What a bizarre take.It's hilarious how rattled they are by any claim that counters it as a great Labour victory, add Corbyn and they're stomping at the keyboard red faced.
From people who told us it's all about power nonetheless, Labour have now got power yet they still get triggered
I actually think the rest of us are enjoying the victory more than that lot because they're so angry at others claiming it wasn't all down to Starmer's greatness.
General Election 2024
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That's arguable since we've had mostly centre right governments since the 70s and the standard of living gets higher over time in virtually every metric. But either way, something around the centre is the way forward and a government that focuses on policies too far to the left or the right is doomed to fail.
It's great to see such astute analyses on why labours crushing landslide victory isn't really all that, from the usual people who have never been on the right side of the argument about how elections are won.
Keep going lads, let the gems keep coming.
Keep going lads, let the gems keep coming.
What do you personally get out of writing a comment like this?
There are so many studies showing that social and financial inequality are bad for everyone's health, happiness, and wellbeing, and actually bad for the economy as a whole. There's never been a study that I know of that shows the opposite.
The standard of living getting higher (a trend we've definitely bucked for a few years now by the way - life expectancy has fallen for example), does not mean people are happier. What's definitely true is that since the 70s economic productivity increases have been decoupled from wage increases, and inequality has increased massively. You'll note the biggest increases in living standards in my lifetime came under New Labour, and they were forced to throw in the odd left wing economic policy such as the minimum wage from time to time. The biggest win for people and the economy under the coalition government was bumping the tax free threshold up, also a progressive form of tax cut rather than e.g. cutting the top rate of tax or increasing VAT.
I do agree that most change is better to be gradual, but we desperately need it to be leftward right now given the state of the world, and we can't afford for it to be too slow.
Alright, it just looks pretty sad.
You've summed up my sentiments exactly there.
The worry for me is that the Tories will resist any talk of a merger with Reform at this point. They'll elect someone terrible like Braverman as leader and her idiocy will bring about her own downfall within 18 months. Farage will defect to the Cons, win the leadership and fold Reform into the party.
Unless Labour have visibly improved people's lives in 5 years time, they're in a lot of trouble at the next election.
Just the same as every other election then. Unless they're bailed out by the opposition having an unelectable leader, that happens from time to time, and the Tories have a limited pool to choose from now.
You'd have thought so, but that doesn't explain 2015 or 1992. Or just the fact that the Tories have spent more than double the amount of time in office than Labour have.
People vote against their own interests time and again out of ignorance and fear because the right wing have an inbalance in terms of their influence via the press and TV media. They work on their message that, "Yes, your life may have got worse under us, but it would be even more so if you vote for these left wing people that say they want to help you", and people fall for it. They walk down their local high streets and blame the decline on Labour councillors on their ward rather than the policies of the government. Then they unfathomably vote for representatives of that government to fix things.
So in short, I don't think you can simplify things as you have done.
Conservatives tend to have very narrow ideas which makes it easier to appeal to their supporters. Labour however has always been a broad church and has had to struggle to keep everybody happy which has often resulted in bad leadership choices. It's major successes have always come from moving to the centre.
Slipped under the radar a bit
Just because in the UK that's what gets you votes, doesn't mean it's the best way to run a country.
One of the best ways to save money is to get rid of poverty as poverty costs the NHS and other services a lot of money. Cuts creates poverty and our costs increase.
Yup. The economy is fecked when poor people don't have money to spend because they are wasted consumers, and the costs associated with health, lower labour productivity etc. are high too. It's a doubly terrible way of "saving money" when you cut benefits, raise taxes or lower the minimum wage for low income workers, or don't invest in projects that create good jobs.
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I'm not against higher taxes, but higher taxes so we can do cuts? Nah, it needs to be used and invested to help people. I don't like the attitude of us Vs them.
First day first positive. The ridiculous Rwanda policy is cancelled.
As far as first days go, that + engaging with the junior doctors, I'm happy.
And appointing a prisons minister who actually believes in rehabilitation. He's done more good in one day than the Tories managed in 14 years.
This election was a damming indictment of our electoral system and showed there is no enthusiasm for any of the main parties.
All of Labour, Conservative and Liberal got less votes than in 2019.
Given the economic position, a huge Labour majority can at least allow decisive action if needed...
Possibly problems are being stored for future elections and unrest if things start going wrong for a government who only 1/3 of the electorate voted for.
All of Labour, Conservative and Liberal got less votes than in 2019.
Given the economic position, a huge Labour majority can at least allow decisive action if needed...
Possibly problems are being stored for future elections and unrest if things start going wrong for a government who only 1/3 of the electorate voted for.
