That Starmer fella...

@Big_Ted

no simple answers

because it’s hard is absolutely no excuse not to try to do anything to address it - if we hope that things can get better then there’s a chance, if we have no hope then we’re lost before we start. And I can’t see any hope if the current bastards get to continue for a further term.

Totally agree!

the bone headedly simple solutions that populists have sold to the gullible and look how that’s worked out for the vast majority of the country

Populism is an interesting one for me. I don't really like the term as a pejorative, since it could well just be a core part of the correctional nature of democracies. If we've got a democratic deficit (which I think we do, both locally, nationally, at work, etc.), then it's the biggest signal you can get as a politician for widespread economic hardship.

There are obviously the total loons you're referring to who are willing to blame immigration for everything, but they're abusing a position handed to them on a plate from the centre ground going back decades. All parties need popular support regardless of their programme, so they can either play whack-a-mole with Farage and friends, pretending their arguments are invalid or too stupid, creating a vacuum, or engage with the problems underlying the division and deal with them earnestly.

This Guardian article on the Netherlands election is pretty telling: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/01/younger-voters-far-right-europe

“I voted for Wilders, and many of my friends did too,” he said. “I don’t want to live with my parents for ever. I want my own home, and to be able to provide for my family later on. Wilders wants to figure out the housing crisis, and make our healthcare better. Those are the most important topics for me.”

“I still live with my parents – I can’t afford a room in Amsterdam,” he said. “I have to commute every day. Wilders wants to give housing to people who are from here – I don’t think that’s strange.”

These are really scary messages from people we'd expect to be voting for progressive parties. Showing either outright anti-immigration sentiments or the ability to ignore it because their world is fucked.

So Labour might be keeping quiet for now, and that's a totally valid argument for the next election given the polling data. But if they don't meaningfully change after the election, continuing to abandon these people's basic needs, it's going to be one hell of a ride in the next decade.

(Even looking at some of the polls there are more 'Don't knows' than Conservative votes, although I don't know if that's a normal figure)

Edit: And to clarify, I'm still (somewhat reluctantly) pro-Starmer. Lesser of two evils and all that.