Have patience, Starmer knows what he’s doing
DAVID Abbott laments the recent Labour conference and the disgruntlement of members with Sir Kier Starmer’s leadership and he kindly invites others to offer feedback on his letter (Mailbox, October 4).
I can assure him that Starmer understands very well the problems facing the country and the need for radical reform should a Labour government be elected. He is a bright man and knows precisely what needs to be done to lift the country out of catastrophe into which it has descended.
Mr Abbott should take heart in the writings of Nietzsche, who said that “madness is rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule”; and in the works of Marx, who described religion as the “opium of the people”.
Starmer knows the electorate has literally gone insane. He knows Brexit is the new opium of the people. To quote the excellent James
O’Brien, voting is now a matter of “footballification”. You either support Brexit or you don’t. And on the blue, Brexit side, there is no rationality since there is no evidence of benefit to anyone.
We sit in pretty much the same place as Germany did in the 1930s and where the US did in 2015. In 2020 another despot was voted into power. This time in the UK. There is nothing to see here. It happens.
Starmer has read the position very well. He knows he is dealing with a deeply disturbed electorate and must appeal to some extent to their shallowest and most bigoted views. Hence he wrote this week in The Sun, a foul comic of the very worst persuasions.
Labour cannot win in 2023 or 2024. The odds are stacked too highly against them. The national press is 80 per cent Tory and with it the BBC, which has been reduced by the government to becoming its own stenographer.
Further gerrymandering of geography and voter suppression of the Young is likely to lead to a consolidation of the Tory vote.
The fault lies squarely with Mr Abbott’s left of the Labour Party which, in the form of the unions, rejected the call for proportional representation (PR), the only bargaining tool the progressive parties have to get rid of this corrupt administration.
In a country in which 20 Green votes equals one Tory vote (last General Election), getting rid of the ridiculously undemocratic first past the post system, where millions of votes don’t count, is an absolute priority.
I share Mr Abbott’s frustration but the Labour Party need to take practical steps.
On then to Labour deputy leader Angela Raynor. If Mr Abbott is so concerned about having a truly socialist government, he should have no qualms about Raynor calling Johnson “scum”, but I agree that she shouldn’t have said it, not least because it’s not a vote winner amongst the constituency Labour are trying to win over.
So patience, Mr Abbott, please! Go and vote Lib Dem if you wish, but under our current electoral system you will undoubtedly see a furthering of this incompetent and evil regime.
We can be as radical as we like but we need power to make Britain great again. So please let’s get behind Sir Kier Starmer, Mr Abbott, and let’s see what we can do against all the odds!
Dr Andrew Golland, Knighton