Whereas Jeremy Corbyn used to make the point that we should cut down on excessive subsidies to the rich in order to properly fund public services, to Kier Starmer, the only way of justifying fewer yachts is more cops.
I’ve never been a fan of the idea of the ‘Overton window’ explaining everything, preferring to view things through Gramsci’s conception of hegemony- which asserts social orders and ways of doing things are built upon ‘common-sense’ assumptions that reproduce themselves through institutional power. But that’s not to say the idea of shifting the public to the left or the right on specific issues isn’t a valid analysis or thing that happens. With the amount of media attention afforded to the Leader of the Opposition by the BBC and other major outlets, the debate of the day can of course be influenced by the Labour leader taking a stand on something and offering a credible explanation as to why. This, in turn, can certainly cause 'shifts' in what is deemed acceptable.
Since Sir Starmer took the reins of the UK’s supposedly left-wing political option, much has been made on the left of how the Tories are pulling Labour further to the right. With Jeremy Corbyn now a pariah in the mainstream media, and his supporters currently being purged, it seems a logical explanation that- just as the Thatcher years pulled Labour to the right (culminating in Blairism), the current Tories are pulling Starmer’s Labour to the right also, meaning should Labour ever gain the keys to power, they will be in a position to carry on the work of the Cameron-May-Johnson years.
This is a fair-enough analysis but I don’t think it tells the whole story. It is true that Keir Starmer and those around him clearly think behaving more like the Tories will benefit them electorally. However, on certain flagship political issues, such as crime and policing, something else is happening.
“Meet me in the middle, says the unjust man. You take a step towards him, he takes a step back”
It’s not just that Labour’s rightward shift gives the Tories licence to continue their own rightward shift- this should be taken as a given. No, I would argue that Labour’s obsession with being perceived a ‘credible’ on law and order by the mainstream press is not just allowing, but causing, forcing, the Tory’s to up the ante. This is evidenced by Sir Kier's latest ‘campaign’ on anti-social behaviour.
When Jeremy Corbyn led the party, the justification given for cutting off some of the money that perpetually flows towards the rich was simply that it would allow for investment in public services and allow poorer people a better quality of life. For Starmer, ever chasing those ‘red-wall’ voters whom he knows nothing about, this is not good enough. He needs a different reason, a Tory reason, a reason born out of spite.
Que Labour’s latest big-brain idea: telling the Tories to ditch the yachts and tackle antisocial behaviour! This follows the news that the government is planning on commissioning a massive £200m yacht for itself and the Royals to ‘conduct important diplomatic trade missions’. While this is of course flagrantly immoral and transparently self-serving, it’s hardly anything new. What Labour’s response shows us, however, is that Starmer is incapable of condemning even the most grotesque Tory trough-gobbling-sessions without matching it with a similarly cringeworthy Tory-lite policy.
It this point, one could argue this is still just the Tories pulling Labour to the right, and that is certainly part of it- but only the first step. For then came Johnson’s own response to Labour’s new focus on ‘yobs’.
The Prime Minister, about a week later (28th July), came out and made a statement to the BBC in which he floated the idea of ‘chain gangs’, electronic tags, and general public shaming.
And there we have it. All Starmer has to do is allude to tackling bored teenagers smashing up bus-stops for and Johnson, Patel and co. hit back with ‘chain gangs’.
Obviously, one cannot say for certain that ‘chain-gangs’ hadn’t been rattling around the fevered minds of the Tory cabinet already, but I seriously doubt- given the timings, and the fact we are still fighting a pandemic, that the Tories would have floated this idea now.
So, I ask, what was the point in all that? What was the point in Starmer pushing the Tories to the right on crime and punishment, where we end up in a situation where young men will be paraded through our communities chained to each other? Is Starmer going to try to one-up Johnson again and suggest the chain-gangs work at gun-point? And, if he did, what would the Tories come up with next?
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