The people who made this hilarious homage to Jess Phillips deserve a medal
While Jess Phillips was still in the Labour leadership race, many saw her as the “most right-wing candidate”. She has now passed the baton to Lisa Nandy and Keir Starmer, who are also pitching to the Labour right. But one group of satirical musicians couldn’t let Phillips leave the race without a special homage to her disastrous campaign.
Phillips: not what Labour supporters wanted or needed
According to i News, Phillips was offering “Blair-like electoralism of a give-them-what-they-want sort”. She also had a strong anti-Corbyn record and reportedly once praised hard-right MP Jacob Rees-Mogg as a “true gent”.
Phillips had long been a favourite among out-of-touch media hacks. And her withdrawal from the leadership race inspired fawning headlines like Jess Phillips pulling out of the Labour race means party members won’t hear uncomfortable truths and Jess Phillips’s exit is a lesson in the limits of “straight-talking” politics. The truth, however, was that she simply offered nothing of interest to the majority of Labour supporters. So as Jacobin pointed out, her campaign ended up as “a cautionary tale for substanceless centrists”.
‘A Kendall in the wind’
With all of this in mind, satirical songwriters The Iain Duncan Smiths invoked the spirit of failed 2015 Blairite candidate Liz Kendall in their hilarious tribute to Jess Phillips:
An emotional musical tribute to Jess Phillips and her all-too-brief leadership campaign – this is “Kendall in the Wind” pic.twitter.com/bS9X3MJJdX
— TheIainDuncanSmiths (@TheIDSmiths) January 22, 2020
Read on...
All those celebrating Phillips’s withdrawal will surely find this song to be a fitting tribute.
Featured image via Channel 4 News/YouTube
We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support
The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.
The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.
So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.
-
Show Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to leave a comment.Join the conversationPlease read our comment moderation policy here.
‘Out of touch media hacks.’ Pot calling kettle black much?
If it was down to Jess Phillips we would be lucky to have a pot to call black.
The Canary at last acknowledges a ‘ disastrous campaign’.
Oh but hold on, not Jeremy Corbyn’s annihilation in Labour’s worst election result since 1935. No no no…..of course not.
The independent news outlet is mocking Jess Phillips. Thank god we are protected from the MSM gutter press with objective reporting on all the candidates by the Canary.
The thing about Phillips is she’s completely vacuous. Apart from wanting to be PM she had nothing to say. She affects this straight talking persona but says absolutely nothing apart from attacking rivals in the party.
Phillips tries to pass herself off as an authentic oik. Look at her background. Dad a teacher, mum a high ranking official, she educated in a prestigious, selective school, then university, then working in mum and dad’s business. Phoney in every fibre. Imitating Trump and trying to appeal to a base. Base is what she is.
Since when has having a parent who was a teacher been a problem for a Labour leader.
Shows how far removed the Corbynites and their activist meetings are from the real world people live in. The electorate won’t believe them. Oh, but we just discovered that last month didn’t we. But make yourselves feel better for another 5 years going around Tory bashing leaving the way cleat for Johnson, Raab et al. How they must love you lot. And laugh.