Can Keir Starmer solve Labour s patriotism problem?
The party has been advised to embrace the Union flag if it wants to challenge the Tories in Red Wall seats
3 February 2021 • 1:00pm
Remember Godwin’s Law? Named after Mike Godwin, an American lawyer, it proposes that the longer any discussion on the internet continues, the more likely it is that, at some point, one of the parties will invoke the memory of Nazism. More recently, any such argument is deemed to have been lost by whoever mentions Adolf Hitler first.
Aside from being very bad news for Ken Livingstone, Godwin’s Law must now be regarded as largely obsolescent: the number of arguments on social media that don’t invoke the lessons of 1930s Germany early on must surely now be in a small minority. It’s the go-to clinching argument for anyone blessed with only a light smattering of historical knowledge and too much free time.
Black History Month was first celebrated in October 1987 in the UK, on the 150th anniversary of Caribbean emancipation, and has always celebrated the vast contributions African-Caribbean citizens have made to the UK (Getty)
February is LGBT+ History Month in the UK, however it’s also Black History Month in the US. This in turn has led to not a little confusion, as the UK celebrates Black History Month in October.
Some people have even called out the official LGBT+ History Month Twitter account for “choosing” to clash with the American Black History Month, with one person tweeting:
“Why f king February?? Huh???? Why February…. explain this to me. Don’t you even dare mention Valentine’s Day! Really? I am disappointed. I am all for gay Pride but I am Black first!”
He also said now was not the time to learn lessons, but Labour accused the Conservatives of “monumental mistakes”.
Those mistakes have been well-covered. Some are clear with hindsight, but many were pointed out at the time; not closing our borders to people from virus hotspots sooner, locking down too late, abandoning community testing early on, then spending billions on a track and trace system which couldn’t track and trace tens of thousands of people.
In fact, some would argue that from that moment in March where the prime minister proudly declared he would be shaking hands with covid patients - the country was behind where it needed to be in tackling the pandemic. And has arguably never recovered.
He also said now was not the time to learn lessons, but Labour accused the Conservatives of “monumental mistakes”.
Those mistakes have been well-covered. Some are clear with hindsight, but many were pointed out at the time; not closing our borders to people from virus hotspots sooner, locking down too late, abandoning community testing early on, then spending billions on a track and trace system which couldn’t track and trace tens of thousands of people.
In fact, some would argue that from that moment in March where the prime minister proudly declared he would be shaking hands with covid patients - the country was behind where it needed to be in tackling the pandemic. And has arguably never recovered.
Fudge, muddle, clarity
James Marshall of Labour Party Marxists provides a rough guide to the issues and arguments that will dominate the January 30 Zoom conference
Another Labour Left Alliance conference; another massively overloaded agenda. Over the course of four hours (plus half an hour for lunch) we are going to debate the crisis in the Labour Party and decide what to do next. Doable, if the conference had been organised with a view to achieving clarity. Unfortunately that is not the case. The methods of the labour and trade union bureaucracy have been thoroughly internalised.
There is a mixed bag of eight motions - surely in a calculated attempt to dumb down, all limited to a maximum of 350 words, then nudged up to 400, by the LLA’s conference arrangements committee. This was strongly opposed by Labour Party Marxists. There is also the certainty of various amendments (with no word limit).