Lisa Nandy’s localism is what we all want
Just a few days before the General Election, last month, I posted a tweet accurately forecasting three out of four of its result: I said that the Tories would have easily won a majority and it happened, I said that the LibDem would have not gained any seat and it happened and, last but not least, I said that the Labour Party would have faced a huge loss and, well, it happened. All of this while everyone else, not only biased medias and inaccurate polls, but also actual experts like Michael Goodwin and Niall Ferguson, was talking about a hung parliament or, even, a Labour win. It was a gut feeling, the same one that is pushing me today to write this piece.
The General Election is the perfect starting point for this article because it stated clearly that the current strategy of the Labour Party is completely wrong, from the choice of its leader — Jeremy Corbin — to its policies — no, promising an excessive amount of money for every service you can name is not a policy: it’s boasting. Labour’s manifesto for this election was: transforming the UK in a fiscal hell, not admitting that the party has a huge problem related to the anti-Semitism of several members, specifying which pronouns to use when referring to people. No wonder, then, that it lost 60 seats. I can only imagine how many sighs of relief Jeremy Corbin provoked in the party with his resignation. His decision, of course, led to a leadership election, to be held between the end of February and the beginning of April.
At the moment, there are 6 candidates for the leadership of the Labour Party: Emily Thornberry, Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Jess Philips, Clive Lewis and Lisa Nandy. At this point of the race, without knowing if there will be others who’ll announce their intention to stand, I’m putting my money on the latter.
Despite the polls indicating Starmer as the most popular candidate I don’t believe that a nationwide election will choose him as new party leader. He, as well as Emily Thornberry, is personally and politically from London. Now, if there is something that the last election particularly showed us is that there is a country outside the M25 and that this part of country has a powerful voice, wants to be heard and is tired of being represented by Londoners.
This leaves me with Long-Bailey, Philips, Lewis and Nandy. What makes me pick the latter is her original — at least in the current political landscape — message: her plan is to enhance local activism and reconnect with the communities. She also understands that a political leader, in this particular moment, needs to have skin in the game and be proud of his community. She, more than the others, appears to have a deep understanding of the political system: she says very wisely that the government «must give power and resources back to people in every town, city, region and nation in the UK» and that it «must leave behind the paternalism of the past and give people the ability to deliver change for themselves».
This is what people want to hear and, more important, to happen. It doesn’t even sound like a Labour message and this is what I like most about her: the courage to challenge the status quo and the dogmas of her own party, while everyone else is standing as the “real socialist” leader. Hers is a localist message: give power back to the people, make politicians more accountable and policies more accurate, make single votes count more, ensure everyone’s idea is heard and taken into consideration. I am sure she will win because she is standing for a bottom-up system: she is proposing the “Helvetization” of the UK and this is great news for everyone, not only for Labour members and voters.
