Moaning progressives have a “patriotic duty” to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee this weekend, the head of Britain’s leading leftist party has said.
All those in Britain, including the country’s noisy population of anti-monarchy progressives, have a “patriotic duty” to celebrate 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, argued Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer — despite the fact he previously boasted of having “often” proposed “the abolition of the monarchy”.
Sir Keir, who heads Britain main opposition parrty, made the claim in an opinion piece published late on Tuesday, in which he also hailed the advent of a “new patriotism” in keeping with the values of the left.
In the article published by The Telegraph, Sir Keir cited the Queen, 96, as the reason Britain has been able to reject “extremism”, saying that her rule has guided the country towards a new era of multicultural tolerance.
“Her Majesty’s commitment to duty and her passion for furthering our country on the world stage have not just benefited each of us — they have also conferred on her the respect and love of people here and across the world,” the leftist leader wrote.
“The Western world has changed beyond recognition since the 1950s,” he went on, the Queen having been coronated in 1953.
“This has led to fundamental questions about what it means to be a citizen and what it means to be patriotic,” Starmer continued. “Her Majesty’s constant presence – a bridge between different eras – has been an important part in helping us to wrestle with those questions.”
“The Britain that is emerging at this Platinum Jubilee is one that is again ready to move on from the tribulations of recent years, stronger for its experiences, and more than able to seize the opportunities ahead. A new patriotism, one that is easy, self-confident and inclusive, is being born all around us,” he claimed — despite the wave of lefist iconoclasm which gripped the country in 2020, and the ongoing efforts of mostly Labour-led local governments to remove historic statues or recast those depicted by them in a negative light.
Sir Keir was also very clear that he expected everyone — including the country’s leftist population — to “let [their] hair down”, saying that it is their “patriotic duty to do just that”.
This is in stark contrast to the attitude of Labour under Jeremy Corbyn — at least outwardly — with the party’s former leader being infamous for his links to dissident Irish republicanism and making headlines by refraining from singing the British national anthem, God Save The Queen, during a war memorial event in 2015.
Corbyn’s continued soft opposition to Brexit also seemingly served to create the impression that he was lacking in a sort of patriotic sentiment, although during his time as leader he appeared to at least try to remain neutral on the issue.
Ultimately, Labour’s time under Corbyn appears to have left a public impression that the party is inherently anti-Britain in a national sense, and while some leftist outlets may believe that this abandonment of national values for cosmopolitanism was a good thing, Sir Keir seems to have determined that this is not a vote-winning posture.
However, he was in fact a senior member of Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet and his spokesman on Brexit, which he vociferously opposed, and many believe his attempt to give Labour a patriotic sheen is an insincere electoral strategy.
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