As it seems inevitable that we will soon have a Labor government, it is worth thinking now about what kind of monstrosity this could be.
The Conservatives have warned in recent days about the known facts of the Labor Party. Which is perhaps inevitable. But to continue with Rumsfeld-ism we must at least spend some time considering the known unknowns. The things we know we don’t know yet.
Of paramount importance is the question of how many Labor MPs will experience the expected landslide. Does anyone in the public have any idea what this avalanche of new Labor MPs will look like? Or how they will behave one day at Westminster? I doubt it. Sources within Labor have tried to assure me in recent months that they have messed up the party’s candidate selection technique. That is to say, the moderates in the party have tried to ensure that the people running for office in these elections are “don’t scare the horses” leftists rather than Corbyn-ista headbangers of the type you might fear they would dominate after the elections. the last years of the party.
Still, I suspect that after the election we will discover two things about the new MPs. The first is that there will certainly be a cohort – regardless of their numbers – who will represent the worst of the modern left. Among them will be demagogues and fanatics. People who want to pull their party and this country in a radical left direction. The party leadership may keep these people in the background, but they will still manipulate things to a certain extent. The second discovery we are likely to make is that the new crop will include a larger number of people who managed to perform as moderates in their party’s selection process, but will turn out to be redder once they are in the House of Commons. But like I said, these are things that we know we can’t know right now. We can only expect.
What we do know with great certainty is what the top of the Labor Party will look like. The first thing you notice is the astonishing, almost unbelievable lack of talent. Keir Starmer himself is a man of some distinction as a lawyer, but he is a weak man. Indeed, his idea of leadership is that he is a strong leader. The facts prove the opposite. Whenever a wind blows in an area not within his immediate field of expertise, he bows down to it.
Consider the moment in 2020 when politicians were encouraged to “take a knee” over the actions of a rogue police officer in Minnesota. Did the murder of George Floyd say anything about the state of America? Personally, I don’t think so. But did it say anything about the state of Britain? Absolutely not. Yet Starmer was one of those weak leaders around the world who a mainly online movement of ideologues – intent on interpreting all of Western history through the lens of George Floyd – discovered that he was prepared to humiliate himself with this meaningless sign. An act in which his deputy, Angela Rayner, joined him.
Will that same wind ever blow? Possibly. But what is certain is that there will be different winds blowing, and it is likely that these will take our next Prime Minister with them. To which destination we cannot yet know.
The same pattern has occurred with the stupid gender debate, which has wasted so much of everyone’s time. Thanks to a few scientifically illiterate academics in America, much of the Western world is quickly convinced that our species is essentially hermaphroditic. We are expected to act as if biological sex is not a permanent part of our species and that humans can become any sex they want. It is obvious to say that this is scientifically illiterate. It is obvious to say that this leads to dangerous results. But the misunderstanding has taken most of the Labor Party with it.
At no point has Keir Starmer stood up for the only voice in his party – Rosie Duffield – who has spoken out against this palpable nonsense. In fact, he left her outside to dry. At the same time, his shadow Foreign Secretary has shown the kind of biological illiteracy that is the norm at the top of the Labor Party. This is a man – lest we forget – who once said on a radio program that it is possible for a born male to develop a cervix.
This is as worrying for someone about to take on one of the major offices of state as it would be if Lammy had gone on live radio and proclaimed that it is possible to turn base metals into gold. Except that such a belief would be relatively harmless in comparison. If our future Secretary of State believed in alchemy, at least it wouldn’t give the green light for medical fraud to mutilate the bodies of children. Again, this is a wind that has blown. And the ‘adults’ in the Labor Party have completely failed to resist it. Expect a similar failure in decision-making on every issue from carbon neutrality to immigration.
Speaking of Lammy, there could be many other directions in which this country will move. Last week he made a worrying statesmanlike statement in the House of Commons. In particular, he extended his party’s full support to the ICC’s actions. This is an organization that no sovereign democracy should ever recognize or participate in. It is currently attempting to prosecute a democratically elected leader for the first time in its history.
America and Israel are among the democracies wise enough never to have joined this political and partisan sham organization. A body advised by campaigning left-wing lawyer Helena Kennedy. But this country – and the incoming Labor government in particular – seems perfectly comfortable with the idea that waging wars involving allies (and in future, no doubt, ourselves) should be judged by sectarian campaigners. Good luck with that.
Finally, we know, of course, that the Labor High Command was against the public vote we took part in eight years ago. Will Labor decide to take us back to the EU during their time in office? It seems inconceivable to me that they won’t at least be tempted to do so – through some door or another. This means that a decision that this country seemed to have made will be opened up again.
So these are some signs of what our country will look like soon. One led by people who believe in outsourcing foreign and domestic policy, and in turning Britain into a kind of mid-sized NGO. What an indictment it is on the current government that this utterly inadequate B team should be seen as so massively preferential to them.