The Travails of Labour - The Cat Came Back Prrrrrrr

[iamcoop]

What's going on with this Rayner thing then?

She's always been shit at public speaking when under pressure but she seemed properly rattled on Today this morning being questioned about it.

Gone soon?

[Mobbd]

This is a section from a much longer article by Gary Young in the New York Review of Books. The whole thing is worth a read, especially if you fancy a feast of truly desso facts about the state of Britain. But here in particular, he summarises the Starmer situation fairly well. It's nothing you don't know already probably but well presented in a blood-boiling little package.

In this excerpt and in the rest of the piece, Young makes many a passive-aggressive jibe against Corbyn, so keep in mind that this criticism of Starmer's Labour is hardly coming from a far left position.

And so a change in government is likely, but a change in the nation's fortunes is less certain. Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has indicated that he'd like to maintain Conservative tax and spending plans until growth returns. On most issues, ranging from nurses' pay to student tuition, he refuses to say precisely what he would do, only that he would do it differently and better.

This is a significant and discouraging departure from the leadership he promised. Starmer took over as Labour leader in 2020 from Jeremy Corbyn with a pledge to unite a demoralized party at war with itself. His launch video celebrates his record of standing up for unions, workers, and environmentalists, joining picket lines, marching against the Iraq war. "I spent my life fighting for justice, standing up for the powerless and against the powerful," he said. "We can promote peace and justice around the world with a human-rights-based foreign policy.... We can put factionalism and division on one side and unify around a radical program."

His record in the years since, alas, says otherwise. During a period of popular public sector strikes, he told his front bench spokespeople not to join picket lines. He called for a nationwide ban on environmentalist demonstrations outside oil refineries and on roads. And as the war in Gaza intensified, he endorsed Israel's decision to cut off Gazans' water and power.

This caution has a rationale. Starmer believes Labour has so much ground to make up after its enormous 2019 defeat because of the left turn it took in 2015, when the party chose Corbyn as its leader. But the rationale is at best partial. It is true that the party was bedeviled by allegations of antisemitism and that the membership had twice overwhelmingly backed a candidate—Corbyn—whom the parliamentary caucus refused to work with and sometimes actively worked against. Yes, it lacked unity and message discipline, which contributed to its catastrophic electoral losses in 2019. But it is also true that Corbyn was leader during the 2017 election, in which Labour increased its seats and its vote share and robbed the Tories of a majority with an extremely popular platform. Just as it's true that Labour's 2019 defeat was in no small part thanks to its insistence on a second Brexit referendum—an insistence championed by none other than Starmer himself.

His efforts to lead the party to the right have left it, and him, without much to say and often directly contradicting things he has stated fairly recently—which the Tories will almost certainly focus on closer to election day. The party's green investment pledge is a case in point. Just a couple of years ago Starmer pledged £28 billion a year for an industrial strategy that would invest in "battery manufacturing, hydrogen power, offshore wind, tree planting, flood defences and home insulation."

The green investment pledge was popular with voters and business. Conservatives sought to depict it as the kind of reckless, socialist spending commitment that would drive up taxes and borrowing, yet given the Conservatives' own hapless economic record there is a good chance it would not have cut through. But the possibility of any vulnerability, no matter how remote, was more than the cautious Starmer could bear. In early February he slashed the commitment to one sixth of the original (£4.7 billion a year), insisting they would invest more only when the country had more.

What words did pollsters report were associated with Starmer? "Nothing," "Labour," "not sure," and "don't know." His favorability ratings stand at -13. So Britain's two main parties, once coalitions of a broad swath of conservative and social democratic viewpoints, have now been taken over by single factions—the right wing of each.

The Labour leadership may reasonably claim that their reorientation is producing results: they are tipped to win. Nonetheless, whatever enthusiasm there is in a country facing its fourth general election under its fifth leader in nine years tends to be roused by the Tories losing, not Labour winning. It's clear what that does for Labour. It is not so obvious where that leaves my MRI.

