In a week where Sir Keir looked to reset his leadership - again - the plan was clear :
Give Keir a surprise win against the Left just before conference. A last minute attack on Party democracy aimed at making it harder for the left to elect another leader. So last minute and unpopular, the hope could only be that the opposition wouldn’t rally in time.
Release “The Road Ahead”. A 14,000 word essay on Sir Keir’s values, his vision and his plans for the Labour Party
Launch conference on the wave of this success and power-show, with everyone talking about his blueprint for the future.
This morning, even the Guardian and some of Sir Keir’s fiercest allies not only admit the plan went “horrendously wrong” but seem to be genuinely questioning his leadership
“But for the first time, speaking out against Starmer’s leadership is no longer seen as shocking, and has been commonplace on the left for some time now.”
So how is it going?
The attack on the left failed against a backlash so fierce, even some of the front bench were said to be against the changes. Starmer managed to anger the Unions and members on the very eve of conference, over yet another pointless, factional battle.
The backlash drowned out all potential commentary of Starmer’s “essay”, but the commentary there was, mainly came from minorities noting they were absolutely nowhere to be seen. The only real commentary came from LGBT, disability and BAME voters asking “Where are we?”
Conference has launched amidst this chaos of his own making, few are focussing on policy and the Deputy Leader is said to be “furious”. The mood appears fractious, with delegates already challenging governance and leadership decisions on the main stage.
While it looks like Starmer has won a watered down version of his proposals, he has already lost a major vote on nationalisation of energy providers, after declaring this morning he was opposed to it. While a video of him ignoring a young Labour activist wanting to talk about the Green New Deal has not endeared him to members this afternoon.
But, readers, we did attempt - and conquer - the lengthy Road Ahead.
And the vision we found (quite peculiarly for a Labour leader) was one of “hard working families” working very hard in a “Private-Public Partnership”. Quite why they need to work so hard in this new world of “flexible working” and increased automation isn’t clear. But he is certain of little but this.
There is a lot about “Fixing Fundamentals” - a whole subheading in fact - but we’re never told how. It will somehow just magically happen once someone as sensible as Sir Keir takes the reigns of power. For example, he will “fix the holes in the shoddy Brexit deal” as though he was never passionate about Remaining at all..
As if asking “How hard could it be?”, he compares modernising our NHS with online shopping.
He seems ambivalent on the Tories, and almost reverent of what he calls “Independent” school (read, “Private”) ideals and values. Yet there is a clear passion in his dislike of the SNP that trails off into an endless mess of trying to persuade the reader that “Patriotism” is not “Nationalism”, That a different kind of flag waving, is all we need. Not content with picking a fight with swathes of his own members, it seems the only moment Sir Keir really ignites, is when he’s picking a fight. He needs an entire page and a half for this, whilst race has just one paragraph.
Contribution is very important, he has 10 whole principles on it. And again, hard work seems to be the contribution he most welcomes. (There’s no discussion at all of what happens if you can’t work hard. It seems very much as if he’s never thought about it.) 3 of his 10 core principles reiterate just how hard workers will have to work to fulfil his vision.
With private public partnership, he has managed to pick the one policy both Labour and Tory voters are united in decrying. PPI became despised as one of the worst ways you could possibly have built a lot of new hospitals. One of Blair’s few achilles heels beyond Iraq. It’s both uninspiring and unoriginal. But it runs through the whole piece as one of the few definite themes. There’s no definition or distinction, “business” will work with the state and everything will be better.
It’s a baffling read that illuminates a few of Starmer’s own insecurities, but leaves us as unsure of the Road Ahead as we were before. In fact, a little less sure. For someone who wants to “paint in primary colours”, his vision is a faded sepia nostalgia, the background no longer visible. Nothing can be seen but Keir himself, there are no human narratives to empathise with. Nothing to remember. The history of the Labour Party made him “cringe”.
His Labour vision for the Party of labour, is that we labour even harder, and opportunity will come from having more self-confidence. He’ll broker deals to run our country better than the Tories. He’ll be a better technocrat.
We learned that even in 14,000 words, Starmer would rather not face any of the difficult issues, in fact, believes Labour did far too much of it under Corbyn. As a result, now, we’re just unsure if he knows we’re even on the road with him at all.