Courage and the Labour Party (Part 3).

My arguments in Parts 1 and 2 of this extended blogpost amount to a plea for courage. There are those who will assert that the policy positions which I am proposing are too risky, and are too contrary to the prevailing public mood, one that has had its fill of Brexit, is minded to support the government in a national emergency, and has some sympathy for the government's antagonism to 'wokedom' or 'political correctness.'However, the positions which Labour is now taking carry a very clear risk that Labour will not delineate itself sufficiently clearly as an alternative to this shockingly abysmal government, and that its inexcusable negligence and dereliction of duty will not be held properly to account. This appears to be borne out by opinion surveys.

There have been times in the past when Labour has displayed exemplary courage, tenacity and determination. Both the NHS and the Open University encountered bitter opposition from vested interests (for the NHS, see volume 2 of Michael Foot's biography of Aneurin Bevan), despite being overwhelmingly popular. Labour's legislation in the Wilson years on race and gender discrimination ; the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality ; abortion ; divorce ; and the abolition of corporal and capital punishment all engendered dersion and hostility. Yet our society has become immeasurably better, less prejudiced and discriminatory, less bigoted and cruel, less narrow-minded, because of these (at the time) very contentious laws. It is worth bearing in mind that opinion polls indicated that only as late as 2015 did the majority of British people turn against capital punishment, more than fifty years after its abolition. So, these things take time. But who is to say that the effort wasn't worth it ?

My plea to the Labour Partyis this. If you don't have the courage of your convictions, you will find that you have mislaid both your courage and your convictions, and nothing on earth will save you.