Sunak and Starmer are rather similar & as E P Thompson noted in 1959 we’ve been here before
Aditya Chakrabortty has a very good piece in the Guardian arguing that the world according to Sunak and the world according to Starmer looks very similar. They are both clean shaven middle aged politicians in suits, so the image is similar, but so in many (although not all) are the policies
It remains the case though that the parties do represent different social bases. The Tories are still, in part, the party of business. Labour retains links with trade union HQs, albeit Starmer would clearly prefer to supplant the Tories as the representative of capital.
We have however been here before. In the 1959 Election Harold Macmillan faced Hugh Gaitskell. Perhaps the only significant difference was that Macmillan had a moustache.
On occasion the difference between the Tories and Labour at an Election has been greater- arguably in 1964, certainly in 2017. However the differences were still contained within an official political framework. The reality that Jeremy Corbyn perhaps suggested a break out from that spooked capital. Hence in 2024 we have Starmer
E P Thompson in the New Reasoner, Autumn 1959 on the General Election
The ” New Statesman ” was right. It was a ” Heads We Win “election, and the alternative administration was ” Tails You Lose.”However loudly the electorate called while the coin was in the air,there was a TV smoothie in a fat silk tie on either side. It wasprobably the most discreditable General Election since George IIIbought the House of Commons out of Treasury funds.
Leave a Reply