I saw Julian Knight's suspension before I saw this one. Either way, definitely clearing up the parties ahead of the general election as you say.

 

I've been more disappointed by some potential policies announced by Labour lately, like seeking to ban VPNs indicating that they'll continue to be as hopeless and infeffictive as the Tories on the matter of Online Safety and yet desiring to be more censorious than the CCP, the confused messaging about how they want the elected second chamber to be, refusing to promise repeal of anti-strike laws even as public support for strikes grows, and currently seeming like they'll only slightly put the brakes on the austerity train and privatisation.

 

They're looking good but voters are clearly wanting radical change from the polls. This isn't yet a Labour party ready to make radical change or even undo the worst of what the Tories do if it's convenient for them not to.

 

good things they're doing is hounding the Tories on housing targets and a greener economy however.

 

I feel it won't be until closer to the election that Labour will go big with policies, perhaps late 2023/early 2024? Right now they're doing the right thing in keeping themselves almost on the fence about some things, although have been giving good pushback on a number of issues regarding the conservative's policies.

 

It will be veeery difficult tl ban VPNs I think :lol:

It will be veeery difficult tl ban VPNs I think :lol:

 

They won't do it, someone with sense will tell them it's impossible.

Very worrying that the alleged sensible party is thinking of this - and I bet they won't move an inch on legalising drugs which sets them apart from most modern democracies.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64279654

 

Labour now essentially have the same position as the Tories on the health service. No imagination, narrow Overton window, inexorably pushing towards further privatisation. What was the #1 healthcare service in the world less than a decade ago is being cornered with all major politicians in this country caving to private health interests.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scot...litics-64281548

 

oh and add in a bit of transphobia and directly contradict Labour Scotland while you're at it.

Reverse the evil Tory decisions over the past 15 years!! Coebyn was righr - they were stealth privatising it, Blojo's greatest dream, and they have to reverse that! Get alk the profitable parts od the NHS nationalised AGAIN. Take it from the private companies if necessary, as they did in Argentina with oil! Time flr the left to show teeth and have the Tories running wildly scared, as we did under Corbyn! Push that left wing Window out like we're in labour!!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64279654

 

Labour now essentially have the same position as the Tories on the health service. No imagination, narrow Overton window, inexorably pushing towards further privatisation. What was the #1 healthcare service in the world less than a decade ago is being cornered with all major politicians in this country caving to private health interests.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scot...litics-64281548

 

oh and add in a bit of transphobia and directly contradict Labour Scotland while you're at it.

 

 

Reverse the evil Tory decisions over the past 15 years!! Coebyn was righr - they were stealth privatising it, Blojo's greatest dream, and they have to reverse that! Get alk the profitable parts od the NHS nationalised AGAIN. Take it from the private companies if necessary, as they did in Argentina with oil! Time flr the left to show teeth and have the Tories running wildly scared, as we did under Corbyn! Push that left wing Window out like we're in labour!!

 

NHS are already using the private sector, this just formalises it. At this point, I am torn. Ideologically it is moving to more hybrid, but in it's current state and our current population predicament something has to change. Not sure self referral to specialists is the answer (I assume they are cheaper than GPs) but the more 'radical solutions' are not something that are going to be fixed in one term of Government, like building more hospitals. Gathering more capacity for beds is also going to involve the private sector too.

 

A lot of the stuff Starmer is coming out with is populist at the moment, certainly the burecaurcy around GP appointments (which I do agree with).

 

The only reason it is in this state id due to Tory MAÑICIOUS MISMANAGEMENT and them flogging off the MODT PROFITABLE BITS TO PRIVATE COMPANIE SIN ORDER TO MAKE IT COLLAPSE! The NHS has to sort out the many, many, MANY blunderd of the private sector, too!!! EVIL TORIES OUR NOW AND REVERSE WHAT THEY DID TO THE NHS!!!!!

NHS are already using the private sector, this just formalises it. At this point, I am torn. Ideologically it is moving to more hybrid, but in it's current state and our current population predicament something has to change. Not sure self referral to specialists is the answer (I assume they are cheaper than GPs) but the more 'radical solutions' are not something that are going to be fixed in one term of Government, like building more hospitals. Gathering more capacity for beds is also going to involve the private sector too.

 

A lot of the stuff Starmer is coming out with is populist at the moment, certainly the burecaurcy around GP appointments (which I do agree with).

 

It's quite a similar problem to nuclear, in that had investment been done properly in 2010 we wouldn't be facing the issues we have now, and sufficient fixes won't become apparently beneficial until well after the current government or even the next government's term is up.

