Keir Starmer reaffirms his loyalty to the dead politics of Blairism
Some of us are old enough to remember ‘that’ Keir Starmer video. The former barrister’s 2020 leadership pitch was enough to stir the soul – even for those of us who thought he was a bit too slick and slimy back then.
Three years on, Starmer has made his actual political commitments abundantly clear. And they’re eerily familiar to 1997 and the rise of Tony Blair, which will be a disaster for all of us – unless you’re rich and powerful, of course.
Blairites gonna Blairite
In his first major speech of 2023, Starmer laid out his vision. Beneath a veneer of progressive language and nationalist nods to a ‘great renewal’ of the country, it’s the same old, same old:
But let me be clear – none of this should be taken as code for Labour getting its big government cheque-book out. Of course investment is required – I can see the damage the Tories have done to our public services as plainly as anyone else.
But we won’t be able to spend our way out of their mess – it’s not as simple as that.
What, then, is his prescription for re-invigorating the nation? Well, a Blairite commitment to shareholders is absolutely clear:
So let me spell it out – no more short-cuts. Strong, dynamic government is necessary but it’s not sufficient. Communities need strong public services, but that’s not enough on its own. For national renewal, there is no substitute for a robust private sector, creating wealth in every community.
Read on...
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Of course, one of the problems for the past 40-odd years has been that which Starmer is now advocating: the private sector. From the stagnation of wages that the state has to top up to the state of housing, the decimation of the public sector in favour of the private has failed.
The private sector does not create wealth – workers do, while bosses syphon off the profits for themselves and shareholders. Yet the false prophet Starmer has reneged on his 2020 vision in favour of an essentially Tory-lite approach, at a time when the country is in a capitalist-created cost of living crisis. Genius.
Blair 2.0
In 2020, during the chaos of Covid-19 and the defeat of Corbynism, many were convinced by Starmer’s pitch. He played himself as a socialist with a commitment to human rights, trade unionism and the condition of the working class which he claimed to have been born into.
Others were not so taken in. We saw in Starmer the return of an older, failed politics for which the pursuit of power without principle was the only animating force. New Labour 2.0 politics – and that is what we are dealing with here – is ultimately a continuation of Thatcherism.
That may benefit some people in our society, but your average worker is not one of them. Starmer is no better than Blair – and let’s not forget it.
Featured image via Wikimedia Common/Jeremy Corbyn, cropped to 770 x 403, licenced under CC BY 2.0.
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For national renewal, there is no substitute for a robust private sector, creating wealth in every community.
– – – – and look where that has got us – – – –
Delusional nonsense !
Starmer’s message to the rich and powerful is quite clear : nothing would fundamentally change. He might make a few minor tweaks to create the illusion of doing something, but basically power will reside in the same hands, and money will continue to flow into the same (offshore) bank accounts.
Bottom line : at the next general election, the Tories will win. Whether it’ll be the Conservative Tories or the Labour Tories wont make much difference. Business as usual.
The article is telling us what we have known all along all through Starmer’s ‘pitch’ from time as Labour’s and nation’s Remainer General he was opposition Brexit Secretary under leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. Starmer’s Blairism was oh so apparent when he rejected what was staring him in the face, of its (Brexit’s) curious nature, being anachronistic, surprising and painful to fathom, being that much of electoral socialist Britain was full square for leaving the EU ~ and, Starmer in Labour’s Brexit hot seat rejected out-of-hand, as did Labour’s PLP even though their constituencies were for Leave, along with factional groups like Momentum pushing the lie that Brexit was all Tory, all reading the Brexit runes with patronising superiority of ‘We know best what’s good for you’ to electorate who in desperation were pushed to vote Tory so that EU Leaving could be vouchsafed.
“to electorate who in desperation were pushed to vote Tory so that EU Leaving could be vouchsafed”
Not in Scotland or Northern Ireland or are you not counting them as part of your British electorate. Time for a united Ireland and an independent Scotland. Tories out.
Tories out – replaced by Tories in? The SNP is a completely capital-friendly party, offering an independent Scottish working class no power whatsoever. The internationalist nature of the working class demands unity, not separation under capitalism.
“… Sturgeon and Salmond speak for business interests in Scotland, including those whose access to EU markets and dependence on a steady supply of workers from Eastern Europe have been disastrously disrupted by Brexit. Scotland voted 65 to 35 percent against Brexit, the largest majority in the UK. The Scottish government presents independence as a means to reverse Brexit, while offering a stable platform for the intensified exploitation of the working class and the expansion of private wealth for transnational companies seeking access to the Single Market.”
(WSWS, 18 Oct 2022)