The most revealing moment in the Labour debate last night came when a questioner asked ‘what qualities do you share with Nicola Sturgeon that could make you as successful as a party leader?’
The unctuous manner in which the question was delivered suggested that being an English Sturgeon was a fine thing to be. No Labour member would think of asking ‘what qualities do you share with David Cameron that could make you as successful as a party leader’ — even though Cameron has just won a majority against the predictions of everyone —including himself.
The unctuous manner in which the men and women who would lead the Labour Party answered said much more – more even than the party’s charitable willingness to let Westminster’s most prominent apologist for Islamist extremism run because it seemed like a nice thing to do.
Not one candidate said they wouldn’t accept the rout in Scotland. That nationalism was a false and narrow creed, and that they would fight it by organising and agitating and winning back the seats Labour lost to the SNP.
Three ducked the nationalist challenge and the fourth, a simpering Andy Burnham, praised Sturgeon as ‘a plain talker’ with strong values, who ‘speaks in a language people understand.’
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