let me guess, they will do nothing and fascism will come back again...
I get what a lot of you guys are saying about Starmer and the Labour government not being as left wing as Corbyn. I would also like someone who would use this majority to implement some really hardcore leftist policies.
But please can we just take a step back and look at what he wants to do:
Massive amounts of NHS funding
Nationalised green energy
Tax private schools
Allow regulators to hit company executives with criminal charges
Nationalise the railways
Increase the minimum wage to a living wage
Free school meals
I don't know about you, but that seems at the very least, left of center. Sure, he's not making drastic sweeping changes right off the bat. But this country needs an era of stability, whilst we make small but consistent steps in the right direction, and that's what Starmer will give us
They'll increase policing and call it a day.
Still let's not forget the right-wing policies from their manifesto:
Increasing military spending by 13 billion
Increase police funding
More border security force to "stop the boats"
Build more prisons
Pour money into polluting industries (car gigafactories, steel production, "carbon capture")
Keep oil and gas production in the North Sea for decades, with the only focus on jobs and none on environmental issues.
So yeah I guess it's better to have an authoritarian social-ish democratic state than an outright fascist one but that's not a very high bar and will only work until the climate crisis boils us all alive :)
Starmer and the Labour government not being as left wing as Corbyn
It goes a lot farther than that. From the Cass Report to the HS2 to the genocidal approach towards migrant refugees (deliberate sinking of boats in the Mediterranean), Starmer's Labour party has demonstrated very little interest in reversing Tory policy.
They campaigned as moderate administrators of Tory extremist platforms and they are positioning themselves to continue to looting of the UK with a liberal demeanor.
If you would get to know just one, single thing about blairites, that one thing would be to know that regardless what they promise, they do austerity and neoliberalism.
That's a great wish list, but I'm not sure how many of those will happen. Increased NHS funding is sadly unlikely given your economy and xenophobia against immigrants. I'm hoping you get increased support for green energy, free school meals and rail nationalisation, and at least a modest raise in the minimum wage. Cheap, clean energy, educated and healthy children, and an affordable and reliable transport system can do so much for the economy.
Well, at least the was one election where Nazis didn't win big.
They didn’t do that bad really, it just wasn’t reflected in the results. A new further right party showed up and split the right wing vote, which is largely why Labour won. If you look at the total votes the righter win parties did pretty well (Tories are really all that right wing but they did get the right wing vote).
Yeah, as much as I hate everything Farage stands for, fair play to him for splitting the Tory voters and delivering a Labour government. I just wish that kind of thing wasn’t necessary.
An overwhelming majority by seats but only 33% of the popular vote.
36% voted Tory/Reform so voters have not shifted left but split the more right wing vote
We already have the left wing vote split by Labour, Lib Dem and Green.
If you want to claim the 36%, you'll need to add up the left wing parties together.
And socially progressive parties got 56% of the vote. But that's split between about 4 parties.
So you're tallying the right wing and comparing vs one party on the "left"?
Its missleading to bass too much on that analysis. The parties don't compete for the popular vote but to concentrate votes within seats they feel they can win.
No one was aiming to win the popular vote. I agree that's a problem but we can't really read to much into the split imo.
But that's better than nothing, right?
And ~54% of the votes went to left(ish) parties, so that's something
Good that the Tories are out. Starmer is the most middle of the road centrist thou. Would be nice if the elected a left wing party
There was an anti-genocide independent running against Starmer (the new PM) and they came in second. Image if they had won: biggest Labor majority in generations, you are all set to become PM and you loose your seat because you were vague about whether you support or oppose killing innocent women and children.
and men?
Yeah, it always kinda weirds me out that "killing women and children" is the rallying cry in most conflicts. Civilians. Killing civilians. That's what's bad.
Reminds me of an orville quote I can't find now - something about firing on all the innocent families of a colony, and the navigator chimes in "yes, and all the single people as well!"
Labour lost four seats to independents running against its inaction on Gaza.
Among smaller parties, the Liberal Democrats have gained over 60 seats, and Reform, the Greens and Plaid Cymru have also gained seats. Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, now contesting as an independent, retained Islington North. Labour lost another three seats to independents who ran against its inaction on Palestine. The SNP and DUP suffered big losses, while Sinn Fein's fortunes seem to have remained unchanged.
Very impressed with the Greens - four seats is double what was expected. Great result for them.
The Lib Dems have also come out of this really well.
i hope this is an omen for what is to happen in the US
I think it's important to note that the primary reason the conservative party lost many of their seats is because their vote was split between them, and an even more right wing party led by Nigel Farage. It wasn't because of a huge shift to the left (or at least the centre left position the labour party occupy right now).
In my constituency for example, if you put the conservative + reform votes together, they would have beaten the nearest competitor by a country mile.
I think it's important to note that the primary reason the conservative party has had many of their seats in the past is because the left/socially progressive vote was split between labour, lib Dems and the greens.
i think the primary reason was that the tories were a tragic, worthless mess and the reform racists were there to pick up the protest vote and the lib dems, the others. the low turn out were the tories that couldn't even be bothered.
i see the republicans in a very similar situation
Fuck yeah!
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