gavreid
Pretty Words...
Just an inability to separate truth from from fiction
Labour Leader: Keir Starmer III
- Thread starter Seanm
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Just an inability to separate truth from from fiction
Tony L
Administrator
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, it is the exact same ugly nationalist and authoritarian trajectory we have seen from Iraq, detention without trial, Brexit etc etc. It is David Blunkett, Jack Straw, Phil Woolas, Ian Austin, John Mann etc. It is Labour! To my eyes they are actually closer to UKIP than a progressive left party in almost all respects. The same streak of tabloid gammon runs through every decision. As ever I expect the Lib Dems, SNP, PC and Greens (not that there are any of the latter in the HoL) to unanimously do the right thing and vote as a progressive liberal block, and Tory and Labour to represent the authoritarian right-wing establishment and push us all ever further from our human rights and civil liberties. It is no more or less than we should expect from a party that has not presented any real opposition to anything in my lifetime. Bullingdon authoritarian right vs. tabloid authoritarian right. That is the choice on the polling card.
Seanm
pfm Member
Chakrabarti putting the scumbags in her own party in their place. They've been smearing her for years.
https://labourlist.org/2021/01/chakrabarti-tells-labour-sources-briefing-against-her-to-grow-up/
https://labourlist.org/2021/01/chakrabarti-tells-labour-sources-briefing-against-her-to-grow-up/
droodzilla
pfm Member
Good for her. I think we both know the type of scumbag who would brief against here.
Sadly, her amendment was defeated a couple of hours ago. Labour sucks and Starmer is a disgrace.
Some others apart from Starmer seem to be joining the effort to rebuild the credibility of the labour party with mainstream voters. Necessary and good to see. Another smidgen of information on how they intend to position themselves over the next few years. No hint they recognise or intend to do anything about our dominant structural economic problem. They intend to avoid mismanaging the economy as badly as the current government which shouldn't be difficult. Will it get across to those they are targetting?
Seanm
pfm Member
The message screamed by headline and lead - A break with Corbyn's hard left policies! Fiscal rectitude! - directly contradict the substance of Dodd's proposals. Framing the (sensible, Corbynite) commitment to borrow and spend as if you were actually calling for tougher, harder austerity, at a time when the Tories are on the hook for starving children ... I don't know, maybe this is clever and good or maybe they really are a bunch of absolutely clueless arseholes with one idea.
Incessantly hammering the Under New Leadership, Total Break With Corbyn! is message is tying them in knots, as it was always going to, because by any rational standards a lot of Corbyn's policy program was not only sensible but also essential: we're certainly not going to get out of the current mess without it. Sooner or later they're going to have to admit that actually they haven't spent the last 5 years being racist, ignoring voters and plotting to turn Kent into a collectivised turnip farm.
ks.234
Half way to Infinity
only after Rashford led the way for him. Johnson said that Rashford was doing a better job of holding his own government to account than the the leader of the opposition.
For once, I agree with Johnson.
monkfish
pfm Member
This is the PMQ you are talking about according to TG Clark.
"During Prime Minister's Questions today Boris Johnson told parliament and the nation that the footballer Marcus Rashford is doing a better job of holding his government to account on child poverty than the Labour leader Keir Starmer.
In other words, he's openly admitting that his government has been doing a lamentable job, but he's bragging that he can get away with most of it because the main opposition party is so dysfunctional.
He's admitting that he's incompetent, bragging that the political opposition are too inept and powerless to stop him, and implying that the only way to effectively hold him and his outrageously corrupt and profoundly malicious government to account is through grass roots pressure from outside parliament.
He's been repeatedly humiliated into taking action on child poverty, by a footballer and by grass roots campaigners, but instead of apologising and pledging to do better, he's using his own humiliation to try and score cheap political points against one of his political rivals!
What an embarrassment it is that we're being led by such a pathetic, desperate, dim-witted fool."
I'm more inclined to agree with him.
