Spadge Vernacular
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I am sure they have their reasons. Dave will let us know exactly what they are soon.
Current Affairs The Labour Party
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coollino
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I agree to a point but one of the problems labour face is that the working class have become more segregated and diverse and Labour have struggled to react to this. I doubt having a ‘working class’ leader would particularly make much difference to be honest. I don’t think there exists as much collective pride in being working class now. Especially seeing as how many people voted for someone as entitled as Johnson.
grandjoeblue
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I think that labour need to focus on economically left politics rather than the social left. I personally agree with the socially left points but its clear that they don't win votes in places like Stoke.
Its going to be very tough for labour to win an election. Especially when Kier has completely gave up on being an opposition.
Billy Dean
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They put forward an economically left agenda at the last 2 elections TBF.
tsubaki
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Indeed, and of course that’s why those campaigns were so strenuously opposed by all the people who’d have lost out.
I’d also point out that a lot of the “working class has turned away from Labour” is almost all down to the considerable effort put in by the Tories and their media chums to come up with wedge issues, things like association of Labour with “other” groups (like Muslims, BLM, refugees etc) and saying they side with “them” rather than you etc. They’ve consciously done this rather than responding against Labour’s policies, which would tend to benefit the working class.
Of course the reason this is effective is because the government themselves have usually put things like housing, job markets etc under such pressure that it’s easy to pretend there is competition for things and that you (the white working class voter) have been cheated out of it. As things get worse for many people, they’ll step that up (as we’ve seen in the US).
dead_soft
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The Pledge Cards didn't contain anything particularly radical, it contained policies that were already beginning to be fairly well accepted within liberal, Western democracies. They had been ideas and policies that had been gaining ground with the public and the mood of the country so whilst it may have appeared on a card in 1996 it wasn't the first time these had been discussed, and certainly not within the Labour Party and then outwardly.
If Labour wish to do anything even approaching radical or different they need to be making the arguments for their policies now, they need to be laying the emotional and intellectual groundwork now so that their ideas don't seem barmy. Free broadband isn't a ridiculous idea - expecting people to digest it a few weeks before an election is.
Starmer seems to have no desire for an intellectual, emotional, or political fight for the voters, and certainly not a long term one so if he decides to have one in the year before an election it will be much too late.
Agree with @Billy Dean They’ve been called communists for suggesting that trains should be nationalised. People casually dismiss them as being too left wing without having a clue what that means, so doubt having an economically left wing manifesto is going to make any difference.
Think, in hindsight, Starmer is a pretty disastrous appointment. I thought he’d do well initially as well.
Spadge Vernacular
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Yes Billy, sadly just didn't have the leader/leadership team to deliver.
Billy Dean
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I was also hopeful initially about Starmer but have been proven wrong.
I'm not sure there is anyone capable of delivering it in the current climate TBF mate.
Spadge Vernacular
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ComradeK would deffo produce a landslide.
He still has time. Maybe he is in a position where he can’t be too critical of the government just now as he could be accused of undermining public trust and is awaiting the full vaccine roll out. Doubt that though.
He could possibly get a surge post-covid but again I can’t see it. They’re rudderless right now. The problem is they’ve abandoned swathes of voters, especially the young. I know of 2/3 mates who’ve left the party. They thought they could try to appeal to the middle ground and maintain the left support. Corbyn was certainly a divisive figure but his treatment of him has gone down very badly I think. He needs to show some balls and campaign hard and not allow events to pass like the Cummings and Hancock affairs. He comes across like he couldn’t care less.
Gets my vote!
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