Forget the Daily Mail. Forget the wailing Conservative MPs. Forget the Durham Police who, following in the footsteps of the incompetent Metropolitan Police, have hardly covered themselves in glory. The only fact that matters is that, if you are given a fixed penalty notice for that glass of beer, you will have to resign as Labour party leader. If you did not, and you tried to weasel your way out of it, the public would never believe any of the words you will have to say when the inevitable further fines and the final Sue Gray report emerge over the next few weeks and months.
So you should get out in front now. Immediately after reading this. State unequivocally that, f you are given a FPN, you will resign. Distance yourself from our weaselly PM and make the stand for honesty and decency in politics. After all she has said on this subject, Angela Rayner should do the same. There is no wiggle room.
Labour would survive your departure, even be enhanced by its setting a standard for integrity.
This is your test. Don't fail it.
This from MiceElf, who's suffering technical issues:
ReplyDeleteWith all the majestic impartiality of the law, Durham police refrained from investigating Dominic Cummings because he was a friend of the Prime Minister and continue to investigate Keir Starmer because he's the leader of the Labour Party.
Sadly I can’t see it hurting Boris more if Starmer did resign due to an FPN. But hell, let’s give it a spin!
ReplyDeleteAn interesting viewpoint from the predictably scathing and lefty Owen Jones
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/09/policies-keir-starmer-labour-leader-boris-johnson-beergate?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Unusually I find myself agreeing with much of what Jones says. It's certainly a coherent analysis. I would argue that (see my later post) Labour has acted too much as an adjunct to the government and forgotten that the primary job of an opposition is to oppose. For instance in not kow-towing to the Government's uncritical and bellicose attitudes to Russia, when a responsible opposition - particularly a left of centre one - would be saying "hang on a minute, wouldn't it be better to seek peace?"
ReplyDelete