Starmer Bests Bozo - In His Own Paper

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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