There is good reason to believe that Britain is moving right. The general election saw a redoubtable Reform UK win 14 per cent of the vote and five parliamentary seats on a hard-line anti-immigrant platform; it paved the way for the Conservatives to be cannibalised by Faragism; and it exposed much of the legacy media as purveyors of sensationalist reaction, fuelling hysteria about “small boats” while keeping shtum about child poverty.
The new governing party has helped to legitimise this trend. Some commentators still profess their ignorance about Labour’s programme, describing it as “elusive” and “enigmatic”, while others delude themselves that it’s “transformative” and “progressive”. The truth, however, is that Starmerism signifies the repression of any hopeful or imaginative social vision. It means the adoption of Tory spending rules and the continuation of austerity, doubling down on the UK’s murderous foreign policy and preserving its undemocratic electoral system, neglecting the climate crisis and locking up environmental campaigners. The new Prime Minister laments how “people coming from countries like Bangladesh are not being removed” and says that he is open to “offshoring” asylum seekers. His ascent to high office proves that the British establishment, as vicious and racist as ever, has reconsolidated its power after the intermezzo of the Corbyn years.
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