Alan Kelly and Keir Starmer, comfortably elected leaders of the Irish and British Labour parties, both face monumental tasks. The Irish party emerged from the February general election with its worst vote ever, while British Labour, on the back of four successive defeats, scored less than any election since the second World War. Like European social democracy as a whole, the two parties face an uncertain future, eclipsed by populism in its various, very different manifestations. An open, democratic, radical party that enthusiastically embraces a broad range political currents – through mergers not takeovers – can allow the State’s oldest party to thrive again. To create a new type of political alternative to the conservative politics that Labour must define itself against.

Source: The Irish Times April 05, 2020 23:03 UTC