The Labour party is like France

It knows only anarchy or absolutism: Keir Starmer knows the latter is better.

According to Substack, around 15 percent of the people subscribed to The Debatable Land are also signed-up to Helen Lewis’s excellent newsletter, The Bluestocking. The other 85 percent of you really need to consider some of your choices.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Helen asked a number of folk a handful of questions about Keir Starmer. One of those people was me. (Others included Ian Leslie, Sam Freedman, Sam Bowman, Patrick Maguire, Rafael Behr, Sonia Sodha, Robert Colville and sundry other interesting, often heterodox, ponderers. I do recommend reading the whole thing.)

Here’s what I wrote in response to Helen’s questions:

1. 1. What does Keir Starmer believe? Where would you situate his personal politics in the Labour tradition?

   Starmer believes in winning and all else is, for the time being, secondary to that essential consideration. What is the point of a Labour party that never gets to govern? A serious Labour party meets the electorate on the latter's terms, not its own. 

   I doubt …