Now or Never

"Having staged a remarkably successful coup within Britain’s ruling Labour Party in response to outgoing leader Keir Starmer's chronic irresolution on virtually all issues, Burnham has calculated that he needs to appear decisive and pragmatic straight out of the box. The former Manchester mayor comes off as a gregarious, upbeat fellow with an admittedly nerdy overlay. If he's not exactly John F. Kennedy, he clearly outdoes Starmer on charisma (not a high bar). He begins with a considerable reservoir of goodwill, but whether improved vibes can correct the Labour government's toxic drift remains to be seen."

Andrew O'Hehir at Salon reacts to Andy Burnham becoming the latest UK prime minister.

As does Larry Elliot at The Guardian.

"Two Hundred and Fifty Years After the American Colonists Broke Free of Empire, It's Time for a British Declaration of Independence"

"Iran desperately needs a fresh start. The theocracy symbolised by its assassinated supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has long ago had its day. Many, probably most, Iranians yearn passionately for an open, freer, more prosperous, pluralist, pro-western society. But this destructive, un-thought-through US-Israeli regression into the worst excesses of imperialist vandalism crushes hopes of peaceful change–the only kind that lasts–and hastens a collapse into warring camps. What may emerge is not a reborn, friendly Iran but a fractured country held hostage by a more brutal, paranoid, ever-threatening hardline rump regime embroiled in endless conflict with its people and the west."

Simon Tisdall at The Guardian writes that "Britain's enemy now is Donald Trump."

And Martin Gelin discusses the conclusion by the Varieties of Democracy Institute at Gothenburg University "that the US is hurtling towards autocracy at a faster rate than Hungary and Turkey."

"The Old Order Is Not Coming Back"

"For a while, the US's allies comforted themselves with the belief that Trump was an aberration who would one day be gone, allowing the old ways to resume. That delusion has also been shattered. When Trump still seemed determined to make good on his Greenland threats, there was no sign of anyone or anything inside the US that would stop him. Over these last 12 months, Trump has demonstrated that the formal restraints designed to hold a US president in check are easily swept away. And if it can happen once, it can happen again. Which means it is not just Trump who is an unreliable ally. Sadly, it is the US itself."

Jonathan Freedland at The Guardian proposes "a new constellation of the European Union plus the UK plus Canada."

"This New Age of Nationalism"

"For more than a decade, leaders have not only been slow to respond to the millions who feel left out and left behind, but also to the changing balance of global economic power, moving us from a unipolar world once dominated by the US to a multipolar world of competing superpowers, and from a rules-based order to a power-based one. The ethnic nationalism that this has incited means free trade is giving way to protectionism. Where economics used to drive politics, the politics of nationalism is now driving economic decisions, and already more than 100 countries are running mercantilist policies marked out by reshoring and friend-shoring and by bans on cross-border trade, investment and technology transfer, sinking international cooperation to its lowest ebb since 1945." 

At The Guardian, Gordon Brown argues that "the hard right can be stopped in their tracks."

"Focused on Protecting Blue-Collar Communities from the Depredations of Free-Market Capitalism"

"A post-industrial cleavage both cultural and economic was never just about the case for and against leaving the European Union. At its most basic, the blue-collar leave vote expressed a desire for rupture with a globalised capitalism that had undermined the power and agency of the western working class. It also reflected a latent perception that compassionate 'one world' social liberalism coexisted happily with a callous economic version; one that had stripped people and places of dignity, status and self-esteem."

Julian Coman at The Guardian calls for British politics to turn toward Blue Labour.

"Have Found a Moderate Tone and Approach to Social and Cultural Issues That Promotes Greater Progress and Equality, and Rejects Divisive Identity Politics"

"Labour will need to stay as focused in government on delivering for working-class voters, as they have been on speaking for them in opposition. This is necessary to retain their support, and pull more of them over from Reform by showing the credible center-left alternative to the right-wing prospectus for change, over the status quo that doesn't work for them."

Claire Ainsley at The Liberal Patriot anticipates the British election.

"'So if Joe Hadn't Stolen Your Speech, He Wouldn't Be President'"

"I'm strengthened naturally by what he's managed to do in these years in which he’s been in the presidency, in taking courageous, imaginative and very constructive action to combat deindustrialization, to improve the U.S. trade position, to provide wider opportunities for people, to enhance justice. If people look back over the last three or four years at economic performance and standing in the world, they'll have to give Joe Biden a hell of a lot of credit because he's earned it. So I've got confidence in Joe, and I'm sure he can continue to provide very good, outstanding leadership over the years to come." 

At Politico, Ben Jacobs talks with Neil Kinnock.

"On Music, Style and the State of the Nation"

"'I've only been at festivals when they pay me,' he says, appalled. 'They wouldn't entice me otherwise. Stand in a field of mud and shit for hours, off my face? Doesn't appeal to me. Call me old-fashioned. I just like a roof on it.'"

Miranda Sawyer at The Observer talks with Paul Weller.

"It Happened Because They Saw That Labour Elevated Identity Over Class, and Technocracy Over Democracy"

"That isn't to say Labour must suddenly eschew support from the well-heeled progressives whom it has done so much to court over recent years. On the contrary, Labour was, at its most successful, always a coalition between the working class and middle class, between Hartlepool and Hampstead. But the former part of that coalition found itself increasingly elbowed out as the latter came to dominate. The pendulum must now swing decisively the other way."

Paul Embery at Spiked gives advice to the Labour Party for the post-Boris Johnson era.

"Bridge the Divide Between the Young, Urban Left and the Traditional Democratic Base by Focusing on Work"

"True, it has been easier for Biden to connect with working people than for Starmer: the president's roots, his story and his manner lend him an authenticity not easily replicated. And he was up against a genuine monster in Donald Trump. Johnson is a tougher opponent, governing as a social democrat in a blue rosette, willing to tax and spend big–'a Brexity Hezza,' he called himself–and not in denial about Covid. But if Starmer were to adopt Bidenomics on jobs, 'the Tories would never be able to go there,' says Cruddas: ultimately their Thatcherite creed would hold them back. Labour would have that fertile ground all to itself."

Following another election defeat for the Labour Party, Jonathan Freedland at The Guardian recommends that the Party follows the model of Joe Biden.

"When You Lose an Election in a Democracy, You Deserve To"

"After telling his party that it was 'time to get serious' about pursuing power, he praised Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair, the only Labour leaders to have secured election victories. This is a refreshing change. After the 2010 defeat, Labour became gripped by a self-destructive compulsion for trashing its own record. Ed Miliband, and Mr Corbyn even more so, often talked as if the party's 13 years in power between 1997 and 2010 were a long and terrible mistake. This was popular with some activists, but not a formula for success at the ballot box. Why would the average voter be encouraged to choose Labour by Labour's own leaders bad-mouthing their party’s record? Labour now has a leader who expresses pride in what his party has achieved with power, an essential requisite for aspiring to hold office again." 

At The Guardian, Andrew Rawnsley reacts to Keir Starmer's first party conference speech.

"Believes He Has Been Vindicated When the Record Shows He Has Been Humiliated"

"After Labour's historic defeat in last December's general election, he now claims the moral victory. The coronavirus outbreak and the British government’s response to it—which has included wage guarantees for furloughed workers and quasi-renationalization of the railways—has vindicated his brand of far-left politics, he told the BBC. 'I didn't think that it would take only three months for me to be proved absolutely right,' he said with his usual modesty and grace. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party holds a 26-point lead in public polling."

Liam Hoare at Slate marks the end of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader.

And Owen Jones in The Guardian welcomes the new leader, Keir Starmer.