 

Hence why I am a little concerned with Labour touting using the private sector to solve the issues, like many parts of a progressive platform (c.f. tuition fees, which is also likely getting dropped from the Labour platform at present, a very Corbyn-era policy), it leads to services being more expensive in real terms for people to use, and then becomes 'accepted' as a new norm that public money can't solve because the national conversation always treats more government spending as something that Simply Cannot Be Done.

 

Plus in the latest round of Starmer dishonesty it reverses his previous position which was to end outsourcing in the NHS, as he continually caves to the political/media class' idea of what is politically possible - why I mentioned Overton Window.

 

My main defense of it from a Starmerist side is that Labour's appearance of being economically strong is fragile and it's risky going against the consensus, but he is many points ahead in the polls and that lead for all we know has mirage-like qualities if it's not positive enthusiasm for a Labour government. Though some of the populist stuff you mention could offset that.

Exactly turning into Tony Blair, instead of challenging the concensus just follows it!

So former Sheffield Hallam MP Jared O'Mara, in addition to being a rampant misogynist and homophobe has been jailed for fraud to fund his sniff habit.

 

Best place for him, quite frankly.

"The change that we brought about is substantial and it is permanent. The Labour party has changed. And if there’s anyone in the Labour party that does not like that change, then my message to them is very clear this morning: the door is open, and you can leave."

 

In context, ostensibly this is about the driving out of antisemitism and if it is, good. But who likes antisemitism? The emphasis of those words definitely reads as if it's about more than that, about the entire philosophy that's turned Labour into a vehicle of vacuous centrism and how with an incoming majority and Starmer's ruthless selection process the Labour Party is unlikely to see a nascent left figure get a serious reading in British politics for a generation.

 

So yeah, Starmer doing his best once again to make me absolutely despise him and consider retracting my support of him (as I'm sure I'll be going in and out of until the election) for his dishonesty and continual exclusion of anyone who actually supports social democracy and fixing the broken British democratic system.

 

oh and Corbyn officially won't be a candidate for Labour at the next election so I guess Islington North will continue to have an independent MP and that'll get the headlines as much as we should all move past him - however I do note which Labour Party leader reacted with public sorrow at the murder of Brianna Ghey and it wasn't the current one.

Agree with everything you said (as usual) Iz!

 

The way Starmer is treating leftist voices in the party is a disgrace and if it was JC doing this in 2017 it would be all over the media as a purge to claim the left are authoritarian. When it’s the right it’s fine because they will be establishmentarians.

 

The rule change so that local parties can’t select their local MPs the NEC can was the last straw for me.

Another Blairite candidate being imposed on Broxtowe this time as Anna Joy-Rikard is parachuted in following losing her council seat in London to the Greens last time out, works for the Tony Blair institute for Global Change. Local candidates need not apply!

 

If this was the left doing this….

f***in disgrace

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/labour-re...lection-2194125

 

Ah the time-honoured strategy of walking back from popular pledges. Leaving the railway nationalisation as a treat to roll back later.

 

Labour has been in the position of looking invincible more than 18 months out from an election and thrown it away before.

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/labour-re...lection-2194125

 

Ah the time-honoured strategy of walking back from popular pledges. Leaving the railway nationalisation as a treat to roll back later.

 

Labour has been in the position of looking invincible more than 18 months out from an election and thrown it away before.

If Labour win the next election they will inherit an economy in very deep shit. Much as I would like to see the railways back in public ownership, I think there will be a long list of other issues that are a higher priority. Do you want to see the Labour manifesto so packed full of policies that they will struggle to implement half of them, or would you prefer a realistic list of priorities for a first term?

If Labour win the next election they will inherit an economy in very deep shit. Much as I would like to see the railways back in public ownership, I think there will be a long list of other issues that are a higher priority. Do you want to see the Labour manifesto so packed full of policies that they will struggle to implement half of them, or would you prefer a realistic list of priorities for a first term?

 

I agree, I want railways back in public ownership too, but it's clear as mud we're also skint, so I'd rather they don't overpromise and tank the econony the same way Truss tried to do for an idelogical purpose.

Just gonna throw it out there, but the devolved nations didn't spend a penny on renationalising (what is now) Transport for Wales, Scotrail or the Caledonian Sleeper.

So nationalisation is more of an investment for the future and something needs to stop the privatisation slide, it's just disheartening that Labour seems to not have any interest in it. When particularly energy could be made very popular right now. They're certainly going to need a policy on energy restructuring.

 

And... as I alluded to in the Tory thread, the current Labour strategy seems to give into the Tory framing at every turn, you got some horrible soundbites of Starmer this week on the migrant boats as he gyrates to avoid 'lefty lawyer' headlines which seem to just come anyway while letting the Tory message of 'dangerous migrants are coming' just go through.

 

I'm concerned here about losing the election accidentally by giving the Tories time and space to find their feet by not promoting enough difference and the harm that Tory policy is doing to the country.