Keir Starmer is quite baffling. He gives every sign of being a puppet taking orders and following them. His policy is totally incoherent and impossible to understand, except it's the talking points of right wing think tanks and the Tory Press. 1/
Often when a politician holds rigidly, to a set of policies, often it is a sign of some sort of deep ideological beliefs. But this is the thing, Starmer doesn't actually seem to have any coherent principles or beliefs.
2/
This has been much commented on, especially in the lead up to the general election, with both the public and political analysts, struggling to work out what Starmer really stands for, if anything. It's no clearer now. He's dogmatic, but it's not clear why.
3/
Take his position over the EU and Brexit. Since well before the election, since he has been leader, he has been repeating, we must abide by Brexit, there is to be no considering re-joining the EU, the single market etc.
4/
This is baffling, because it was always clear that there would come a point, where the public got fed up with Brexit and there would be growing public opinion in favour of rejoining the EU, or closer ties.
5/
The reason it is utterly baffling, is that Starmer never had any apparent ideological beliefs about this, never had any clear views on it. At first it seemed, maybe focus groups, advisers etc, had said don't talk about it, as it might be unpopular.
6/
However, with public opinion changing in favour of the EU, it makes absolutely no sense he has this dogmatic position, unless Starmer is being controlled by right wing think tanks and Tory Press barons, who demand he not reconsider it.
7/
It is the same with much of Starmer's other positions, where over benefits for the sick and disabled, his unwavering support for Israel, and denial of genocide, refusing to consider nationalizing the water companies.
8/
I can just go on, with his anti-nature policy, the refusal to consider a wealth tax, his wrecking climate policy in favour of fossil fuel industry solutions, his Enoch Powell type speech, clamping down on climate protests and genocide protests.
9/
Starmer is absolutely dogmatic about this stuff, even though it makes him very unpopular. He wants you to believe he's making tough choices for the British people, but most of these dogmatic positions, are not for the good of anyone, but oligarchs.
10/
The only position it all seems to chime with are the themes of right wing think tanks and the talking points of the Tory Press. But this makes no sense, as the right hates Starmer, and he's not winning any respect from them, and he's creating an open goal for Reform.
11/
It only makes sense, if there are powerful people, demanding Starmer stick to unpopular positions, which are driving up support for Reform, whilst at the same time, not winning any approval from the right wing press, or right leaning voters.
12/
Starmer is politically incompetent, and seems devoid of any original thought, or any real moral principles. His rationale, seems to be to suck up to powerful right wing forces like Trump, the Tory Press barons, oligarchs, regardless of the political consequences for Labour.
13/
His latest warmongering stuff, whipping up fear of foreign attacks on British soil, is right in the vein of all the other stuff. This is a theme pushed by the Tory Press, parroting stuff from right wing think tanks.
14/
Let's get this clear, Starmer won this huge majority, because the Tories imploded after making themselves deeply unpopular, essentially pursuing the same policy Starmer is essentially pursuing. It wasn't because of any belief in Starmer.
15/
There is nothing particularly new, original, or controversial about me saying Starmer seems to be a principle free zone, as that is the opinion of most. It is, that he has these dogmatic positions, over everything, whilst having no principles, which is weird.
16/
To conclude, usually, when a politician rigidly and dogmatically sticks to certain policy, it's because they are an ideologue, with very clear beliefs about how things should be. Starmer is the diametric opposite of this, but he is not pragmatic at all.
17/
Most politicians without strong principles, tend to be pragmatic, going along with whatever makes them or their party popular. Yet bafflingly, Starmer is dogmatic, for reasons that are not at all clear. As I say, he acts like a puppet.
18/
@threadreaderapp unroll
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
There's a necessity to understand big picture thinking, joined up thinking, the overview.
All the things I've been commenting about, the climate and ecological crisis, politics, the genocide in Gaza, the pursuit of economic growth, neoliberalism, are all highly interlinked.
1/🧵
The interlinking theme, is humanity and social justice. As @GretaThunberg has explained, she is a climate activist, because of the threat to humanity. It is entirely mistaken to see climate activism, as somehow apart from other social justice issues.
If we do not urgently address the climate and ecological crisis, it will cause massive impacts, starvation, and the likely collapse of our civilization. This, and other social justice issues, all have one major cause.
This election victory was by default. The Tories had made themselves very disliked. Polling just before the general election showed no great enthusiasm for Keir Starmer. He just wasn't a Tory, or so people mistakenly thought at the time.
2/
The election wasn't a resounding success for either Keir Starmer or Morgan McSweeney. People wanted the Tories gone, and who else could they vote for?
It's not just choosing to hammer the sick and disabled, supporting the horrendous genocidal, murderous behaviour of the Israel regime. But there is rowing back on climate action, and supporting fossil fuel industry greenwash, and far more.
2/
There is locking up peaceful climate activists and giving them long prison sentences, the way he has overseen oppressive action against protestors, protesting against the genocide in Gaza.
Then there is sucking up to Donald Trump and being sycophantic towards him.
3/
Modern shyster politicians (manipulative gaslighters), like the UK PM, Keir Starmer, convince the public with lies, that the vulnerable, such as the sick and disabled have to suffer cuts, because there is no money. What a massive lie.
2/
The very rich pay a fraction of the tax they used to pay. In the 1950s and 1960s, the top tax rate in both the US and the UK, was 95%. Now, billionaires often pay a lower percentage in tax, than nurses. How did this come about?
3/
Just how ironic. After claiming they suspected automated behaviour on my account on Instagram, after appealing they found no breaches of Community Standards.
The irony, is that it is some sort of stupid AI that keeps telling Instagram, that I'm not a human. 1/
Instagram's stupid AI seems incapable of learning from experience. So even though previous appeals, have proved I was a real human being, not breaching Community Standards, it keeps making the same mistake over, and over again.
I'm going to go on a bit of a rant about AI. AI is actually not intelligent at all, it is in fact, very stupid, and always will be. Machine learning is very good at some things, like lots of parallel processes, but it totally lacks human intelligence.
3/
This was just posted by @GretaThunberg on Instagram. I want to totally endorse this, and I want everyone to get behind this, especially if they are influential and have a platform.
It's gone too far. If you don't get behind this, and claim to care, then you're a poseur.
1/🧵
The reason I say everyone who cares, needs to get behind this, is because #GretaThunberg is the clearest voice there is. This is not about getting behind her as a person, she doesn't want fame or adulation. It is getting behind her message.
2/
No more picking and choosing which issues you care about. Either you care about the whole situation, or you don't really care at all. You think your career, your reputation matters more, then you need to learn and to change your attitude.
3/