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this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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UK Politics
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Starmer is hostile to anything that could be used to drive a wedge between him and winning, which doesn't seem a terrible strategy for the country. Would rather have 5 years of centre left government than another term of Tory leadership. Let the Overington window move slowly, but it's easier to advocate for left wing policies if the right of labour is in charge (through party conferences) than from the outside.
We won't, though. Starmer has rejected centre left policy and allowed Labour to be pulled right, he won't even commit to public spending reform.
Who is left in the party, with any power or influence at all, to advocate for left wing policy? Who in the party leadership will actually listen to left wing voices at party conferences? Why will the incredibly mercenary Labour right take left wing policy on board after spending the last 6+ years actively working against the Labour left?
Angela Rayner, the deputy leader? Anneliese Dodds, the chair? Ed Miliband, business secretary
Sure there are more...
And they all fell into line when Starmer's leadership forbade Labour MPs from visiting strikers on the picket lines... something Labour MPs have done since the party's formation. No longer the party of working people.
Again:
Let them win and (at the very least) be better for a bit, and then more progressive.
More likely they narrowly win, nothing changes and they alienate voters.
That's quite a pessimistic view! The biggest problem is the budget is tanked. Can labour invest in the future and deal with the shitshow of the last few years? QE is the easy way out but can they do that without having various things go tits up? Else they need to be good economic managers for a few years then translate that into a base that you can invest from. It's going to be super tricky. But they can do lots of small things, in all sorts of directions that are not funding based. Local neighborhood policy was in the news today as a wedge issue. But there are lots of others. The environment. Schooling policy. Zero hours contracts, taxation of web giants, migration. All of these would be dramatically different under labour and even if only one or two were, it's still a reason to vote them over the Tories.
I wonder at what point this becomes the wedge that will get between him and winning. I don't think is margins are as secure as the polls lead us to believe. Too many don't knows and won't says lurking around.
So I think he's being foolish to take his base for granted. They're not going to vote Tory, but they might struggle to turn up on the day. That could be the difference between a commanding majority and a thin/non-existant one.
Agreed. The comment I replied to said "let's get electoral reform first". Them splitting can't hurt efforts for electoral reform, though it's not likely to help either.