The Naked Lunch

I felt ever-so-slightly brow-beaten into voting Labour in last month’s general election. It did maintain my record of voting Labour in every election since I was able to vote (1979) but it left me feeling just a little dirty, having left my principles outside the polling station. (I voted by post, actually, but the polling station analogy reads better.) I voted for a man I didn’t like or believe in, for a jumble of uncosted slogans instead of policies, for a shadow cabinet of cranks, weirdoes and incompetents and a political party that has become a sewer of antisemitism. This time, in the new leadership campaign, I am going to vote with my conscience and what I believe in.

My reluctant Labour vote was more a tactical vote than anything. I wanted to stop the Conservatives winning an overall majority in parliament. That went well. I should, instead, have ignored those calls of “do you really want a Boris Johnson government for the next five years?”, which were, unconsciously perhaps, designed to make me feel guilty and responsible for electing a vile right wing government, led by a liar, a shyster and a huckster.

I can’t remember if I ever written about wanting a second referendum on the EU. If I did, I am sorry and I would have been wrong. My underlying feeling throughout was for the softest of soft Brexits, maintaining close links with Europe, through a customs union, single market membership and the continuation of free movement. That was why I never went to any of the mass marches in London and why I never actively campaigned for a second referendum. Hypocrisy alert: I could probably have lived with a second referendum overturning the first, but I am far from convinced it would have either united the country or ended the Brexit divide for very long. The reality is that I bottled it. As I reluctantly voted Labour in both 2017 and 2019, I left the Brexit stuff to others. Big mistake. I am not going to make the same mistake this time. In Labour’s leadership campaign, I am going to vote positively for the candidate I believe is best for the Labour Party.

My initial thoughts, right up until yesterday, were that I would support the person who would mostly likely prevent a continuity Jeremy Corbyn candidate, who in this case would be Rebecca Long-Bailey. If Labour is to come back from the now distant foothills of opposition, more of the same hard left fantasy slogans and rhetorics, will keep it there and almost certainly make things worse.

My initial instinct was to put my support behind Keir Starmer. Despite his lack of charisma – and let’s face it: a lack of charisma never stopped Clement Attlee winning the post war election and setting up the NHS – his towering intellect and his forensic debating skills do appear to put him in the category of the last person Boris Johnson would want to face in the House of Commons. But then I saw Andrew Neil’s interview last night with Lisa Nandy.

Neil is the best interviewer in the business but at no point did he even threaten to lay a glove on Nandy. Smart, assured, authentic, straightforward, with none of the slippery evasiveness of so many politicians, she gave a brilliant performance under pressure and, within ten minutes, had become my favoured candidate.

This could, of course, change. It might be that Starmer, Jess Phillips or even Emily Thornberry might play a consistent blinder and make an utterly compelling case to lead Labour. I am not going to make my final decision before the hustings have taken place.

The runaway leader for me right now, on the basis of my past admiration and her brilliant performance against the formidable Neil, is Lisa Nandy. And this time, I shall vote more with my heart for what I believe in and not just to prevent someone else winning regardless of the consequences.

As William Burroughs described in his book The Naked Lunch: “The title means exactly what the words say: naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.” That’s the Labour leadership campaign in a nutshell.

And when it’s over, I can either remain in Labour to help with the fight or walk away forever as the party goes straight to hell. I will be true to myself.