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He absolutely has a coherent policy.
It's a policy of realpolitik looking ahead to how Labour are going to govern based on our strategic relationships with Israel and the US.
I appreciate that people may not like it, or agree with it, but there is nothing inconsistent or incoherent.
On the lack of policy detail - you may disagree with it, but they are deliberately choosing not to release policy details. The conference set out the vision - new homes, new towns, technical colleges and planning reform, Net zero, Ethics in public life. It's assumed that closer to the election these will be fleshed out.... although while Labour are doing their best to sabotage themselves it might not be the best time to get into it.
hugo7-
His shadow Foreign Sec fell apart discussing the Gaza policy on Wednesday on the wireless and later on the socials.
Maybe they've got a policy now that a third of Lab MPs have essentially rejected the previous woolly mess. -
I'll have what you're smoking if you think that 1.5m new houses will be built in 5 years! Who's going to fund the construction with 10 year gilt yields trending at 4.5% currently?
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It's no surprise that a realpolitik stance raises questions of political legitimacy on the left, given that most ideas of political realism exclude moral bases. That's why we see more splits in Labour than parties further to the right — if your policy on warfare can be best phrased as a 'pause' by a technocratic front bench, that's a moral issue, and is right to be checked in my view.
That this is an inherent property of left-leaning politics in the UK might also suggest that those with a realpolitik bent should look at that problem and think pragmatically about solutions to it, rather than simply purging a considerable part of their party, and hoping that the conversation will move on.
A strong reading of 'he has no policies' is more that he has no transformative policies. If many of those that you've listed can be in a Conservative manifesto (more homes, noises about apprenticeships, net zero, and planning reform), then it's a status-quo position that's not particularly compelling to many.
Edit: or put more flippantly — Starmer's policy stance sounds more like a 'revenge of the technocrats' than a positive vision of the future.
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I don’t think Starmer is hiding what any of his policies are- it’s Super Neoliberalism 2 Turbo. No public spending, relax regulations, encourage business to invest, mash the magic growth button.
hurricane_run
slippers
Ste_S
Didn't realise that fat Dave's blustering on R4 (which I had the misfortune to hear) on Wednesday was compounded with a statement from FD later in the day contradicting his earlier comments. Fat Dave really is a liability.
https://archive.ph/xehRc
Judging from the comments above, it's becoming clear why Keith has no coherent policy on Gaza. A reminder that Keith appears to have no policies at all as we enter the home straight towards a GE.