We'll see a lot of stuff being done in the first few months apparently. I read that Starmer consulted Blair about his first hundred days in government and Blair said his biggest regret was not acting quickly enough. Apparently Starmer has really taken that to heart.
Also showed a lack of enthusiasm for the non main parties.
Nice.
Tories got wiped out which wasn't unexpected. The UK tends to switch every 10-15 years.
Interesting that FPTP which Labour have long complained about benefited them significantly this time.
Interesting that FPTP which Labour have long complained about benefited them significantly this time.
Labour hasn't tended to complain about FPTP, the far left have as it's one of their main excuses for not having a party.
Didn't stop Reform getting five seats though, unfortunately.
It is a very poor system.
The thing is, you're just banging on repeatedly about the fact they've won and nothing more than that.
Yes, Labour finally won. It's fantastic that the Tories are out for five years, but others here are asking how they've won, whether it's sustainable and what it means going forward, worrying trends in the way the vote is down and split... and all the while you're just repeatedly posting variants of 'But look - they won'. You're adding nothing at this point.
Thanks folks, it was nice reading some posts about actual political events today, and not just people arguing about the same shite over and over.
One of the weird things about party politics becoming so big in the national elections is that selection of candidates becomes irrelevant in a lot of places. In my constituency which is a safe Labour seat the reform candidate came second with 6900 votes and now there is a search going on Facebook if anyone actually even knows who he is as he has no social media presence and wasn’t really seen in our area at any point. His address is also from a place 30 minutes away from the constituency.
I'm afraid that's not true. I was posting consistently from page 133 on this forum trying to explain the result to people who thought vote share mattered more than strategy, or why you can't just add up reform+tory votes, or the impact of tactical voting on vote share in a FPTP system, or the limits of the Greens, or the limits of Farage's appeal, or the impact of voter ID. So I have actually added loads to this discussion. My patience ran out around page 154.
You call them "worrying trends". I mean, come on. Labour crushed it. This is Day 1 of a regime where Labour gets to set the rules. The election is won. There's no "worrying trends" - the next election is half a decade away. The field is Labour's, they get to call the shots now. They have five years now to do things to bed in their electoral coalition, this is what governments do. Let's talk about "worrying trends" in 2028.
Rafael Behr calls this "nitpicking about the mandate - a natural displacement activity for people who inevitably struggle to process the deeper reasons why their own politics couldn't be converted into a winning majority." I wholeheartedly agree with him, he's just less irritable than I am.
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To be fair, I didn't even vote for Labour this time round and even I'm annoyed at some of the sniping already.
Why don't we wait a bit and see what they actually do before proclaiming how awful everything is and how Farage is going to be PM in 5 years time?
Why don't we wait a bit and see what they actually do before proclaiming how awful everything is and how Farage is going to be PM in 5 years time?
To be fair the “adding nothing” criticism applies equally to the constant reminders about % of votes and what might happen in 5 years time. With the added downside of souring a couple of days when everyone should be savouring the ousting of the real villains of the piece.
I am delighted at the result, disappointed that more Tories did not bite the dust, worried about the rise of the far right and concerned what is going on in France will happen here, and desperate that Labour succeeds to drag this country out of the ditch it is in.
Also, when is this thread going to be locked?
Dont get me wrong, I've had a fantastic time watching the videos of Truss and Mogg lose their seats. Laughing my arse off at Shapps and Co getting the boot.
But I suppose I'm wary of what's to come. I've seen enough of those horror films when you all breath a sigh of relief and let your guard down at the end before the villain pops back up for another jump scare - perhaps Thérèse Coffey comes back from the dead and stubs one last cigar out in your face - and it's all followed up inevitable sequel a few years down the line.
Jacqui Smith as a minister is very funny.
Missed that.
Did see this on her Wiki:
On 24 August 2011 it emerged that Smith had arranged for two prisoners on day-release to paint a room in her house, when they were supposed to be undertaking work to benefit the community. The Ministry of Justice launched an internal investigation into the matter, and Smith made a donation to the charity overseeing the scheme. The episode was condemned by Matthew Elliot of the TaxPayers' Alliance, who stated: "It's a disgrace that a former home secretary has used prisoners as her personal handymen".
Timpson had better block her number...
Jacqui was always the best. The time she blamed patriarchy for having to claim porno on mps expenses was very cool.
She came out with some of the worst stuff to massage the message on the Iraq invasion.
Her 42 day detention policy probably did more to rip up basic human rights than any of these Tory fascists. She is the progenitor of Suella in many ways.
Complete wanker.
She came out with some of the worst stuff to massage the message on the Iraq invasion.
Her 42 day detention policy probably did more to rip up basic human rights than any of these Tory fascists. She is the progenitor of Suella in many ways.
Complete wanker.
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