Let Labor’s fightback begin with a woman as leader – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

Well, I am excited, which is probably illegal. Still, I am energized by the idea that, finally, Labor may have a woman leader. I like the names mentioned so far. I can’t wait for there to be an opposition, nor can I believe there is not some sort of ethical vet who could come and sedate theJeremy Corbyncadre for their own peace of mind.

That’s not very gracious of me, is it? Humility? That is a two-way street, man, and there’s not a jot from some of the cheerleaders I see. They “won” again, just as they did in. And anything that went wrong was down to Brexit, Jews, the BBC and bribed-up unbelievers like me who, from day one, said that Corbyn was unelectable. Also – whisper it quietly – the idiotic working class.

Five years of Tories, though? It is bloody awful.Like Neil Kinnock said, don’t be poor, sick or old. I spent election night holding my sobbing youngest child. It is not a game to me. Where was the youthquake Twitter was hailing? Where were the queues of voters? In safe seats, it would seem.

All of it went so wrong because, as we knew from Brexit, people vote for action, not the status quo. Leave, not dull remain. This time, they voted for something to get done. Meaningless perhaps, but the bombardment of free stuff fromLaborbecame equally meaningless.

If this was, ultimately, about trust, Labor was still asking us to trust broken political institutions: the party, the unions, the working man. For those who are still living in the miners ’strike, purity is what matters.

Get the kids on the streets – and some artists. Continue to ignore Scotland. Talk a lot about internationalism, as belonging is a bit naff. So the English problem that produced Brexit could never be addressed. Anyone who said different was a Tory, a melt or – worse – a Blairite. Centrists (mostly Labor voters) were the devil incarnate. Last week, I asked for dialogue. I feelLisa Nandy, Angela Rayner etc are capable of that. Rebecca Long-Bailey is the Corbynites ’chosen one, poor thing, but she is a woman and not from London, so that gives me hope.

Nandy represented a leave constituency and has been very thoughtful about how we might reinvigorate small towns, how common ground might be found between leavers and remainers.Jess Phillipsis a fantastic communicator. Rayner’s back story is equal to her presence. Stella Creasy gets stuff done. We are spoiled for choice.

Those Corbyn loyalists talking of imminent revolution and a redefinition of the working class need to suck it up. They did redefine themselves – they voted Conservative, and not for the first time. Corbyn and his capos are not martyrs to radical politics. They are tone deaf to the country with their talk of collectivism and internationalism, and their grand gestures. Look at the local work of lifeboat men, Samaritans, women who run food banks. We are multi-local and multicultural. Bussing in young Momentum activists to lecture people on doorsteps? Hashtags are part of this hubris.

The cultural bubbles that many of us live in (I certainly do) are woke-ish, liberal and think Tories are evil – like those thick leave voters. We really need to get out more.

My children voted for a better future. Their distress was palpable, but now I want an opposition led by a woman who can make radical policies sound like crisp common sense. I want the decaying political institutions challenged. Instead of bitterness, I want alliances to be made. You cannot lead those you despise, and this is a Labor issue. I have been patronized my entire life by them. As a woman, as working-class, as a single parent, as a patriot. I don’t want handouts – I want freedom. If you don’t understand that basic desire for respect, forget it.

So now I hope a pragmatic conversation can begin that takes the fight to the Tories, who have promised so much that is undeliverable.

Principle is not embodied in a leader; Labor needs to decentralise. As Marx said: “To be radical is to grasp things by the root.”

Pull up this system by its roots. Tend to this new land by digging deep. Leave the old men to what they know. It made sense once. But that was long ago. Last week.