2015 was the only one of the last five General Elections at which I have voted Labour. 2005, Watts Stelling, because I could not possibly have voted for Hilary Armstrong after Iraq. 2010, the same, this time because of Labour's all-women shortlist, although I accept that it spared this seat a nine-year nightmare. 2017, Owen Temple, because of the Teaching Assistants. 2019, myself. But 2015, Labour.
Ed Miliband was catastrophically wrong about Libya, but he was not in government at the time, and he would undeniably have been a better Prime Minister than any of the three people who held that office between 2015 and 2020. Yet standing in for Keir Starmer today, Miliband recanted the commitment to coal that he gave to a six figure crowd at the 2012 Durham Miners' Gala.
Boris Johnson did the "paymasters" thing at Prime Minister's Questions, but in fact the unions give less and less to the Labour Party, which is why it has gone from healthy solvency under Jeremy Corbyn to near-bankruptcy today. Separately, Starmer does have paymasters, and they are exactly as savoury as the ones who paid for Johnson's gold wallpaper. Sadly, even Miliband is now beholden to them.
One day they'll all pretend they thought this all along.
ReplyDeleteI hope so. The alternative is freezing to death in the dark.
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