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10 years of Tory austerity that came about as a result of Labour almost bankrupting the Country. People are not stupid, they have longer memories that Corbyn and Starmer gave them credit for. They also realised that in spite of all the hardship caused by the austerity measures, the alternative is a Labour Government who ridiculously wanted to go on a reckless spending spree by borrowing hundreds of billions more.
People don't want to be taxed ‘until the pips squeak’ any more. They want to be encouraged to go out, work hard, keep more of their own money and better themselves through their own efforts. Not lie about sponging off the state as became the norm under previous Labour Governments.
Just for the record, Tories have made noises that they're taking a massive step towards proposals set out by Corbyn and McDonnell because they were extremely popular policies and this should be evidence enough that leftwing politics isn't dead. (We haven't seen whether these are implemented properly yet and not doubt it's Labour's fault if it's not implemented well).
They've combined that with a creeping authoritarian, regressive culture which attacks opposition in any form in a way that would make Trump or Orban (Hungary) proud.
I had a conversation yesterday with a conservative voter (small c) who said they'd never vote Tory again because of what they're currently doing economically and culturally. We're not hearing that yet because i) how popular this political position is (economically centre-left, culturally right, authoritarian) and ii) Tories are still a party friendly to billionaire's.
You think it's that simple? Fair enough. A question for you- you say that you hate Tories etc, what do you think you would get under a centrist party which will have obvious right wing leanings?
You're great at espousing the social aspect of your character, one that champions the most vulnerable, the needy, the destitute etc. How do you think that we've arrived at that over the past 30 years or so?
I presume that you would like to see better services, more real affordable social housing, real investment in deprived areas, better care for the plenty who are taking their own lives or sitting depressed, directly or indirectly caused through years of right wing policy, yet you promote more of the same, because you believe that basic policy which allows people to live better can never exist. Fair play sludge, like plenty of others, they've done a job on you.
The old class divide has collapsed we longer see those traditional manual workers voting in droves for Labour , Labour has moved to more of a Metropolitan City party where its safer in the areas like Manchester , Liverpool , Bristol, and London , the traditional heartlands up north and parts midlands are seeing a shift in voting to the Tories , as they don't connect or like the Metropolitan view , it doesn't make them evil , its simply a shift in the democratic voting patterns of people .
Will be interesting to how it plays out in Wales with the gains and losses and mayoral voting in England .
Cant be bothered with the enclave that is Scotland and their ruler she reminds me of Thatcher my way or no way , lol ???
Majority of those "sponging off the state" are either pensioners or in low paid jobs. Ironically, majority of those going out to work, keeping more of their money and bettering themselves through their own efforts (i.e. the young in this unstable economy) are voting for centre-left/left parties.
Where nothing changes, the poor get poorer, more homeless, more depression, more addiction, communities reliant on anti depressants, lack of real job prospects, break up of families etc.... You know the drill...All the things you care about, yet you want to implement a party that would do very little to improve these people's lives. You had better get a life times supply of blankets, soup and keep adding to the food banks, those numbers you provide on mental health are going to be useful as well if you believe that a centrist party will do anything to help the poor. Good luck mate.
Labour have lived on the past for too long, many Labour voters voted for them as " my dad did " or " its what we vote around these parts ", voting day is very easy for them , Arrive, get ballot papers and look for labour, put cross in that box
a political party cannot survive like that for long
Voters actually do a little research these days, if a voter see's a party that they like the look of, they get the vote ( it could actually be the evil empire, the Tories ), the blind sheep like voter ( described above ) is on its way out
No I don't agree with that.
There are just as many dyed in the wool tory areas as Labour.
And I don't agree on research, especially into policies.
I know several people who expressed very strong anti Corbyn opinions at the time of the last election, but couldn't have named a single one of his policies. And when some of the policies were suggested to them they thought they sounded good - but they still didn't like Corbyn.
One person described him as a "nasty piece of work" without being able to explain why.
The same people who in 2017 achieved the greatest increase in vote share since 1945 - and were a few thousand votes in key seats off winning power?
The majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party (fully backed by the Tory press and the Guardian) have been at war with the majority of the membership since they had the audacity to elect Corbyn in 2015 and again in 2016 after the Chicken Coup.
