Identity politics dividing Labour
in political discourse is not based on a system of equal rights and duties for all but on whether they are a member of a minority group. And under Labour’s rules it seems individuals can choose which minority group they belong to.
Invitations to the Labour Youth Equalities Conference specify that attendees must “self-define” as falling into at least one category on a list including woman, minority ethnic, disabled or LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual). It is a path to a social order where citizens are forced to pick sides rather than unite around common community bonds.
Signs are growing that the identity politics bug is breeding splits within Labour. A row is raging between transsexuals and feminists about whether someone can be included on an all-female shortlist because they have defined themselves as women regardless of their biology. It is the sort of dispute that is bound to arise when equality is abandoned in favour of “equalities”.
Crucially for Labour’s electoral prospects, it is also baffling or even repellent to the working-class voters that were once the bedrock of the party’s support. Opponents within Labour ranks fear that the more the party dabbles in identity politics, the more its electoral appeal will suffer while the divisions between the competing campaign groups threaten to rip the party apart.
Mr Corbyn’s refrain is that Labour stands for the many, not the few. The danger of letting the identity politics obsessives set the agenda is that, just like in Animal Farm, some of the many will end up far more equal than others.