Labour Party - Just about as bad as you can get

[greencalx]

I see it's been demonstrated again that a 23 year old kid from Wythenshawe is putting up a stronger opposition against this Tory government than "Sir" Keith.

[NoSleep]

How's Keith going to attract more racist voters if he acknowledges that?

[king_tubby]

Well he has apparently bought 350k Twitter followers, so maybe he can buy some racist voters too?

[SpiderChrist]

I came here to post that myself. SpiderChrist, Zet, you should watch the video. As Burgon points out, things look bad here but think about what the Bolivian left were up against. They didn't whinge on an internet forum and then give up. Some of them got killed for their political beliefs but eventually they won.

Go fuck yourself.

[Johnny Yesno]

Go fuck yourself.

The truth hurts, huh?

I'm sorry our political opponents didn't spare your feelings or make it easy.

[greenman]

Well to be fair does leaving Labour relate to "giving up"? I'd imagine a lot of left wing people aren't funding or working for the PAIS Alliance in Ecuador under Lenin Moreno.

[Zetetic]

I've joined ACORN precisely because it might force me to actually do something. They have a very strong emphasis on winnable direct action to maintain momentum

Spoiler alert

in stark contrast to me

[close]

.

[SpiderChrist]

The truth hurts, huh?

I'm sorry our political opponents didn't spare your feelings or make it easy.

No, what hurts is someone making assumptions about me and my life outside this forum, and summarising it as whinging on an internet forum and then giving up.

So, you know, go fuck yourself. Comrade.

[pancreas]

Finally got round to doing my political fund opt-out from Unite.

[Paul Calf]

The truth hurts, huh?

I'm sorry our political opponents didn't spare your feelings or make it easy.

No, what hurts is someone making assumptions about me and my life outside this forum, and summarising it as whinging on an internet forum and then giving up.

So, you know, go fuck yourself. Comrade.

Ooh, well this sort of behaviour is definitely going to stick it to the far-right libertarian coup isn't it.

Give your fucking heads a wobble, you silly cunts.

[greenman]

Realistically though I think any challenge to Starmer is probably going to take awhile to build up, if Burgon or someone similar starts to look like their in a position to challenge I'd imagine many might well return.

[Buelligan]

They might and the stuff they're doing outside of the party could also well be extremely worthwhile.  I do sometimes think, you all know I love Corbyn, would follow him to the ends, but if Corbs and McDonnell and Abbott and all had fucked off out, right at the start, all those decades ago and worked as hard as they've worked to build something new, where would we be now, would things be better? 

I'm reckoning there is not only one path.  If there is, please send details.

[Sebastian Cobb]

https://www.ft.com/content/5b231553-c881-46cc-b89e-c0823deec3b3

   Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds will signal on Wednesday that the Labour party is backing away from the hard-left economic policies of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, seeking instead to fight the Conservatives on economic competence and protecting the UK's recovery from the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the annual Mais Lecture, she will cloak Labour's strategy to become the UK's next government in the latest thinking from international organisations such as the IMF, which recommends waiting until unemployment falls and the recovery is complete before thinking about the sustainability of public finances.

As the first woman to deliver the flagship economics lecture in its 43-year history, Ms Dodds will mention "responsible" policies 23 times and will distance Labour from its 2019 general election programme by avoiding any reference to any of the £83bn day-to-day annual public spending increases that formed the centrepiece of its manifesto.

"We need a more resilient economy that can only be achieved through responsible economic, fiscal and monetary policy," she will say.

Asked why her setpiece economic speech would not mention plans to increase current public spending financed by higher taxes — the centrepiece of the party's programme under Mr Corbyn — Ms Dodds told the FT in a pre-speech interview that the party would examine detailed taxation and spending policies in the normal way over the coming years.

"The speech is 45 minutes long and attempting to set out the relationship between monetary, fiscal and other forms of economic policy in the long term, so it doesn't have the kitchen sink in there," Ms Dodds said.

It's not acceptable that we've had so many NAO reports that have highlighted problems [in government waste] and yet we still see a recurrence in those issues time after time

Anneliese Dodds
Since taking charge of Labour last April, Keir Starmer has helped steer Britain's opposition party back to a more stable footing following its heavy defeat at the 2019 general election.

But he has been accused more recently of being opportunistic during the Covid-19 crisis. The speech by Ms Dodds, and one by the leader himself on Monday, are part of a plan to start setting out the opposition's positions on the most important aspects of government.

With distance being put between Sir Keir's economic strategy and his predecessor's, the new leadership want to fight the Conservatives on the overall strategy of economic policy rather than tax and spend.

In recent months, first the IMF and more recently the OECD have advised advanced economies such as the UK to refrain from taking action to reduce the public deficit until the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis is close to being complete and central banks again have to raise interest rates from zero to prevent inflation from rising.

Laurence Boone, the OECD's chief economist, this month said countries should not start "tightening" fiscal policy by raising taxes or cutting public spending "in the one to two years following the trough of GDP". This message now lies at the heart of Labour's new economic strategy.

In the months ahead, that would mean continuing to spend more than the Tories, Ms Dodds said, not insisting on the 5 per cent rise in council taxes that the government is expecting in April and not cutting the rate of universal credit.

With fiscal policy taking more of the strain in helping the economy to recover quickly from the Covid-19 pandemic, she wants monetary policy to play a lesser role in the future.

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In her speech, Ms Dodds will argue that if monetary policy did all the work, as it did during the austerity decade after 2010, then it would "exacerbate inequality and concentrate economic gains in the hands of those who were already asset-rich, at the expense of those who rely on income from their labour".

This stance implies borrowing and debt would be higher under Labour and would allow the Conservatives to say that the party is soft on tackling weaker public finances. But Ms Dodds told the FT that the sustainability of the public finances should not be measured on an annual or five-year basis, but over a considerably longer period.

