The six will be reduced to four by 11 September and they will put their cases to conference between 29 September and 2 October. MPs will select two on 10 October with members having the final choice on 31 October. The result will be announced on 2 November but it's a poisoned chalice anyway.
In terms of gravitas, they’re like a collection of helium-filled dolls. And this is the best they can do. Brexit has reduced a once-great party to a rabble of non-entities. In Margaret Thatcher’s or John Major’s cabinet, they wouldn’t have been trusted with making the tea. The result is likely to be irrelevant for at least a decade.
However, I don’t want to dwell on that but on an article by Daniel Hannan in The Telegraph which is a study in why it has all gone wrong and why they are at risk of political extinction. The piece is titled: Labour is proving to be far, far worse than anyone feared (no£).
Think about that for a second. Labour has been in power for 30 days, the blink of an eye in political time. Starmer is widely seen to have made a good start, with clear policies and a sense of purpose around the cabinet table, particularly at the Home Office. They have a 174-seat majority. The Tories suffered their worst defeat at the polls, yet within days, Hannan has essentially declared the electorate was wrong.
There is not the slightest hint of an acknowledgement that voters were heartily sick and tired of the incompetence, the corruption, the useless expensive performative policies, and the wanton destruction of public services. We only get more arrogance and the certainty that despite all the evidence to the contrary, the Conservative Party's policies were actually the right ones. It is simply breathtaking, but not unusual for Hannan who has never been knowingly right on any subject.
He ends with: “This can only end one way, and it is the way every other Labour government has ended: in economic ruin for Britain” seemingly oblivious that for many people the Tories have already delivered economic ruin to the country.
The national debt at £2.5 trillion gets a mention but not who gave it to us. He has the gall to talk of Labour “firehosing” money at the public sector! Starmer has been in power for a month for heaven's sake!
Hannan talks about the 'disgraceful street violence' that we've seen in Southport, Sunderland, and other cities over the last few days in the wake of an "unspeakable tragedy" but attacks the government for blaming the violence on the far-right and in some way not applying the law even-handedly because Starmer "took the knee" in 2020 (when he was not even in government) after a Black Lives Matter protest.
There are clear signs of highly mobile, organised groups turning up to trash towns and city centres, loot stores, burn cars and attack the police, innocent Muslims and members of the black and Asian communities. If he cannot see that, I am not sure he should even be in the House of Lords.
And yes, social media companies should not be free from criticism as he suggests, they should indeed "face a crackdown for allowing hateful opinions to be disseminated." The Southport attacker was black but British-born and a Christian. He is portrayed as a Muslim immigrant as an excuse for these feral, tattooed thugs to descend on peaceful towns and cities and wreak havoc. This doesn't come from the MSM but from social media.
If anyone doubts that the recent violent unrest is driven by shadowy far-right groups and uncontrolled social media they would do well to listen to this report about Rotherham by former Newsnight journalist Lewis Goodall:
There are too many people claiming those orchestrating the rallies at hotels housing asylum seekers aren’t the organised far right. They’re either ignorant or have an agenda. Take a look at the one I went to in Rotherham and judge for yourself. pic.twitter.com/SCnxB8Dcss
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) February 23, 2023
Labour has inherited a nation in serious trouble almost everywhere you look. It isn't going to be easy to put things right. I have always believed the first step in solving a problem is recognising you’ve got one.
On this showing the Tories haven’t even got there yet.
