The time-honoured clarion call of the right in both the Labour Party and in many trade unions is for "unity." This is always code for saying that if the left won't shut up we might have to kick them out or otherwise sideline them. Well there's a very strong undercurrent of feeling among millions of Labour voters of the party being there for the working people, the disadvantaged, the exploited and the undeserving poor. But for decades we've seen the gap between rich and poor get ever wider, especially under Blair. We've seen Labour embracing the Tory shitting-on-the-unions policies. We've seen Starmer instructing LABOUR MPs (!) not to join picket lines in perfectly legitimate and justified disputes. The upshot is zero-hours, non-recognition of unions in workplaces, gig economy, fake self-employment for millions (who still actually work for other people but with no holiday pay, maternity pay, sick pay...), no job security and the scrapping of workplace rights.

Well I don't know where Starmer and his anodyne lackeys are in all this. I'm sick of seeing "tactics," "We're listening to the people" and the sidelining of the left. It has never worked and it won't work next time. There has been no bold attempt to confront populism and it will be there as strong as ever at the next election - and the left, the true grass roots of a Labour Party that has disastrously allowed itself to become part of the establishment, will also be back. 'Twas ever thus, and, as usual, the left, the people who actually do care about ordinary people, will, as ever, be blamed for "splitting the party." So next time you hear that clarion call for unity, don't forget to prefix it by seeing it as "I'm a charlatan - let's have unity!"