Speaking Terms

The little-known Jeremy Corbyn is no doubt devastated to have been put on no speakies by the living legend that is Keir Starmer. And all for the sake of a report with all the credibility of the Hutton Report.

In 15 to 20 years' time, Corbyn's cortège will be followed by thousands of banners, many of them bearing his image, at a ceremony with representation from the governments and the liberation movements of much of the world. When Starmer goes, then it will be surprising if the undertaker turned up.

Starmer is in the twilight of his Labour Leadership. He caused the 2019 General Election to be called at all. It had not been due until 2022, when it would have resulted in another hung Parliament. But his unilateral change to Labour's Brexit policy presented Boris Johnson with the opportunity at which Johnson leapt.

Having positioned Labour well to Johnson's right, Starmer is going to cause its defeat for a second time, and twice as hard as the first. On Thursday, Labour lost two seats in working-class wards to the Conservatives, with 25 per cent swings in both cases.

If Starmer will be remembered for anything, then it will be for his recent speech in the presence of the church-burning anti-miscegenation campaigner, Tzipi Hotovely. That was the most racist speech to have been delivered since the War by anyone with the remotest claim to have been considered a mainstream British politician, including Enoch Powell.

The choice of guest of honour to hear it also made it clear who was the terrorist sympathiser, as it is now rightly illegal to accuse Corbyn of being. The Red Wall has fallen, and the Black Wall will be next, if only to mass abstention in the first instance. In any case, the Red Wall and the Black Wall are no longer two different places, if they ever were.

If, however, there is some sort of ongoing coup, or matters preliminary to such, against Boris Johnson, then in what cause and to what end? People who want to arrest and reverse the levelling up that has been made possible by Full Brexit are free to vote Labour or Liberal Democrat. Perhaps that is the problem? The only Opposition is from those who want none of that, rather from those of us who want more of it. So yes, I am indeed standing for Parliament again.