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Sorry, this has been the case for fricken ages hasn't it?
If you mean from a media perspective, things seemed to get worse in the run up to the referendum and has seemed to get even worse from there so you're not wrong.
Travel around the North and ask people for opinions on Jeremy Corbyn...some will tell you that he is a Marxist terrorist sympathiser who partied through lockdowns. Ask about Kier Starmer and they'll say he's a corrupt liberal elite hypocrit lawyer who partied through lockdowns. Ask them to name a Labour policy? You tend to hear "free broadband" and "open borders" mentioned a lot.
Anyway, I'm genuinely not a starmer fan boy. He's bland AF. Its true that he's not taking strong political positions. Its true he's staying quiet on a lot of issues that are important to people. I do however think there is a method to the madness.
Stonehedge-
Anyway, I'm genuinely not a starmer fan boy. He's bland AF. Its true that he's not taking strong political positions. Its true he's staying quiet on a lot of issues that are important to people. I do however think there is a method to the madness.
Also my view. Its undeniable imo. And while I do understand that for the left of the party, who've spent the last six years having red meat thrown their way by Corbyn, the change to not speaking about these passion points is unwelcome and painful, I also think after the worst result in a hundred years its probably worth trying something else.
People may think its an abdication of responsibility for Labour to not stand loudly, shoulder to shoulder, with the unions. They may have a point. But others have an equal point when they say it's an abdication of responsibility to give no thought whatsoever to how a position might lose us votes, and therefore reduce our chance of being a party of government.
I keep thinking about the 97 election. We said almost nothing about making the Bank of England independent leading up to the election - it was a complex, annoying policy, and one which the Tories would've been able to frame as terrifying and dangerous - but it was so important to us that we did it in the first week of govt.
Despite what some will tell you, Starmer is to the left of Blair by a considerable margin. He is in love with the romance and the history of the trades union movement. It is, I imagine, quite painful for him to see himself framed as a neoliberal. But he also seems quite willing to shoulder that if it increases his chance of winning an election. That, to me, seems entirely right.
I do agree that he needs to start articulating a clear vision about what a Labour Britain would look like. He needs to start taking risks, and start setting the narrative. But let's not pretend the approach isn't working. We're further ahead in the polls than we have been since 2013. Should we be doing better? Sure. But are we doing better than we have since the days of Ed Miliband? Absolutely.
Great PMQs performance from him too. I was fearing the worst after the last few weeks.
ReekBlefs
Sorry, this has been the case for fricken ages hasn't it?