Kmflett's Blog

Keir Starmer appears to be struggling over how to define ‘working people’, meaning those who won’t be hit by direct tax increases in the 30th October Budget.

Allowing that much of it this by media confected by commenters and politicians who have no useful thought on the matter, Starmer’s definition, essentially people that fall into crisis if they miss a monthly pay cheque is narrow. It’s not clear if this comes from his 1980s socialist past or just a pragmatic view to fit the Budget.

There is in any case a perfectly workable existing definition. That is Clause 4 of the 1918 Labour Party Constitution written by Beatrice and Sidney Webb:

To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service

‘Workers by hand or by brain’ is quite a wide definition but allied with securing ‘the full fruits of their industry’ suggests waged workers.

Clause 4 was amended by Tony Blair in 1993 and the Webb’s text replaced by some fairly vague generalities and as Starmer is finding out that kind of thing please no one.

Boris Johnson’s memoir officially called Unleashed was released on 10th October and sold just under 43,000 in its first week making it the best selling ‘non fiction’ hardback. Decent sales but well below the memoirs of Thatcher and Blair.

In its second week sales declined by 62% and while the book retained top slot it was just 133 copies ahead of Tim Spector’s The Food for Life Cookbook.

Third week sales were 8,370 and the book was down to 4th in the best sellers list. Top slot was some drivel from Jeremy Clarkson. Johnson was reportedly booted off Channel 4’s US Election Night programme on 5th November for repeatedly trying to plug the book

Johnson was paid a reported £2 million suggesting that the publishers Harper Collins expected it to be an Xmas best seller akin to Prince Harry’s memoir which sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

Instead bookshops reports piles of unsold copies.

There’s no success like failure

London Socialist Historians Group

24th October

The London Socialist Historians Group is backing the counter demonstration against Stephen Yaxley Lennon’s latest attempt to mobilise a far right to fascist street army in central London on Saturday 26th October.

The counter protest is backed by the TUC, Stand Up To Racism, many unions and campaigns

The historians say that from Cable St in 1936 to Wood Green and Lewisham in 1977 and Walthamstow in the 2010s the importance of mass protest to halt fascist attempts to mobilise cannot be denied.

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, fascists offer easy solutions to the problems thrown up by market capitalism. Those easy solutions, history underlines, lead to death, war and destruction

I sometimes fear that

people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress

worn by grotesques and monsters

as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.

Fascism arrives as your friend.

It will restore your honour,

make you feel proud,

protect your house,

give you a job,

clean up the neighbourhood,

remind you of how great you once were,

clear out the venal and the corrupt,

remove anything you feel is unlike you…

It doesn’t walk in saying,

“Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.”

Michael Rosen

Liz Truss has taken to Twitter (24th October) to pass comments on calls for reparations to be paid for the impact of slavery and colonialism. The demands look set to be discussed at the Commonwealth Conference despite Keir Starmer’s preference not to bother doing so.

Truss is on Starmer’s side. She tweeted

Paying reparations isn’t just unaffordable – it’s WRONG. This is where identity politics leads. It’s corrosive and will ultimately destroy our societies if we go down this road.

Truss previously held the position of Foreign Secretary but her comments on reparations make even Boris Johnson appear diplomatic

Issues for a new Tory leader(Times 23rd October)

121 MPs elected on July 4th

Ex-Ministers who prefer backbenches

Some Tory MPs are over 80

Some Tory MPs are Chairs of Select Committees

Around 80 MPs are available for frontbench roles. Labour has 124 Ministerial positions

Keir Starmer & Reparations: don’t want to know much about history

Keir Starmer is reportedly resisting efforts to put reparations for slavery and colonialism on the agenda for the Commonwealth Conference.

Given that we are in Black History Month this seems particularly insulting but it should not be a surprise.

This is a research note but the issue has a much (much) longer history.

There are at least two parts to it. Firstly the long and to some extent successful effort to get Labour to take seriously and act on issues of racism and discrimination. The Wilson Government in the 1960s passed legislation but making there is black and ethnic minority representation in the Party at all levels including Parliament has taken a long time and is a work in progress. One thinks of the work the Labour Party Black Sections, Diane Abbott, Bernie Grant have done and are still doing.

It’s fair to say that Keir Starmer has no obvious direct interface with these struggles, although living in North London he should be aware of them.

The second part relates to Starmer’s relation to history itself.

There are many in the Labour Party who have a deep interest in the history of the Party and the wider labour movement. However Labour is a political party not a heritage project so a balance has to be struck. Some recent leaders such as Jeremy Corbyn and Ed Miliband were well aware of Labour’s history. Miliband acted to change voting methods based on an understanding of their history. Corbyn was and is very much a people’s history man.

Starmer comes from a different place. Tony Blair and New Labour were quite specific that the past was in the past and Labour was looking forward to a new Britain. Blair despite being a Durham MP never made it to the Durham Miners Gala. His historical references were often limited to pondering whether forming the Labour Party had been a mistake in 1900.

Starmer’s post New Labour has a similar perspective. There may be the occasional nod to Attlee, Bevan (and Bevin) and Wilson but for the current leader the past is another country which he has no plans to visit.

Notwithstanding that the history of slavery, colonialism and reparations is a current issue not just one from history, although the history is central to it

The Beard Liberation Front banner was first unveiled in Aberdeen on May 9^th 2014 at the Scotland v England cricket match.

Its on display again at the third Test between Pakistan and England at Rawalpindi from 24th October 2014.

There has long been discussion about who the figures shown on the banner and how they are connected..

Many thanks to the indefatigable BLF on tour leaders Hazel & Ian

@hackneyhaz @marriotti67 on Twitter

@hackneyhaz.bsky.social marriotti76.bsky.social on BlueSky

I’ve been a government minister for ten years. And it was only when I got into 10 Downing Street that I understood the full-scale of what we were up against. Because it isn’t just the political parties. It’s not just the civil service. The Left has successfully captured the institutions in Britain.”

This is an extract from an interview that Liz Truss gave to US media conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck which you can find via her twitter account.

Reality must however intervene. Have the following British institutions actually been captured by the left?

The BBC

The Times

Lords Cricket Ground

The reported reality that some UK Labour activists are in the US helping the campaign of Kamala Harris in the final period before the poll, should not be news. Labour has over many elections helped and advised Democratic campaigns. Bill Clinton made an appearance at a Labour Conference as a ‘CLP delegate’.

The fact that it is news is a news story in itself but not what this post is about.

Of course Farage has also been helping the Trump campaign but other Reform UK Ltd activists probably havent, not least because Trump has quite enough Whackos and Weirdoes helping at it is.

One instance of the Labour tradition is the occasion when Tony Benn spoke at a Democratic Socialist Organising event titled ‘Eurosocialism and America’. B in Washington in early December 1980. It was just after George H Bush had beaten Walter Mondale in that year’s Presidential Election.

Also speaking at the event were Willy Brandt and Francois Mitterand.

The DSO was a socialist organisation associated particularly with Michael Harrington that worked with and around the Democrats from 1973-1982 when it merged with another organisation.

As Benn noted in his Diary the event appeared to get no publicity in the US and probably not much in the UK. It was just seen as politics are usual and normal. Benn describes the event in his diary as ‘significant’