Labour Again

Yes, I know. But there’s nothing sensible to say about the Tories, except that they’re imploding and will do anything to survive. Labour, on the other hand, are embarking on serious campaigning, so they’re ditching the stuff which doesn’t count. So out of the shadow cabinet go people with a responsibility for mental health, and for peace and disarmament. Presumably that sort of stuff doesn’t really count, if you’re listening to Tony Blair.

And then there’s Windrush. Windrush was a huge, complex crime, to which the Williams Report offered a detailed corrective; different approaches from different angles, designed to ensure that it couldn’t happen again. Priti Patel, no liberal, signed up to it all. Suella Braverman is made of different stuff. From the beginning she’s insisted that the Williams report isn’t “set in stone” (the ink’s barely dry!), and recently she’s intervened to control diversity training, and disband the department set up to reform the Home Office.

I’d guess there are shadow cabinet member appalled by this, but none of them have said a word. There must be tight instructions from the top that Labour is not to be identified as anti-racist, because that might lose some of the votes they want. Condemning anti-semitism is fine, because that marks them out as not-Corbyn. Black lives still matter, of course, but not so much.