If, as he may well be, Keir Starmer becomes the next Labour leader I wonder if he will be a sort of contested zone, with those who were moved by his initial video and profession of core socialist beliefs battling it out with backers like his of the (very dodgy) Labour First and Blairites-in-exile who think he will be their handsome, Prime Minister-shaped knight come to restore their nebulous notion of electability? I was initially minded to vote for him on the basis of his being a unity candidate around whom the party could work together, on the assumption that the only future for the party, demographically, in the face of growing inequality, is the sort of shift to the left Corbyn symbolised. I've barely looked at RLB because, fine as she and her ideas surely are, the centrists will snipe at her as hard as the Tory press as "continuity Corbyn", whatever she says and does. I personally don't want to see her elected as a means of keeping the likes of Seumas Milne in a job because frankly, if Corbyn and McDonnell have to go, so should he. But I think she has a great deal, potentially, to contribute.
I mean, as E10 Rifle has said, it actually really shouldn't be so much about who is leader as the nature of the collective effort. Rayner as deputy might help keep Starmer honest. But he's made worrying noises about Labour "ignoring the middle classes" which sound very Blairite.
All of this is a way of saying I'm genuinely torn. It was much simpler in the last two votes; Corbyn. No doubts, no regrets, his personal weaknesses notwithstanding. It's galling to have to concede to centrists who have offered no new ideas except a delusion return to 1990s "when we used to win elections". No acknowledgement, for example, that Scotland was completely lost on their watch, not Corbyn's. Yet the numbers suggest a need to make alliances with the Lib Dems, let alone the right wing of the party.
Right now my instinct is; vote Starmer and pressurise him to be the best Stamer he can be. Alternative thoughts more than welcome.
I mean, as E10 Rifle has said, it actually really shouldn't be so much about who is leader as the nature of the collective effort. Rayner as deputy might help keep Starmer honest. But he's made worrying noises about Labour "ignoring the middle classes" which sound very Blairite.
All of this is a way of saying I'm genuinely torn. It was much simpler in the last two votes; Corbyn. No doubts, no regrets, his personal weaknesses notwithstanding. It's galling to have to concede to centrists who have offered no new ideas except a delusion return to 1990s "when we used to win elections". No acknowledgement, for example, that Scotland was completely lost on their watch, not Corbyn's. Yet the numbers suggest a need to make alliances with the Lib Dems, let alone the right wing of the party.
Right now my instinct is; vote Starmer and pressurise him to be the best Stamer he can be. Alternative thoughts more than welcome.
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