- Sun Feb 26, 2023 8:22 pm
#40092
The Corbynist rump within the Labour Party, most notably in the form of the full-time Trot disruptor posing as a “journalist” Owen Jones, loves to make much of of Keir Starmer’s pledges, made in the course of his campaign to become leader, which he is alleged to have either broken, reneged on, or discarded. The cries of betrayal are melodramatic, and banshee-like in their endless repetition, so much so that they are being taken up by actual journalists such as Amol Rajan on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in a recent 8:10am interview slot. Starmer dealt with Rajan’s hostile line of questioning very competently, but of course not to the satisfaction of the embittered and disgruntled Corbynite rump.
Jeremy Corbyn, of course, had his very own set of ten pledges when he stood for election as Labour leader in 2015. You don’t hear much about those any more, principally because they were a set of ten “pie in the sky” aspirational promises, all of which were predicated on Corbyn leading Labour into government, something which we know from bitter experience to have been impossible. Not a single one of Corbyn’s ten pledges then, was held to, let alone delivered.
With that in mind, Jones & Co’s carping about Starmer’s alleged broken pledges begins to look quite absurd. To a “normal” Labour Party member such as myself, who dearly wants a Labour government and recognises the absolute overriding imperative of kicking the Tories out and electing Labour to government, the carping is a source of irritation, which were polling numbers closer than they are, might even place Labour’s victory in jeopardy.
Let me be absolutely plain: I don’t give a flying fudge whether Keir Starmer has gone back on, abandoned, or broken any of the “pledges” that he put forward during his campaign to become Labour’s leader. when I voted for Keir as leader, I wasn’t voting for a dogmatic automaton who would conduct his leadership on the basis of sticking unbendingly to some laundry list of aspirational “pledges”. I wanted a leader who would use his political judgement, strategic skills, and campaigning know-how to position Labour in the best possible place to succeed in the election and return to government. You know, that overriding, absolute imperative. To be adaptable to changed political and economic circumstances. To get us back to government, whatever happens. Just as Corbyn’s pledges were necessarily aspirational, so too were Starmer’s. Labour members need to be as relaxed about Starmer possibly not fulfilling some of his pledges as the Cobynist rump is about Corbyn having broken all of his leadership pledges..
"The opportunity to serve our country: that is all we ask.” John Smith, May 11, 1994.
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