The years during which Mandelson and Blair had such influence over the
party also saw a steady decline both in the number of active Labour party
members and the quality of those rising through its ranks. A cursory assessment
of the calibre of Starmer’s Cabinet – many of them parachuted into safe seats
by factional chicanery – makes that abundantly clear.
Conservatives
Words and deeds
Is this a man whose warnings about polarisation, populism and post-truth politics can be taken remotely seriously? A phrase from my youth came back to me on reading But What I Can Do?: “How can we hear what you’re saying when what you have done is deafening me?”
With friends like these?
That the offspring of Holocaust survivors and the Kindertransport should be drummed out of the Labour Party for ‘anti-semitism’ is unconscionable.
‘An almost psychopathic disregard for human life’
How many times have we heard the vapid ‘thoughts and prayers’, ‘our hearts and thoughts go out’ and ‘lessons will be learned’ between the revelation of one scandalous tragedy and the emergence of the next?
Sir Keir and his loyalties
Eagleton presents an account that forestalls any sense of disappointment or betrayal Labour members may feel in years to come: Starmer’s first loyalty was always to himself.