Skip to main content

Conservative in letter and spirit, Keir Starmer is Labour leader sans labour values

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* 

Keir Starmer, as the Labour leader, pledged to create a better future based on several progressive policies, including nationalization, higher taxes, and cancelling of tuition fees. These policies were crucial to persuading Labour Party members to elect him as their party leader. However, Keir Starmer has abandoned the policy promises that helped him win the leadership position. If u-turn is a political character, Starmer defines it in both letter and spirit.
Laissez-faire attitude of the Labour leader baffles many and amuses Tories. Under Keir Starmer's leadership, the Labour Party has completely abandoned its commitment to the progressive transformation of politics, society, and the economy in Britain. Starmer argues that he is not ideological about progressive policies, such as public ownership over national resources, which matter to people and their well-being. Instead, he focuses on "growth, growth, growth." However, he does not define the direction of his growth trajectory, leaving many questions about who benefits from his policies and which path he will take to achieve growth.
Starmer's approach sounds like that of a committed conservative leader who is following in the footsteps of reactionary Sunakianism or Trussonomics, which only work for a few. This is neither an ideological free zone nor political junk; these are clear political projects to uphold the political and economic hegemony of the ruling elites over the working masses. Keir Starmer promised to uphold social and economic justice by ending the cruelty of Tory politics in Britain. However, his current political positions defy any logic of progressive politics to ensure social and economic justice. His political positions on the free movement of people and migration sound like those of an entrenched reactionary Tory. He has abandoned the progressive policy promises on the nationalization of rail, water, and energy in the UK. This is why so many Tories love Starmer like a true Conservative.
The National Health Service is crumbling under pressure, with doctors, nurses, and other health workers overworked and underpaid. Schools, colleges, universities, and other educational institutions are also in a state of ruin, with teachers, researchers, and educational workers struggling to make ends meet on low salaries. Public services are becoming directionless, while banking and financial institutions face crises on a daily basis. Train travel and utility bills are a daytime robbery of working people, and the falling living standards are the legacy of decades-long practices of neoliberal economics and conservative politics. The question remains: does any of this matter to the Labour Party under Starmer?
As the cost-of-living and climate crises loom large, nationalisation is the only available policy framework that can help countries recover from economic crises and work for the working masses. Public ownership and control help stabilise the economy and protect the strategic industries, infrastructures, and assets crucial for the economic security of the country and its people. Nationalisation injects stability, innovation, and an entrepreneurial spirit into the economy, whereas privatisation is a legal plunder of national resources that breeds inequality, exploitation, and marginalisation of the labouring masses.
In abandoning nationalisation as a policy framework, Keir Starmer has not only abandoned working people but also taken the Labour Party to an ideological zone concomitant with the Conservative Party. Starmer's politics is not pragmatic but rather plays to the conservative gallery. His political pledges are like British weather, changing four times in a day and bringing four bankrupt seasons in politics. His dishonesty defines his politics of conservative populism. The list of his policy reversals is long, reflecting his regressive leadership practices. The rightward shift of the Labour Party under Starmer's leadership strengthens the Conservatives and destroys progressive potentials. Starmer's disdain for class politics reveals his attraction to amoral ways of gaining state power without the moral anchorage of the masses.
Keir Starmer's pursuit of power reflects a neoliberal conservative praxis that does not offer an alternative but a political and economic curse to everyday life in Britain. He lacks the ideological and political credibility to provide an alternative for the British people. The Labour Party needs a new leader and a new direction that aligns with the requirements of the people and the planet. In the conservative political and economic landscape of Britain, radical mass movements are the only options for working people to regain control over democratic politics and the economy for a progressive transformation of society.
---
*University of Glasgow, UK

Comments

TRENDING

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor*  This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

What's behind Donald Trump's 'narco-state' accusation against Venezuela

By Manolo De Los Santos  The US government has revived its campaign to label Venezuela a "narco-state", accusing its top leadership of drug trafficking and slapping hefty bounties on their heads for capture. This campaign, which only momentarily took a backseat, is a strategic fabrication, not a factual assessment. This accusation, particularly amplified under the Trump Administration, is a calculated smokescreen to justify a long-standing agenda: the overthrow of the Venezuelan government and the seizure of its vast oil and mineral resources. A closer examination of the facts reveals a country that has actively fought drug trafficking on its own terms and a US government with a clear and consistent history of destabilizing independent countries in Latin America.

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857  By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

New RTI draft rules inspired by citizen-unfriendly, overtly bureaucratic approach

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Department of Personnel and Training , Government of India has invited comments on a new set of Draft Rules (available in English only) to implement The Right to Information Act, 2005 . The RTI Rules were last amended in 2012 after a long period of consultation with various stakeholders. The Government’s move to put the draft RTI Rules out for people’s comments and suggestions for change is a welcome continuation of the tradition of public consultation. Positive aspects of the Draft RTI Rules While 60-65% of the Draft RTI Rules repeat the content of the 2012 RTI Rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the RTI Act. These are: Provisions for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by public authorities- this was missing in the 2012 RTI Rules. Non-compliance is increasingly becoming a major problem- two of my non-compliance cases are...

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

Ground reality: Israel would a remain Jewish state, attempt to overthrow it will be futile

By NS Venkataraman*  Now that truce has been arrived at between Israel and Hamas for a period of four days and with release of a few hostages from both sides, there is hope that truce would be further extended and the intensity of war would become significantly less. This likely “truce period” gives an opportunity for the sworn supporters and bitter opponents of Hamas as well as Israel and the observers around the world to introspect on the happenings and whether this war could have been avoided. There is prolonged debate for the last several decades as to whom the present region that has been provided to Jews after the World War II belong. View of some people is that Jews have been occupants earlier and therefore, the region should belong to Jews only. However, Christians and those belonging to Islam have also lived in this regions for long period. While Christians make no claim, the dispute is between Jews and those who claim themselves to be Palestinians. In any case...

Fate of Yamuna floodplain still hangs in "balance" despite National Green Tribunal rap on Sri Sri event

By Ashok Shrimali* While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday reportedly pulled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for granting permission to hold spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's World Culture Festival on the banks of Yamuna, the chief petitioners against the high-profile event Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan has declared, the “fate of the floodplain still hangs in balance.”