Labour under Corbyn helped massively to give us Brexit by being him supportive of it which has been consistently bloody economically awful and divisive for this country.
Corbyn did not have the humility and recognition either that the issues people projected on to Brexit as a protest vote, were about the failure of successive governments including New Labour, to deal with economic inequality in the UK and the neglect of vast swathes of the country eg post industrial, coastal and rural areas, by successive New Lab and then Cameron governments.
By being very focused on metropolitan voters. Labour under Corbyn in general was a completely ineffective useless opposition to the emboldened pillaging and lying of the Tories. That long term lack of a viable alternative in Corbyn ultimately gave us Johnson, Truss and Sunak. Unforgivable.
For all of that fuckery and leaving us open to Tory exploitation as a country, when we really really needed an effective opposition, I don’t welcome Corbyn sticking around. As much as I am sure he’s individually a perfectly nice guy and I might agree with his stance on some issues. I don’t want to see Labour factionalising and infighting because he’s still there. We need a laser focus on delivery on public services improvements and showing economic growth and stability and green development.
Starmer’s victory has none of the euphoria of 1997 that I can see. I feel like we’re all totally ground down and knackered by 14 punishing years of the Tories. It’s also pissing with rain today. There’s none of the 97 ‘bliss it was in such a dawn to be alive, but to be young..’ etc today. Things are absolute shit for youngsters in the UK at the moment unless they have wealthy parents which is a constantly diminishing pool of people. It doesn’t feel exciting or aspirational. I can’t see any influx of champagne socialists and Cool Britannia parties under Starmer. (And I’m sorry that Debbonair as a potential culture sec lost in Bristol which is a shame).
The first few months are going to have to be about rebuilding and calming things down and desperately looking for a feel good factor, or at least the hope of it. Which many peoples’ lives are really very very far away from.
That uphill struggle aside, it is such a relief to have the promise of stability again. Just to have sober grown ups back in power in the UK is hopeful. Kier’s first Downing St address, talking about public service, respect for all, national stability, promising to govern in the 4 nations, and in the spirit of country before party, that hit all the right ‘responsible’ notes for me in today’s volatile times. It is so the complete opposite of what the Tories did and said. So it doesn’t matter that there’s not an uplifting D:ream theme tune. But it definitely places a vast expectation on government that they will deliver as promised.