My lifetime ban from the Labour Party comes of age today. 18 years. I shall buy it a pint.
Those of you who remain in that party, consider that, never mind reparations, which would have to be done very carefully if at all, Keir Starmer sees slavery as nothing for which to apologise, because all that he thinks that he knows about it is that "Britain abolished it". He was never taught anything beyond the British State's version of these things that began at the end, and he has never bothered to find out for himself. That is a marker of the British Right, and a sign of someone who simply does not belong to our tribe at all.
The British media's idea that the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting might be "defying" Starmer, as if Britain owned the thing, is sidesplittingly funny. But Britain is never going to pay trillions of dollars, and no court is ever going to make even a paper order for it to do so. Yet Starmer also does not understand opening negotiations by asking for far more than you would ever get, in order to get anything at all in the end. So much for a party in hock to the trade unions.
And what of the other side? Nigel Farage has called on all Conservative councillors to save their seats by joining Reform UK. Sometimes people should be given what they had wished for. 50 per cent of Conservative councillors say that neither Kemi Badenoch nor Robert Jenrick could win a General Election because they were both preoccupied with fighting Reform instead of what real campaigners on the ground knew to be the Conservative Party's real opponents: Labour; the Liberal Democrats; the Greens, to whom the Conservatives are second in as many seats as they are to Reform; the SNP, who are second in every Conservative seat in Scotland; and Plaid Cymru, half of whose seats were taken from the Conservatives this year.
In any case, there will be more going on as I write, but of the 92 local by-elections since the General Election, in aggregate the Conservatives have won 28, an increase of 12, while Reform has won one, an increase of one. Labour has won 34, a decrease of 17, and we who vote in local by-elections vote in absolutely everything, so if CHOGM is indeed "defying" Starmer, then that may be why.
“That is a marker of the British Right, and a sign of someone who simply does not belong to our tribe at all.”
ReplyDeleteStarmer didn’t say anything about us abolishing slavery, he rightly said he wishes to focus on today’s problems for which we do actually bear responsibility. The Ladybird Books “postcolonial” version of history as black victims vs white oppressors is a hallmark of the historically illiterate Left. By the way it’s not Britain’s abolition of slavery so much as the Royal Navy’s glorious role in enforcing the antislavery treaties and freeing over 100,000 slaves destined for other countries that means we have nothing to apologise for.
And there it is. Of course, the places are selling social connections. Academically, they are not very good.
DeleteYou didn’t read or hear what Starmer said: he never mentioned us abolishing slavery. But he failed to say who say we owe reparations are illiterate.
ReplyDeleteOur dud comprehensives clearly exist just to make private schools look good. They turn out unlettered kids with the same illiterate left wing Ladybird view of history.
Someone clearly is, anyway.
DeleteThe Tory on Question Time said there should be an apology, the Cabinet member said no.
ReplyDeleteThe Winter Fuel Payment all over again.
DeleteThe arguments for an apology are so bad as to be laughable. Are all those of African heritage to apologise to themselves for selling African slaves to the Europeans or for carting off a million white slaves to Africa during the Barbary Wars? Should we apologise for the British Empire’s essential role in ending the transatlantic slave trade?
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, public school Sixth Form stuff. You have even lost all three of the King, the Church of England, and the Tory Party. Really, what does that leave you?
DeleteThe Tory Party will be replaced by Reform UK on the right of British politics unless it chooses a very rightwing leader, and probably even then. Pollsters predict Reform, the third largest party by vote share, could already become the most popular party in Britain in an opinion poll during this Parliament.
ReplyDeleteBless.
DeleteOne council seat won since the General Election. One.
Nobody except anoraks votes in those elections, and they’re about dustbin collections not national policies. Pollsters go on share of national support (a rather more reliable measure) and this Parliament has seen the government lose its poll lead in record time while the Opposition in still leaderless (which had obviously picked two Reformish candidates for leader). Never before has there been a greater opening for a new party.
ReplyDeletehttps://x.com/edwest/status/1842875118910947559
The people who vote in local elections are guaranteed to vote in absolutely everything. Week by week, the Labour vote at them collapses. But Reform has gained precisely one seat. One.
DeleteAnyone who knows anything about politics-such as pollsters who actually study voter trends, not council seats- knows Reform is already on course to overtake the Tories. The Tories private polling shows the same which is why they’ve chosen two Reformish leadership candidates). As Ed West this week tweeted.
ReplyDelete@edwest Reform's polling has continued to rise since the election, and it's not impossible, or even improbable, that they overtake the Tories at some point
Overtake in the polls at some point midterm? So what? Next year's local elections are the English counties, and no one believes that Reform will beat the Tories in those. The idea that it might take more seats than the Tories at a General Election is not being suggested by anyone. As my former colleague, Lord Hannan of Kingsclere, has put it, the invitation to defect ought to have been made in the opposite direction.
DeleteNobody who knows anything about politics takes council seats as representative of long term national voter trends-Reform UK is the only party continually surging in the polls since the election and no wonder-as Labour hikes the “tax on jobs” that is National Insurance, doubles down on net zero while failing to stop the boats and letting thousands more criminals out early, all in breach of their manifesto promises.
ReplyDeleteBless.
Delete