Current Affairs The Labour Party

[davids]

Hillsborough mentioned again but not a word about Heysel...?

 

[peteblue]

Wow. Starmer looked like the rabbit in the headlights…..

 

[Roger Milla]

Starmer the Sun columnist won't have to worry about not having a clean chocolate star fish whilst Rotherham is around. Little shithouse sipping his water hoping he wouldn't get noticed.

 

[peteblue]

I mean. What does any of this even mean.

Distinctively British lol

Could just as easy come from a Tory PM

He is a total waste of space mate……

 

[JimmyJeffers]

He is a total waste of space mate……

I wouldn’t say that, just think it’a been a problem of Labour for a while now, where they seem too scared to say anything that might offend anyone as they want to try to appeal to everyone.
In the end he just seems a bit insipid. I just can’t imagine him being a normal person.
Would still 100% prefer to whatever horror is sitting opposite from him.

 

[peteblue]

I wouldn’t say that, just think it’a been a problem of Labour for a while now, where they seem too scared to say anything that might offend anyone as they want to try to appeal to everyone.
In the end he just seems a bit insipid. I just can’t imagine him being a normal person.
Would still 100% prefer to whatever horror is sitting opposite from him.

I knew you would agree that Boris is best…..

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I wouldn’t say that, just think it’a been a problem of Labour for a while now, where they seem too scared to say anything that might offend anyone as they want to try to appeal to everyone.
In the end he just seems a bit insipid. I just can’t imagine him being a normal person.
Would still 100% prefer to whatever horror is sitting opposite from him.

I sense the challenge is that he has to look beyond the members. We can see with the Tories at the moment the kind of things they think the party membership want to hear about and how far removed that is from what most people care about. I have a feeling that it's a similar thing with Labour's members, and especially the trade union members. Even in this thread there is talk of "working class", when I suspect that is really code for "union member", despite the fact that just 20% of working people are in a union. Do we want a "Labour" leader representing those 20% or the full 100%?

 

[JimmyJeffers]

I knew you would agree that Boris is best…..

Did well to last 3 years. Doubt he’s that arsed

 

[JimmyJeffers]

I sense the challenge is that he has to look beyond the members. We can see with the Tories at the moment the kind of things they think the party membership want to hear about and how far removed that is from what most people care about. I have a feeling that it's a similar thing with Labour's members, and especially the trade union members. Even in this thread there is talk of "working class", when I suspect that is really code for "union member", despite the fact that just 20% of working people are in a union. Do we want a "Labour" leader representing those 20% or the full 100%?

I get that and I understand the challenge but how surprised would you be to hear someone say something along the lines of ‘what starmer has done and said has really impressed me. Will definitely be voting Labour this time’ Personally would think they were very strange and wouldn’t like to get trapped speaking to at a house party.
I don’t know anyone that passionately backs him but they will vote Labour cos they’re not the tories. Think that’s a very sad predicament to be honest.

 

[urquattro]

It is largely meaningless, but that's kind of the nature of political slogans I suppose. A few things I'd personally like to see (in no particular order):

• Actual work done on levelling up, which in reality would involve greater connectivity with regional hubs and more work done to improve training locally (the Tories have done naff all on this so it should be a no brainer)
• Continue backing industries where Britain is really good. The levelling up agenda is often portrayed as zero sum, like places can't do well if London or Oxford or Edinburgh do well. We have exceptional universities and life science organisations, for instance, and things like getting us back in Horizon and improving the flow of innovations into the NHS should be a no brainer. We should also look at ensuring SMEs have better access to leading technology as at the moment it's too often concentrated in big firms.
• Rebuild relations with Europe. Brexit has happened, but it's a car crash right now and we have trashed our reputation for reliability and decency. Get as good a trade deal as possible and work together with Europe on things like Horizon, Erasmus, data portability, and so on.
• Sort out the migration policy again so that it's liberalised. There is a huge talent shortage across the economy so please be honest about the benefits migration brings and step off this reductionist race to the bottom the Tories have embarked upon
• Allow pension funds to invest in unlisted firms, such as startups. Britain risks being left behind due to the lack of capital for growth businesses. You only have to look at the FTSE100 to see how stale the economy is becoming.
• The retirement age raised to keep it in step with the rising life expectancy in the economy. With our demographic situation this is urgently required if we don't want huge quantities of our tax expenditure to go on pensions rather than the NHS, education, and so on.
• Significantly alter planning regulations to liberalise the housing market. This is undoubtedly difficult due to NIMBYism, just as raising the retirement age tends to get stuck due to selfishness and a lack of understanding of just how the state pension works. This is needed though, both to give people more of a chance of getting on the ladder but also increasing labour mobility, which would greatly help the levelling up agenda.

