General Election 2024

Ah... makes me nostalgic for a time when woo-woo people wanted to save the planet rather than bring about a fascist dystopia via ticktock.

He should just lean in to the weird, awkward thing he is constantly giving out. Fields of wheat vibes.

Some stuff cuts through.

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This manifesto launch is dire. No policies to really give people hope in the manifesto and no charisma on stage.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/13/labour-candidates-campaigning-too-much-held-seats

I think (and hope!) labour will win the election, but there could be a storm brewing where talk of a massive majority falters as labour's core walk away.

Excellent. Missed opportunity to use the picture of him in the rain though.

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Funny how different these things come across. I actually thought it was pretty energising!

Ha, tbf, I think 5 minutes of that poor man with cancer may have taken the wind out of it for me.

The 10/15 minutes of banal cliches following it didn't get me going either.

Was really hoping there'd be something to hope for (awkward, but you know what I mean).

Was really hoping there'd be something to hope for (awkward, but you know what I mean).

I hear you. Although I genuinely feel this confident, serious, non-theatrical approach is something to hope for. Or I'm just at total rock bottom from 14 years of bollocks and will literally swoon at anything / anyone that's not a privately educated banker cosplaying as a human.

And I definitely get that. I do think that a centrist labour government will be better than the tories. I can imagine a lot of areas that could get better (the UK's relationship with the EU, for example). But the status quo is unsustainable on many fronts. Inequality won't go down simply because we have a government laser focused on "growth." The environment isn't going to get better because of a new (nationalised) provider. Higher education will continue to fall apart in the UK so long as the current funding model continues.

Even the support for Palestinian statehood seems to have been watered down from what was leaked last week.

We are committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.

I've never seen the word committed actually mean so little.

Labour manifesto as a handy PDF here, if anyone else was hunting round for it:

https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Labour-Party-manifesto-2024.pdf

I get that everyone is complaining about the blandness but, as the the last 14 years have shown, Labour cannot do shit without power. Sure it's boring, but it will win them an election, well it certainly won't lose them one. And it's the right strategy to just not fuck up the open goal. Which is what people have been wanting for a while, no?

Complaining about the style of potential victory, after years of no fucking hope of victory, strikes me as, well, lacking an understanding the game being played. As the Tories have demonstrated for quite some time, it's the achieving of results, not the style of achieving the results, that is more important bit. Get past this part, then ramp up the manifesto stuff later.

Get past this part, then proceed with a rather meagre and unprogressive manifesto later

Is there any space where you're allowed to criticise Starmer or lament about their proposed policies for the next five years? I thought the centre was supposed to be where the "adults" do politics. But how can that be possible if we're not allowed to talk politics.

It all has a bit of the right complaining about remainers "talking down Britain."

Mate, disagreeing with you is talking politics isn’t it??

You haven’t been cancelled FFS.

Agree.

But when people say they're not going to vote because there's a targeted pothole ad the anti-tory centerist coalition can get a bit over-sensitive.

If they nail Sunak and the Tories to the wall here with only marginal change they will have a generation to 'boil the frog' of the Great British public.

Whoa - I'm not sure I claimed or insinuated I'd been cancelled. I think you might be reading my tone a bit wrong. I was responding to this:

Complaining about the style of potential victory, after years of no fucking hope of victory, strikes me as, well, lacking an understanding the game being played. As the Tories have demonstrated for quite some time, it's the achieving of results, not the style of achieving the results, that is more important bit. Get past this part, then ramp up the manifesto stuff later.

That is, the position that the policies are not important, and to treat them as such is to misunderstand "the game being played." I think the policies are important.

Edit: ahhh. is it because I used the word "space" and that had connotations with "safe space" or something? "Space" in this context was a reference to this being the GE thread. If you can't discuss manifestos and policies and politics here, what "space" can you?

'There's two bulls standing on top of a mountain. The younger one says to the older one: "Hey pop, the farmer has left the gate open let's say we run down there and fuck one of them cows". The older one says: "No son. Lets walk down and fuck 'em all".'

My hope is that once in power there will be a bit more cow fucking. But equally, they'll inherit a shitshow so don't have much room for maneuver.
I'm going with the thought that it won't be the tories and it won't be governing for self-interest, and in fact, there might be some actual governing going on instead of culture-war stoking. That would be a good first step.

It's also to confuse means and ends — presumably 'results' here means election results, not policy results. Governments are a means of social change, not the end goal.

Minimising policy to get elected also limits their ability to enact change in government. That this isn't widely seen from the centre as a problem is worrying.

But equally, they'll inherit a shitshow so don't have much room for maneuver.

@villa-ru ^which plays into this messaging too — there's plenty of room for manoeuvre, but not after you've promised not to change very much.

I'm not sure I claimed or insinuated I'd been cancelled.

You didn't. My point is that no one is stopping you discussing policies.

So far you've offered criticism but not actual discussion yourself.

Why won't a national energy provider focussed on building a renewable grid not help the climate emergency? It won't solve it sure but who the fuck can solve the global climate emergency in a national manifesto?

What's wrong with their education policy? Obviously they're not able to double funding overnight and I don't think any other party is offering that either.

etc etc

I read on Twatter this morning that "only" 50-60% of fee paying schools have charity status.

Colors