An article posted on the Windsor CLP WhatsApp group (https://medium.com/@christinejaneberry/an-argument-for-hope-an-open-letter-to-the-post-corbyn-left-e1e78cb775b8) was interesting and gave a certain amount of hope for a way forward on Labour politics, but I subscribe also to this piece from @Rachael_Swindon. http://rachaelswindon.blogspot.com/2020/08/why-isnt-keir-starmers-labour-party-20.html
The Tories have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into everything that has needed to be done, but we could have sat back and let the Tories drift the country into an even bigger disaster than we have now.
I am an ardent Labour supporter (I am chair of my BLP) and I am watching the performance (or lack of) the leadership of the Labour party. The Leadership is (to my mind) exceptionally lack-lustre. My concern is that if we sit back we will be allowing the Labour leadership to drift into a position where we allow them to a) stop pressuring the Tories when they need it most and b) continue to adopt policies that are contrary to where the membership of the party wants them to be.
There is, of course (and possibly legitimately), a position that says “KS needs to find his feet and that all will be well when the dust settles”, but that is no different to saying “support the Tories — they’ll get it right in the end.”
The (to my mind) sad fact is that after the membership elected the leader, there is no way that the membership can remove the leader. According to the rule book the only way the leader can be challenged is if 20% of the PLP support a challenger, and then only before conference, and guess what?… no conference.
So where do we go now? Do we sit back and keep quiet and let Keir Starmer drift the Labour party into some sort of ghost of New Labour, some sort of Tory light that will appeal to Daily Fail readers? Do we sit by as he continues to look like Tom Watson on Mogadon, and become the sort of leader that makes John Major look like Rambo? Do we sit by and watch good front bench MPs like Anneliese Dodds be Starmered and have a passionectomy? We need to speak out and like dragging the Tories to do what’s right we need to drag Starmer to do what’s right.
That’s my take on things… of course I might be completely wrong 😱
