It’s rather too easy to blame this on Brexit. The deeper problem is how Brexit interacted with a longstanding sense that all factions of Labour, centrist or leftist, don’t like the party’s traditional voters.
Keir Starmer
“Independence supporters face the prospect of explaining and reaffirming the expanded mandate for they have won. Many will not look forward to beating their head against this particular brick wall once again, as the unionist counter-argument will only become more shrill, obstinate and unconcerned with democracy the more they are put on the defensive.”
Sean Bell: After the election, what comes next?
Perhaps the real battle we should be watching isn’t in Scotland at all. Holyrood elections have the lacklustre aura of the foregone conclusion. Meanwhile, coastal, flyover and “red wall” England is continuing to remake British politics by refusing to return to the Labour Party.
Source Direct: Scotland and England’s Hart-lands
It’s interesting to compare Starmer’s lethargic opposition with events across the Atlantic. Joe Biden (nicknamed “Sleepy Joe”) is Starmer’s spiritual counterpart in more ways than one. But while Britain’s centre-left has snoozed through its alarms, Sleepy Joe has jolted awake.
Source Direct: Slothful Starmer and Sleepy Joe
The case for Scotland remaining in the Union will partly depend on the credibility of Westminster’s opposition. Can we even imagine a non-Conservative government?
Source Direct: Prince Charming
“This isn’t just about Labourism, but a much general culture of managerialism which has helped to empty the democratic content from Scottish, British and western politics in general.”
Analysis: The Starmer school of party management comes to Scotland
After the coronavirus, many optimistically predicted that Boris Johnson’s “Red Wall” hegemony would be swept away by waves of resistance. However, Keir Starmer has been in charge for a year, and Labour is now back down at 32 percent.
Source Direct: Steer Kalmer
“Chillingly, body-bags for those lost to Britian’s world-beating excess mortality rate were being flogged to this Conservative dinner party set at 14 times the market rate.”
Analysis: Epic grift at the heart of the UK pandemic response has Hancock squirming
Readers have been asking about that Labour Party broadcast, infamous less for Keir Starmer’s words (nothing special) than for its mise-en-scène: the Union Jack hanging “innocently” in the background.
Source Direct: Swearin’ to the Flag
“There’s no evidence so far that the contradiction between the need to win back dozens of Scottish seats and the hope that a Union Jack will somehow reconstruct the torched bridges to former Labour strongholds is causing any friction in the minds of Starmer or his immediate circle.”