Polls show a significant majority of voters support nationalizing energy companies and water—which both party leaders oppose. The majority of the country is for a cease-fire in Gaza, which both parties oppose. The proportion of Britons who believe the government should control prices and reduce income inequality has more than doubled since 2006, and now stands at more than half the population, according to the British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey, one of the nation's most respected polling institutions. "The public are as left-wing in their outlook as they have been at any time since 1986," concluded the BSA. The coming election reflects none of this.

[Buelligan]

Not ignoring ^ on my lunch!

What's going on with this Rayner thing then?

She's always been shit at public speaking when under pressure but she seemed properly rattled on Today this morning being questioned about it.

Gone soon?

How fucking sad.

[idunnosomename]

Its her birthday so maybe she didnt get the robot shoes she wanted

[Senior Baiano]

Grandma, we love you
Grandma, we do
Though you may be far away
We think of you

[WhoMe]

This is a section from a much longer article by Gary Young in the New York Review of Books.

Thanks for posting that. He's always worth listening to, great commentator and writer.

[shoulders]

His efforts to lead the party to the right have left it, and him, without much to say and often directly contradicting things he has stated fairly recently—which the Tories will almost certainly focus on closer to election day.

They haven't done a good job of this yet, in fact they've fallen into John Major's trap with the negative campaigning against Blair of trying to make out Starmer is both too left, woke and union affiliated, while also a cipher figure that is if anything copying them.

You have to pick one and stick with it. It seems both of these parties never learn, but why would they when they are guaranteed a go on the controls every so often.

[jamiefairlie]

They haven't done a good job of this yet, in fact they've fallen into John Major's trap with the negative campaigning against Blair of trying to make out Starmer is both too left, woke and union affiliated, while also a cipher figure that is if anything copying them.

You have to pick one and stick with it. It seems both of these parties never learn, but why would they when they are guaranteed a go on the controls every so often.

The consequences of losing are so trivial for them (basically just ego) that fundamentally they're not too bothered.

[shoulders]

The consequences of losing are so trivial for them (basically just ego) that fundamentally they're not too bothered.

I think there are definitely cliques so wouldn't fully subscribe to that, but at this point it's no more than grand scale student politicking, people who essentially believe similar things doing a popularity contest over who can campaign better with nicer hair.

Fwiw Sunak has lovely hair the little cunt.

[Blumf]

Sir Keith turned up in Dudley today, did a little speech about 'levelling up the regions'. Not seeing many local councillors/candidates in the pics, and I know a few who had no idea about this visit. So full confidence in the local party it seems.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68683454
https://www.dudleynews.co.uk/news/24217718.keir-starmer-launches-labour-election-campaign-dudley/

Crazy thing is, there's plenty of local members who are okay with the Trilateral alumni, either in general or just in a Labour right-or-wrong way. Could have bulked up the thin attendance. But even they are beginning to feel snubbed.

[Buelligan]

Yeah, it's a tricky one, guess is, if you spend all your time mouthing shite you don't believe in or care about, in order to curry favour and win, you start to believe everyone else does.  Eventually, you don't even trust your cultists, Stalin.

[gepree]

Money and corruption
Are ruining the land
Crooked politicians
Betray the working man
Pocketing the profits
And treating us like sheep
And we're tired of hearing promises
That we know they'll never keep

The Kinks, 1973

[Jack Shaftoe]

"Keir Starmer faces discontent as Labour MPs reject union jack election flyers": https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/30/starmer-faces-discontent-as-labour-mps-criticise-election-flyers-union-jacks

I always thought whoever came after Corbyn should just take the piss: plaster all their campaign stuff with union jacks, toby jugs of Churchill, King Arthur, the lot. Drop flyers on rural villages from a Spitfire, really go for it. Your actual policies could be socialist AF, wouldn't matter a jot. If there ever was time for subtlety and nuance, post-Boris and Trump isn't it.

