Labour has changed, that’s true and the leadership has little regard for the concerns of the left on that score. On a purely electoral basis, it’s right to do so. There are hundreds of thousands of votes for it to lose on the left (though many will still vote Labour whatever it does) but millions to gain to the right of it. If the question was, is Labour listening to the working class, then it clearly is. Unfortunately that’s often a nationalistic and conservative voice of a population, now 50% on benefits, angry and worked over. This is not a liberal Country right now, nor is Jeremy Corbyn in any sort of demand. The papers and social media will be at Labour’s throat from the off. Labour is very deliberately steering rightward and it’s not going to be pretty. Lots of Labour policy is decent though and where it’s not, the Tories will do the bad thing anyway. Labour will talk tough on asylum and immigration and maybe even act cruelly at times. But it will at least set up safe routes that will save lives and take the heat out of the argument. It will set off a green revolution and it will need to reach agreement with unions. There is room for struggle and the odd victory. But under the Tories it’s utterly hopeless. Labour has a mammoth job, win and then change this hopeless Country’s narrative to something approaching compassionate. It’s a long, long way from socialism, but it’s the only game in town, unless a new one emerges sharpish.
I mean to me the Tories are high tax, brexit, incompetence. If someone like me would currently like to vote Starmer then they are in a bad place.
Have you considered climbing aboard the Lord Buckethead bandwagon? Lots of us have and men of your obvious calibre are always welcome
Is it just me, or does anyone else think appointing Sue Gray is a smart political move? The Tories have spent a year praising her to cover their own backs, so she appears respectable to the British public, reminds everyone of partygate and it makes it very hard for them/ the press to criticise her (unless they are willing to criticise Johnson).
Very smart move. As Jessica Elgot put it: Powell was basically a walking, talking 'LinkedIn' - he knew everyone in Westminster and Whitehall (and the upper reaches of the establishment).
No, sorry, Nadine disagrees. Sue Gray was author of the ‘stitch up’ that did for her beloved and blameless Bozza. Lovelorn face.
Starmer didnt vote against the immigration bill recently, its in his voting record, he hasnt voted on anything since January. I dont know who the left or centre ground voters have to vote for anymore.
With Corbyn no longer able to run as a Labour MP at the next election, is it time for another party to form? I see there is a clamor for it online from many who no longer see Starmers Labour party as representing them - perhaps unsurprising given that they are increasingly becoming indistinguishable from the Tories. As an aside I see that Streeting, Cooper and Jarvis have received over 300k between them in donations from an empty shell company with no employees owned by a guy who made his money in public sector out sourcing. The same guy who funded Jarvis' failed attempt to unseat Corbyn as Labour leader. Good to see the next government getting their corruption in early
Whoever the official labour candidate in Islington is will have to have a thick skin to put up with the abuse that's likely to be thrown his or her way by Jezza's chums
It’s an age old question, whether to invest in the Labour Party, despite its faults, or simply nuke it from orbit. While an alternative, socialist party is attractive, ultimately there isn’t one because there are not enough votes. Following Corbyn into one would be disappearing into a political cul-de-sac (without electoral reform). The public don’t appear to have the appetite for a strongly left party. It would get a new backside torn by the ruling class media, daily. As dubious as the party is under Starmer, if the Labour Party’s job is to Govern in the working class interest, from the working class view, its instincts towards the mildly cultural conservative centre ground are probably better in tune with the public. It just has to remember that while the bosses want profit, the workers want job security, better wages, housing and decent services. We need a new social compact and that requires Labour to remember it’s of the left.
Because of what you read. But the factions have been present together in Islington Labour for years. Mostly they just get on with it. This isn’t 60 year old Watford fans getting tanked in Spoons, ready to relive past glories. This would be vegan on vegan fratricide. Corbyn’s crowd have never been the direct action types. It’ll get angry on social media, but not much in real life.
I wasn't suggesting Jezza was going to end up rolling around on the floor of the pub car park with the official candidate! But I expect there's likely to be plenty of twitter insults, threats etc
I’m in two minds about this. It’s not a good look to indulge in such lurid politics. Usually better to go high when they go low. But it also sticks in the craw that the Tories can be useless at a whole range of sensitive issues, like crime and migration, break the systems involved and then use lurid headlines of their own, amplified through their client media, to accuse Labour, socialists and progressives, with some success. So when the Tories appallingly racialise crime as they have done this week, a big part of me thinks ‘yeh, let ‘em have it.’ But you need to be very committed to such a strategy. I doubt Labour can pull it off.
I never thought that the "...Starmer helped Jimmy Saville..." stuff actually landed with the moronati...
It’s endlessly recycled on social media. Labour’s post is clumsy though. No one is going to believe that Sunak doesn’t want sex offenders imprisoned. They need to stick to competency and his bullish indifference to that.
Au contraire mon petit élan - it's perfect timing (which the Jockanese rapist story). You seem to forget that Labour are going up against the greatest electioneering machine ever invented they have to use every tool/weapon available to them. Also, that Labour ad/tweet must have really hit home (aka 'target audience') seeing how much noise they're making about it.
There is no victimhood the Tories won’t employ. Look at Braverman when taken to task on her repulsive language, they are being horrible to me! she squealed and the papers nodded isn’t she our Queen of Hearts.
I would go further showing how effective the Tory machine can do when they're rattled (or more correctly their focus groups are): The War of Jennifer's Ear. In the minutes after that ad had aired the Tories had taken polls of their focus groups and had assembled a team (the forerunner of New Labour's Rapid [...] Rebuttal Unit) to destroy that ad (rumours were that over half their electoral advertising 'budget' was spent, along with calling in/granting an awful lot of favours in media land). I was told this by someone ITK and she maintained that this was the single event that shaped Blair's entire media/communications strategy. Who got this job?
It would help if you didn’t write such cryptic posts. You started off with Blair. But ok, Paul Ovenden. Failing him, Starmer’s long term squeeze Laura Norder.
Phewwwwww.... I mean Andrew Neil and 'The Spectator' wouldn't have an agenda would they? https://twitter.com/afneil/status/1644496843626409984
FFS what a mealy-mouthed response: Yvette Cooper was ‘not told’ about Labour’s Sunak attack ad in advance Shadow home secretary was not consulted about the widely criticised advert that claims Rishi Sunak did not believe in jailing child abusers
The campaign is still running. It appears Labour are determined to feck this up. They need some leadership now. Drop the campaign immediately. Delete the tweets. And Starmer et al should come out and say it was an ill-judged campaign that mistakenly sought to match Tory gutter politics when the Labour party sees itself as above that. Undo the damage, as much as is possible, while they can otherwise they seriously risk losing the next general election imho.
