Starmer’s right turn is wrong
IT HASN’T taken long for Labour leader Keir Starmer to reveal his real, Blairite, rightwing self having masqueraded as a supporter of ex-Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to seize the Labour crown in April.
First he sacked Corbynista Rebecca Long-Bailey from his shadow cabinet for merely retweeting a column by actress Maxine Peake that was critical of police violence in the US.
Now he has enthusiastically joined in the new Cold War against China and Russia, launched by the Trump regime to help him get reelected in November; to mask a growing economic crisis with 50m Americans already thrown out of work; to divert public attention from his disastrous handling of Covid-19; and to camouflage mass protests against police violence and racism.
Similarly, the British ruling class, and its political marionettes like
Johnson and Starmer, is eager to turn the public gaze away from the Tory Government’s calamitous handling of Covid-19, and severe economic problems that could put 5m Britons out of work by the end of the year.
Starmer has also pleased his US and British masters by settling outof-court a legal action brought by seven former Labour Party employees, and a BBC journalist, in connection with an anti-Corbyn Panorama programme.
This has reportedly cost Labour members some £500,000 in compensation to the complainants. Corbyn has rightly questioned this costly decision, calling it ‘political’.
As part of the new Cold War against Russia, Starmer has even gone so far as to call for Russian TV News Channel, RT, to have its licence reviewed by OFCOM.
He thereby makes clear the opposition of the British ruling class to any news source that does not slavishly and robotically endorse US and British foreign policy, and the drift towards authoritarianism in both countries.
Starmer’s lurch to the right comes as no surprise to those who look into his past.
A lawyer and QC by occupation, he was Director Of Public Prosecutions in 2012 when whistleblower Julian Assange was hounded into the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he languished for seven years trying to escape US extradition.
Now he is incarcerated in Britain’s Guantanamo, Belmarsh prison in London, awaiting an extradition hearing in September.
Starmer only became a Labour MP in 2015 so his elevation to the top of the Labour Party has been swift, much to the delight of former Labour leader, Blair, and those of his political persuasion.
Like Blair, who was forced to resign as Labour leader over the Iraq war lies, Starmer cares more for the views of the capitalist class than he does for working class Labour voters.
His stampede to the far-right of the political spectrum will cost Labour very dearly at the polls.
James Roberts, via email