Current Affairs The Labour Party

[spectateur]

In the direction of Iraq you mean while we slaughter thousands.

Like so many of UK prime ministers, Blair was obsessed with the potus of the era.

My main criticism of TB was his refusal to repeal any of the Thatcher anti union laws.
Also for helping the cause of the Freidman philosophy of free market capitalism that has led to today's financial and economic situation.

 

[LEONARD]

Ed Miliband offered more austerity and David Miliband would've done the same. You could argue there'd have been a more professional operation but people said the same about Starmer.

David Miliband was way more impressive than his brother, and who knows what would have happened had he become leader?

The Labour party today is a car crash, unsure of what or who it represents, and currently led by a cipher.

Society has radically changed, the working class and trade unions have changed, but large sections of Labour theorists seem incapable of recognising this.

A possible civil war in the party now looms, will KS move further to the centre-right, and expel the Momentum group, or will the party revert back again to the Corbynista model?

Many on here wish that to be the case, so interesting days ahead.

Until this is resolved, Boris and the Tories have a clear pass.

 

[dannyboy]

David Miliband was way more impressive than his brother, and who knows what would have happened had he become leader?

The Labour party today is a car crash, unsure of what or who it represents, and currently led by a cipher.

Society has radically changed, the working class and trade unions have changed, but large sections of Labour theorists seem incapable of recognising this.

A possible civil war in the party now looms, will KS move further to the centre-right, and expel the Momentum group, or will the party revert back again to the Corbynista model?

Many on here wish that to be the case, so interesting days ahead.

Until this is resolved, Boris and the Tories have a clear pass.

I think they need to look to Biden for inspiration. He's worked together with the left of the party to create a consensus they can go with.

If Starmer wants to expel Momentum then that's fine. Who next when that doesn't work? The trade unions, the soft left... Rather than follow a path of conflict he should do what he promised to and unite the party.

People don't want another centrist, leftist or right wing politician, they want solutions to the problems they face. So far he's offered nothing and there lies his biggest problem.

 

[Deleted member 48881]

Keir Starmer needs to act more urgently if he is to rescue Labour from its plight | Andrew Rawnsley

The party’s leader can’t afford to wait for a policy review before he starts articulating a compelling vision to the country

www.theguardian.com

 

[Moomin]

I think they need to look to Biden for inspiration. He's worked together with the left of the party to create a consensus they can go with.

If Starmer wants to expel Momentum then that's fine. Who next when that doesn't work? The trade unions, the soft left... Rather than follow a path of conflict he should do what he promised to and unite the party.

People don't want another centrist, leftist or right wing politician, they want solutions to the problems they face. So far he's offered nothing and there lies his biggest problem.

Maybe he should have stuck to his 10 pledges he made in his pitch to become leader.

That seems to have been thrown out the window.

 

[davek]

Oh this is tasty.

The long-running tensions with Keir Starmer behind Angela Rayner’s move

Analysis: from different backgrounds and wings of the party, relations between the Labour leader and his deputy had long been strained

www.theguardian.com

"The Guardian was told that on one occasion Jim McMahon, the Oldham MP who ran the Hartlepool byelection campaign, told a meeting with the leader’s office that Rayner had been “dressed inappropriately” on a visit to the town on 21 March.

McMahon’s allies strongly denied he had been disparaging about Rayner, whose constituency borders his own in Greater Manchester, and said he was simply expressing displeasure about pictures that had been selected for a leaflet.

The photographs showed Rayner wearing leopard-print trousers, heavy-duty stomper boots and a hoodie during a visit to Hartlepool on a Sunday, when she had travelled there from her home in Tameside.

Rayner’s team “hit the roof” when they heard about the remark, sources said, but chose not to tell the deputy leader for fear of worsening relations in the middle of a difficult byelection campaign.

The episode cuts to the heart of why some believe Rayner was the first to be demoted by Starmer after Labour’s election performance, triggering a backlash. The pair are not only from different wings of the party, but from very different backgrounds.

Rayner, the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, has spoken powerfully about leaving school at 16 when she was pregnant with her first child and later qualifying as a care worker after college. She climbed the ranks at Unison in the north-west of England after being a union rep for care workers in Stockport.

There is a feeling among Rayner’s allies that she is seen by some at the top of the party as a “working-class oik and a bit thick” who doesn’t fit their “patronising Camden style”.

 

[tsubaki]

David Miliband was way more impressive than his brother, and who knows what would have happened had he become leader?

The Labour party today is a car crash, unsure of what or who it represents, and currently led by a cipher.

Society has radically changed, the working class and trade unions have changed, but large sections of Labour theorists seem incapable of recognising this.

A possible civil war in the party now looms, will KS move further to the centre-right, and expel the Momentum group, or will the party revert back again to the Corbynista model?

Many on here wish that to be the case, so interesting days ahead.

Until this is resolved, Boris and the Tories have a clear pass.

