Seeding despair in the enemy is a classic ploy. Don’t fall for it. We failed to change the Labour Party from within, but those of us who are now on the outside can do what we like – the problem is, many aren’t sure what to do. They say they feel “politically homeless”, they say it’s hopeless. Well, let’s stop trying to do the impossible and get on with what we CAN and MUST do. Top of the to-do list is understanding and curing that political despair…

… and the top of the “reasons to despair” list is probably our NHS. Everyone knows it’s failing, and everyone knows we desperately need it to survive. Most people also now understand that essential services must be protected from private profiteers. And yet…

We all know how badly we’ve been stitched up. Political conversations are full of people saying “but who can we vote for?” and, “we have to get rid of Starmer” answered by “but we have to get the Tories out” – we also hear endless ringing cries of “what is Starmer doing, what’s his game, what’s he after?” but this week, Starmer and Streeting proved exactly what they are there to do. They are there to make money by finishing off our ailing NHS.

But what can we do?

Sure, there are attempts to put together an alternative left – great, but we can’t be sure yet where to jump. That’s causing despair about next year’s election, but it shouldn’t. People who’ve been involved in politics for years should know that election campaigns are not the only battle. There is plenty we can do to influence, develop and change parties, and other organizations, in between. Despair happens when people are focused on what they can’t do, instead of what they can. First, let’s be clear about what we can’t do (it’s trying to do the impossible that causes despair).

We can’t persuade Starmer and Streeting to stop trying to privatise the NHS, there’s too much money in it for them. I’ve been reading the updated edition of Wilful Blindness by Margaret Heffernan. One of her most interesting premises is that when people are over-paid, they progressively lose sight of whatever morals and ethics they started out with. No big surprise there, but she lays out the evidence so well you start really seeing it.

From the financial crash through just about every rail accident and industrial disaster to Grenfell and beyond, she demonstrates how there were people who could and should have seen those accidents coming but, either they were silenced by low pay and job insecurity (“no one will listen to me”, or “I’ll lose my job”) or else by too much money (“I’m getting rich! I’m getting rich! Don’t distract me I’m getting rich!”)

Another of her conclusions is that no-one ever wants to be the bad guy. You always have to give people a worthy-sounding reason to do bad things. Those who facilitate fatal ‘deregulation’, for example: “To get the best eco-system for our buck, we should use decentralised and entrepreneurial strategies” said Newt Gingrich. If you prefer a version with less fog, when Trump reversed Obama’s ban on off-shore drilling, he said he did it because “the ban deprives our country potentially of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in wealth.”

I’m sure Rishi Sunak has excellent reasons for bankrupting Labour councils, for starving the nation, for neglecting refugees to a fatal extent, and for dropping vital green policies. Similarly, I’m sure Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting can give you excellent reasons why they ignored the unanimously agreed Socialist Health Association’s motion last year, the one that called for the Reinstatement of the NHS, and for an end to MPs being funded by, for example, private health care profiteers.

Because Starmer and Streeting ignored the Party’s requirement and continued both to accept blindness-inducing donations and to recommend an increase in private health care provision (to be paid for by the NHS), the SHA decided to try again this year. Initially, Labour’s Conference Arrangements Committee banned the motion, saying it was “procedural”.

“Phew,” you can hear Starmer and Streeting saying, clutching their wallets. It’s a bit of a stretch though, because the accepting or otherwise of corporate donations isn’t just “procedural”, it’s a policy thing, a moral thing even. MPs who aren’t beholden to big business tend to have different attitudes to policies that affect those businesses (because money ruins your eyesight). The universal popularity of the SHA motion last year suggests that the vast majority  of the Labour membership think big business donations are bad POLICY, bad POLITICS.

Thinking about Heffernan’s demonstration of the way ‘not enough money’ and ‘too much money’ both stop people seeing, thinking and speaking out, I would suggest that MPs, on a salary of £80k to £100k a year, are just about the best bet – comfortable, earning enough to save a fair bit in case they’re not elected a second time … or would be, if not for all those lobbyists distracting them with larger earning opportunities.

The SHA motion combined suggestions of reinstating our NHS and putting a stop to policy-changing corporate donors could just be the best way, or even the only way, to win us an honest government.

I asked Mark Ladbrooke, the Chair of the SHA about their motion being banned, and he said…

“The Socialist Health Association and some Labour branches supporting the motion which calls for the reinstatement of the NHS and a ban on corporate lobbying are challenging the rejection of the motion through the Conference Arrangement Committee procedure.
“The motion essentially reasserts the position adopted unanimously by conference last year. The reason we needed to reaffirm this is that statements from the shadow health team and the National Policy Forum report do not appear to have fully adopted the position.”

– Mark Ladbrooke, Sept 2023

It seems the challenge was successful, and the motion was back on the conference agenda the next day. The trouble is, because both Starmer and Streeting are in receipt of money from companies connected to private health care and because both (as a result) will insist on believing more privatisation would be GOOD for the NHS, they are likely to ignore it all over again – blinded by the money.

That old argument…

Jeremy Corbyn wasn’t perfect. I don’t think millions of people thought he was super-human, some sort of god. I don’t think the Corbyn movement was a cult. I think a lot of people just believed, as I did, that Corbyn would give us a chance to bring on some politicians who wouldn’t let themselves be blinded by money. But the NHS destroyers removed Jeremy Corbyn (he was getting in the way of their money) and that’s why this is happening. It’s fatal for our NHS, it’s preventing serious climate crisis action, and it’s killing the poor, the victims of war, and climate refugees.

We can and must take effective action

We can’t change the money men, and we can’t persuade people not to vote Labour – but there is another option. Remove the money men. Because out of all our public services, the NHS is the one people hold most dear, because it is the one thing most people understand that we simply can’t do without, we are going to have to remove Starmer and Streeting.

Don’t say you’re politically homeless. I’m not in a political party any more either, but I’m still doing politics. It is clear what we need to do, and how to do it.

The Unseat Starmer project is well underway. The plan is to stand a candidate to challenge Starmer in his constituency.  If you like the idea but aren’t in the constituency, please do drop as much as you can spare into their crowdfunder. (here’s a link). The glory of it is that it solves the problem for all those people who say “we have to vote Labour to get the Tories out” – we’re saying “okay then, vote Labour – but we must CHANGE Labour to make it safe.” – We must get rid of those MPs who are determined to destroy our NHS.

We’ll need to get rid of Streeting as well though. He has the same paymasters, and is rumoured to be the one who’d step up should Starmer need replacing – so – if you know anyone in his constituency (Ilford) who might be interested in kicking off an Unseat Streeting campaign, do please share the idea with them.

If the membership at conference this year approve the SHA motion as wholeheartedly as they did last year – well, it’ll be a whole lot easier for them to put the ideas into action this time if the NHS privateers are out of the picture. I normally say “join a union” when people say “what can you do?” but today I’ll add, it looks as though the SHA are putting up a very effective fight. Please go read about them – perhaps theirs is a campaign you’d like to join.

How to influence those blinded by money

Please give it a try. Support the Unseat Starmer campaign, and please share this idea with all those who are saying they don’t like Starmer but have to vote Labour “because there’s no option.” – Tell them this is how we change Labour.

I know there are plenty more MPs in the Labour Party who have the same faults as Starmer and Streeting – Rachel Reeves for example has a former NHS privateer working in her office – those MPs are willing to sell us down river because they think it’s bringing them wealth. But that’s the point. Wealth and security are what they want, therefore, if they saw Starmer’s and Streeting’s positions put under serious threat BECAUSE they are accepting NHS privateers’ money, they’d think twice about doing the same themselves.

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