For Labour leader Keir Starmer, there has been an undercurrent of unhappiness, mainly from those on the left of the party, that he may be more centrist than his predecessor. Some have gone as far as to call him a Blairite; others use terms like “
Red Tory”. But this is to miss the point: Starmer, it is becoming clearer by the day, is playing a game longer than the 24-hour news cycle. And he has one target he is homing in on.
That target is alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, whom Starmer has already bested repeatedly at Prime Minister’s Questions, exposing his intellectual shortcomings, and, indeed, his serial and wilful dishonesty. Bozo has proved himself to be very, very tetchy when put under pressure. Now, Starmer is moving that pressure out of the Commons and into the arena of public opinion.
He has made his latest foray in the increasingly desperate and downmarket
Telegraph - the symbolism should be obvious; this is the paper for which Bozo wrote for many years, as its man in Brussels, from where he sent a variety of mainly dishonest claims about the EU, to being a mere “
chicken feed” generating pundit more recently. Starmer has rolled his tank into Bozo’s back yard and parked it squarely on his lawn.
Moreover, he’s told Bozo that he wants to cooperate with him on getting the Polecat Enabling Act, more prosaically called the Internal Market Bill, through the Commons. What’s not for good Tory supporting
Telegraph readers to like? Except, of course, that cooperation comes with a rather large asterisk attached.
This
from the Guardian: “
Sir Keir Starmer has committed Labour to back Boris Johnson’s new Brexit legislation if the prime minister addresses ‘substantial cross-party concerns’ … writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he threw down the gauntlet to Johnson as he faces a rebellion from within his own party by saying Labour could back the internal market bill”.
There was more. “
‘Labour is prepared to play its part in making that happen. If the government fixes the substantial cross-party concerns that have been raised about the internal market bill, then we are prepared to back it,’ Starmer said. ‘But if they do not, and the talks collapse, then it is their failure and incompetence that will have let the British people down.’” And which bits of the bill would have to be “
fixed”?
“
The changes necessary to win Labour’s support are understood to be major, with it needing to no longer risk breaching international law and to address devolved administrations concerns of a ‘power grab’”. Here’s how Russ In Cheshire has put it. “
Starmer is saying: we'll support your bill if it removes all the things that save your neck. But Johnson can't. And he now can't blame Labour for it. So he's trapped”.
Or, put another way by another Tweeter called Russ, “
I'll support your ransacking of the bank vault on the condition that the bank vault remains locked and none of the contents are touched or tampered with in any way”. Starmer has further upped the pressure on Bozo by adding “
The priorities of the British people. We should be getting on with defeating this virus, not banging on about Europe”.
Bozo is now backed into a corner. However he responds, he loses face. That’s what happens when you delegate Government to the Polecat and his pals.
Who aren’t winning.
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7 comments:
Wrong, Tim.
Badly wrong.
Starmer won't improve. He'll get worse...slowly. Just as Bliar-Brown did. And, just as those war criminals did, all he has to do is wait for the whole rotten charade to collapse. As it will. There's nothing "new" in that strategy and it will be done with the muted approval of the political establishment via their media. As it was with Bliar-Brown. So if you think Starmer would make necessary radical changes...you're living in cloud cuckoo land.
Oh sure, there'd be a few cosmetic gestures here and there, none of which would change the decaying orbit of this country. Though of course they'll be bullshitted as doing just that. Britain would remain a craven client racist state at the beck and call of the USA, still warmongering, still looting national assets.
No, Starmer is a morally corrupt fraud.
You'll see.
Hey, anonymous - you know that Bliar thing has been used before, don't you? It was kind of clever the first time, 20 years ago; but come on, eh? Try thinking of something else.
The rest of it - well, the choice is between Starmer and Johnson; and if you prefer Johnson there's nothing much to say, really.
I'm afraid he still looks like the captain of the Esthablishment second XI to me.
Labour's only aspiration now seems to be wanting to be the Esthablishment first team.
I'd like you to be right, Tim, though I think you're wrong. It doesn't really matter because by the time Starmer fulfils your optimism, we'll be so far past the Point of No Return that we won't be able to see it from Jodrell Bank.
And when it all goes catastrophically wrong, Johnson can now turn around and say to Keeves, 'You can't criticise; we made the changes you demanded so you would support the bill. It's only gone all Pete Tong because we made those changes'. Source: every Brexshitter ever when challenged about the failure of previous negotiations.
@ 13:42.
"Bliar" has lasted for over two decades because it's true. See - amongst many other examples - the WMD lying propaganda.
There is no "choice" between Bozo and Starmer. They're both tories in different factions. See Starmer's public statements of support. They and their supporters are gobshites.
@Anonymous who isn't me
ROFL at the irony of a triangulating centrist telling you to try thinking of something new when they're stuck in the 90s. They're political Flintstones, using a bird's beak to play their Happy Monday vinyls, when the rest of us were over it pre-Britpop.
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