Labour Pledges & Phil Gridelet

What the OP demonstrates again is that policy platforms will not be maintained by Labour unless they can be justified in terms of their affordability and their impact on the economy. The economy has always been an easy - if unjustified - angle of attack on prospective Labour governments, and I think that Rachel Reeves is totally justified in insisting on a tight fiscal discipline in regard to Labour's plans for government.

What surprises me is that more attention hasn't been focused on the risk to Reeves' position at the next general election. Her Leeds West constituency disappears under boundary changes and according to the Yorkshire Post she is due to contest Pudsey, currently held by Tory junior minister Stuart Andrew. Andrew has held the seat since 2010 when he won it from Labour with a majority of 1,659. His majority at the last election was 3,517. As the second most influential figure in the current Labour party, it is eyebrow-raising that Reeves takes some risk here, rather than seeking a safer seat. Should she lose the election it will not signal defeat nationally for Labour, but it could have quite a bearing on the prospects for success of the coming Starmer administration. I hope she succeeds.

 

I'm not a Starmer fan but we have no option but to elect him, the alternative is more of the Tories raping the country. Electoral reform is the key policy, if Labour puts that in their manifesto, it seals the deal for me. If not then we'll be back with the Tories in 10 years maximum.

 

The Labour Party can’t rely on seats in Scotland anymore because of the rise of the SNP taking the left of centre vote. They’ve also been hammered in what were traditional labour areas in England.

To get in power now they need to appeal to their traditional vote base but also swing voters in areas that aren’t typical labour areas.

Despite the previous leadership having some very good and popular policies they were never going to win back the seats in Scotland and they were never going to appeal to these non-traditional labour voters who saw them as too left wing and radical.

Starmer is going down a more ‘New Labour’ route, with the focus on being electable rather than idealistic. It’ll probably work because it’ll appeal to these new labour areas and won’t need the Scottish vote, and because of the unpopularity of the Tories in many areas.

The more traditional socialist side of the party and their supporters need to decide whether they can accept being in power with only a 20% socialist agenda or sticking to their principals but probably remaining in opposition or in power with another party (which will also reduce the agenda).

 

Er, just between me and you.......... There might have been things going off with the SNP!

 

Very little else unfortunately. But these current wastrels have to be ousted, even if there's a chance their replacements will be nearly the same in all but name.

 

Phil Gridelet wasn't he an ex red who we named God , as we knew of him but never saw him.
Signed him with broken jaw .

 

Right.

How would that affect the pledges to tax the richest 5% more?

How would that impact abolishing universal credit?

Ability to defend Migrant rights?

ability to close Yarls wood?

ending NHS outsourcing.

the reality is that the financial situation is much the same with debt as a % of GDP to be slightly higher.

General taxation pays for very little. It is almost always funded in a fiat economy by creating money. Fiscal rules bake in austerity and prevent growth.

What has changed in the 6 months since Labour announced free childcare for all children under 11 given the economy is now in a slow recovery.

Keir Starmer at hustings. “We need to move away from outdated concepts on the economy where balancing the books is a code for doing nothing”. - paraphrased from memory but there is a video of him saying exactly that doing the rounds.

1945. UK economy in a much worse state. Labour created the modern welfare state and the NHS.

All choices are political not economic ones. If it’s a pure economic decision. You implement pledge 1

 

I agree with your analysis all the time about Starmer. He's a shape-shifting liar, intolerant and uses anti-democratic tactics to manipulate local constituencies and mayoral lists. This will all come back to bite him and do Labour harm in the long - run I think.
However, most voters out there I believe dont think about what Starmer said to become leader and they aren't interested in selection procedure manipulation. They look at the Tories, see how awful and clueless they are, look at Starmer who isn't tarnished and vilified for anti-Semitism or pro-Palestinian speeches and they think he's a safer pair of hands than Jeremy Corbyn. He's less principled than Jeremy Corbyn (hence the ease with which he can lie) but again most punters aren't bothered. I suspect most voters now think Labour 'look' electable. I always thought Labour were electable under Corbyn but there you go.
So, yes, Starmer is not very nice but he'll probably get in, at least with a hung parliament. The main issue after that is will Labour actually do anything to start sorting out the mess, divisiveness, cruelty and inequality of the last 13 years? I'm not convinced from what I've read so far and, again, that's partly down to my distrust of Starmer. The only thing I can do as the tiny cog that I am is to try and make sure the Tories dont get in again and cross my fingers. I'm not happy about it and I suspect if Starmer doesn't bring in PR we'll have the Tories back in sooner than we think. Awful state of affairs all round and quite dispiriting.

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/politic...attleground-seats-poll-conservatives-election
current polling suggests Starmers overall majorities on a knife edge , history suggests there will be a narrowing between the the two main parties as we near the election , Tories will promise tax cuts , Tory press will hammer Starmer for constantly ditching pledges and claim he can’t be trusted with ‘the economy’ . There isn’t a cat in hells chance of him getting a huge majority, I don’t think he has a chance of even getting a few seats majority

 

I suspect our only hope of long lasting change is a hung parliament. We need the tories out but if it’s just Labour in doing the same policies it’ll be meaningless and Labour will be turfed out after 1 parliament possibly replaced by a new right wing Orban style party led by Johnson.

in a hung parliament more left wing parties like LIbDems, SNP, Plaid and Greens (possibly the independent Mp from Islington )can exert some pressure on Labour to at least hail them back to centre right rather than whatever they are currently.

 

Sounds pretty horrific.

 

I think he'll get a comfortable majority of between 40 and 50 personally, although a lot can change in the next year or so.

 

It’s nothing to do with moving to the left or right to try & get elected. It’s about acting in the interests of their donors. If it financially benefited Starmer, Reeves, Streeting & co to move to the left they would but it doesn’t.

 

To be frankly honest, the local primary school year 1's could probably make a better job as the current government, so anything short of a landslide victory for Starmer should be a big surprise.

But I do fear that they will change very little once in power and just try and spin the media with a couple of policy announcements and claim they are life changing.

I would have liked a new party to emerge now, giving enough time to develop policy before we hit general election time. There isn't enough distinction between the two major parties yet again, just less sleaze atm on the red side.

I wouldn't trust the polls as much as some do though. I said anything but a landslide would be a poor showing and they are currently predicted to get a bigger majority than Blair did, but come polling day something odd always seems to happen. I'm going to say we'll see more of a 50 to 60 seat majority in reality.

 

https://www.thenational.scot/news/23589107.labour-abstain-snp-cost-of-living-crisis-committee-vote/

Yeah go Labour.

 

Good old Starmer. 'Let's not do anything whatsoever.As long as I'm not Corbyn we'll be ok"

 

Careful what you wish for re new party. Forage may already tightening the skin on a new drum.

 

Now watch him ratchet up the fascist rhetoric for 18 months or so before standing everybody in marginals down at the last minute and backing the tories.

The most depressing thing is how blatantly obvious it all is. My extremely spicy take is that I fully believe that we would all be living in a much happier country had he not crawled out of that plane.

 

He’s lost 100 seats already from your previous post