Labour in Vain

What a joy today to hear again from war-crimes suspect Tony Blair!  He’s never sounded more panicked, falling over his words as he warns Labour not to be true to itself.  He clearly shares the anxiety of so many of his fans who fear the Left is about to steal their party from them.  That’s karma, unfortunately.  ‘Don’t go back,’ he pleads, ‘embrace modernity!’  No-one’s going back: the Left is moving forward because the whole Thatcher-in-a-suit con trick has failed and Karl Marx’s views from the 19th century are seen to be rather more relevant than Adam Smith’s from the 18th.

That’s not to say we wish Jeremy Corbyn well, even though he’s a Moonraker by birth.  A successful Labour Party is just what the Disunited Kingdom needs to reboot itself yet again, save the Union and renew the consensus that Whitehall knows best.  Labour in power again, Left or Right, will be as centralist as it’s always been.  One can well imagine the establishment favouring a Corbyn-led Labour Party because of its potential to suck the life out of the SNP while still falling short – in England – of the number of seats needed to govern.  Two anti-austerity parties killed with one stone.

In terms of our strategy, a Labour Party led by another Thatcher clone would be preferable.  Successful radical politics in the regions of England depends upon the demise of Labour.  It means working with the Celtic nationalist parties that Labour despises.  Labour doesn’t understand regionalism, never has and never will.  It can’t understand how trusting communities to make their own decisions can ever result in the right answers.  Labour is part of the problem.  It can sometimes be used to advance the solution, but it can never be part of it.