Get on with it!

The Labour Party’s psycho-drama continues with every act given full attention by the media, not least the BBC. Who is supporting whom for the leadership, who is pouring cold water on the whole idea of replacing Starmer, who is whispering anonymously in dark corridors (obviously we’ll never know) and who will wield the knife? Queues will be forming outside William Hill as punters place bets on their favourite donkey. But little—if any—attention is being paid to polishies, as Tony Benn might have said. The current favourite, Andy Burnham seems to be ahead of the field (now with a selection contest and then a by-election to win) but apart from some unappreciative comments about the bond markets a while back, I’m not quite sure how he would address the dearth of radicalism of this Labour government, whose massive majority seems cowed by an invisible hand. Will Burnham start the ball rolling on our calamitous privatised water industry and start by reining in the undeserved bonuses of its hopeless executives? Will he tackle (or any leadership candidate) the sins of private equity? Will he unequivocally condemn the genocide of the Palestinians perpetrated by Israel and act accordingly? Will he examine wealth taxes as opposed to income taxes?  Will he (or they) introduce proportional representation, acknowledging that that is what the collapse of the two-party duopoly demands (and maybe the only way to stop the Faragist bandwagon)? Will he (or they) even consider arrangements for tactical voting at the next general election to halt the march of the Farage Shirts? Or, as is entirely possible, will prevailing old party political tribalism crush such sensible approaches to the new realities of multi-party politics? I have to ask. My vote, as an affiliated trade union member (rtd) in any forthcoming Labour Party leadership contest depends on the answers!