Poor Keir Starmer has to mention that, as the incumbent, he could contest a Labour Leadership Election without needing to be nominated. The only reason to point that out is because he would not have the numbers in the Parliamentary Labour Party that in 2020 had been all ready to secede, and to litigate for the party's assets, if the plebs had not made him Leader. The 100-year blackout of the Left had been reimposed, so the only noises off that anyone would admit to being able to hear were from sniffy old Blairites. How the world turns.
The Labour Right used to be unique in that, by almost or almost always controlling the great majority of the most populous municipalities in England and Wales, plus the Senedd, it had an independent fiscal base, and that was putting matters politely. It controlled Council Tax, business rates, pension schemes looking to invest, sweeteners and backhanders from property developers and others, the allocation of jobs with the council, the allocation of better council housing, and the allocation of any council housing. But under Starmer, its citadels have fallen as if under nuclear attack. Labour Party membership is not cheap. If not to secure access to those goodies, then why bother?
It is like watching the fall of the Berlin Wall or the release of Nelson Mandela.
ReplyDeleteToo many of the old regimes were kept on after those. Let's not make the same mistake.
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