Streets of rogue electability full#

The biggest issue, however, the motherlode of dismay on the political left, is the internal report on anti-Semitism intended for submission to the EHRC… which was leaked when it became plain that Starmer was going to ignore it.

Streets of rogue electability full#

And now that the full official list of Starmer’s backers has been belatedly revealed – oh my! With friends like those… Those expecting a large scale return to public ownership will probably see those plans watered down over time. Starmer has been quick to distance himself from the 20 manifestos, giving rise to the fear that economically his instinct will be to follow Milliband’s “austerity lite” policies, rather than the large scale investment advocated in Corbyn and McDonnell’s Green New Deal. Nearly all Corbynistas have been sacked from the shadow cabinet the front bench has been steered sharply to the right. The biggest issue, however, the motherlode of dismay on the political left, is the internal report on anti-Semitism Neither organisation represents or has the legitimate authority to speak for all UK Jews. Not only has he agreed to the Board of Deputies of British Jews’ unconstitutional “Ten Commandments”, he has also okayed Labour staff training on anti-Semitism by Jewish Labour Movement members. Since that time, Starmer’s credibility has suffered blow after blow. His policies were mostly leftist, and even if it meant the dilution of some of our cherished ideas, surely that was a price worth paying to get back into power? Nor that he was part of the failed “Chicken Coup”, nor that he’d so far refused to disclose the backers of his leadership campaign, nor that his insistence on a Remain stance had been an electoral millstone. The argument that as a member of the Trilateral Commission he’s embedded in the Establishment cut no ice. With his fine legal mind he’ll take Boris to the cleaners. He’ll appeal to a wider demographic, he’ll bring the party together, he’ll heal the wounds. Good friends of mine said give the man a chance. Fed up with losing.Īt our CLP meeting we chose Keir Starmer. Party members were demoralised and fed up with it. Like countless thousands of us up and down the country, we’d taken a hell of a beating. As a hyperventilating commentator babbled after Norway beat England in a World Cup qualifier many years ago, “…Winston Churchill, Maggie Thatcher, your boys took one hell of a beating!” We’d been licked. Some of us blamed the Greens, but no matter: we were saddled with a vanilla Tory MP who didn’t appear to know which county she had been parachuted into. We had the numbers there were hundreds of us. Surely we’d done enough to hang onto the seat as for the country as a whole, we tried not to think too hard about that.ĭuring the weeks leading up to the general election Labour ruled the streets. They had the money but we had the people. As for the Tories, their candidate and a few councillors were seen seen in Stroud High Street for a couple of hours every weekend, but largely they kept to the smaller villages and estates where their support was the strongest. We knew the Greens were a threat and they fought a dirty campaign, but we outnumbered them and carried the narrative. Momentum was magnificent, doing what it does best: getting droves of activists out. Being a marginal, help poured in from all over. We had stalls, we had teams of canvassers roaming the towns and many of the villagers.

Over the years it has ping-ponged between Labour and the Conservatives, and at the last election Labour was defending a majority of under a thousand.ĭuring the weeks leading up to the general election Labour ruled the streets. There are a couple of smaller towns, with similar characteristics, within the constituency borders, but the rest of it is true blue rural. It has strong “alternative” credentials, being the cradle of Extinction Rebellion and home to many green socialists and socialist Greens.

Stroud itself is smallish Cotswold market town with an industrial heritage more in keeping with a northern mill town than its more genteel, green-wellied neighbours. What had happened? Many of the people speaking up for Starmer I knew as Corbyn supporters together we had spent the past five years passionately extolling the gospel of Corbynism – we believed a fairer, more equitable society was a real possibility. He proved to be the CLP’s outright choice, gaining twice as many votes as Rebecca Long Bailey, his nearest challenger. Members were permitted a two minute slot to talk up their choices, with the majority speaking for Starmer, citing his electability, his dependability, the fact that he was a safe pair of hands.

The Stroud Labour CLP meeting to nominate its preferred leadership candidate back in January was packed, yet the atmosphere was sober and subdued.