Murdoch, Dacre, Ashcroft ,the Barclays et al will go into overdrive. You can bet they are sitting on a cache of smears and blackmail material, saved for the height of battle. Angela Rayner’s capital gains story will be be piffling by comparison
They may certainly be on course to. The danger however lies in what fills the vacuum left on the centre right. Although Starmer will continue to hurtle headlong rightwards to pick up homeless Tory votes, the ghouls of Reform would have the stage to themselves, bringing what thirty years ago was confined to the BNP firmly to the mainstream. Paradoxically, any implosion of the Tories makes it more important than ever a genuine left alternative makes itself available.
"It's a bit like playing football with a bent ref. Nobody's going to blow the whistle!"
The way I read it, Labour is positioning itself to fill that void. It will tell itself that this is in the national interest because it is resetting the clock back to the Thatcher era, which is significantly to the left of the May/Johnson axis. It probably isn't admitting to itself that it is embracing Thatcherite policies, and it certainly won't say it out loud in so many words, lest Labour voters who still hate Thatcher take fright, but I reckon it sees a once in a lifetime opportunity to supplant the Tories as the default party and it's not about to pass that up.
Yes you’re right. I have no doubt that is part of their strategy. But that won’t speak to the Lee Anderson/ Suella Braverman subset who would never vote Labour. They will look for another party that represents their interests, and that is currently Reform. The Lee Andersons will be overjoyed as they see policies, attitudes and even language that was hitherto restricted to the far right margins now dragged centre stage into British electoral politics.
The old ‘broad church’ cliche. Labour has always accomodated racists, sexists and homophobes. In that, they were no different from every other party. These attitudes have always existed at a societal level and it’s no surprise to see them represented in a mass party like Labour. I remember as a kid some of the most militant shop stewards in the shipyards were also members of the Orange Lodge.
