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It is now commonplace, even among journalists who should know better, to conclude that the current criticisms of the Corbyn leadership come exclusively from a hard knot of diehard centrists who refuse to accept that the new regime could win an election. While it is clear that it cannot and it is also true that… Continue reading Milne: now the revisionists are running Labour’s strategy

It is now taken as accepted everywhere in British politics, with the exception of some parts of the Labour Party’s rank and file, that Labour cannot win an election with Corbyn at the helm. You can attempt to argue with this premise, but you’ll find few allies outside of the echo chamber of party activists… Continue reading Why “wait and see” is a fool’s strategy

The two important days of conference, the first two, have now passed. We have pinched ourselves. We have pinched ourselves again. But no, that really was John McDonnell outlining a fantasy financial plan on Monday, and Jeremy Corbyn giving the Leader’s Speech on Tuesday. Let me just say that again. Jeremy Corbyn giving the leader’s… Continue reading Labour, this is what you chose

My seventeenth piece for the Independent, on Labour’s political death wish, otherwise known as the election of Jeremy Corbyn as its leader, is here. For the record, I think this could well be my most-read piece ever, with over 6,000 Facebook shares, so quite pleased with it.

Another week, another revelation about what a Corbyn-led foreign policy would look like. It is enough that Labour would, as it did in the days of George Lansbury, be directed into a position of “peace at any price”, even if that were saving lives from genocide in Kosovo and Sierra Leone, as a previous Labour… Continue reading Corbyn’s pacifism won’t really affect Britain from opposition, right? Wrong

In the wake of the general tripe important arguments recently promoted regarding backbench MPs’ roles in apparently initiating the Northern Ireland peace process, bringing detente to Palestine and otherwise saving the world, it seemed to the Centre Left important to provide some guidance on talking to terrorists.So, here is a handy guide to whether or not… Continue reading Why backbenchers talking to terrorists is not the same as senior politicians talking to terrorists: a primer

If current polls are to be believed, Jeremy Corbyn is about to become Labour leader, not just by a small margin but by a landslide. That is, as our own Atul Hatwal pointed out on Monday, a pretty significant “if”. For a number of reasons; protest voting in polls but not in elections, “shy” voters,… Continue reading Look what Corbyn can do in twenty-four hours: now imagine twenty-four months

Yesterday I retweeted a Centre Left piece from four years ago, about the invitation of hate preacher and Hamas fundraiser, Raed Salah, to speak at the Houses of Parliament, a visit thankfully called off at the last minute, thanks to the timely intervention of the House authorities.I retweeted it because, unlike political nerds like myself,… Continue reading This is not “engagement”. It is apologism

“You call that statesmanship? I call it an emotional spasm.” Aneurin Bevan, shadow foreign secretary, 1959 Labour party conference Bevan’s withering lines, warning the party against unilateral disarmament, illustrate the fact that we are not in a new place. In the face of a public, for whom two world wars were still a very recent… Continue reading On emotional spasms

Following Tristram Hunt’s call for “a summer of hard truths”, here are mine, as part of a short series at Labour Uncut:1. The Labour Party has not merely just lost an election after five years of drift; it has been getting worse since. It has now fallen deep into an existential crisis of purpose, with… Continue reading Ten hard truths for Labour