Yesterday's Westminster chaos shows that Keir Starmer's hostility to democracy applies to parliament itself — but also that despite our politicians' attempts, protecting Israel from democratic condemnation is becoming unsustainable.
Speaking to Tribune, British surgeon Nick Maynard described the realities of Israeli collective punishment that he witnessed in Gaza: patients dying on dirty floors, sheltering from constant bomb attacks and receiving serious surgery without anaesthetic.
While Blairism said things could only get better, Starmerism says they can only stay the same. But voters aren’t crying out for a politics that ‘treads lightly’ on their lives — they want a politics that improves them.
Starmer is desperate to become the next Blair — but there’s a yawning chasm between 1997 and 2024.
Starmer’s Labour has a historic opportunity to transform the country, but it’s easier to identify what he won’t do than what he will.
Desperate to show a contrast to ‘old Labour’, Tony Blair took pride in upholding draconian anti-union laws and was happy confronting organised workers. But this belligerence created a new generation of trade unionists unafraid to challenge him and make things difficult for New Labour.
The NHS is the Labour Party’s greatest achievement — but nothing so far suggests a Starmer government will do what’s necessary to keep it alive.
New Labour’s technocratic managerialism agenda involved ceding control of the Bank of England — a decision with profound consequences to this day. While unelected technocrats are able to hike interest rates and engineer economic slowdowns, workers will remain worse off.
The decline of mass parties in the late 20th century eroded democracy and gave rise to technocratic centrists who hollowed out politics — ushering in an era of unprecedented voter apathy and distrust.
The hollow and apolitical style that looks set to define a Keir Starmer government can’t survive a world riddled with profound crises. When this unambitious offer crumbles, the Left has to be prepared to answer seriously.
In the years after the Second World War, African independence fighters seized world attention, forcing democrats in Europe to reckon with problems of colonialism and freedom on the continent. Tribune’s historical journey towards emphatic support for African decolonisation leaves a record of enormous relevance for the anti-colonial left today.
Guitarist and vocalist of the iconic Sonic Youth sits down with Tribune to discuss his recently published memoir recounting a personal history of American rock and New York City counterculture.