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silly to really pretend there isn’t
not sure anyone has done that, although I think you've overstated it, and labour are doing their best to reduce the space between them. Which is what happens when actively courting Tory voters.
He was so close to getting it here https://twitter.com/patrickkmaguire/status/1682680354455408640?t=jyv9qpW7tsUfkiYcwTA3hA&s=19
Despite that though I've seen nothing to suggest much has changed
I thought the idea of Starmer shrinking his wife was just Christmas fun, not sure why anyone’s impassioned about it. (I choose to believe it because it’s funny and harmless, not necessarily because it’s true)
Wrt the green pledges, this article from June spells out pretty well that what matters above all is “labours financial rules”. manager speak for “if economy bad we austerity, if economy good we spend”, which doesn’t really work with green projects but none the less..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65853872.amp
The latest article nods to this too, but more points to the fact of it being a need to hide it from Tory attack lines, how much water you think that holds I’m sure will vary but they’ve been v keen on using the barometer of “if it annoys anyone remotely left of Neil coyle it’s good, if not change it”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/22/keir-starmer-considers-scaling-back-labour-28bn-pounds-green-plans#:~:text=Labour%20is%20considering%20scaling%20back,in%20the%20general%20election%20campaign.
It’s not really inspiring stuff, takes one to huff a lot of anyonebutthetories gas to feel particularly defensive of it and not just ambivalent. But it’s also a classic Starmer Schrödinger policy, will it won’t it, we don’t know till we vote for it, there is so many qualifiers for it he’s never lying or letting us down, how can you defend or be against it as it’s just a vague manifestation of noises, probability and energy in space at the moment etc etc, plays well to the crowd he wants to appeal to.
There ofc, is a monster gap between the tories and the Labour Party, silly to really pretend there isn’t. I do think however, part of being politically engaged is reminding yourself “you’re not on the team” even if you’re wearing the shirt, you can think your company is doing better than others but still remember you’re a worker of it, they’re a business.