No, this isn't Starmers fault...

No, This Isn’t Starmers Fault

With all the criticism being lambasted towards the government (and quite rightly too), I suppose it was only a matter of time before silly tribalist party political games would commence. Indeed, it seems many within the Labour Party have decided to take aim at their own leader of less than 2 months, Kier Starmer.

So, why have these attacks suddenly come to the fray? Many, particularly on the Labour Left, seem to regard Starmers approach to the pandemic as lacklustre, seeing him as comparable to a parrot when it came to merely repeating government policy as Labour policy. Is this really fair? I would argue not in the slightest; the man entered the leadership position with the country already in the midst of the epidemic and inheriting a party firmly in opposition: a very far cry indeed from being in government.

Indeed, any sort of influencing the Tories (which is impossible at the best of times) would merely fall on deaf ears, especially since the troy approach seems to be rather popular across the country, as poll after poll seems to find, with Boris (wrongly or rightly, but really wrongly) being seen as a convicted pragmatist. Of course, Labour and Starmer recognise this is not the case and have been repeatedly challenging the government, even if not always fully in the full scope of the public eye, on their murderous policy of saving neoliberalism at the expense of anyone that talks without a silver spoon in their mouth. Indeed, what else can really be expected from Starmer at this time?

Lest we forget that not only is he in no position to effectively challenge or change government policy, the media has absolutely no interest in hearing what he has to say as a consequence. Rather, then, Starmer has embarked on a rather clever long-term popularity run: a run with the vision of saving lives and getting back into power in the long run, an end goal that many factional Labour members seem to forget is really the priority here.

It is to no current advantage, at least currently, for Starmer to be perceived (and I really emphasise the perceived here) as vehemently opposed to a government that is being seen as conducting the correct action here (as much as we know this isn’t true).

Therefore, Starmer can be seen as conducting an incredibly difficult balancing act: being seen as favourable in the public eye (an undertaking that will reward Labour with a good shot at winning back power once the post-mortem on the tory atrocities has fully come to light) and challenge the tories as fervently as possible out of the public eye where maybe, just maybe, he can have half a shot of influencing current policy.

This new episode of Labour in fighting serves to help absolutely no one: not the party, not Starmer and, not those countless people who are being killed by this tory policy of putting the economy ahead of peoples lives: the course is set, lets challenge it where we can and try and come out of this with the credibility of adults and not the spoilt nature of middle class children.

Starmer is following tis strategy because he understands the long-term goal of saving lives and winning power, all I ask is that we recognise that and focus once more on the true enemy of the tories.