Keir Starmer’s speech – the best thing since stale bread
JVL Introduction
Caroline Molloy of openDemocracy was rather shocked by Keir Starmer’s keynote speech at Labour Party conference and his failure to rise to the challenges of an economic and social system in deep crisis.
It’s not just that Keir Starmer chose to make this an occasion for internecine warfare, focusing inwards and attacking the left while giving the most incompetent and mean-spirited Tory government any of us can remember a virtually free pass.
He also abandoned any progressive stance that might be even loosely associated with the great Labour revival of 2017 and the radical vision that resonated so widely then, particularly with young people.
Here she takes a long hard look at what he offered – and what has been thrown away.
We also link to the Tysky Sour evaluation of the conference speech, after Molloy’s analysis below.
This article was originally published by openDemocracy on Wed 29 Sep 2021. Read the original here.
Keir Starmer’s speech – the best thing since stale bread
It’s not capitalism that has to change, the Labour leader told us today. It’s you
Loading article text…
The headline made me laugh but what’s happening is not funny!
“Pride derives from work,”
Maybe if you are a University Professor or Top Lawyer.
But what if you work in Poundland, collect our garbage or are on a zero hours contract, what if you are disabled and unable to work ? Are you not entitled to some pride ? What about love, family life, friendship. religion, sport. politics ? What if you are retired ? Does your pride vanish ?
Are we put on this earth just to work, is our only value as a wage slave ?
What a mean spirited, ungenerous view of what we mean as human beings.
Sometimes I feel that some of us on the left are just too generous to our opponents.
There is such a thing as right and wrong and Starmer is in so many ways on the wrong side of history not least of all his view that the only racism that matters is when White Europeans are the victims.
speechless really – stitched up in full light of day…like you think i did not notice your weasel lies? Labour is finished and we are truly up shit creek what with multiple disasters all arriving and Capital gearing up for war vs the People
The clips and detailed accounts of the speech that I have heard are truly depressing. When a Leader of the Labour Party summarises his strategy as getting power as a PM above all else, without outlining at least at least in some detail, what the Party would do with that power to radically change society, then we know things are bad.. I know the argument that only power can give the freedom to get things done, but power does not exist in a vacuum, and the active context is as important as the thing itself. People really do need to know how the power is to be used to address serious current social issues. It all really did seem like an action replay of the early foundational Blair days. The sad thing is that Starmer appears to be intellectually dishonest. To parade around the country in his bid to become leader he accepted much of Corbyn’s policies, emphasised his own 10-point plan and, above all, to assert that he would unify the Party, appears now to be a fraudulent act. The attack on the Left within the Party, using almost Stalinist strategies, is quite frightening. I learned a long time ago that HOW we do politics is as important as WHAT we do. Indeed, one could even argue that HOW we do our politics IS our politics.
I am absolutely baffled that we chose such an incompetent to take charge of the LP, are we that stupid, have we got the leadership we deserve?
What is the point of the Labour Party? What is the point of being in it?
The tragedy of the current situation is that any attempt to create a socialist alternative would end up the kind of goatf*** that we have come to know and love about the “left”.
As the fabulous Zara Sultana said, to Keir Starmer, “Do your job!”
He needs to stop purging the socialists from the Labour Party and start holding this government to account.
Johnson probably uttered the most terrifying words in recent days when, at COP26, he said that this meet could see the beginning of the end of climate change. So, at least it’ll all be over soon!
Sir Ker Starmer is hollow, a bag of vacuuous spin and empty platitudes. His quest is about his grab on power. Keir has been nasty with the members of the Labour Party. The appalling events do not encourage public support.
Am I alone in thinking that Keir Starmer has an unusual accent? Keir comes from the South, rather like me. from South London and from Surrey. But Keir’s boring conference speech was delivered with a quasi Northern tone. Has Starmer, the phoney, like Thatcher, been through speech manipulation?
The most shocking revelation in recent days is that Socialist MP’s are completely split on a challenge
It begs the question what on earth has to happen to change their minds
Terry Rees: “… HOW we do politics is as important as WHAT we do. Indeed, one could even argue that HOW we do our politics IS our politics.”
Indeed. Another version of “The ends justify the means.” The problem is that the means will always colour the ends. That is why Corbyn gave me so much hope; and which is why those in power were so utterly terrified of him.
Maybe this is all good news. He gets us to vote for him with socialist policies. Then he cons voters with tory policies… and when he has power he implements socialist policies. Fits current political style of lying or am I being naïve??? [yes, says JVL ed!]
SKS’ reference to Labour being the Party of work was astonishing – I thought it was the Party for workers…..and as for his stuff about Britain leading the Industrial revolution linking it to British creativity and innovation and “honest government” – without the slightest nod to colonialism, the compensation paid to those who enslaved people (being a major source of a great deal of infrastructure) to say nothing of the gross exploitation of the working class…..there is much more that was truly dreadful about what he said – and what he did not say, the groups he did not include….eg mentioned disabled people just once – in passing…..
Starmer is purging the party of socialists in order to make it more easily manageable, and to shape its image into something he imagines Tory voters would find acceptable. The easily manageable bit is proving something of a disaster, as witness his chaotic conference; and his idea of what Tory voters want is a focus-group cliche which bears little relation to the truth.
All the evidence suggests that his project to make Labour ‘respectable’ again (i.e. no longer socialist) is failing. His personal ratings in the polls is disastrous, and apart from a brief blip some weeks ago the party is trailing the Tories by between 7 and 11 points. The Tory voters that proliferate below the line in the Daily Mail see him as a fake, a cross between a hypocrite and a con-man, trying to win their votes with false promises, much as he won over the Labour membership with his ten abandoned pledges. But his largest failing is with the millions who voted for us in the last two elections. Those voters are now turning to the Greens and the Liberal Democrats in great numbers because they realize that Labour under Starmer no longer represents their interests.
On a personal note, I take grave responsibility exception to Starmer’s mantra that those who agree with Corbyn’s observation about the low incidence of antisemitism in Labour are ‘part of the problem’ and shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the party: a statement that denies my own lived experience, as well as insultingly suggesting that I am antisemitic, whether I know it or not. This, coupled with his purge of the left, convinces me that he doesn’t want people with my views in the party. Since is this case, why would I ever want to vote Labour as long as he is leader?
All it lacked was a verse of “Things Can Only Get Better” to be a complete replaying of the Blair years and themes. Starmer is pursuing a witchhunt against the left under the guise of anti-semitism to clear the path for his right wing and conservative policies and centrally controlled party. Things Can Only Get Worse!
In trying to do a retread of the Blair years, the current LP fails to understand that people voted for Blair not for Blairism or New Labour policies. He and Cherie were England’s Camelot – people loved them! That will never be repeated, no more than Thatcher and Thatcherism will ever be repeated. And there is no way that Starmer can match the charisma of Blair. Thus he has to win on policies – on the ability to electrify the electorate with new ideas, with a new vision of society, of a party with the courage to see it through. No way will he and his fusty old New Labour leftovers be able to do that!!