Nick Cohen talks to Lowdown regular and Guardian columnist Rafael Behr about Labour's struggle with the new international Trump disorder, its communications crisis, perceived serial bungling by Sir Keir Starmer and the party's perceived drift.
Starmer struggling with Trump's betrayal of the West
In anticipation of a possible US strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, Rafael & Nick discuss the growing decay of the so-called US-UK \"special relationship\". Rafael does not believe that Sir Keir Starmer grasps \"the sheer enormity of what is happening.\" He adds \"I think he's ultimately a very small \"c\" conservative person who thinks you can just fix things by sort of just getting through, making do mending sort of DIY around the status quo and hoping that that process will just see you through.\"
Trump's Putin fanboys are nothing new
Rafael reminds Nick that the American First tradition was \"very sympathetic of Hitler or, wanted to keep out of the second World War.\" He adds, They developed conspiracy theories that Roosevelt was really responsible for Pearl Harbour and all that kind of underworld, which never went away in America, is, is now back, is now back with Trump.\" Like America First, Trump's MAGA are in a world of where Putin apologists & conspiracy crackpots are now right at the heart of power in Washington.
Clueless Kemi & her hapless party are all at sea
Rafael has completely lost her bearings of where votable right ring thinking is current/y, and even Trump was \"...not so stupid as to do the sort of Kemi Badenoch trying to out Reform Reform by being in the sort of mad slightly conspiracy theory, tinge, racist, digital silos that reform paddle around in.\"
Keir Starmer is an analog prime minister in a digital age
Rafael is convinced that Starmer doesn't have a fully worked out concept of the British economy. Labour has major communications problems and Raf is picking up murmurings among Party figures of possibly replacing him. \"he would've been a great Prime minister in 1968 or 1949, \" says Rafael, adding, \"he's a fantastically well qualified analog prime minister!\"
Rafael's recent book Politics: A Survivor's Guide: How to stay engaged without getting enraged is published by W.F.Howes Ltd and available at Amazon and in all good bookshops.
Support the show You can also read his wonderful columns in the Guardian. His X handle is @rafaelbehr
Nick Cohen's @NichCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond.
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