Whilst everyone has been buried under the bunting of the alleged lockdown road map out of misery, it’s nice to see that the Labour Party remains committed to self-destructing. In the face of a calamitous Tory government, it would be understandable if Labour had galvanised themselves enough to become a serious opposition and potentially, a government in waiting.

So, with that in mind, great credit must be given to all the party members who have worked so diligently to make it such an irrelevance. They have done so well, Boris Johnson, who is on the same intellectual level as an interbred village idiot, is polling at 40%.

Imagine that. A hapless PM who has overseen a world class Covid death rate and a PPE procurement process entrenched in industrial scale corruption, is leading the opinion polls. You wouldn’t think it was possible. However, whilst there is a good percentage of Johnson’s voter base who are as thick as mince, it is an incoherent opposition that is aiding Johnson’s cause the most.

Why So Bad?

Why is this? Well, there is little doubt the offshore media tycoons have played a major part in destabilising the Labour party. This, in effect did for any ambition Jeremy Corbyn had to revolutionise Britain. However, any Labour Party leader should know what is coming from the media. Corbyn’s failure to deal with accusations and allegations against him was ponderous and weak, no matter how anyone within Momentum want to paint it.

Corbyn fought two elections, making a good stab at unseating a mortally wounded Theresa May in 2017 before spectacularly failing in the face of a Boris Johnson populist movement in 2019. It was a humiliating defeat which left Corbyn with no choice but to resign. He did stay on for a pathetically slow death until a new leader was chosen but it was over, his ideology had been crushed.

The new leader, Keir Starmer, was getting attacked from within, before he even started. There was never going to be tolerance from Corbyn supporters who still adored their messiah. It was a gift, and the press had Starmer just where they wanted him. Any false word about Palestine and he was an anti-Semite. Criticism of Brexit or Covid-19 and he would be portrayed as a traitor. Starmer has tried the long game and has been battered from within and by the external media enemies he tried to pacify.

Starmer’s Woes

Starmer is not blameless in all this. His handling of getting Corbyn off his back was clumsy, as was his ill-advised apathy towards Matt Hancock and PPE corruption. Starmer claimed the public weren’t interested in going after Hancock which, I think, was an error. I can’t be the only member of the public who wanted Starmer to go after Hancock. He is a lawyer after all, and I have seen enough of him to demonstrate how he could have destroyed Hancock in a debate.

Perhaps Starmer made a choice based on the public not seeming to care about corruption? In a way, maybe he called it right? The apathy towards the billions pissed up the wall on cronyism would have resulted in civil war in some countries. Here, it seems to be, “just one of those things”. Where would demanding Hancock’s have head got Starmer in the middle of a pandemic? Nowhere, probably.

However, many believe Starmer has fallen into the ‘now is not the time to criticise’ trap when, as opposition leader, now is the time to expose the PPE scandal. By saying criticism should wait for another day, perhaps Starmer doesn’t realise that leaves him in a wishy-washy place. Just where Johnson wants him, and where the Corbyn sycophants can scream ‘Tory Scum!’ at him.  

A Return to Failure

Starmer’s days may be numbered now. If so, Labour will more than likely go back into a cycle of tried and failed socialist ideologies that, however well-intentioned, wouldn’t unseat Boris and his populists if we had an election every week for the next decade. It will probably be someone like Rebecca Long-Bailey who is lined up to fail next.  It’s not that I don’t like these people or their good intentions, I am just realistic about their ability to win an election. Their chances range between zero and nought percent.

Getting Johnson out of power may take the sacrificing of some core principles but surely that is better than having him as Prime Minister? If your football team abandoned some of its flamboyant instincts and won a championship through pragmatism, you wouldn’t complain, would you? That should be the Labour Party approach to unseating Johnson. Finding a way to win rather than fighting each other.

Principles are great, but they are futile if they perpetually end in ignominy.