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What is the point of Labour ?


pawpar

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Starmer reminds me of Lenin Moreno. Rafael Correa spent a decade as a popular left wing president in Ecuador before stepping down and allowing his former vice-president, Lenin Moreno, to run in the next general election. Moreno won that election due to the popularity of the party built up by Correa. Yet once he became president, Moreno completely reversed course on both his own prior politics as well as his election campaign platform. He spent his time as president enacting as many right wing policies as he could.

So a bit of a parallel there although Moreno betrayed an entire national electorate whereas Starmer has only betrayed a party membership.

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When Arlene thinks you are a prospective partner you are doing it all wrong.  Normally, I would assume that she is utterly deluded ,but who knows with Starmer and his reciprocal love of the flag and unionism?

 

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/dup-could-enter-coalition-with-labour-after-next-election-dame-arlene-foster-says/1821303044.html

 

 

 

 

 

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Things that will get you deselected as a Labour candidate; liking a tweet by the SNP, saying anything good about the SNP, saying anything good about Jeremy Corbyn, being Jeremy Corbyn, being a Mayor in the NE of England who interview Ken Loach about his film set in the NE of England whilst in the NE of England.

Things that won't; being a former Tory MP, being a former Tory councillor.

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Article in the Guardian about this case. Apparently he interviewed Ken Loach about his movies last year, and that was what sunk him. 

A bit ridiculous. Like in those councils where the NEC are letting the Tories back in rather than form coalitions with the Greens or Lib Dems.

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From an outside perspective what's happening in England looks like another version of the post-war consensus. Except this time it is a neoliberal consensus. Labour and Conservative now look like two wings of the same party in disagreement over the minutiae of how to implement agreed policy. The Public Order Act is a recent example; token objection in HoC, but passed the HoL with Labour Peers support.

That's the policy Starmer wants to bed in.

I guess the idea of removing people on the basis of trumped up charges appeals to him.

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The disheartening thing is that every time someone points out that Labour under Starmer is closer to the Tories twice as many people are likely to abandon the Lib Dem’s/Tories and vote Labour than are to stop voting Labour.

With FPTP anyone even slightly left of centre in England has nowhere else to go.

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If FPTP is the problem, then some form of PR would be the solution.

I can understand a Labour party building and appealing to narrow caucus of Brexit/Tory/LD votes in order to win power. That makes sense.

My problem is that they are not intending on implementing PR or electoral reform once they win power. So the next 2 general elections will be fought on FPTP.

It leaves them beholden to that narrow caucus whom they have to please within 1 term of power, otherwise they won't get the 2nd term.

Edited by Zern
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3 minutes ago, Zern said:

If FPTP is the problem, then some form of PR would be the solution.

I can understand a Labour party building and appealing to narrow caucus of Brexit/Tory/LD votes in order to win power. That makes sense.

My problem is that they are not intending on implementing PR or electoral reform once they win power. So the next 2 general elections will be fought on FPTP.

It leaves them beholden to that narrow caucus whom they have to please within 1 term of power, otherwise they won't get the 2nd term.

PR is a no brainier for anyone remotely interested in fair representation.

How do we get it though?  It will never suit Labour, the Tories or the SNP up here.

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To win governance, Labour need only be "not quite as bad as the Tories". Same with Macron against Le Pen in France and Democratic against Republican in USA. Everything incentivises Labour/Macron/Democratic to be as close as possible to the further right party because that hoovers up the maximum amount of "swing voters" while assuming all voters to the left of that will still be forced to vote for them.

This has the effect of constantly shifting the landscape rightwards. The further right party sets the tempo and the more moderate one follows in its slipstream. Thatcher caused Tony Blair and Reagan caused Bill Clinton.

FPTP helps to lock in this direction of travel.

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1 hour ago, CarrbridgeSaintee said:

PR is a no brainier for anyone remotely interested in fair representation.

How do we get it though?  It will never suit Labour, the Tories or the SNP up here.

Independence is one route. The MMP system is far more representative than FPTP already, and if there is a plurality of support it can get done. Also depends if there is enough dissatisfaction with the MMP and STV systems currently in use.

For Westminster? Your guess is as good as mine. With the two main parties against, almost impossible.

What's weird is that some form of PR has been in use in various parts of the UK now for decades. It is neither controversial or radical to propose reform of the electoral system to be more representative. I don't get the reluctance.

 

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