It hasn’t been very long but we are already seeing just what kind of leader we have elected. Many of us have been clear that our vote for Labour was in no sense a vote for Starmer, nor for the egregious privateer Wes Streeting, nor for Ashworth or Lakehurst or Evans or any of the vicious cabalistas who have taken over our party. I say this now because they need to be aware that their super-majority is a frail thing: it will vanish completely with a paltry 6% swing next time.
“Next time” is five years away, however. And that is a hell of a long time in politics. Anything could happen. Well, almost anything. We are not going to see anything approaching a socialist policy, for example. And we are unlikely to see much of the structure created by the Tories over 14 years overturned.
I am no psephologist, but Sir John Curtice is clearly correct. The Labour majority is the result of the collapse of the Tory party. Which is a problem for the new government, because its potential programme is essentially a version of what we have endured for 14 years.
We are about to experience another five years of the same old.
As we watched overnight on Thursday/Friday, there were hints that the electorate is aware of the dangers.
Ashworth was defeated, and Streeting almost so, not solely because of Labour’s anti-Gaza position, but because they are seriously unpleasant people, seemingly without an ounce of humanity.
We are fortunate that the Leicestershire voters kept Ashworth from Parliament. Streeting snook in by 500 or so votes. But this quasi-humiliation did not temper his approach.
On Friday, an NHS contract for ‘Integrated Care’ worth £32 million was put up for grabs. It’s a Tory scheme of course, based on an American system, but Labour were running with it within 24 hours of winning the election.
One might think that if anyone could be trusted to ‘change’ the received wisdom, it would be Streeting. He was from the start one of Starmer’s yes-men. But Starmer is wearing belt (Streeting) and braces (Alan Milburn).
Yes, that Alan Milburn, the former Labour health secretary who was responsible for the PFI deals before becoming chair of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers health industry board, in which highly role he championed private medicine.
Milburn is not the only milk monitor being brought in to ensure that Starmer’s apprentices do not allow a tad of socialism into their policies.
“Next time” is five years away, however. And that is a hell of a long time in politics. Anything could happen. Well, almost anything. We are not going to see anything approaching a socialist policy, for example. And we are unlikely to see much of the structure created by the Tories over 14 years overturned.
I am no psephologist, but Sir John Curtice is clearly correct. The Labour majority is the result of the collapse of the Tory party. Which is a problem for the new government, because its potential programme is essentially a version of what we have endured for 14 years.
We are about to experience another five years of the same old.
As we watched overnight on Thursday/Friday, there were hints that the electorate is aware of the dangers.
Ashworth was defeated, and Streeting almost so, not solely because of Labour’s anti-Gaza position, but because they are seriously unpleasant people, seemingly without an ounce of humanity.
We are fortunate that the Leicestershire voters kept Ashworth from Parliament. Streeting snook in by 500 or so votes. But this quasi-humiliation did not temper his approach.
On Friday, an NHS contract for ‘Integrated Care’ worth £32 million was put up for grabs. It’s a Tory scheme of course, based on an American system, but Labour were running with it within 24 hours of winning the election.
One might think that if anyone could be trusted to ‘change’ the received wisdom, it would be Streeting. He was from the start one of Starmer’s yes-men. But Starmer is wearing belt (Streeting) and braces (Alan Milburn).
Yes, that Alan Milburn, the former Labour health secretary who was responsible for the PFI deals before becoming chair of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers health industry board, in which highly role he championed private medicine.
Milburn is not the only milk monitor being brought in to ensure that Starmer’s apprentices do not allow a tad of socialism into their policies.
Education is another field in which he is fiddling nervously.
Joining the department headed by Bridget Phillipson, and replacing the exemplary Matt Western as HE minister, is someone we all thought was gone for good.
But please welcome back the woman who resigned in disgrace and was thrown out by her electors in Redditch back in 2009.
A woman who fiddled her expenses and whose husband, she said, watched porn while she was at late night debates - and why shouldn’t the public pay for his habit?
Yes, this is the appalling Jacqui Smith, who should not only not be in power, but should not be in the labour party either.
But it’s people like Milburn and Smith that Starmer needs. Because even in a party which has been purged of any kind of independent socialist thinking, Starmer is not brave enough or bright enough to run his own course.
He needs these dinosaurs from the tail-end of the Blair-Brown hegemony.
He’s running scared of the likes of Faiza Shaheen, Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, Ken Loach. He’s even frightened of eminently sensible, moderate, intelligent and honourable MPs like Matt Western with their cross-party appeal and understated skills, who have shown they can win a Tory seat and build a foundation of votes. (Starmer of course managed to lose 18,000 of the votes he gained under Corbyn.)
Like so many good people who have been members of the Labour party for much longer than Starmer, and who fought a safe Tory constituency rather than a safe Labour one, Matt is not required on this voyage.
But without him, and people like him, we won’t get anywhere.
Today from the everysmith vaults: Meanwhile, Bob is on the road again. It’s the Outlaw Tour with Willie Nelson, and he’s changing the set list each evening. Fortunately, on the road with him are some great tapers - notable BlueChair - sending their recordings to Benny Boy for tweaking and refinement. Currently playing, is the show from Bethel on Sunday. Sox beat the Evil Empire that night too!
Joining the department headed by Bridget Phillipson, and replacing the exemplary Matt Western as HE minister, is someone we all thought was gone for good.
But please welcome back the woman who resigned in disgrace and was thrown out by her electors in Redditch back in 2009.
A woman who fiddled her expenses and whose husband, she said, watched porn while she was at late night debates - and why shouldn’t the public pay for his habit?
Yes, this is the appalling Jacqui Smith, who should not only not be in power, but should not be in the labour party either.
But it’s people like Milburn and Smith that Starmer needs. Because even in a party which has been purged of any kind of independent socialist thinking, Starmer is not brave enough or bright enough to run his own course.
He needs these dinosaurs from the tail-end of the Blair-Brown hegemony.
He’s running scared of the likes of Faiza Shaheen, Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, Ken Loach. He’s even frightened of eminently sensible, moderate, intelligent and honourable MPs like Matt Western with their cross-party appeal and understated skills, who have shown they can win a Tory seat and build a foundation of votes. (Starmer of course managed to lose 18,000 of the votes he gained under Corbyn.)
Like so many good people who have been members of the Labour party for much longer than Starmer, and who fought a safe Tory constituency rather than a safe Labour one, Matt is not required on this voyage.
But without him, and people like him, we won’t get anywhere.
Today from the everysmith vaults: Meanwhile, Bob is on the road again. It’s the Outlaw Tour with Willie Nelson, and he’s changing the set list each evening. Fortunately, on the road with him are some great tapers - notable BlueChair - sending their recordings to Benny Boy for tweaking and refinement. Currently playing, is the show from Bethel on Sunday. Sox beat the Evil Empire that night too!
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