the street at a man you once called a colleague and a friend, as Starmer did of Corbyn, is low, cowardly stuff. Perhaps that’s politics but, well — politics sucks.
The whole piece is well worth reading because UK political prospects are horrible enough to offer a certain fascination. Much like our fascination with Darwin Awards, but this time we'll be going after the award if we vote for Starmer as PM.
Yet Keir Starmer is a Blair for 2024 — not the smiling managerialist of an age of cultural confidence and economic success but the grim-faced managerialist of an age of cultural neuroses and economic decline. Let’s call him Stony Blair.
Peter Mandelson himself has said that Keir Starmer is “the nearest thing to Blair”. Granted, as a close acquaintance of the financier Jeffrey Epstein, Mandelson can hardly be alleged to have the best judgement when it comes to people, but he knows Sir Tony. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
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6 comments:
He reminds me of Robert Redford in 'The Candidate' (1972) - running a campaign based on letting his opponent make policy statements and so alienating a portion of the voters each time, without committing himself. The question is, will he win and have to ask his campaign manager "What do we do now?" or is there a Blair-like radical (and destructive) plan already blueprinted and ready to go?
I would be very suspicious of any party that simply claimed to be in favour of reforms and policies within the same framework of nonsense that blights our country. I'd genuinely prefer armoured cars in Whitehall than watch the consequences of trying to appease special interest groups and out-woke the wokies.
Tony Blair always appeared to be his own man. Sir IKEA seems to jump on which ever bandwagon last rumbled past, and thus is always in thrall to his previous enthusiasms.
Plus if Labour get in with a large majority, as is expected, he will have to contend with the Labour MPs feeling free to pursue their own partisan interests without the 'discipline' imposed by a small majority.
It's going to be a mess.
Sackers - it's an interesting point because Starmer does seem to be doing just that. I think there probably is a Blair-like radically destructive plan, but Starmer seems more likely to be derailed by events and factions within his party.
Sam - I agree, there is nothing to be gained by appeasing the nutters. The armoured cars in Whitehall image is a good one, because there are too many issues where rational debate doesn't work.
DJ - yes it is likely to be a mess for those reasons, he already has abandoned enthusiasms round his neck and his party does have internal partisan divisions which never seem to fade away.
After all the far left trade union activists accused the Labour governments of Wilson as betraying them once they got into government. 'Sold down the river'was an expression I recall them using. A bit rich, from people who wanted Britain to be a puppet state of the USSR.
Tammly - I remember that, Starmer seems likely to face something similar on a number of fronts.
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