Starmer’s bid to engage Armed Forces is a pale shadow of Corbyn’s
Keir Starmer: I adapted this mock-up of him pretending to be a soldier from a right-wing site that was mocking him.
Isn’t it strange how Keir Starmer is attacking the legacy of Jeremy Corbyn in public while failing to offer anything better than watered-down versions of the former Labour leader’s policies?
Today is Armed Forces Day, so Starmer has rolled out a weak-ass offer to the UK’s serving men and women, under the banner of the existing “Friends of the Forces”.
It comes with absolutely no offers at all – just an undertaking to “listen” to the views of forces personnel.
Shadow defence secretary John Healey said he wanted to hear the views of service men and women. The party’s current position is that the Tory government should devote a chapter of its upcoming defence and security review to military personnel, overhaul the country’s covenant with serving forces, and champion the armed forces in public.
Compare this with Jeremy Corbyn’s five pledges for the armed forces, as described in Labour’s election manifesto last year that Starmer doesn’t seem to have read:
- Fair Pay – scrap the public sector pay cap, which has seen a 5.8% real terms pay cut for the starting salary of an Army Private
- Decent housing for forces and their families – end the growing reliance on the private rented sector
- A voice for service men and women – consult on creating a representative body, similar to the Police Federation
- End privatisation – root and branch review of outsourcing and a clear presumption in favour of public delivery of public contracts
- Support for forces children – better access to schools with dedicated local authorities admissions strategy for the particular challenge of frequent school moves
Those were solid promises, not wishy-washy offers to “listen”. Corbyn’s plan would have made a difference.
https://twitter.com/TinaMcKay_/status/1276770737853009920
Starmer’s is just a public relations ploy.
Source: Starmer launches Labour Friends of the Forces engagement programme – LabourList
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Yet another shining example of the lack of opposition and why people will continue to vote for more of the same come election time.
Keep ’em coming Mike and perhaps people may notice and demand decent representatives.