Labour had popular policies in 2017, and they hadn't changed too much by 2019 - except for the incoherent position on Brexit.
Corbyn was a poor party manager (probably an impossible job given what was ranged against him) and avoided confrontation too much, but as a campaigner and inspiration to hundreds of thousands of activists he had qualities that Starmer can only dream about. Starmer has trashed his 10 election pledges, backed or abstained on Tory legislation, seen about 60,000 members resign and gagged (with suspensions) about 200 constituency parties.
The demoralisation of Labour under an ineffective and right-leaning Starmer, combined with the Vaccine Bounce, the continuing effects of Brexit (and a bit of gunboat diplomacy on the day before the election) is more than enough to see Labour hammered and the Tories seeing their corruption and incompetence ignored or even celebrated.
No surprise but totally depressing!
Blaming Labour solely for what happened in 2008 is just as bonkers as blaming the what's in it for me party for the origin of the pandemic. If the Labour party was responsible for 2008 in any way it was for following deregulatory policies even more enthusiastically than the Thatcher/Major Governments did - the financial crash was down to failures of capitalism and libertarianism as bankers took advantage of freedoms caused by a worldwide roll back of regulation.
Both Conservatives and Labour were united on what to do following the financial crash and I've never heard any tories saying that the y would have not brought in the policies Brown followed that caused the crash because they were were too left wing - they were right of centre policies which caused what happened in 2008.
Coming up to date, goats said I would be upset today because of what's happening so far in the elections because Labour are doing poorly. While I'd say it's disappointing because I've nearly always voted Labour in my life, the truth is that, increasingly, my politics are first and foremost anti Conservative and I haven't voted Labour with any enthusiasm in ages.
In the so called Tory landslide of 2019, there were, rounding down, 47 million people eligible to vote, 14 million, rounding up, of which voted Conservative. Therefore, out of eligible voters, more than two thirds did not vote Conservative. Of course, many of them would have been apathetic tories who were sure their party was going to win and there would have been Conservatives who would not have been able to vote for whatever reason. However, it's clearly true that far more people who had the right to vote did not feel they could vote Conservative than those who did.
With our voting system, that always happens no matter who wins, but, as has been remarked already, with the main opposition party falling into the normal left v right infighting which some in it appear to think is the main reason for its existence, I believe there are an awful lot of people like me, who long for an electable and coherent alternative to the Conservatives that has a realistic chance of winning.
The Labour party became an irrelevance in Scotland and still don't seem to have realised it yet and it's heading towards the same situation in the UK unless it realises that the real enemy are the lot who have formed the Government for almost thirty of the last forty years - if they cannot do that and prefer to continue rowing amongst themselves, then they're not worth saying.
Cameron didn't only support the plans he/Tories said bankers (cause of the global crash) should get more freedom to act as they wanted. Austerity then slowed recovery and Brexit appears likely to slow recovery from pandemic as well.
Austerity also caused greater wealth divide which then also made the pandemic much, much worse.
That's not a three word, catchy slogan though so it won't cut through.
Part of Labour's problem is they never fully challenged this utterly bullshit narrative.
Labour's spending did not cause the global financial crisis.
Austerity was not required, it was what the tories wanted.
Other countries didn't pursue an extreme ideological austerity, and emerged from the global financial crisis no differently than the UK, and in some areas the austerity is thought to have delayed the economy recovering.
Because the outgoing Labour government never challenged that the tories were able to inflict horrific austerity on poor areas of the uk, and escape much of the blame for it - the blame falling on "labour spending" or immigration. Which is why we are where we are today.
Thats your opinion
I stand by mine, " the Labour heartlands " have voters who will only vote Labour " cause its what we do around here " One was even on the news yesterday, a bloke in his 50's
With the Internet, it has never been easier to find a parties policies, my daughter voted for the 1st time yesterday, she ( along with a few of her friends ) actually sat down and looked at what each candidate was saying, as it happens, its Tories or Lib Dems around here.
She remembered a issue we had and the Local MP who went above and beyond to help us, so she voted for him ( good enough reason as any in a local imho )