I've no idea if any of the above is "Tory" or "Labour" but it would all be useful, and more so than nationalising railways or whatnot.

Who actually receives a net state pension these days!. Most retired or coming up to retirement age people have private pensions which are taxed to the point that what they receive or will receive of the state pension is zero because it is paid back as income tax.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I get that and I understand the challenge but how surprised would you be to hear someone say something along the lines of ‘what starmer has done and said has really impressed me. Will definitely be voting Labour this time’ Personally would think they were very strange and wouldn’t like to get trapped speaking to at a house party.
I don’t know anyone that passionately backs him but they will vote Labour cos they’re not the tories. Think that’s a very sad predicament to be honest.

Oh I quite agree, and don't think the LDs are any better either. I've said before during the local council elections, the apparent effort from the parties was utterly woeful. If it was a case of who really appealed gets my vote then I wouldn't vote, but we have to get rid of the Tories.

 

[Haydn]

Who actually receives a net state pension these days!. Most retired or coming up to retirement age people have private pensions which are taxed to the point that what they receive or will receive of the state pension is zero because it is paid back as income tax.

You would have to be on a pension well in excess of £50,000 a year for that to be the case surely ?

 

[urquattro]

You would have to be on a pension well in excess of £50,000 a year for that to be the case surely ?

Yep that figure isn't that far off for the boomer generation with final salary pension schemes plus the state pension.

 

[Haydn]

It is largely meaningless, but that's kind of the nature of political slogans I suppose. A few things I'd personally like to see (in no particular order):

• Actual work done on levelling up, which in reality would involve greater connectivity with regional hubs and more work done to improve training locally (the Tories have done naff all on this so it should be a no brainer)
• Continue backing industries where Britain is really good. The levelling up agenda is often portrayed as zero sum, like places can't do well if London or Oxford or Edinburgh do well. We have exceptional universities and life science organisations, for instance, and things like getting us back in Horizon and improving the flow of innovations into the NHS should be a no brainer. We should also look at ensuring SMEs have better access to leading technology as at the moment it's too often concentrated in big firms.
• Rebuild relations with Europe. Brexit has happened, but it's a car crash right now and we have trashed our reputation for reliability and decency. Get as good a trade deal as possible and work together with Europe on things like Horizon, Erasmus, data portability, and so on.
• Sort out the migration policy again so that it's liberalised. There is a huge talent shortage across the economy so please be honest about the benefits migration brings and step off this reductionist race to the bottom the Tories have embarked upon
• Allow pension funds to invest in unlisted firms, such as startups. Britain risks being left behind due to the lack of capital for growth businesses. You only have to look at the FTSE100 to see how stale the economy is becoming.
• The retirement age raised to keep it in step with the rising life expectancy in the economy. With our demographic situation this is urgently required if we don't want huge quantities of our tax expenditure to go on pensions rather than the NHS, education, and so on.
• Significantly alter planning regulations to liberalise the housing market. This is undoubtedly difficult due to NIMBYism, just as raising the retirement age tends to get stuck due to selfishness and a lack of understanding of just how the state pension works. This is needed though, both to give people more of a chance of getting on the ladder but also increasing labour mobility, which would greatly help the levelling up agenda.

I've no idea if any of the above is "Tory" or "Labour" but it would all be useful, and more so than nationalising railways or whatnot.

Regardless of what’s in any parties’ manifesto, the biggest problem is the absence of challenge, transparency and honesty.

Taking the points above. If the Brexit debate had made clear that the inescapable consequences of banning forrens, would be that state pensions would be unaffordable, that companies would not have access to the required skills, trade barriers crashing the economy, jobs lost to Europe, perhaps people may have thought differently.

I don’t mean the “project fear” stuff, but those making clearly dishonest claims, being challenged by informed interrogators.

The Tory leadership debate going on now, is probably more informative than anything that happened with Brexit.

 

[edge]

Oh I quite agree, and don't think the LDs are any better either. I've said before during the local council elections, the apparent effort from the parties was utterly woeful. If it was a case of who really appealed gets my vote then I wouldn't vote, but we have to get rid of the Tories.

The liberals will do well in the next GE