The apotheosis of Starmerism

To celebrate this week’s 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the European Movement has launched a ‘powerful intergenerational film’ which, it says, ‘exposes Brexit as the biggest threat to peace since the 1994 ceasefire’. The film contains ‘true stories of how… Europe’s mission, commitment and hope for a peaceful future transformed Northern Ireland, changed the course of history and inspired the world’. Not a lot of people know that. Even fewer know that ‘the only organisation with the courage and commitment to… win the Battle for the Soul of our Country – is the European Movement.’ Mere raving? Such thoughts are not a million miles from EU/US orthodoxy. In January, Sir Keir Starmer said, at Queen’s University, Belfast, that: ‘The Good Friday Agreement is the greatest achievement of the Labour party in my lifetime, without question.’ The essential Starmer vision is of a world in which human rights, invigilated by wise people with good legal training (such as one Keir Starmer, former human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board), transcend national barriers and unseemly national parliaments.