Nesrine Malik is on to something in drawing attention to the sense of a “final reckoning” among departing Labour members (Labour losing voters over Gaza matters – whether it hurts electorally or not, 30 October). Though he may think otherwise, Keir Starmer’s underlying error is to concentrate on winning power, while forgetting the purpose of winning it in the first place. He can be forgiven for not revealing detailed policy until closer to an election, but, as Malik points out, the general direction of travel is towards an increasing poverty of ambition in Labour’s likely legislative agenda.
Starmer and his advisers have jettisoned transformative idea after transformative idea. Making sure everything that crosses his desk is of a piece with his favoured tough/realistic/prime ministerial self-portrayal easily explains his comment about Israeli action in Gaza. Gone, for sure, are the days of Starmer the human rights lawyer, but his preference for abandoning potential policy rather than actually arguing the case for legislative action has struck me as an odd characteristic in a decorated advocate. The anomaly here is that it is a foreign rather than a domestic issue that has brought this to a head – although, as Malik reminds us, what is happening in the Middle East is just two or three steps away for some of the British population. As for the party’s contempt towards its grassroots, it is hard to see Starmer’s policy of radical devolution of powers from Whitehall surviving contact with the trappings of power. In quite a few instances, the machinery has been unable even to tolerate its own party constituencies choosing their preferred candidates.
Peter Cousins
Granada, Spain
