I’m not from the UK, but I’ve been trying to understand more about UK politics because of the election and I’ve seen headlines saying the Starmer has been pushing the Labour party to the center. What does that mean in terms of policies he’s said he will push? Also, now that they have won an overwhelming majority, do you think the party will actually use this opportunity to push the UK more left?
The media is pushing the narrative that Labour is on the left of politics as a way to fear monger and ensure his failures will be seen as failures of left wing policies, and shift the Overton window further to the right as a result, but they haven’t even been in the centre, but rather completely past it and in to mild right wing since Starmer took over and purged all the actually left leaning members from the party, and made it clear that he has zero class, or any other conscious.
His entire career in opposition has been proof that he’s nothing but a Tory in a red tie, since he didn’t oppose them on anything of any substance, and his entire election campaign was cantered on benefitting businesses, not the people of the country.
He’s gone against unions, he’s neglected health and social services, he’s ignored disabled people, he’s mocked the fight against racism, he’s made it clear over and over and over again that he’s in politics to serve the establishment, and his own career, not the country or the working class people who carry it on our backs.
So like, yay, Tories are out, but actually, we just have more of the same, only this time the veil is thicker and there is a pretence of progressiveness, that is only going to lull liberals in to a false sense of security, and push centre and right winged voters even further to the right, and leftism remains unrepresented in our parliament, because it’s too big a threat to the establishment (why Starmer was brought in in the first place - damage control after Corbyn).
purged all the actually left leaning members from the party
This is just not true.
Yeah, yeah, “not all”, only enough to make sure there isn’t even a hint of socialist influence left in the party. Also, he doesn’t have to personally have removed someone from the party, for his actions and the actions of those who would fall in line with his establishment backed agenda to affect members of the party being sabotaged out of the party or leaving because they were made to feel unwelcome. The few that are left are relegated to the back benches and left with no real power to speak of.
In this thread there is already evidence of his dirty, unethical, and down right bigoted tactics, you not being comfortable enough to confront it doesn’t change the reality - Labour under Starmer is a neoliberal party that is serving capitalists and the establishment, and doesn’t have a hint of socialism nor solidarity or concern for the working class left in it (because when it does prop up as enough of a threat to the status quo, the threat is removed by whatever means necessary, it’s not like he has to go far when he’s deliberately stacked the party with other bootlickers who easily tighten ranks against anyone they no longer want around).
It’s a good question. There’s nothing Left about the party at the moment. They are neoliberals who have already sold workers down the river to the Corporations, walking back basic promises for worker protections etc.
Policy wise, there is not much to look forward to. We can hope for more integrity and competence, but it’s slim.
The risk I see, is that they flop around in the centre, don’t deliver anything for voters, and leave the door open to right wing loons in one or two cycles from now.
Labour’s two headline policies are:
- Green investment through a new state-owned company
- A big expansion of workers’ rights
The green investment will be the biggest in the country’s history and the workers’ rights expansion will be the biggest in decades. Now, for me, those are two necessary, excellent, leftwing policies.
I think people criticising them from the left are mainly criticising omissions: why no wealth taxes? Why not nationalise the water companies? And that’s fair enough. Labour could do more and I hope they will. But the platform is a leftwing one, and I’m happy with it, even if it could always be more leftwing.
Which workers rights are expanding?
From the manifesto:
banning exploitative zero hours contracts; ending fire and rehire; and introducing basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal. We will strengthen the collective voice of workers, including through their trade unions, and create a Single Enforcement Body to ensure employment rights are upheld. These changes will improve the lives of working people across the entire UK.
Labour will also make sure the minimum wage is a genuine living wage. We will change the remit of the independent Low Pay Commission so for the first time it accounts for the cost of living. Labour will also remove the discriminatory age bands, so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage, delivering a pay rise to hundreds of thousands of workers across the UK.
I think your information is out of date
- Reeves has decided, she won’t be banning them after all :
- They are not in fact going the ban fire and rehire https://www.ft.com/content/5518e6d7-3abb-41fd-b8e0-238d66f4cb28
The unions have describe new version of a “new deal for workers”. As having “more holes than a Swiss cheese”
This is from the manifesto, published after both those articles. It’s the most up-to-date information we have on Labour’s plans.
I guess we’ll see , eh ?
The previous head, Jeremy Corbyn, was socialist and had a long history of fighting for socialist causes. It would have been hard for Labour to find a leader more socialist than him amongst their MP’s.
Corbyn was also at the helm of a horrible Labour defeat in 2019.
Starmer has been compared to Blair, for better or worse. Given the Labour party’s platform, I expect a lot of the energy of this government will be to fix the damage that the Tories caused, get some new clean energy, and try to grow the economy as some former Warsaw Pact countries are creeping up to the UK’s average wage.
Corbyn was also at the helm of a horrible Labour defeat in 2019.
Corbyn lost by less than 3 million votes (E: in spite of a brutal years-long smear campaign literally designating him “unelectable”). A “horrible defeat” is the narrative the neoliberal media wants you to follow because it makes him seems like less of a threat to the establishment than he really was.
E: it’s a bit late and I doubt anyone will see this now, but after seeing it just mentioned on tv I had to add that Starmer won with about a third of the votes, while Corbyn lost with just under half. So no matter how the media or those who believe it try to twist things, and as if there’s really any doubt when you look at the reactions to each, but obviously it has to be said - Corbyn was demonstrably more popular than Starmer is.
Politicsjoe is a good outlet for uk politics. Or watch John Oliver’s recent episode Essentially, the UK has had fiscal austerity for 14 years under the conservatives. To prove that labor will be ‘good for business’ their new platform maintains the same cuts and has tied their own hands on taxing.
So, fiscally, there wasn’t much diff with the conservatives, minus some crazy tory boondoggles like tax cuts for rich and paying tons to Rwanda to deport asylum seekers.I think that is indeed the best you can hope for with new labour in control over the tories. Slightly less backhanders and tax breaks for the already stupidly rich.
I don’t expect anything far left of centre. I say this as someone that is somewhat centre left (UK centre left to be clear, USAans don’t judge me on your political compass), I don’t really think I resonate too much with the current labour party.
I think the thing that terrifies me, is that the tory party we had, that pushed through a no-deal brexit (when there were many other less disruptive ways to leave the union available), that has wet dreams about planes flying immigrants to Rwanda weren’t right wing enough for our population.
What is the tory party’s solution to this going to be? I doubt it will be returning to the centre right position they occupied in the Cameron era. They either accept their death, or move further right. I suspect we’ll see the latter. When we find out their new leader, I suspect it will cement their direction for us all to see.