Calling for a "responsible fiscal framework" based on "pragmatism, not dogmatism", she will commit Labour to a rolling target of balancing the government's current budget in the future, which would allow increased capital spending.

There would also be an exception to the rule for times of crisis, which would allow for a delay in budgetary consolidation while the Covid-19 recovery was continuing, but Labour is planning two defences against inevitable Tory jibes about fiscal recklessness.

The first is an idea from the Institute for Fiscal Studies that would set a "fiscal anchor", stopping a free-for-all in public spending increases. The second is that Labour is determined to attack what it regards as Conservative waste in public spending during the crisis and put in place safeguards to prevent a repeat under a Labour government.

It plans to give the National Audit Office a mandate to report to parliament each year on the effectiveness of government spending with ministers required to respond at each Budget.

"It's not acceptable that we've had so many NAO reports that have highlighted problems [in government waste] and yet we still see a recurrence in those issues time after time," Ms Dodds said. "We need to have much more political accountability around those processes for the future."

[idunnosomename]

I see it's been demonstrated again that a 23 year old kid from Wythenshawe is putting up a stronger opposition against this Tory government than "Sir" Keith.

"This needs sorting immediately" is fucking pathetic.

How about you fucking help sort it you lazy cunt

[NoSleep]

They might and the stuff they're doing outside of the party could also well be extremely worthwhile.  I do sometimes think, you all know I love Corbyn, would follow him to the ends, but if Corbs and McDonnell and Abbott and all had fucked off out, right at the start, all those decades ago and worked as hard as they've worked to build something new, where would we be now, would things be better? 

I'm reckoning there is not only one path.  If there is, please send details.

People like Corbyn, Abbott & McDonnell must be extremely rare in that case, otherwise we should be able to see the fruits of others who had built an alternative by now, and we don't.

[Paul Calf]

https://www.ft.com/content/5b231553-c881-46cc-b89e-c0823deec3b3

As the first woman to deliver the flagship economics lecture in its 43-year history, Ms Dodds will mention "responsible" policies 23 times and will distance Labour from its 2019 general election programme by avoiding any reference to any of the £83bn day-to-day annual public spending increases that formed the centrepiece of its manifesto.

It'll be OK though because this one has a vagina.

[Old Nehamkin]

https://www.ft.com/content/5b231553-c881-46cc-b89e-c0823deec3b3

Sounds like a winning strategy! If Brown and Milliband taught us anything it's that meekly conceding every single conservative ideological premise while offering no positive counter beyond a vague appeal to managerial competence is the only surefire route to electoral success. I am literally suffocating due to the sheer density of adults in this room.

[Paul Calf]

Yes, they are quite dense aren't they?

[Buelligan]

People like Corbyn, Abbott & McDonnell must be extremely rare in that case, otherwise we should be able to see the fruits of others who had built an alternative by now, and we don't.

Yes, that's true enough.  I just find it so hard to accept that all those decades of patient work were pissed up the wall by the PLP and now our only choice appears to be to repeat that.  We can't repeat it, we must do something to make sure that the PLP or other party grandees are never able to destroy our work like that again.

[imitationleather]

I like how Keir managed to find someone with even less personality than him to be Shadow Chancellor.

[Johnny Yesno]

I like how Keir managed to find someone with even less personality than him to be Shadow Chancellor.

Tbf, she was J-Mac's choice. I'm starting to think he's not a very good judge of character.

[holyzombiejesus]

.

[chveik]

Why?

1) stopping to send money to the labour doesn't mean that they're giving up the fight
2) I'm not an expert in Bolivian politics, but unlike labour, the MAS has been consistently a left wing party,

[thugler]

"This needs sorting immediately" is fucking pathetic.

How about you fucking help sort it you lazy cunt

Yes, it's so shit and vague. Sorting by doing what? Why the refusal to suggest a better solution.


Also:
'she will commit Labour to a rolling target of balancing the government's current budget in the future'

This spells absolute fucking doom I'm afraid.

We all know what these codewords like 'pragmatic' and 'responsible'  mean

[pigamus]

Tbf, she was J-Mac's choice. I'm starting to think he's not a very good judge of character.

She seems pure Lib Dem to me.

[Paul Calf]

Yes, it's so shit and vague. Sorting by doing what? Why the refusal to suggest a better solution.


Also:
'she will commit Labour to a rolling target of balancing the government's current budget in the future'

This spells absolute fucking doom I'm afraid.

We all know what these codewords like 'pragmatic' and 'responsible'  mean

It's what you say when you can't say "RIGHT-WING ECONOMICS YAAAAAY MOAR PIE FOR PEOPLE ALREADY VOMITING FROM OVER_EATING"

[thugler]

It's what you say when you can't say "RIGHT-WING ECONOMICS YAAAAAY MOAR PIE FOR PEOPLE ALREADY VOMITING FROM OVER_EATING"

It's absolutely fucking disgraceful to start talking about this shit when the country is so utterly fucked at the moment.

Imagine after world war 2 if someone started talking about balancing the fucking budget. It's a joke.

Sorry guys it's not sensible or pragmatic to raise taxes on cunts.

[jobotic]

I see it's been demonstrated again that a 23 year old kid from Wythenshawe is putting up a stronger opposition against this Tory government than "Sir" Keith.

A point made at PMQs. By Johnson.

Keith really is fucking dreadful.

[Sebastian Cobb]

World War 2 is precisely the example to invoke on why we shouldn't do that - accept the debt doesn't matter much and will be paid over time and use the borrowing to rebuild and improve society in a structurally secure manner.

[Paul Calf]

Covid has killed more people in just over a year than civilians died in WWII. In fact, than civilans who died in all the wars of the 20th Century.