Starmer s pitiful pitch to England s north-east is a recipe for more disasters | Alex Niven theguardian.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theguardian.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
What’s more, the NIP is already preparing its own first electoral contest in Hartlepool, close to Durham, where it will be represented by former Colne Valley Labour MP Thelma Walker (though due to problems registering with the Electoral Commission, Walker will appear on the ballot as an independent). According to Survation, Walker is polling third at 2%, ahead of both the Lib Dems and the Greens. The fact that Starmer himself has had to step in to canvass in the absence of grassroots activists in the by-election campaign risks making a Labour loss a new low point in his already beleaguered leadership. If Labour does lose, as it is likely to, it will no doubt try to blame the NIP. It should start by blaming itself for the NIP’s very existence.
The Northern Independence Party (NIP) may have begun life as a Twitter joke, but those still scoffing would do well to learn from recent history. Italy’s Five Star Movement erupted into political life on the back of a comedian’s blog, before flipping Italian politics on its head. The Brexit Party, founded in 2018, was a hollow shell but transformed British politics in the short time of its existence (it was renamed Reform UK in January 2021). Both were helped by money and, crucially, more representative electoral systems than first-past-the-post. But as Paolo Gerbaudo argues in his 2018 book
Digital Party, the combination of the increasing political prominence of social media and popular disaffection with the
For all its electoral shortcomings, the rise of an alternative leftwing party may signal a realignment in British politics
‘The arrival of a new leftwing party shows that Keir Starmer must make some conciliatory moves to regain the trust of this faction – and fast.’ Starmer in Seaton Carew, County Durham, 30 March 2021. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
‘The arrival of a new leftwing party shows that Keir Starmer must make some conciliatory moves to regain the trust of this faction – and fast.’ Starmer in Seaton Carew, County Durham, 30 March 2021. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Sat 3 Apr 2021 06.00 EDT
Last modified on Sat 3 Apr 2021 06.13 EDT
This article is more than 3 months old
Gunboats in the Channel, the ‘white working class’, the ‘real’ England – it’s all based on a myth
Boris Johnson speaking outside Downing Street in December 2019. Photograph: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock
Boris Johnson speaking outside Downing Street in December 2019. Photograph: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock
Tue 15 Dec 2020 03.00 EST
Last modified on Tue 15 Dec 2020 03.05 EST
There was a blast of what we used to consider big beast conservatism last week, when Chris Patten, former governor of Hong Kong, told the Independent of his fears for the UK under its current prime minister. “I don’t think that Mr Johnson is a Conservative,” he elaborated. “I think he is an English nationalist.”