"During Prime Minister's Questions today Boris Johnson told parliament and the nation that the footballer Marcus Rashford is doing a better job of holding his government to account on child poverty than the Labour leader Keir Starmer.
In other words, he's openly admitting that his government has been doing a lamentable job, but he's bragging that he can get away with most of it because the main opposition party is so dysfunctional.
He's admitting that he's incompetent, bragging that the political opposition are too inept and powerless to stop him, and implying that the only way to effectively hold him and his outrageously corrupt and profoundly malicious government to account is through grass roots pressure from outside parliament.
He's been repeatedly humiliated into taking action on child poverty, by a footballer and by grass roots campaigners, but instead of apologising and pledging to do better, he's using his own humiliation to try and score cheap political points against one of his political rivals!
What an embarrassment it is that we're being led by such a pathetic, desperate, dim-witted fool."
I'm more inclined to agree with him.
deanf
pfm Member
I bet Johnson wishes Rashford was a Tory MP, he’s doing a much better job than anyone in the cabinet. Of course the views expressed by Rashford are not conducive with a Johnson government (until publicly shamed).
droodzilla
pfm Member
Quite. I got whiplash between the headline and the main article. Labour is either playing a fiendishly complicated game of 5D chess or painting itself into a corner.
droodzilla
pfm Member
Continuing the 5D chess theme: https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1349442484993220611
Seanm
pfm Member
Makes you wonder about the FT. Was the writer in on it, or did they really not realise it’s the same position as before, the same policy?
Anyway. I remain unconvinced that framing the thing you intend to do as its exact opposite is good politics. It looks a lot more like arguing with yourself, or punching yourself in the face, or setting traps for yourself. It’s working for centrist journalists and their fans, but so did the idea of a new centrist party made up of the dregs of all the other parties plus a couple of insufferable showboaters, and 3 months later Chuktig were on 0% in the polls.
Seanm
pfm Member
Starmer building his base. From now on Starmer’s Labour will appeal to pundits across the whole Westminster lobby, from centre right to right.
Looks pretty 1D to me: place your messages where they will gain credibility and be read by some of the people you are trying to reach.
Tony L
Administrator
I grasp that Labour is an archaic career institution and it’s sole reason for existing is to get as many MPs and advisors feasting at the trough as is possible, and the party strategy in this aim for the past 30 years is to avoid all matters of principle, but the problem is it ends up normalising a hateful right-wing Brexit rag like the Telegraph!
As ever #StopFundingHate. Defund Labour!
As ever #StopFundingHate. Defund Labour!
droodzilla
pfm Member
Already done that (membership cancelled a month ago).
The Telegraph... as Sean says, it fits with the "win over the pundits" strategy but I doubt it will change many minds. So of limited pragmatic value, regardless of morality.
Seanm
pfm Member
In fairness it would be impossible for anyone, let alone a Labour politician, to normalise The Telegraph, since it’s already the most normal thing in England, which is obviously frightening, given what it trades in. It might well help normalise Starmer, and Labour. Probably not a bad idea, if what he wanted to do was talk about the kind of things that Labour might legitimately want to do and which stand a chance of resonating with the typical Telegraph reader. Lots of potential common ground around health and social care.
But he’s not going to do any of that: he’s going to try to talk to them about patriotism, law and order, stopping refugees, teaching young people to respect their elders. And after all that, come election time, the paper will be filled with stories about him defending child molesters and prosecuting soldiers and he’ll have pulled the party right for nothing.
ks.234
Half way to Infinity
You’re all being rather beastly.
Starmer has an agreement to write a column in the Telegraph once a week for 10 weeks. He is going to use those columns to forensically go through each of his 10 pledges, to stand by them robustly and sell them unadulterated to Telegraph readers.
He will undoubtedly start with number one..
...you heard it here first.
Starmer has an agreement to write a column in the Telegraph once a week for 10 weeks. He is going to use those columns to forensically go through each of his 10 pledges, to stand by them robustly and sell them unadulterated to Telegraph readers.
He will undoubtedly start with number one..
...you heard it here first.
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