Obvs going to be completely overshadowed today, but Starmer is making his conference speech on here right now labour.org.uk/labour-connect…
Bits out beforehand suggest an attempt to outline a progressive patriotism capable of winning red wall seats back. That's important not just for Labour but for the broader liberal left, to see if it can summon the kind of language required.
The whole chatting-to-an-audience-which-is-not-there thing is weird, whichever way you shake it.
Think fire-side chats are probably the better way to go with these things, until covid passes.
Starmer says the covid crisis revealed Johnson's character. "He's just not up to the job."
"Debate between Leave and Remain is over. We are not going to be a party which bangs on about Europe... If the PM fails to get [a deal]... he will have to own that failure. It will be on him."
"When you lose an election in a democracy, you deserve to. You don't look at the electorate and think: 'What were you thinking?' You look at yourself and think: 'What were we doing?'"
"This party is under new leadership... We're becoming a competent, credible opposition... Never again will Labour go into an election not being trusted on national security, with your job, with your money."
"I don't want to win power just to be PM. I want to win because of the country I love and the values I hold dear."
Starmer now making the big break with Corbyn explicitly, rather than just implicitly. Nearly ever sentence of this is a rebuke to the former leader.
"I can see it, I can describe it, but it's all just a dream unless we win back the trust of the people. We've a long road ahead of us. Trust takes time. It starts with being a credible opposition."
"So to those people in Doncaster and Deeside, in Glasgow and Grimsby, in Stoke and in Stevenage, to those who have turned away from Labour, I say this: we hear you."
"Never again will Labour take you or the things you care about for granted. And I ask you: Take another look at Labour. We’re under new leadership. We love this country as you do."
That was a very strong speech. Impossible for it to have any real impact in the circumstances - delivered virtually, on a day the news agenda will drown it out. But the approach is entirely the right one.
Instructive to consider that speech in light of @Dorianlynskey take on the Corbyn post-mortem - "an irresistible argument for the unglamorous virtue of competence" politics.co.uk/comment-analys…
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