THE election of Donald Trump marks the end of a long period of confusion that began with the Brexit vote.
That changed everything.
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I was at Trump’s inauguration and all the talk was of tariffs, borders, armies and industry.
It wasn’t only that I was the only member of the Labour Party there, I was the only academic.
I was surrounded by Generals, CEOs and SWAT teams. It is a new era.
For the last 50 years, we were told that the nation-state was finished, that sovereignty was a fantasy, that there was nothing you could do about immigration, that industry was a thing of the past.
That lawyers would replace politicians, that everyone had to go to university.
We were told that there was no alternative to globalisation, the EU and free movement.
‘Change course’
The Brexit vote opened up the space and Trump sealed the deal.
The genie is out of the bottle, there’s no going back.
Boris Johnson said he would take back control, “level up”, control the borders, renew our country — and he never did any of it.
He did the opposite.
And now Conservatives are like ghosts. They speak, but we cannot hear them. They live among us, but we cannot see them.
The Conservatives are the Titanic, they are sunk. Right now, Keir Starmer looks like the captain of the Marie Celeste. He has to change course, fast.
It’s life or death for Labour, the stakes are that high.
We are handing the keys of No10 to Nigel Farage, a saloon bar Thatcherite and Putin appeaser.
Keir Starmer has got to get his head straight. He needs to put the Royal Navy in the Channel and stop the boats.
If France can’t control their border, we’ll have to.
Stop the boats. Get out of the European Court of Human Rights and scrap the Act.
Common Law is our inheritance of liberty.
The grooming gang inquiry has got to be televised so that people can see justice done.
Anyone who covered it up should go to jail.
If Labour doesn’t get straight with working people, it will be destroyed by the era that is now taking shape, which is the opposite of what went before.
This is an era of industry, borders, national economic strategy, sovereignty and war.
Labour needs to embrace the future, not fear it
Maurice
Where the dominant values will be solidarity, courage and sacrifice.
The rule of law, not the rule of lawyers.
The Labour Tradition, disrupted by New Labour in 1997, is perfect for our times.
We need to pull together and restore our institutions and become stronger as a nation.
Labour needs to embrace the future, not fear it.
We must restore the eternal covenant between rulers and ruled, the past and the future.
To do that, Labour must celebrate the collapse of the era of globalisation, embrace the space of Brexit, the renewal of the Commonwealth, the dignity of labour, the primacy of Parliament, the integrity of our police, the effectiveness of our armed forces, the protection of our borders and the resurrection of Labour as the tribune of the working-class.
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Industry, Prosperity, Patriotism. With the stress on industry.
Writing in the aftermath of Labour’s 1931 wipeout, great historian R. H. Tawney said: “The Labour Party is hesitant in action, because divided in mind.
“It does not achieve what it could, because it does not know what it wants.”
There is, he wrote, a “void in the mind of the Labour Party”.
Ever ancient, ever new. This is where we are.
‘Choose life’
The Labour tradition itself provides the direction we need.
Strengthen industry; nationalise water, steel and rail; secure our borders; ensure civic peace; deepen democracy with a special preference for the working class, their jobs and their communities.
Labour. Fellowship is life. The old is the new. We should honour our grandparents, not spit on their grave.
And no, I don’t believe Keir Starmer needs to go.
I see all this talk about Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham, but I don’t see any of the other candidates having a clue about the kind of world we are now living in.
Labour has ministers that know what needs to be done.
Shabana Mahmood at the Home Office. Steve Reed in housing. John Healey in defence.
These are proper Labour Ministers who give me hope — but shining stars help guide the path, they do not give direction.
Only the Labour Party can do that. At the moment, it is itself on the way to assisted dying; we must all rally round and urge it to choose life.
The future is full of possibilities, it is only our delusions that make us tremble.
- Baron Glasman is the founder of Blue Labour.
