Quote Originally Posted by jon1959 View Post
You seem to be agreeing with Claude's view of the 10 Pledges as 'nonsense', and that it was smart politics by Starmer to tell the party one thing - only 30 months ago - and then renege on every one of his promises. I disagree. It is just dishonest and unprincipled. It is perfectly possible to be pragmatic and principled at the same time.

The 10 Pledges were not some radical socialist programme that would lead to failure at the ballot box. They were all about social democratic mainstream policies, uniting the party, and (as he elaborated on his pitch) using the 2017 election manifesto as the starting point for a Labour programme for government.

The 2017 manifesto was popular. Its individual policy offers scored well in opinion polls and focus groups. When 'blind tested' most people backed them. Corbyn failed in 2017 (Labour 40% to Tories 43%) but secured the highest Labour GE vote in 51 years. Instead of building on that Starmer has taken Labour back to the worst of Blair - without the charisma, the energy or the worked through policies.
Come off it Jon, you're old enough to know how politics works. Just like Truss and Sunak now, Starmer had to appeal to a selectorate in order to win the leadership. That mean't having to go along with a lot of the 2017 and 2019 manifestos, despite the party losing both elections. He may or may not apply them to the party's manifesto next time. Hopefully the party draws up that manifesto based on what is relevant and practical for that time - not x number of years ago.

I do get fed up of the nonsense about the 2017 GE. The facts are simple, the Labour party lost. The Tories got, if memory serves, a million more votes than Labour. Theresa May ran the worst Tory campaign in living memory and still Corbyn lost to her. Stacking up votes in already safe seats will not give you a majority, nor will targeting certain high profile Tory MP's seats for vanity and attention seeking reasons c.f. the ridiculous Owen Jones "flash bombing" Boris Johnsons Uxbridge constituency.

WRT the popular policies narrative, you will, I'm sure, be aware that whilst popular individually that popularity diminishes when they're all put together as voters start to question practicalities and, above all, the cost.

The 2019 manifesto was the 2017 one on steroids with further spending commitments added during the campaign and the party was humiliated.