I don’t know where Andy Burnham found his magic lamp, but I hope he’s taking good care of it. In the early hours of Friday morning, the genie that’s looked so kindly on him these past few months granted him yet another wish, with a byelection win in Holborn and St Pancras. It was just the latest gift for a prime minister for whom things keep going right – and who is especially blessed in his choice of opponents.
Let’s start with that win in London, where Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali defeated the Green party leader, Zack Polanski. It’s easy to miss how rare such a victory is. As the veteran psephologist Peter Kellner pointed out, this was a win that “defied history”.
If the past half-century were any guide, Labour should have lost, thanks to a “truly dreadful record” defending its own seats when in government and facing a byelection challenge from the left or centre-left, the likes of the Greens or the Lib Dems. The average swing against Labour in such contests had been 24%. That reinforces the case Burnham made for why he should replace the previous Holborn and St Pancras MP, one Keir Starmer, as Labour leader: namely, that he was uniquely placed to defeat challenges from both left and right.
This latest win over the Greens, coupled with his own success in Makerfield in June, is early vindication of that argument. Burnham can claim much credit for the London result: it’s his leftward shift that has persuaded many progressive voters that they don’t need to vote Green to get what they want and that they should give Labour another chance. But Burnham really ought to share the credit with Polanski himself, who has proved a most generous adversary.
Yes, Polanski brought an initial surge in energy, enthusiasm and membership to the Greens. But under him the party has steadily dismantled the moral halo it once enjoyed as the UK’s foremost advocate for the planet, reshaping itself into something darker. Thanks to Sunday’s conference vote branding Zionism as racism, which Polanski ducked, the party now demands the destruction of a state founded, and still regarded by most Jews, as an essential refuge, one whose creation was approved by a UN vote.
The motion passed says that the change it seeks – a Palestinian state replacing, rather than existing alongside, Israel – must be secured “by all available means”, a phrase clarified in an accompanying booklet produced by the motion’s proposers to include “armed struggle”. Thus have the Greens allowed themselves to become toxified by the kind of cranks and bigots whose manias crowd out anyone who dares hold a moderate or nuanced view, including many longtime, dedicated local activists. A moment like this calls for leadership, but all the Greens have is a quack hypnotherapist who once earned a living promising to make women’s breasts larger and who, when faced with a difficult decision, ran away. (Now, after the event, Polanski says he would not have voted for the Zionism resolution.) Instead of a leader, the Greens are stuck with a charlatan and a coward.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
