Labour could start by being nostalgic not for a Tory past, but a Labour one: of greater equality, of common purpose, of strong trade unions, of rising wages, of meaningful work. Labour could embrace the idea of a refreshed democracy, of really taking back control – of an anti-elite politics rather than a reheated technocracy. It could once again become the party that offers a national, collective critique of the elite and its power – as it was from the 1930s into the 1970s – and propose a policy of national reconstruction and equality. Labour should be the party that speaks in realities, not in celebratory fantasies, and seeks to create a truthful democratic politics, which is essential to any real programme of progressive change.
-
Yes, Labour could start doing that. Or alternatively The Guardian could start to apologise for spending the last 5 years undermining a Labour party that was proposing every single one of the things just mentioned. Fucking hypocritical shit rag. -
The article quoted was the opinion of the writer, not necessarily the view of the editors.Comment
-
It is very much the fucking hypocritical shitrag, for sure. Among other kinds of shitrags that it also is.Comment
-
-
Yeah, it's not just on Brexit grounds that I loathe him. His record on COVID is an utter disgrace.Comment
-
Yeah that too. When he should have been holding the government to account, he was more interested in persuing a vendetta against elements of his own party. That was a far greater priority than tens of thousands of lives lost, countless more ruined, and the theft of approx 12bn of public money by the government.Comment
-
He's not even the lesser of two evils at this point. Him or J***son, one b*llet, you'd line them up so it went through both skulls.*
*speaking strictly metaphorically obviously.Comment
-
Bit of a myth that there’s a “Jewish vote” that Labour needs to “win back”. We never really had it, and there isn’t a homogeneous “Jewish vote”; party allegiances tend to divide along demographic lines as they do in the wider community. From 1997-2010, Labour polled better than the Tories amongst the Jewish community. This swung back to the Tories when Ed Miliband became the Leader. With a Jewish community of less than 300,000, weighted towards the young, what we’re talking about is a floating vote (of maybe 50k?)* people concentrated in around 30 constituencies which contain 2/3 of the UK's Jews.Originally posted by Nefertiti2 View Post
Going from data on the website of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. As they stated, just prior to the 2015 election:
As a group, Jews have little influence over the final results. Not only do they represent less than half a percent of the total population of the country, they also do not vote in any way as a bloc. That said, Jews do cluster geographically in certain parts of the country, so in a small number of constituencies, the way Jews vote can have some bearing on the results locally.
https://www.jpr.org.uk/publication?id=4022
*They estimate Jewish voters at 31% Lab 30% Con in 2010, and predicted a slump in 2015 but it doesn't seem to have worked out that way.
https://www.jpr.org.uk/publication?id=4022
Comment
-
You all hate him? How do you think I feel about him being my MP?!
Actually, Corbyn used to be my MP so I'm obviously good at being represented by future Labour leaders. Whose constituency should I move to next?Comment
-
Coventry - Zarah Sultana is pretty impressive.
The Methodology for deciding who is Jewish for opinion polls is interesting - people with Jewish names and people who go to certain synagogues are asked to recommend others. This tends to favour the Conservative and traditional Jewish Comminity. The lively left wing and secular Jews tend to to be underestimated.
It's interesting to see how much contempt EEG has for Starmer- one would have thought to be one of the voter sectors Starmer needed to recapture.Comment
-
Zarah Sultana is fantastic, but even that wouldn't be enough to get me to live in Coventry.
Nadia Whittome in Nottingham is another great MP.
Comment
-
Nefertiti2 , yes the snowball method of recruitment works like that; but some of the data on the IJPR website is based on deeper analysis.
I refer to it because it is a Jewish source which contradicts many of the things people have been asserting since Corbyn 2016; that attacks on the Haredi community have suddenly happened (nope, there's a bit report on 2004-2010, which mentions rises in attacks the decade before), that there's always been a strong level of Jewish support for Labour (again nope, there was more support during the Blair years but generally it breaks down along class/gender lines, as with the wider society). This article is typical. https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ay-from-labour
And the disaffection for Miliband which has been swept under the carpet somewhat is evident there in many documents from the time of his leadership. These are interesting, from other sources, just getting the "Jewish vote" in perspective.
