The Labour Party: UEFA Champions League Winners 1999
At 90:35 in, people like Owen Jones are telling Labour that they have no choice but to accept that they must be Bayern Munich. They’ve been telling Labour that in increasing numbers and greater ferocity since 6 minutes in.
People like Jones are concerned that there is a genuine chance that Britain will have an early general election and that Labour will not be able to resurrect its public perception in time to win it. Jones believes that the Tories could win another majority and the fallout in Labour will land on Labour’s Left, resulting in Labour re-lurching towards the right under the influence of its current ‘wreckers‘ who have done the damage to Labour’s public perception, returning Britain to a choice of parasites on the Right and parasites on the Left. Even if we accept the entirety of Jones’ scenario it doesn’t guarantee the result; it would be a battle lost but not the war. Even if the Tories did manage to win an early election that does not mean Labour will be condemned to leadership under its ‘wreckers’. As long as the Labour membership stand with the leadership then the leadership can continue to fight the battles within Labour and have the time to win the war. All would not be lost.
Jones’ scenario is the absolute worst case. It is far more likely that Labour will retain most of its current seats and the Tories will lose seats to the LibDems or potentially to independent local candidates. The most likely scenario in the event of an early general election is a repeat of 2010, where no single party could form a majority government.
People like Jones fear that Labour cannot overcome the damage done to it by it’s ‘wreckers’, that it cannot stop them from wrecking the party, and that the only route is one of appeasement, where Labour give the ‘wreckers’ what they want now, in the hope that the ideological damage the ‘wreckers’ do to the party further down the road can be negated somehow by isolating them. The Conservative Party have proven that that ‘strategy’ simply does not work and Britain is currently paying the price. What people like Jones are suggesting would give away Labour’s best chance to stand up to the parasites in British politics and excise those within and influencing its ranks.
We keep hearing that Labour must be in power to make a difference and I never really considered the full implications of why that call has been going on since before Corbyn took over the leadership of the party because it is not something that anyone, including Jeremy Corbyn, has ever disputed. The war is to be in government, focus on winning the war, they say, ignore the battles is the implication. But the war in British politics is the one against the parasites acting in the interests of a minority of wealthy individuals, against the best interests of the rest of us. Getting into government is just one of the battles and you won’t have won the war if the people you put into government are the same parasites who you are waging war on in the first place. The current Labour leadership understand this.
Labour can choose to be Bayern Munich at 90:35 or Manchester United at 92.18
