Sir Keir Starmer - Labour Party Leader

[Lang Spoon]

I remember the Spectator delighting in William Hague "skewering" Blair in PMQs. No one gives a fuck about PMQs.

[MsD]

A momentous occasion, today.

One year of Kief.

[Sporting]

A momentous occasion, today.

One year of Kief.

A year of Keith Richards would have been better.

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/WSJPolitics/status/1378549638253395973?s=20

so this was a serious policy after all... well I never

[Nefertiti2]

Oh look a lazy incompetent liar who was once a Labour MP is propagating far right conspiracy theories

https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1378647483417513984?s=20

[MsD]

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/LeftieStats/status/1378704896128643078?s=20

[Nefertiti2]

If only someone was able to explain why Labour did so well disastrously in 2017 i2010

https://twitter.com/jackwb1/status/1378695288353869825?s=21

[E10 Rifle]

John Rentoul is just very silly. Does anyone take him seriously still?

Going back to antisemitism, me and my other half were just wondering the other day what's happened to all the antisemitism education training we were promised (and which in our CLP had been teed up by a prominent Left activist). That was supposed to be something everyone agreed should happen a couple of years ago and yet … nothing. No urgency to it all. I genuinely think it would be a good idea but, suddenly, not an urgent concern.

[Snake Plissken]

I don’t think you need it anymore. Dame Louise Ellman has announced that she is rejoining the Party as an “anniversary gift” to Starmer for his work in getting rid of antisemitism.

So problem solved.

[DCI Harry Batt]

John Rentoul is just very silly. Does anyone take him seriously still?

He gets paid for writing stuff, doesn't he? So someone does.

[Nefertiti2]

He gets paid for writing stuff, doesn't he? So someone does.

he's also a visiting professor at Kings College London.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Lordy.

[E10 Rifle]

Blimey, some politics students at KCL are getting properly mugged off. Definitely worth a fees and rents strike

[DCI Harry Batt]

That piece of filth Callinicos is a resident prof there, so yeah, hard times.

[E10 Rifle]

Christ, I'd forgotten about him. Still a rape-denier I presume?

[Nefertiti2]

Some interesting counter revolutionary history.

Alex Callinicos’ maternal grandfather was the 2nd Lord Acton. He married Countess Marie von Arco auf Valley daughter of the Bavarian Count Maximilian von Arco auf Valley,.

Marie’s nephew ( and therefore Callinicos first cousin once removed ) Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley was the far right activist who assassinated the Bavarian socialist prime minister Kurt Eisner.

[ursus arctos]

Shot Eisner in the back as Eisner was going to Parliament in the hope that doing so would gain him entrance to an ultra-right secret society that had been wary of Arco-Valley's possible Jewish ancestry.

Sentenced to death, but only served five years.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Christ, I'd forgotten about him. Still a rape-denier I presume?

Totes.

[Levin]

That's a good reminder for me to buy Dreamers by Volker Weidermann.

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/1378993105639243779?s=20

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/ta_mills/status/1378985318255329280?s=20

Keir Starmer has had plenty of coverage. And nearly all of it has been soft and supportive. If Keir isn't getting noticed, it's because he's not using these plentiful avenues to say anything memorable or meaningful. Second, it appears Keir's anonymous outriders can only conceive of opposition in two ways, as either shouty and ranty or as "constructive", which always means giving the government a free pass save some minor aspects of policy and positioning. There was a third way, which any assessment of Keir's record needs reminding of, and that's what Jeremy Corbyn accomplished in the dead duck days of his leadership. Contrary to the invented histories circulating for factional advantage, not only was he ahead of the government in calling for proper quarantine strategies, he was constructive because he offered policy solutions to problems, which the Tories promptly took up. This is something Keir has steered clear away from, apart from a ritualistic request that the government extend the Job Retention Scheme or carry on the measly uplift to Universal Credit.

Since his first day in the job, the openings have been there for Keir to carry on in the same vein, but he didn't. Why? Some might put it down to a personal failing but in fact it has everything to do with his politics. Despite being weak on opposition, Keir is the most authoritarian (though certainly not authoritative) leader Labour has had since Tony Blair. His politics, such as they are, depend on affirming state authority and particularly government as not just the key but the only institution for getting things done. Keir's opposition to Boris Johnson, when it has manifested, has not gone for the jugular nor offered alternative ways of doing things because that might undermine the government's authority by creating an alternative to it. Even though he would be this counterpoint, Keir's strategy depends on the restoration and protection of state authority. Talking about policy and attacking the Tories on big picture stuff, of even his reticence to mention scores of thousands of dead, is an attempt to oppose while preserving the authority he seeks to draw on if he enters Number 10. In practice this means anemia. He has let the Tories define the Covid-19 crisis, and as such they're setting about defining the peace. Clever clever games leading to stupid stupid outcomes.

[Snake Plissken]

It is as if British politics has become a contest in gaslighting

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1378974136077320197

Previous Leader meets members of Hamas: Anti-semitism
Current Leader visits homophobic church and tweets about the important work that they do in their community: Not to be taken as supporting their views.

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1379164412632793090?s=20

[DCI Harry Batt]

The old "tough it out then cave after a few days, thus throwing everyone under the bus" strategy.