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/election-2...-7-may-1495282
http://www.brin.ac.uk/religious-affi...eral-election/
Comment
-
Sean - yeah, they're probably my two faves. Still got love for Dawn Butler too.Comment
-
What's this #starmerquits thing?Comment
-
A gag, to undermine. Quite funny, commenting on his lack of action.Comment
-
Another Sunday, another boost for Keir Starmer from The Observer. I mean, this just reflects recent polls, which have Labour generally neck and neck with the Tories but not overtaking them decisively. By repeating the "26 point gap" thing, they contrive to create the impression that Labour are making huge leaps and bounds under Starmer. But they're not comparing like with like. Labour under Corbyn held the occasional lead over the Tories and even forced a hung parliament, the scenario imagined here. And this, mind, with Brexit still an enthusiastic prospect on the horizon and no pandemic, conspicuously awfully handled by the government to be contrasted with. They're really, really invested in Starmer, despite it become more widely clear what a desperate disappointment he is. https://www.theguardian.com/politics...LLXL2qZfpefNHsComment
-
Has he said anything about the reopening of schools yet?Comment
-
Absolutely. With the state of this government's performance on Brexit, COVID and corruption, a well-led Labour Party with decent policies and a clear commitment to them would have a poll lead well into double digits, even in the face of the hard-right owned Press and the Russian bot-corrupted social media.Another Sunday, another boost for Keir Starmer from The Observer. I mean, this just reflects recent polls, which have Labour generally neck and neck with the Tories but not overtaking them decisively. By repeating the "26 point gap" thing, they contrive to create the impression that Labour are making huge leaps and bounds under Starmer. But they're not comparing like with like. Labour under Corbyn held the occasional lead over the Tories and even forced a hung parliament, the scenario imagined here. And this, mind, with Brexit still an enthusiastic prospect on the horizon and no pandemic, conspicuously awfully handled by the government to be contrasted with. They're really, really invested in Starmer, despite it become more widely clear what a desperate disappointment he is. https://www.theguardian.com/politics...LLXL2qZfpefNHs
[Edit: also, if I were the Tories I would barely be worried by these polls. Governments nearly always perform better in re-election campaigns than they did in mid-term polls - save for rare exceptions like Theresa May's spectacularly hopeless 2017 campaign. Labour won't be lucky enough to be facing another Theresa May come election time.]Last edited by Evariste Euler Gauss; 03-01-2021, 11:57.Comment
-
I'm more interested in what he actually says and does than this constant emphasis on polling anyway. We're years from the election. The important thing right now is to be an effective opposition, and giving support to those who need it. Sadly lacking so far.Comment
-
I agree; I do wonder if any other leader would necessarily be doing that much better than Starmer in the polls, given that they reflect a stubbornly significant number of people positively willing to vote for Johnson. It's Karmer's dismal, vraven inadequacies as a leader that gall me, not even prepared to back the teaching unions on schools right now, as well as papers like The Observer being so reluctant to take him to task.
Comment
-
The appalling Wes Streeting is apparently saying that the rotten Starmer will be saying something later today about schools. Gawd 'elp us.Comment
-
Probably compiling results from the focus groupComment
-
This bilge from Gaby Hinsliff shows the level of analysis we can expectOriginally posted by wingco View Post
When Deborah Mattinson, the BritainThinks pollster whose deep dives into Leave-leaning areas are read increasingly closely in the leader’s office, asked her focus groups late last year which animal Boris Johnson resembles, the answer was a sheep. Voters saw him as hapless, herded first this way and that, always with someone else nipping at his heels. But Starmer was an eagle, circling high in the sky. That beats being a sheep, obviously; eagles are powerful birds. But they’re also seen as remote and calculating, hovering perpetually out of reach. Who could know what an eagle really thinks? And therein lies his problem.
And is there any evidence for this outside the Observer?
Some MPs have begun to fear that their new leader is a nice guy but no match for an opponent very willing to play dirty and running out of time to define himself. Keir Starmer ends the year less on a high than on a plateau. We’ll soon know if his ultimate flight path is upwards or plummeting back to Earth.
Yet, as with Labour’s decision to expel Jeremy Corbyn over his response to damning findings on antisemitism, what the party finds painful or perplexing is often a whole lot easier for the electorate.
Comment
-
I want to know more about what animals politicians are seen to resemble.Comment
-
Comment