For Biden, read Starmer!

Many of the observations made by Thomas Frank about the need for Biden and the Democrats to "confront their own past", and "acknowledge how their own decisions over the years helped make Trumpism possible" are clearly applicable to the UK`s Labour party and ten years of Tory governments (Now Biden must tackle the causes of Trumpism, 09/11/20). A preponderance of centrist policies which ignored "the grievances of blue-collar workers" cost Labour the 2010 election just as it lost the 2016 election for Clinton. Both Biden and Starmer were forced to include more left-wing ideas into their respective manifestos in their attempts to be seen to be unifying forces in their parties, and it is vital that they do their utmost to rubbish Republican and Conservative "preposterous claims to be workers` parties representing the aspirations of ordinary people" with action and policies respectively. Years of shrinking the state in both countries have proved disastrous, as have unfair taxation, deregulation and rising inequality, not to mention the abundance of corruption and cronyism. The US isn`t the only nation which has "grown sick of plutocracy", but if there is to be a new era of politics it is essential that Starmer, like Biden, confronts his party`s recent history and learns from it!