There were by-elections in the UK yesterday, and labour completely screwed the pooch, loosing a seat that they have held since its founding 62 years ago.

Jeremy Corbyn is being blamed, because ……… Blairite Labour is sees Boris Johnson and the Tories as the opposition, and people who actually support progressive policies as the enemy.

It is not 1995.  It’s not even 2008.

The great recession changed things, and you are going to get more Boris Johnsons and more Donald Trumps until they stop sucking up to predatory capital as a campaign strategy:

Keir Starmer is facing immediate pressure from the left of Labour to change course after losing the Hartlepool byelection and a string of council seats to the Conservatives.

It came as Boris Johnson, visiting Hartlepool after the Conservatives took the seat for the first time in its 47-year history, said the result – which turned a Labour majority of 3,600 into a Tory win by nearly 7,000 votes, a 16-point swing – was “a mandate” for the government to press on.

………

While Labour had accepted the early results were likely to be among the worst of the series of votes across England, Scotland and Wales, the immediate message from Starmer and his allies was to push for a more rapid move away from the Jeremy Corbyn era.

Corbyn out-performed expectations in 3 of 4 elections with the party infrastructure actively sabotaging him.

You followed that up with party purges against him and his supporters.

If you think that the problem is that you are not moving fast enough away from Corbyn, you are delusional.

………

Diane Abbott, who was shadow home secretary under Corbyn, tweeted: “Keir Starmer must think again about his strategy.” She added: “Crushing defeat for Labour in Hartlepool. Not possible to blame Jeremy Corbyn for this result. Labour won the seat twice under his leadership.”

Richard Burgon, the Leeds East MP who was shadow justice secretary under Corbyn, said Starmer’s team “needs to urgently change direction”. He tweeted: “It should start by championing the popular policies in our recent manifestos – backed by a large majority of voters.”

A spokesman for Momentum, the Corbyn-allied Labour group, said: “The leadership are reacting to this disaster by promising ‘more change’ – but over the last year we’ve gone backwards. It’s time to change direction, not double down on a failed strategy.”

They are going to double down on a failed strategy, because playing to win means that they lose power within the party. 

One of Tony Blair’s “innovations” for Labour was the imposition of a top-down process in selecting MPs in many seats, and if the left takes power, and has the guts to deal with members more interested in power IN the party than the power OF the party, their positions will be far less secure.