That Starmer fella...

I was dismissive of Burnham, but he seems to be doing ok; can even talk about football and come across as a normal person. Had he been leader during the Brexit referendum we wouldn't have had Corbyn's "7.5 out of 10"/no campaigning schtick which might have been enough for remain to get that extra few percent of voters...

Yup.

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Burnham is hugely popular up here in Manchester for a reason, he stuck up for us when the Tories were trying to shaft us, Kier could learn a lot from him.

I get more of a centrist dad vibe from the crossers

Good comment.

Most offensive thing you've posted on here since your contributions to the HHSRB thread

I don't get the 'rightward drfit'angle.
British sociey has just had the largest spoonful of non-wartime Socialism,
being 'paid' to sit at home,
(which must the Tabloid definition of Socialism).
Who else were the brexit voters of Hartlepool going to thank for this largesse, and 'getting Brexit done', especially as the Labour candidate had no incumbency bonus.

It's a bit of both I think.

Definitely left in terms of public spending - they've just abandoned any concept of fiscal prudence (which I think was the correct thing to do here).

But right in terms of authoritarianism, approach to foreign aid, holding govt to account, cultural issues.

Sadly a lot of our country likes the "be a c*nt but spend money on us" approach.

haha, which one do you identify with?

My road bike has discs. Burning it now

How does 'old Italian nonsense and modern groupset' vote?

Brexit party (nostalgic value)

#SianthenKhan

= Retro-grouch 90s MTB Dadbike with front rack

I keep half writing posts and giving up in despair. Bit of a shitshow. Time for some personality and policies from Starmer.

I don't envy the task of any mainstream left leader explaining the language around social justice issues and why they're important - explaining to older, historically poor people how they are privileged is not easy

You can't win with just English city-dwelling lefties, that seems painfully obvious now. So they need the North of England and (support from) Scotland back if they're ever going to get into government. And Starmer needs some policies to talk about.

I think if I was in charge of Labour my grand vision would be full blown federalisation ideally with some guarantee of SNP support in government. Then you say "the Tories cannot stop the splitting up of the UK, only we are the true patriots who can hold it together" and call them traitors for allowing independence support to ever get as high as 50% without doing something about it. You give power back to the North and the other regions and turn the Brexit rhetoric about the political elite who think they have a divine right to rule back into the faces of the corrupt Eton posh cunt party which should be pretty easy. And say Brexit was great because it allows us to make this big sweeping change to our democracy even though it's utter bollocks.

Throw in PR and make a pact with the LDs for good measure, just to ensure the Tories are truly shafted.

Too much like admitting defeat for the PLP I imagine?

Note: I only spent a few minutes on this idiotic comment, there's no research behind it

Hadn't seen the papers today. Checked when I saw this post. Now wish I hadn't.

Historically, most of England has always been slightly right of centre. Genuinely left of centre governments have been anomalies. I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but how many truly left of centre governments have been elected since 1980? A socialist message just does not appeal to a majority of the electorate.

Their only hope lies in a centrist approach, which points out some of the obvious unfair advantages to big business and very wealthy individuals and looks to amend them, together with investing in public services funded by modest tax hikes on those just mentioned. Match that with a green focus and they might do well. Centrist, fair, green. I'd vote for that.

And if someone now tells me that IS what Labour stands for under Starmer, then that's news to me...

Their only hope lies in a centrist approach, which points out some of the obvious unfair advantages to big business and very wealthy individuals and looks to amend them, together with investing in public services funded by modest tax hikes on those just mentioned. Match that with a green focus and they might do well. Centrist, fair, green. I'd vote for that.

And if someone now tells me that IS what Labour stands for under Starmer, then that's news to me...

It pretty much is. Annalise Dodds' speech on the economy is made pretty much up of this kind of thing, and Starmer's been saying it for months.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/18/keir-starmer-labour-must-work-with-business-to-create-fairer-society

Incidentally I think Labour's problem is that we're economically and socially left of centre.

The Tories are (by instinct) economically and socially right of centre.

However covid has meant they're economically left and socially right.

So is the electorate.

Result? Wipeout for Labour.

If like Australia we had compulsory voting what would an election result be?

Because the Tories are the party of the old and the young don't fucking vote.

The only way to a Labour victory is to engage the youth, this Corbyn did well (for a while), but failed to turn that grass-roots support into something more. Education is the answer IMO. It's tangible and talks to those whose lives are ahead of them not behind.

It pretty much is. Annalise Dodds' speech on the economy is made pretty much up of this kind of thing, and Starmer's been saying it for months.

Then here's the issue: that message isn't getting out. Admittedly, I'd take more time to research in a GE, but most people won't bother. Like it or loathe it, Johnson is visible and the Tories have a message.

Has anyone posted this yet?

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kind of disappointing to see, the by election that is, i mean, it was tough to be told social issues were dividing the party and we should be quiet about them, well at least as someone who identifies as a social issue, but fair shout to them, they know what's best and deserve fair crack.

shocker really to see a seat which maintained, even under the disastrous 2017-2019 party performance was lost to a team with laser focus on appealing to such a seat, many things to consider here surely, i can only imagine it was the long shadow of corbyn blocking voters view of starmers policy direction.

just a humble voter tho, not for me to comment on such things i cant understand.

GC feminism

What's this?

I'd guess gender critical