Cassandra's Story

Gorton and Denton as Greek Tragedy

Do you know the story of Cassandra? She was a Trojan Priestess who begged the God Apollo for the gift of prophecy. But when she angered him, he cursed her to never be believed. She predicted the coming war, the Trojan horse and countless deaths, but was considered “crazy” and locked away by her parents. Knowing what would happen to her country and family, but being unable to stop any of it tortured her.

The very first line of my Twitter bio is “Political Soothsayer”. Like Cassandra, I have been destined to be right, but not believed since 2010. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra

After Brown’s loss, it was a straight fight between the Miliband brothers. Ed and David. David, the continuity Blair figure - and this won’t resonate at all in 2026, but if anyone really did seem to get where Blair went wrong, yet still understand why the better parts worked, it was David Miliband. I’d met both at conference and (sorry Ed) it seemed inconceivable to me that David could lose. He was statesmanlike and engaging, a brilliant speaker and seemingly a very clever man. Ed was friendly, approachable and geeky. I didn’t believe he was “Prime Minister” material. Believed people would mock him and just not take him seriously.

When the results were announced, I actually cried. It was a tremendous shock and I did not see it coming. I didn’t cry because David had lost, but because Ed had won. I absolutely knew he would not win the next election in 5 year’s time. Conference was just a few days later, and the entire event was virtually silent with disbelief. At some point, I would love someone to finally reveal what really happened there, too…..

By then, I was campaigning and Labour List ran a feature called “Ed’s Inbox”. It was the 5 articles they felt he had to read that day. I was in it weekly, if not daily. If Ed didn’t read it, they pay people to read things like that for them. So for 5 long years, he knew very well how I thought he could win. I did everything I could think of, schemed every scheme, persuaded, cajoled - even held them to ransom with their own grassroots if I could. All to no avail.

5 long years wasted. Labour lost and again to everyone’s surprise, Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership contest. As we now know, it was only the day after Brexit that his own Party turned on him and called their coup. From the very first day I warned and pleaded, reached out to anyone I could see was still somewhere near the middle ground. I stood my own ground when every last “friend” called me at best naive, at worst a Jew Hater. (My Daddy was Jewish, that one cut.)

If they had just accepted the result and let it all play out, Corbyn may well have tripped HIMSELF up. But the harder they fought, the better he performed. And the more sympathy the country had for him in 2017, when they finally got to see him for himself during the election he came so close to winning. I think I was the only person, including all pollsters, who predicted Corbyn would GAIN around 30 seats. (Mocked yet again of course)

Even at that point, the Rebels in Labour could have admitted defeat, realised they accidentally HAD stumbled across a winning electoral formula and built on it. Instead, they diverted funds from viable candidates to their own, and worked “day and night” to bring Corbyn down. (Quote from Mandelson)

For what could only ever be a Pyrrhic victory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_victory Labour will never Govern successfully with only one part of the Party in control. From Bevan and Attlee to Blair and Brown we win elections because we allow that conflict to come together right at the top of Government. We live with it, however uncomfortably, because we know that we only hold the ship together by slogging out those battles at the top table. Blair and Attlee didn’t win because they were competent, centrist, caretakers. They won because they promised that all wings of the Party would be represented. Attlee had Bevan’s sweeping social reforms and Blair had his “5 Pledges” that he stuck to like glue. Pension credits, winter fuel payments and child trust funds always gave the core vote just enough to cheer.

When Starmer won, I had believed his promises of unity and Socialism-In-A-Suit. As you can tell by now, my curse is never to know what will happen until AFTER the first die is cast. Then, like a chess game, I can see the final check-mate before a move has been played. From Starmer’s very first speech, I was horrified. I am addicted to discourse analysis, and any technique people use to betray themselves with words or gestures. (So is Zack Polanski, more of that and the by-election result at the end.) My own early analysis of that speech showed a vengeful, even warmongering man who only knew that he had to win, but not why.

Again, for well over a year I reached out to everyone I knew. “This can never work” “Please, get him to change tack now, before it’s too late.” But again, no-one would listen. Even friends who had never quite jumped into either faction were now so far from a middle ground, there was nowhere left to build bridges TO. My friend and I even wrote to Starmer and his closest allies all through that time, we produced the letters in a pamphlet after the event (you can read the full “Starmer Prophecy” here here https://underclass.substack.com/p/the-starmer-prophecy?r=3er0gj ) and our warning couldn’t have been more prophetic :

“At the risk of adding more gloom, these Ladies of a certain Age and Experience know that leaders come and go. This one now seems unlikely to succeed, and so we only wonder how long it will take this time and how much more damage will be done along the way. If you can’t win on early momentum, and you can’t see why, then going seems inevitable, at some point. Sadly, the customary 18 months of denial will almost certainly play out.

And so, with the restless air of those reading a novel, when they’ve already skipped ahead to the last page, they wait for time to pass and the next chapter.....”

Finally, for years before I was ready to write again, friends or family would beg me to reconsider. Couldn’t I help to unify the Independents at the 2024 election to win more seats with a cohesive campaign? Would I advise this group or another? Why can’t you point out to people everything we know about the Starmerites???

And I would answer “Because it isn’t time. No-one is ready to hear it. And there are no Heroes.”

My Mum asked me endlessly what I meant by that, and the best example I could give at the time was Zack Polanski. She was unconvinced, but I couldn’t explain that I didn’t mean “hero” in the sense she did. I didn’t mean he was a perfect man, I didn’t even know if he was a good one. I meant Hero like yet another Greek Myth. In fact, the story of Hero is tragic, and she is known for lighting the way to lead her lover, Leander to her. All a Hero really needs, at least at first, is the ability to lead people and to light the way. To convince them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_and_Leander

Zack trained in hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic-Programming (NLP). Like discourse analysis, I LOVE NLP and being able to hear past people’s words to their truths is a powerful thing. If that doesn’t work, we can maybe read your tells or your eye pattern movements. It can make you seem like a prophet or a psychic.

Unfortunately Trump uses it too. It’s one of the reasons (only one, but…) he won 2 elections seemingly against all the odds. And the Tate Bros have a “Guru” who uses it to brainwash young men into joining their sex-ring cult. It’s handy, but rarer, when someone like Zack or I turn up who are actually on your side.

Just a few days before the Gorton and Denton by election, I saw a short clip of Zack and he left Ian Dale so tied up in knots, it was a perfect example of his communication skills. I tweeted it, pointing out how clever it was and why, saying something like “This is why the Greens are doing well.”

Zack has the ability to lead opinion. To cut through the noise and get his message across. He inspires and instructs without us knowing we’re being instructed.

He can communicate and if you want to succeed in politics, this is one of the most important natural gifts to possess. It disarms journalists and hecklers alike.

Now, finally, people are ready to hear just how bad Starmer and his faction are. Who pulls the strings and why they should be cut. And they have a Hero.

Corbyn was a Hero. He was able to connect with humans on a level unheard of in politics. He rallied hundreds of thousands to knock on doors for him, people flocked to his rallies in the same numbers. If the 2017 campaign had been two weeks longer, he would have won comfortably, his momentum kept climbing like no other politician before him.

The only thing you need to know about this by-election win for the Greens (and third place for Labour) is that it just changed everything. Now, they can win any seat. They’re (distant) second to every huge Labour majority. No-one is “safe” now.

Labour committed Patricide on their own Hero and are now trying equally hard to stop the Greens and theirs. But you can’t beat a Hero by outsmarting them or rallying the same support. So you can only smear and cheat. Unless Labour can find a Hero they can all unite behind, and accept that they need a true balance of those endless factions to win, after today, there might be no Labour Party to revive.