Keir Starmer: laying down the law? Or laying the law to rest altogether?

This Writer’s brother, the Beast, has highlighted questions about whether the Labour Party should be allowed into public office under its current leadership.

He  writes:

Yesterday’s Metro free newspaper published this letter by David Lindsay of Lanchester, asking the question that an increasing number of people are asking: is Labour really going to be any different to the Tories, given what Blair was like when he won the 1997 election?

‘Having been guaranteed victory since the financial crisis of September 16, 1992 – Black Wednesday – when hardly anyone had ever heard of Tony Blair, Labour went into the 1997 election promising to stick to the Conservatives’ tax rates and departmental spending limits.

‘That was not an electoral necessity. It was what Blair and his court, who could have done anything they pleased, actively wanted to do.

‘Current leader Sir Keir Starmer and his shadow secretary Rachel Reeves have promised the same thing. Again, not because they have to but because they want to.

‘What will be the point of a General Election at which both main parties have the same plans for tax and spending?

‘Once elected, Blair and Gordon Brown surrendered democratic political control of monetary policy with no electoral mandate to do so (by making the the Bank of England independent), while Blair, his health secretary Alan Milburn and policy advisor Paul Corrigan brought the privatisation of the NHS from the outer fringes of the think tank circuit to the heart of government.

‘Today’s interest rates, not even passed on to savers, are the result of the first measure. Meanwhile, Labour’s 1997 pledge card had promised to abolish the NHS internal market. Those were the opposite of the truth. And here we are again.’

So the only promise Tony Blair and Gordon Brown kept was to maintain Tory economic policies. What did that make them?

And now we have Keir Stürmer making the same promise and reneging on everything else.

But there’s worse. From the way Stürmer treats Labour Party members, it seems he should never be allowed to affect the lives of all 68 million people living in the United Kingdom.

Diane Pearson was a party member. Jewish Voice for Labour explains what happened to her:

On 5th June Diane Pearson, long-time Labour activist, received an email from the Governance and Legal Unit of the Labour Party alleging that she had committed “a prohibited act” viz: “Possessing membership of, providing financial assistance to, sitting on the ruling body of or otherwise supporting (as may be defined by the NEC) any political organisation that the NEC in its absolute discretion shall declare to be inimical with the aims and values of the Party.”

We all know the various left organisations that were banned in July 2021 under this clause and association with them made retrospective i.e. you are equally guilty for having liked a tweet from one of these organisations years before it was banned as you are from being a leading and active member – leaving aside the dubious reasons given for banning such organisations in the first place.

Diane Pearson is (or rather was) an active member of Keir Starmer’s constituency party, Holborn and St Pancras. On 7th July she received a formal notice of “Termination of Membership of the Labour Party”.

And here’s her heartfelt letter to her MP, expressing her feelings about the state of Labour under its current leader (who happens to be the same MP):

As I told you in the street today I was kicked out of the Labour Party yesterday (7 July).  I have to say I am relieved as being a member in Holborn and St Pancras CLP has become like being in a viper’s nest. I was kicked out for being a member of a proscribed group.  Utterly ludicrous.  I recall that on 19^th November 2021 you were on Radio 4 Today programme and you said, among other things, in reference to MPs’ lobbying and second jobs, “Don’t penalise people now for doing things in the past that were allowed at the time.”  Which is exactly what you are doing with regards to purging left members that you and your friends Evans, Blair and Mandelson among others want rid of. Many Jewish members have been purged for their support of Palestine and BDS.  This is pure anti-semitism.

I didn’t vote for you to be my MP and I am so glad my instinct was right.  I would have hoped for better, you being a Human Rights Lawyer, you are certainly no politician and will never be, I hoped you would be honest and fair and not a liar like Johnson but you are no better.  You used the very popular 2019 Labour Party manifesto, fully costed, to get elected as leader as you knew you would woo those who hadn’t already seen through you.  Then as soon as you got elected you used the state of the country as an excuse to ditch every single pledge.  You were also the cause of the 2019 election result although you can never bring yourself to admit it, and now you blame others.  If you hadn’t dreamt up the sentence at the 2018 Conference about having another referendum ‘with the option to remain on the ballot paper’ Labour would have done better than they did by following the country’s wish to exit the EU, as happened in 2017.  Jeremy Corbyn should have sacked you on the spot, but unlike you, he is an honourable man. Of course Labour did so well in 2017 but you and your cronies have decided to airbrush that result from history.  It is now clear that despite having been a key member of Jeremy Corbyn’s team and calling him a friend that you were always working to undermine him and his policies, which were supported by the majority of the country.  Now you have withdrawn the whip from lifelong socialists like Jeremy, Diane Abbott, Claudia Webbe and others, which is not in your remit, while welcoming Christian Wakeford, Luciana Berger and others who have all at times belonged to other parties.

On the subject of lies, I cannot forgive the people who selected the recent batch of Camden Councillors in your name.  The interviews that standing left wing Councillors went through, my husband included, carried very disproportionate aggressiveness compared to right wing candidates, not to mention the inaccurate information that was put in front of the candidates by the interviewing panels. Three hour long interviews filled with inaccurate information passed on by the Chief Whip. Absolutely disgusting and deplorable.  Very much like what is happening now.  How can you deny Jamie Driscoll from standing on the long list [to be North East Mayor] when he has done so much for the area and proved that he is a very good Mayor?  You are so dishonourable.  However much I want to be rid of the Tories, I really fear for this country should you become PM.

For thirteen years I knocked on doors, I delivered leaflets, I fund raised, I ran branch meetings and now it has come to this.

That is the experience of a long-term – and active – supporter of Labour under Stürmer: expulsion under false pretences by a liar who has done little but utter false promises and then reverse them.

How many UK citizens will face similar purges if he takes the reins of power in the country?

Rishi Sunak – the Tory alternative – has proved that he can’t be trusted either.

So what are you going to do?

Here’s a thought.

How about finding someone else?