He wasn't. The other Miliband was the bright young thing of the centrists but like everything and everyone in that generation the rep they gave themselves got confused with the reality.

At least Blair and the rest had to fight and win arguments, deal with defeat, organise and so on. His generation never did; they got safe seats handed to them and became ministers ahead of everyone else too. In all his time as an MP, can anyone name one advance, one civic achievement, or political theory of his?

Miliband failed to win a leadership election, failed to stand and fight afterwards, failed at Sland, and now IIRC is the highest paid charity exec in the world. He’d have been far worse than his brother was.

 

[PaulPowersTash]

Oh this is tasty.

The long-running tensions with Keir Starmer behind Angela Rayner’s move

Analysis: from different backgrounds and wings of the party, relations between the Labour leader and his deputy had long been strained

www.theguardian.com

"The Guardian was told that on one occasion Jim McMahon, the Oldham MP who ran the Hartlepool byelection campaign, told a meeting with the leader’s office that Rayner had been “dressed inappropriately” on a visit to the town on 21 March.

McMahon’s allies strongly denied he had been disparaging about Rayner, whose constituency borders his own in Greater Manchester, and said he was simply expressing displeasure about pictures that had been selected for a leaflet.

The photographs showed Rayner wearing leopard-print trousers, heavy-duty stomper boots and a hoodie during a visit to Hartlepool on a Sunday, when she had travelled there from her home in Tameside.

Rayner’s team “hit the roof” when they heard about the remark, sources said, but chose not to tell the deputy leader for fear of worsening relations in the middle of a difficult byelection campaign.

The episode cuts to the heart of why some believe Rayner was the first to be demoted by Starmer after Labour’s election performance, triggering a backlash. The pair are not only from different wings of the party, but from very different backgrounds.

Rayner, the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, has spoken powerfully about leaving school at 16 when she was pregnant with her first child and later qualifying as a care worker after college. She climbed the ranks at Unison in the north-west of England after being a union rep for care workers in Stockport.

There is a feeling among Rayner’s allies that she is seen by some at the top of the party as a “working-class oik and a bit thick” who doesn’t fit their “patronising Camden style”.

I don't think it's about 'patronising Camden style' its about the normal and average person in the street who expect the people who lead and run the country to act, look and dress in a credible manner - and she just doesn't. It's a big voter turn off. She has done really well for herself and good on her for that. But she dresses and acts like a yob. Her 'Tory Scum' comment in the House of Commons is another example. People dont want or expect that from senior politicians. Dressing down doesn't mean you have to look a mess and she does look a mess. If you choose to dress like a punk rocker then don't be surprised if voters shun you and your party.

 

[Tin-Tin]

 

[davek]

I don't think it's about 'patronising Camden style' its about the normal and average person in the street who expect the people who lead and run the country to act, look and dress in a credible manner - and she just doesn't. It's a big voter turn off. She has done really well for herself and good on her for that. But she dresses and acts like a yob. Her 'Tory Scum' comment in the House of Commons is another example. People dont want or expect that from senior politicians. Dressing down doesn't mean you have to look a mess and she does look a mess. If you choose to dress like a punk rocker then don't be surprised if voters shun you and your party.

Dressing like a punk rocker?

Leggings and a winter coat and boots.

Clueless.

 

[davek]

And with that win there will be a by-election in her Yorkshire seat in a few months.

 

[Black Belt Jones]

I don't think it's about 'patronising Camden style' its about the normal and average person in the street who expect the people who lead and run the country to act, look and dress in a credible manner - and she just doesn't. It's a big voter turn off. She has done really well for herself and good on her for that. But she dresses and acts like a yob. Her 'Tory Scum' comment in the House of Commons is another example. People dont want or expect that from senior politicians. Dressing down doesn't mean you have to look a mess and she does look a mess. If you choose to dress like a punk rocker then don't be surprised if voters shun you and your party.

Has she started doing this since becoming party chair?
Obviously not - She is who she is so having appointed her in the first place you can't sack her for being Angela Rayner without looking incompetent.

 

[summerisle]

I don't think it's about 'patronising Camden style' its about the normal and average person in the street who expect the people who lead and run the country to act, look and dress in a credible manner - and she just doesn't. It's a big voter turn off. She has done really well for herself and good on her for that. But she dresses and acts like a yob. Her 'Tory Scum' comment in the House of Commons is another example. People dont want or expect that from senior politicians. Dressing down doesn't mean you have to look a mess and she does look a mess. If you choose to dress like a punk rocker then don't be surprised if voters shun you and your party.

Puts Savile Row to shame :

 

[tsubaki]

 

[ForeverBlue92]

The guy who steered us into an illegal war resulting in over 500,000 deaths is the guy to put us back in the right direction ?

Blair was hoodwinked by Bush - not saying he shouldnt still take some of the blame but the Left carry on like he was the driving force behind it.

In term of domestic leadership you had never had it so good.