With the last pre-Election polls continuing to show a Labour majority its prudent to ponder, what next?
David Edgerton writing in the Guardian has argued, correctly in my view, that Labour is no longer a social democratic party endeavouring to make a better society but rather one that manages society as it is better.
Of course to adapt the old point that socialism is what a Labour Government does it can be argued that social democracy is what Labour actually does in Office. There are elements of Labour policy, perhaps particularly in respect of employment that will be, as Edgerton notes, positive if implemented in some form.
The options as Labour as manager of the status quo Edgerton discusses, are making a mess of it and opening the door to the hard right at the next Election, doing it competently which would be an improvement on 2010-24 (but not enough of an improvement in my view) or, much less likely, actually managing to achieve some positive changes for the many.
There is in my view a further option, one the Victorians called pressure from without. Protests from unions, campaigns and communities can make Governments change direction or at the least open the chances of that happening. The large scale protests on Gaza that have been going on since October 2023 (there is another this Saturday, Noon, Russell Square) have caused turmoil in Labour.
It should be a model for how to keep Starmer on his toes as it were and away from scoring in his own goal
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