Exactly one year - how have Labour done?

[Airsumaces1968]

12 months is no time to judge a party - to me 5 years is a realistic judgement period.

However its amazing how people forget how difficult it was in say 2023/24 to plan a train journey, because there were so many strikes. Or the fact Junior doctors were on strike and many functions of some hospitals closed on certain days. Some media channels wwere running calenders to show the different strike days for different groups of workers. The only strike getting publicity now is the Birmingham bin workers.

When something positive is happening its amazing how its not reported take for example the rise of the Living Wage and the extension of the Living Wage to 21-24 years olds is only reported as a negative, but millions of workers have benefited possibly 5 or 6 million workers. The National Insurance increase on employers is reported as a negative, but the money raised has reduced waiting lists and really improved some peoples lives and made the workforce healthy.

I agree - to some extent - these are all 'soft' benefits like shorter waiting lists for the NHS ; many people who are not sick and their children are not sick - but they have no disposable income because its all spent on extra energy costs and extra food costs (food is so much more expensive as are our energy bills - both because of the Russia Ukraine conflict and Brexit) higher interest rates because inflation is still high because of factors outside government control to MAKE peoples lives affordable - so these people judge Labour on not being able to take their children out or go out for a meal or a treat for themselves - Labour dont win brownie points for shorter NHS waiting lists and ending strikes - which are all great things but they are 'soft' benefits - as I have said and not enough of a reason for people to praise Labour or vote for them again.

It is what it is, but it is a reality.

 

[VladKinder]

It still amazes me that people still think any party in government can make any difference.
We are far beyond that point.

The amount of debt the UK and US are in is unreal. The only real solution is to cut services or increase taxes (or both).
But they always backtrack on both because at the end of the day they want to stay in power.

So they always revert to what they have always done: Print more money.
Which leads to the cantillion effect, where the divide between rich and poor increases because of the excess money in the system. This is the real problem, but hardly anyone understands this.

 

[swordtrombonefish]

 

[Andy_W]

And there are plenty of self-described centrists just on this thread who aren't exactly elated with this government. They won't have the benefit of disgruntled Tory voters abstaining next time either so will NEED the votes from the left. They won a huge majority on very thin margins - you're a numbers man, look at the numbers.

The working class aren't exclusively left though - even if they should be. The Tories having things easier - in a general sense - makes keeping the left happy even more imperative.

But prioritising the left will make things better for the working class non-left that they're trying to win over - if you don't understand this then there's not much point discussing politics or policy. The manifesto may be key but how it's delivered can vary by quite a large degree.


Again, I think you're missing the point. This isn't about framing the policy decisions, difficult or otherwise, or getting MPs onside. It's about the fact they aren't going to win over certain sections of the media (or the far right voters) even if they make a decision to prioritise them when making the difficult decisions. Therefore they should make decisions which are more likely to please their target voters - not the media or those further right.


Being reactive as a politician is disastrous - outside of something exceptional like a war or a pandemic, but even then there should be a strategy in place.

As we've discussed before with Starmer's pledges - there's absolutely nothing that times or circumstances can change which nullify any of the pledges. How they're implemented may need tweaking but the individual pledges are framed from an ideological viewpoint. The same applies to the manifesto and the general economic policy of any government.

Labour have chosen to follow a Tory narrative on how the economy works, That's a decision not a given. Having your decisions informed by a well-considered ideology means the dots can be joined up to form a bigger picture. Reacting to situations or media talking points just leads to a mess of incoherent policy decisions that have no direction.


It's hugely relevant when your whole argument is predicated on the fact that ideology should be trumped by reactivity - in this case declaring Israel a 'rogue state' would do the party far more good than sticking to 'principles'.


I'd think far more Labour voters than any other demographic will hold firm views on Israel/Palestine.

Labour has no history of antisemitism - we know it was a scam. The people who orchestrated it have come out and said so.

Palestine is an occupied territory. Hamas were put their by the occupier in an attempt to destabilise the situation further. The people of Gaza don't deserve their fate at the hands of the IDF because they happened to be born there.

Simply stopping the supply of equipment and weapons/systems to Israel would be a huge step towards both ending the genocide and making the target vote happier.

Yeah, nobody is happy, but most won't accept the **** situation we're in economically, with the budget and also with who makes up our voters (largely filled with old rich folk, and idiots who think immigration is a no 1 priority, where as in reality it's not even top 10).

Until you do that (Accept the massive problems), everything else is pointless. Things are not rosy, everyone should have known this for 14 years, not sure why people think all this can be reversed in an instant.

Yeah a load of the working class aren't left, but Labour need working class votes as they're meant to be for the working class. Problem is loads of these working class have been conned, or are just easily led by the right/ rich etc.

Prioritising the left will make things better for the working class and the right working class, 100%, but do you think the right working class will acknowledge that? I don't. You can't cure peoples gulability/hatred/ stupidity.

The pledges were null and void the second covid hit, we needed a reset after that and it took years.

You need growth for the economy to work, I don't see where this growth comes from unless we go back in the EU (not an option for the right, working class right etc), too much of a hot potato, but I'd love to go back in.

Spending money to force growth and gaining massive additional debt is a tough thing to do.

Yeah, antisemitism might have been a scam, but look how many believe it.

The people of gaza and hamas are basically tied together.

Labour have ended a lot of defence supply contracts, rightly so.