Starmer - the British Establishment's cypher
Plenty of money for nukes (in Scotland) but not for people
A heavily edited version published in the June 7th edition of the Edinburgh Evening News, with the last 3 paragraphs cut.
In his reedy English voice, Sir Keir Starmer made a ‘triple lock’ commitment to the UK’s ageing, leaking, toxic nuclear deterrent, based far from precious London in ‘remote’ Scotland, to build 4 ‘Dreadnought’ nuclear subs at a cost of £31 billion, maintain a 24/7/365 nuclear sub patrol and deliver future upgrades. The coup de grace - for that’s what it is - is that he said he’s prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend the UK from a fictional enemy that presumably wants to invade this insignificant island. Doesn’t that make you feel safer?
In August 2022, Liz Truss said that pressing the nuclear button “is an important duty of the Prime Minister.” Sir Keir seems to agree with her that incinerating your population is a more important Prime Ministerial duty than investing in their welfare - ensuring they are healthy, have decent housing, a quality education, affordable energy, reliable transport and good jobs. Instead, economic stagnation, poverty, illness and despair are the hallmarks of the failing UK.
Sir Keir didn’t utter a single word about diplomacy which is, in today’s world, ultimately about preventing nuclear annihilation. But the UK, like the US, no longer practices diplomacy. That’s because it’s hard and requires patience. Real diplomacy means talking to your adversaries and trying to see things from their point of view. It’s about addressing underlying problems, understanding how they arose, acknowledging that both sides have a position and trying to find some commonality.
There are no open communication channels with Russia or China even though both nations have repeatedly said they are open to talking. Rather than take up the offer, the western powers rattle their swords and concoct soothing narratives about their military prowess and, in the UK political establishment’s fevered imagination, about the vanished ‘power and glory’ of the bloody British Empire.
This general election offers no change from the dismal status quo because English Labour has been completely re-captured by the British Establishment. Starmer is its cypher. The sooner Scots realise this, the sooner they can end the failing union.