How Can Labour Recover?

[naomi24]

I’ve just listened to a Labour spokeswoman (no idea who she was) saying that the way for Labour to recover is to return to the hard left. What is it they don’t understand?

If you were making decisions for Labour what changes would you implement to return them to a modicum of popularity?

[Apc2604]

Get up grips with the world as it is today as a starter and change the name to NewLabour. And thn get some charismatic politicians with some umph. In other words a boot up the backside...

[fender62]

EdmundD, i agree an example khan green lighting that ballon for trump and the new year fireworks blm inspired and did he not pull some underwear or something add from underground, i dont think any of that was a good idea, as leader and the face of london, im sure all the odd woke miltants loved it though, but that not the majority though only the fringe, embarrassing and anyone who votes for him should reconsider.

[Untitled]

"Why not some centre-right common senseism being tried?"

because we live in a two party system and if both parties are just flavours of right-wing then that's not a democracy is it? I agree with Mozz.

There are lots of left-wing votes in the uk but the left is not properly united around one party...

[Jackdaw33]

The significance of Hartlepool is that whilst there are many instances of a governing party losing by-elections to the opposition, I cannot recall anyother instance of an opposition party losing seats to the governing one except where it is intensely marginal, which Hartlepool was not.

[ynnafymmi]

@13.30.Then perhaps it is time that the Labour Party split in two.The hard-left wing Marxists and Corbynites can start a new party(they can perhaps call themselves the British National Socialist Workers Party).And the centre and right wings of the party can call themselves New New Labour.

[Jackdaw33]

They tried that in 1981 with the formation of the SDP. All it did was split the anti-Tory vote, giving Thatcher thumping majorities.

[fender62]

labours starmer needs to let go of the militants in his party, and gag some of them from making and supporting miltant protestors a little decorum perhaps, one would think labour front bench are basically protestors with kier at the helm.

[naomi24]

Does anyone think Starmer will resign - or be helped on his way - and if so who will replace him?

[ynnafymmi]

Getting someone not wishy-washy or a hard-line terrorist apologist might be a start

[Jackdaw33]

I give Starmer no more than a year. As to a replacement, I wouldn't be surprised if Labour went for one of the strident left-wing harpies; Rebecca Wrong-Daily springs to mind.

[ToraToraTora]

roadman: "legalise weed ennit tax dat herb and see the money roll in see if any party said they would legalise watch them get 50% of the vote" - think you may be over estimating the number of dope heads in the nation me old china!

[roadman]

new judge said to me How did it not go to plan? I say to him because for the one time one time people voted with no facts den they had some and might have wanted to change their opinion im still here though so im big chillin

[ToraToraTora]

^^^^ translation anyone?

[New Judge]

//because we live in a two party system and if both parties are just flavours of right-wing then that's not a democracy is it? I agree with Mozz.//

Why is it not democracy? Why does there have to be so-called “Left Wing” options? It is quite clear that the vast majority of the UK electorate has no stomach for a Left-Wing government so why should any major party whose aim is to form a government stand on a Left-Wing platform? When the last Labour government came to power in 1997 (the first time in eighteen years) it was elected on what has been termed a “Tory Lite” manifesto. It was never a Left-Wing option. The architects of “New Labour” knew full well that this country would not elect a Left-Wing government and devised policies accordingly. In fact they should never have stood under the “Labour” badge at all (whether “New” or not).

Mr Starmer knows the mood of the country. The trouble he has is that there is a large chunk of his party who either do not know that mood or refuse to accept it. Until they do, Labour is doomed to become an increasing irrelevance. It represents people who frequent dinner parties in £3m houses in Islington and others who have modelled themselves on Che Guevara. Neither of these groups is populous enough to get remotely close to commanding a majority in the UK.

//new judge said to me How did it not go to plan? I say to him because for the one time one time people voted with no facts den they had some and might have wanted to change their opinion im still here though so im big chillin//

I think I know what you mean. I can’t speak for everybody but I had all the facts I needed when I voted to leave the EU. Nothing that has come to light since then (which is not much I didn’t already know) has caused me to change my mind. Even if I did, it’s hard luck. If you didn’t know what you were voting for you shouldn’t have voted.

[ToraToraTora]

JD 14:12, for BA, PMSL!

[Ellipsis]

> How Can Labour Recover?

Mandy on the radio this morning ... words to the effect of: "Labour's last eleven elections have gone Loss, Loss, Loss, Loss, Blair, Blair, Blair, Loss, Loss, Loss, Loss. I think there's a message in there somewhere."

[Jackdaw33]

Well said as usual, NJ. Until fairly recent times both major parties in the US were what might loosely be termed 'right-wing'. In fact the Democrats, especially in the South, were much more right-wing than the Republicans. How times change.

[emmie]

after a stomping victory in Hartlepool for the Tory candidate, Labour must now get rid of the remainers in the party, it didn't help their cause that the Labour man was indeed an arch remainer, in a place that voted for Brexit.

I don't have an answer as to what they should do, but going hard left will just leave them out in the cold longer, they are unelectable at the moment.