The Labour Government

Gilt yields will be up again tomorrow. Not far off 6% now on 30 year government bonds.

Borrowing costs are already a drain on the government and this won’t help.

Anyone remortgaging in the next 6 months is not going to find a great deal!
 
Manc in London said:
Wes Streeting is a devious shit. Hardly news,I know. Not for one minute is that weasel thinking 'this is best for the country'.

So Labour has three sizeable factions: pro Starmer, pro Streeting and pro Burnham. Then you have the old left who probably do not like any of them but would favour Burnham.
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Clive Lewis for me.

He has personality and connects with voters of all ages.

He's team Ange so he won't stand.
 
TinFoilHat said:
Clive Lewis for me.

He has personality and connects with voters of all ages.

He's team Ange so he won't stand.
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He's a decent human being. All in with Andy Burnham judging by the 30 min chat with Owen Jones. They just have to find him a safe seat and hope the NEC don't block it.
 
I genuinely have no idea what the country or the Labour Party want.

Landslide to this.

A lot of people say Kier is a nice guy much better in person etc

I thought we kicked the Tories out in part to get someone boring now we have chaos and seem to want personality again.

I don’t get all this he is boring his speeches are boring they are all like that at times. They all use phrases we don’t use in the day to day. Rather his speeches than Boris or Trump waffle.

The country seems to have gone to the right on benefits immigration but the Labour Party want to go left.

I thought the country wanted more for normal people. They got in in Labour and in workers rights renters rights minimum wage. Yet it’s done them no good with normal people and phone ins have been inundated with I will sell my houses my business I won’t hire etc etc

I think the country is ungovernable and so is the Labour Party.

I bet the MPS don’t know exactly what’s in the kings speech he could be gone today and then have an amazing program in the kings speech on Wednesday
 
Have we still got over 80% of Labour MPs not wanting a leadership change (at least right now)?
 
Labour might be tempted to get rid of Starmer and do 2 years of Left Wing politics (via the still big majority) which obviously isn't allowed via the ballot box. For instance, I haven't noticed Laura Kueunesberg arranging dramatic, on screen resignations like she did for Corbyn. If Labour try Socislism what's to lose? If it DOES goes horribly wrong (as all the experts are certain it will with their great track record), then Reform will have a huge mess to stop their multi policies nobody knows about, if it works, Labour will get re elected!
 
philfodenswristsock said:
Labour might be tempted to get rid of Starmer and do 2 years of Left Wing politics (via the still big majority) which obviously isn't allowed via the ballot box. For instance, I haven't been Laura Kueunesberg arranging on screen resignations like she did for Corbyn. If Labour try Socislism what's to lose? If it DOES goes horribly wrong (as all the experts are certain it will with their great track record), then Reform will have a huge mess to stop their multi policies nobody knows about, if it works, Labour will get re elected! Toby
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Under which left-wing leader?
 
So we've had a go with the 'grown ups' who, though I would argue are mostly less mendacious than the previous recent governments, have shown themselves to be pretty hapless in making significant headway.

So what is it that needs to change? Many people think we need a change of type of politician, people who seem not like the political class we currently have. Let's try someone different for a change. I understand this appeal but the people they are currently attracted to are like wolves in sheep's clothing ready to take advantage of the current system and them. Trump is 'different' but how's that working out for ordinary people?

But maybe it's not (only) the politicians who are broken but the system itself. I'd go as far as to say the politicians are simply the symptom not the cause. Expecting some form of new politician to have the answers within the constraints of the current environment and policy orthodoxy is just asking for disappointment and/or to be shat on from a great height.

What if instead of trying someone different, we tried something different? Like widescale and deep reform of the tax system? Or addressing the housing crisis meaningfully both affordable renting and buying? Or reforming our toxic press and saving ourselves from the worst types of misinformation? Or fixing a completely dysfunctional FE/HE system? Our list of problems are many and complex and decades in the making; they absolutely could not be fixed at once. But they can't be fixed at all without some truly bold responses and a majority of the nation behind them.

I personally would tackle housing first because it's a symbol of where we've gone wrong and it has knock on impacts in so many lives. We've allowed a situation where assets are increasingly concentrated in a smaller percentage of the population and have created a dysfunctional market that has locked people out of buying and/or kept them impoverished within the rental market, with all the downstream economic problems that causes. This is fixable without causing chaos but is going to ruffle more than a few feathers. Currently we have no chance of doing it because we need a majority of the population to get behind any such initiative but our politics are much too fractured and polarised.

So for my money whoever ends up leading Labour needs to firstly recognise that not even the distortions of FPTP is going to keep the two party system alive anymore. Then they need to go and talk to the Greens and the Lib Dems. They need to find some bold policy ground on which they can agree (this would probably need Labour to tack leftwards more than the other two) and they need to form a progressive alliance calling out anyone in those parties who wants to act in the interest of their party rather than the country. Then they should present an important showcase policy or two that they can clearly explain how it will improve the real economy for ordinary people, and that they are aligned upon. They should announce a commitment to working together to introduce PR too (and probably some agreed redlines to stop us doing anything stupid around national security).

(The right should look to do the same thing too in terms of their policies too. It's too much to ask that the next election is a battle of ideas but once upon a time they used to be).

All sounds pie in the sky doesn't it ?

It almost certainly is but I fear the alternative is descent into even greater social division. In some ways we're in the kind of economic mess normally reserved for full scale wars and their aftermath. If it's not quite 'government for national unity' time it's not far off.
 
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