The joy of Labour psychodrama |
As the three-word headline, ‘STARMER BLOCKS BURNHAM’ smashed on to our phone screens on Saturday, I felt I could almost hear the gleeful communal roar across the country; the same kind of Mexican wave of delight that passes through a school canteen when a dinner lady drops a big tray of puddings, a heap of custard and crockery.
Labour wars always bring good cheer. In rotten times we have to get our pleasures where we can. In this particular case, any outcome would have been a banter-facilitating outcome. If Starmer had permitted Burnham to stand in the Gorton and Denton by-election, the reaction would have been similar: here we go, here we go, here we go.
I think politicians are quite wrong when they say that the public doesn’t like internecine party strife
I think politicians are quite wrong when they say that the public doesn’t like internecine party strife. Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander, for example, told Sky. ‘There would have been three months of psychodrama. Who’s up, who’s down, who’s getting on with who, who’s standing against who … Would that have been in the best interest of the Labour party? Honestly I don’t think it would have’.
We keep hearing that the public are sick of ‘psychodrama’. But no. I suspect what the public are sick of is........