That Starmer fella...

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Stonehedge in reply to @ketsbaia

The scenario you paint is pretty depressing. It's essentially: "Nothing is going to get better, you just have to accept things aren't going to improve and live with it." But change is possible and, for me, they need to make the case for it. Which is also possible. Look at the way Mick Lynch went on telly yesterday and schooled every single two-bit client journalist who tried to skewer him. Just calmly restating the case and making the Tory attack lines look ridiculous. I want a Labour leader who does that, not one who looks morosely into the distance, sighs heavily and regrets that nothing can be done about the terrible situation we find ourselves in. The kind of leader Starmer said he was going to be before he won and ditched everything he'd campaigned on.

It is utterly depressing and I wish it wasn't true. I'm also not saying that we should just accept the way things are and live with it. All I'm doing is arguing that I think a lot of Labours positions recently have been calculated rather than come from sheer ineptitude.

I also wish we had a Labour leader who could perform as well as Mike Lynch but with policies that would win votes from the Tories. Thats unfortunately not the reality we live in and until there is that sort of leader, its going to be a case of pissing with the cock you've got.

Would Wes Streeting be an improvement? I have no idea how people percieve him.

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ketsbaia in reply to @Stonehedge

Would Wes Streeting be an improvement? I have no idea how people percieve him.

Absolutely not. No way.

I also wish we had a Labour leader who could perform as well as Mike Lynch but with policies that would win votes from the Tories.

Thing is, there were policies that did win votes from the Tories in 2017. They were popular. They inspired people. Labour got 40% of the vote that year which, with current levels of Tory apathy, would probably result in a hung parliament with Labour being the largest party (though not by much). Starmer told everyone that year's manifesto should be the blueprint for Labour's future. And what has he done? He's ditched the lot.

Which gets me to my ultimate point, which is that Labour is going to be attacked anyway, whatever it does and however 'carefully' it tries to steer away from so-called wedge issues. So it might as well be attacked for policies that are popular than for, I dunno, some bullshit the press decides to rake up. Sooner or later it's going to have to take a position on some of the 'wedge' and, when that time comes, if all it has is the same shit with better administration, I'm really not sure how compelling an offer that is.

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andyfallsoff in reply to @ketsbaia

Would Wes Streeting be an improvement? I have no idea how people percieve him.
Absolutely not. No way.

I think he is popular though. And performs well in interviews etc. Is your ‘absolutely not’ just because he’s not on the left of the party?
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frankenbike in reply to @ketsbaia

Starmer told everyone that year's manifesto should be the blueprint for Labour's future. And what has he done? He's ditched the lot.

Normal people don't care about internal Labour party Twitter stuff like this

In fact that's putting it far too mildly. Internal Labour party arguments between the left and "right" are absolutely toxic to the average voter. Non-stop whinging about what Starmer said in some conference 3 years ago is actively harmful to Labour's electoral chances because it makes Labour look like a bunch of infighting children rather than a government in waiting.

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