“To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full ruinous effects of lockdown — only sooner, harder, longer.” So states the Labour Party’s newest version of Clause IV. Or it might as well do. 

Ever since Keir Starmer was elected Leader of the Opposition in April 2020 he has vowed to refrain from “scoring party political points” during a public health crisis and made a firm commitment to “engage constructively with the government” in the national interest. His leadership is offered under the banner of “Stronger Together.” 

But we haven’t been together. For the best part of the past two years, we have been apart. With many left isolated, uncertain, or downright fearful; particularly the most vulnerable in society — the very people the Labour Party claims to represent. How has a political party, a “broad church” embracing everyone on the Left — from socialists to social democrats — thoroughly neglected the importance of the social fabric of society? 

In its criticism of those protesting the loss of civil liberties and seeking a return to normal life, the UK Left has been scathing. “What do you most want to save: Lives or Christmas?” was a question posed by one high-profile ‘hard Left’ Twitterer this week. Responses to the thread were entirely symptomatic of everything wrong with the modern Left. Although no-one seriously thinks a turkey dinner is more important than a human life, the idea that anyone who wishes to be free to enjoy themselves this Christmas is a selfish individualist, unwilling to make sacrifices for the common good, pervades the consciousness of the Lockdown Left. 

But that is precisely what people who are determined to enjoy Christmas really want: to experience a common good, to spend time with family, friends, loved ones, because being ‘stronger together’ is more than just a slogan.  

What Keir Starmer and his supporters have failed to do, throughout this pandemic, is offer anything vaguely resembling opposition. To offer alternative strategies to lockdown, to raise questions about its damaging effects on lives, livelihoods, on people’s mental and physical well-being, on how to alleviate isolation for the elderly and support vulnerable children not in school. The response from Labour has been, invariably, to throw more money at the problem — a criticism once levelled at those on the opposite benches. But worse still is Keir Starmer’s unwillingness to believe in ordinary people. To appreciate that people who wish to exercise their freedom may want to do so simply so they can come together and help one another — practically or emotionally. One might call it solidarity. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, before the government demobilised the public and locked us in our homes, community groups sprung up all over the country as neighbour helped neighbour with shopping, with collecting prescriptions, with ensuring no-one felt alone. And, yet, if the Labour Party hadn’t become so detached from its working-class roots, it would know that informal networks have always characterised working class life — from babysitting and sharing the school run, to doing odd-jobs in return for a nice meal. 

The idea that middle-class people have been able to sit in their large homes, with plenty of garden space, while the working class bring them things, has become a cliché now, but only because it’s true. For many of the most deprived communities in the UK, a bit of free childcare and someone to mend a leaky tap can go a long way to keeping the wheels of life turning, without breaking the bank. For the Left the idea that the desire for freedom could be an expression of solidarity and togetherness is an anathema. The only possible outcome of social interaction is that more people will breathe the virus on each other. It is as nihilistic as it is anti-human, and a sure sign that the Left is no longer on the side of common people and common sense. 

That ordinary people are perfectly capable of assessing the risks to their health and that of their loved ones this Christmas is entirely missing from the discourse. When, in 1966, in his book The Left in Europe the author David Caute defined the essence of Left-wing thought as ‘the notion of self-government’ he had in mind the simple proposition that people can make decisions for themselves. But Keir Starmer and the Labour Party have never once made this point. 

While we may now be ready, as a society, to confront some of the realities of the government’s suppression measures — reports have been appearing for months about the devastating impact on cancer diagnoses, mental health referrals, the loss of education on our young and the deaths in care homes of our elderly — are we ready to confront what tearing apart the social fabric of our society may have done? 

The fact that there would be non-measurable, social, and psychological impacts from a prolonged period of physical isolation and a climate of fear should have been obvious back in March 2020. Obvious, at least, to anyone who understands that we are not rampant individualists but social creatures who require human interaction, togetherness, and love.

But it is unlikely we’ll hear these sentiments expressed by our technocratic, forensic Leader of the Opposition any time soon. If we want to repair the damage inflicted on our society — it is not to the Lockdown Left we should look, but rather to each other, to our fellow citizens, ordinary people who understand the value of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Because that is what will make us truly stronger together again.