Starmer’s pragmatism is not good politics

It’s been a sweltering few weeks of chaos in UK politics, much as that has come to be the norm lately. Boris Johnson stepping down, a Tory leadership contest brimmed with candidates determined to reheat 2010 vibes, a heatwave like never before bringing into sharp focus how disconnected our politics is from climate justice, and the small matter of a horrific cost of living crisis.

The cost of living crisis has coupled with workers affiliated with the RMT union going on strike, refusing to accept a drop in pay or workplace standards, fighting against a broken market that survived on them during the pandemic but now wants to remind them of their stations in life.

We often hear about free markets and cutting the red tape, rolling back regulations, and it’s worth reminding — as the Tory government prepares to introduce a legislation that would allow companies to hire agency workers to mitigate for strikes — that the freedom of choice without state consequence has always been a rule for the government. The worker is not free to collectively organise and bargain for stronger rights and protections. The employer is free, the worker is shackled. This is the Tory vision of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’

Where the trade unions have been battling gallantly, the Labour Party, the supposed political vessel for the…