[Buelligan]

It's a matter of leadership.  You know Brits used to hang monkeys for being French.  They burned witches.  Tried pigs for murder and don't get me started on the officially sanctioned blatant racism.  Sexism.

All these horrible traits existed in people just like us.  Humans haven't changed.  What we believe and what we believe is socially acceptable has.  That's down, at least in large part, to leadership.  We don't need the people in charge flag-fucking, we don't need them telling us to get ready for war.  Not unless that is where we want to be led.

I fucking hate Starmer.  Happy to endanger or even condemn lives to promote his own ascension.  Should be hung from a pike whilst we all trot off for a dance on the green.

[BlodwynPig]

Here here!

[Paul Calf]

Love to have a beer with Paul. Can someone sort out a "Dining across the divide" opportunity for me and Paul.

"It turns out we actually had more in common than what divides us - I'm also suspicious of the black community, and I'd also been up all night crying as well"

I'll get my people to talk to your people. We can hammer something out.

[Quote]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/30/starmer-faces-discontent-as-labour-mps-criticise-election-flyers-union-jacks

Other Labour guidance to members on branding states that a "primary palette" of colours including "Labour red", "flag blue" as well as white and black should predominate colour when producing "content or positive messaging".

A "secondary palette" has been composed to match messaging relating to Labour's "missions". They are "growth pink", "green energy green", "NHS blue", "policing yellow" and "opportunity purple".

"Forensic Aquamarine"

"Pure Dogshit Peach"

"Disappointing Taupe"

"U-Turn Cyan"

"Flag-fucking Fawn"

"Broken Pledge Puce"

[BlodwynPig]

Branding Black
Never Labour Lilac
Fuck off you cunts Beige

[jamiefairlie]

It's a matter of leadership.  You know Brits used to hang monkeys for being French.  They burned witches.  Tried pigs for murder and don't get me started on the officially sanctioned blatant racism.  Sexism.

All these horrible traits existed in people just like us.  Humans haven't changed.  What we believe and what we believe is socially acceptable has.  That's down, at least in large part, to leadership.  We don't need the people in charge flag-fucking, we don't need them telling us to get ready for war.  Not unless that is where we want to be led.

I fucking hate Starmer.  Happy to endanger or even condemn lives to promote his own ascension.  Should be hung from a pike whilst we all trot off for a dance on the green.

What we believe and what we believe is socially acceptable has.

I suspect the latter has changed way more than the former

[Underturd]

Didn't the most famous pig hangings happen in France?

[SpiderChrist]

Not a problem. Membership doesn't translate to votes, according to Akehurst

Labour membership falls by 23,000 over Gaza and green policies

[Buelligan]

They comfort themselves with opinion polls.  I've never taken part in one but I suspect there is no option offered that says none of these cunts. 

Didn't the most famous pig hangings happen in France?

Surprisingly, people in France are human too.

[DreadedScotsman]

Other Labour guidance to members on branding states that a "primary palette" of colours including "Labour red", "flag blue" as well as white and black should predominate colour when producing "content or positive messaging".

A "secondary palette" has been composed to match messaging relating to Labour's "missions". They are "growth pink", "green energy green", "NHS blue", "policing yellow" and "opportunity purple".
 

Fuck me I thought you were joking with these

[BlodwynPig]

Opportunity purple to be the de facto attire mandated for all UK workers under new rules announced by Keir Starmer's government. Anyone wearing any other colour or shade will be subject to immediate arrest by the boys in policing yellow.

[jamiefairlie]

Fuck me I thought you were joking with these

A bunch of B Ark People actually get paid for this shite.

[Buelligan]

And who's paying them?

And what are they going to be doing for us soon?

[Johnny Yesno]

growth pink

Finbarr Saunders in charge of Labour branding now.

[iamcoop]

Anyone else feel energised by the election launch? 💪

[Fambo Number Mive]

Tory policies in a wide range of colours.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Tory policies in a wide range of colours.

this is clever actually because