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The supreme appeal of Corbynism consisted in its faith in the primacy of the public over the machinery of power, rehabilitating a solidarity amidst grassroots society destroyed by the reaping of Thatcher.

It was an agenda for the liberation of the masses from elite domination, a programme for the nationalisation of power, and made enemies of some of the most powerful corporate ambassadors on earth, provoking rebuke and opprobrium in establishment media. Corbynism was a formidable, visceral challenge to the authoritarian politics of a transnational financial elite, whose lobbying influence over domestic legislative agendas has eroded the democratic role of public reason and made public sovereignty an anachronism. The battle between left and right for hegemony in Labour is symbolic of the struggle of the public for true sovereignty in an age of corporate domination.

Corporations are the kings of modernity. Like royalty in the age of feudalism, they possess vast resources for social control. In the information age, our vassalage derives from the fact corporations have proprietorship of a global telecommunications infrastructure, which is harnessed for anti democratic purposes like surveillance and propaganda dissemination. The wisdom of the revolutionary cypherpunk movement consists in the recognition that in order for technology to be progressive, it ought to be administered and run by a sovereign public. The dominance of corporations over algorithms builds up automation as a tool to support the infrastructure of capitalism.

Politicians disloyal to the public good acquiesce in the elite agenda and betray the national interest to enrich the few, whilst feigning a politics of solidarity. The foremost symbol of elitism at the moment is UK Labour leader Kier Starmer, who is shutting down people power in the party, a threat to elites which smashed the tight neoliberal consensus grafted by New Labour. Kier Starmer cut his teeth as a City lawyer in circles adept at using their education to innoculate privilege, and he has become a loyal ally of power, developing prestige by courting networks of establishment actors. Starmer espouses a conservative line on national security that exalts the role of the intelligence apparatus, which ostensibly exists to defend the polity from fatal threats to its liberal way of life. In all truth the intelligence apparatus has a more Machiavellian function, existing to protect the crown from threats to its hegemony.

Because intelligence is not a witness to the social contract, liberated of the standards of the ethical code to which most citizens abide, it is an existential threat to democracy that subverts the constitution with impunity. The astronomical power of the military intelligence complex in modern society has spawned the genesis of what is called the “deep state,” a dubious entity of perverse influence that defends the empire’s incumbent powers against the threat of true democracy. The transnational structure of the deep state empowers it to indulge programmes that violate domestic laws which protect civil liberties, and its mission corrupts public office.

Kier Starmer has proven himself a loyal ally of the deep state, foregoing genuine opposition to unethical legislation that protects perpetrators of crimes against humanity working for the higher echelons of the state from prosecution. Starmer has forfeited solidarity with humanitarian concern for obedience to the current order of power, for which he is rewarded with good press that whitewashes his complicity in oppression. Jeremy Corbyn defined himself in rebellion against the agenda of corporate oligarchy, whereas Starmer’s validity in the eyes of the establishment consists in his refusal to challenge institutions and cultures of privilege.

Starmer is a second generation Blair who only courts social justice within the dishonest parameters of tokenism. His power games have attacked Labour’s internal democracy and augmented his status as a dictator of party policy. His moral fibre – or lack thereof – as a leader can be gauged by his patronage of the military intelligence establishment. In an age when sovereign democracy is threatened by the deep state, Starmer has demonstrated that he is on the side of narrow imperial power. Under his leadership Labour has ceased to be a leader of righteous protest.

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