He Nails It!

A while back, in this long post, I did something I try to never do, and which I strongly advise others against: I predicted the future. I suggested (admittedly due to an inspiration from a former colleague) that the UK Liberals were headed down a path similar to that trod by the US Democrats, and that it seemed likely to result in a similar outcome: the eventual rise of a populist UK Reform government led by Nigel Farage.

As a sensible person, you my faithful reader had every reason to react to that post with ‘Oh, Al’s finally lost it’. Predicting the future is for fools.

Fair enough, but dammit, the UK Labour Party seems absolutely intent on making me look like a wizard, and this short post is just to let me gloat a bit.

1. I suggested Keir Starmer would eventually face a leadership contest among his Parliamentary caucus, and be gone. Well, didn’t ol’ Keir eliminate the need for anything as messy and drawn out as all that by reading the writing on the wall and just offering to resign.

Thank you, Mr. Starmer.

2. Even better, Andy Burnham resigned as Mayor of Manchester to run for a seat in Parliament for the express purpose of running for Labour leader, and what does the rest of the 400+ contingent of Labour MPs do? They all step aside, and say ‘right this way, Andy, the job is all yours’.

‘We don need no steenkeeng leadership election’.

Instead, they held a coronation, and Andy Burnham is the UK’s new PM.

Thank you, Labour Party MPs.

I cannot help but note the parallel. When Biden, like Starmer, finally faced the music in 2024 and shut down his campaign for re-election, the Democrats could have chosen democracy. They had a convention of party delegates scheduled anyway, they could have told contenders to throw their names in, and had the delegates gather to have a good debate and vote on who should run in Joe’s place against that goddam Trump guy.

But the Dem royalty (Obama, Clinton, etc) did not want that, so they decreed that it shall be Kamala, and the delegates all fell in line. And Kamala, the affirmative-action-VP, having never won so much as a single primary ever, went on to run a disastrous campaign that ultimately gave us DJT II.

Labour and the similarly-crowned Burnham does not have to face an election for a long time. Rather, they have to govern, which is way harder. Plenty of room and time to set the stage for a big Reform UK win when the election finally arrives. I will be watching, and gazing further into my crystal ball.

Just let the record show – I have bloody well nailed it so far.