Broken Lock

Last night, no one who had been elected as a Labour MP voted to save the Triple Lock that itself guaranteed only the most meagre pension in the developed world. No one. Even the DUP managed it. The Liberal Democrats managed it during their Conference. But none of them. Not even Jeremy Corbyn.

That absurd party is now planning to bring back its Electoral College, because a man elected by the members thinks that the members are scum. It is hilarious that in this day and age, there are supposedly serious figures who imagine that anyone would join a party in which their only role would be to curtsy to the passing limousines of any MPs, much less of the Parliamentary Labour Party's dismal collection of middlebrows with silver spoons sticking out them.

But why does Starmer want to give so much power to the MPs, anyway? Throughout the Corbyn years, they were depicted as a vast reservoir of untapped talent. But Starmer thinks so little of them that he wants to flood the Parliamentary Labour Party with people who had never voted Labour in their lives. Perhaps the Electoral College would return only once Labour MPs were like that?

It was only ever an unwanted compromise, so the obvious end is once again to have the Leader elected only by the MPs. He in turn would once again have the sole say over policy, and they would be in the same position as they had always been, effectively irremovable as parliamentary candidates. Constituency Labour Parties long ago lost what little role they had ever had in selecting even first time candidates, and the rest will be abolished very soon.

Starmer and his circle truly believe that the serfs are so dazzled by their brilliance that they would join a party like that. A party whose every MP had failed to vote to save the Triple Lock that itself guaranteed only the most meagre pension in the developed world.