These Tweets were published last night. The source has always been reliable.
What do they mean? Essentially, Labour has collapsed in a quite extraordinary fashion.
People do not think it has delivered.
They do not trust it to deliver.
And now, I rather suspect they think it is simply a Zionist organisation working against the best interests of humanity at large, and most especially the people of Gaza, who remain pawns in their pathetic attempts to play in the field of international diplomacy.
What it quite emphatically has not done is address any of the problems people in the UK feel they have. It does not even seem to understand, or want to understand, what they are.
So whilst households struggle to make ends meet, Labour talks about how to direct their savings to the City.
Whilst people fear job losses, Labour talks continually about growth, which is very obviously not happening and not going to happen.
Whilst climate change is happening all around us, Labour dithers.
And, on migration, nothing it says it would do has happened, but worse, the reasons why people fear migration, whether justified or not, from housing shortages onwards, are not being addressed.
People wanted something better. They have got something worse than the Tories, which is the only staggering achievement you can credit Labour with. They will not recover from this. And nor do they deserve to do so.
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Indeed. And while there are still a number of Labour MPs who are more principled than the party’s leadership, I hope they will now defect, either to the new Corbyn/Sultana party or to become independent MPs ready to vote against the Starmer/Macavity policies. Labour would soon have no majority in the Commons, and might even be forced to repeal some recent legislation that has been widely detested across party lines. What fun!
Dustbin of history springs to mind
Labour have greater problems than just an inept Chancellor. I suspect that if Labour are to avoid an almost complete whitewash at the next General Election they need to appoint a far better chancellor and extricate themselves from austerity policies and neoliberal economics.
I don’t think Starmer can afford to wait for the autumn statements, he needs to replace Reeves now. And, as a minimum, also remove Wes Streeting. Even if he does this, it may not be enough.
There are smart Labour MPs, e.g., Douglas Alexander springs to mind. However, until Starmer realises that continuing Tory austerity politics is exactly why they are falling in the polls, failing as a government and why Reform appear to be gaining credence (unbelievable as it may seem).
Of recent past we have had a string of incompetent chancellors who you might excuse for simply following Tory austerity policies / politics. There is no such excuse for Reeves. Labour were voted in because people were sick (literally and figuratively) of Tory austerity. It is, in my mind at least, impossible to separate Reeves from the previous Tory incumbents. Her mindless statements about growth, focus on the city (finance), etc., demonstrate that she is wholly unfit to be chancellor (or hold any senior role in government). Recently Heather Stewart (I think it was) in the Guardian opined that she was a strong voice and essentially a role model for young women. No she is not! She is way out of her depth, is devoid of critical thinking and has absolutely no clue as to how we might address the country’s ills…even when most of the right things to do are staring us in the face.
Starmer is alleged to be quite ruthless. If he genuinely cares about this country (and I’m not suggesting he is but rather as he is currently PM he needs to do something about it), then he needs to remove Reeves (and Streeting) and appoint a chancellor who will implement economic policies the people in this country need. Otherwise, Labour are gone forever and will be replaced by Jeremy Corbyn / Reform. If McSweeney is supposedly a great political strategist (which clearly he isn’t) he would recognise what the polls, focus groups, the general populace are telling Labour and advise Starmer that they must change course.
Sadly, I don’t see it happening any time soon and suspect it will only come out in the wash when they are completely routed at the next election.
This is a party that has collapsed because it has turned in on itself – it’s biggest calling was to fight Corbyn and the Left – once defeated, it had a deficit of ideas and nothing to say about its actual job – to rule for the voters and take up its traditional role in British politics as a representative of non-Establishment interests to add a bit of balance to it all.
All the energy used to up to fight something that was far from real Left anyway! What a waste.
To me the Labour Party is just a job application shop window for those who want posts in the post privatised state. Too many want to be little Blairs. They’ve accepted what is going to happen and prefer to be pushed a long by history rather than be a part of it. The politics of inevitability I think Tim Snyder called it.
That is not leadership. That is capitulation and cowardice. ‘Starmerism’, in a word.
The collapse in the polls for Labour is truly shocking and I agree they will not recover if they ignore the evidence that they have underestimated the scale of the crisis faced by ordinary people and continue on a ” steady as we go” path. However it is almost four years before they have to have an election and almost anything can happen. Given the current occupant of the White House we could have anything from a financial crash, to a pandemic, to WW3, to a change of President so predicting UK politics is a mug’s game. If the current leadership of the Labour party ignores the polls and ploughs on as they are I do not think the PLP will stand for it. Turkeys do not vote for Christmas and too many seats are at risk. Labour can recover if they for instance 1) abandon the current attempt to beat Reform by apeing them 2) adopt a policy of PR 3)recognise that the problems facing our economy and society are grounded in equality and signal their intention to deal with that by taxing wealth rather than work. I do not think Rachel Reeves can or should survive. She is the architect of the Labour party’s current economic philosophy and its most unpopular policies, which have drowned out more popular ones. I have said before that I do not think there is any alternative to Keir Starmer in the short term. He can, however, ditch McSweeney get in closer touch with the PLP and pivot to a more ambitious
and radical economic direction. I confess that I am motivated by a desire to see this government survive, because I see the only likely successor as a Reform government which would be anethema to me.
Starmer is a vicious Zionist who deserves to be in The Hague along with that slimy piece of sh*t, Lammy, and many more of them besides.
The Washington Journal has published the names of 18,500 children known to have been murdered by Israel in Gaza. 900 were under a year old. There’ll be many more unreported, of course, because whole extended families have been wiped out and there’s nobody left to report their murders.
The UK government is instrumental in helping Israel in its quest to exterminate millions of innocent people. LINO should have zero support in the UK.
New party. Focus: acting in the interests of UK citizens. These interests (which could form manifesto commitments) include:
a good (& improving) state education system,
a water and water treatment system fit for purpose,
fairly priced energy,
housing available for all @ fair cost
a public transportation system fit for purpose (and not for the benefit of rent seekers),
a finance system that supports Uk industry (& thus jobs) not leeches off the UK,
A UK industrial strategy that fits on 16 pages,
a UK body politic open to citizen participation and invulnerable to coporate lobbying,
a vastly reduced finance sector.
a state-owned & controlled health service
All noted
A lot of this is constitutional change, rather than a ‘new’ Party?
Getting money out of politics, corrupt second jobs and corrupt honours, corrupt public contracts, proportional representative voting , political parties having minimal democratic procedures empowering members, HoL replaced with democratic second chamber .
Needs a constitutional commission but will we get it?
No.
Mike it’s worth taking into account that ‘UK citizens’ include the peoples of the devolved nations too and their priorities and needs are frequently very different from those of England. But, as often as not, these needs get no leverage in Westminster because the devolved nations’ MPs are hugely outnumbered. Just assuming that what suits England will automatically suit the other nations, especially where the NHS is concerned simply won’t fly. What’s really required going forward is an actual Statutory Constitution which provides inter alia for the secession of devolved nations from the UK if there is proven public support for it.
Agreed
The NHS must also be publicly provided. It’s no good having it state owned if it’s outsourcing to private companies. A huge amount of NHS money now goes to private hospitals, which cherrypick the easiest patients, are completely dependent on NHS staff and ship their mistakes & complex outcomes back to the NHS – often by calling an NHS ambulance.
Political parties going against their base is a great strategy, the Conservatives weren’t conservative enough and now Labour not working…
Your post rightly mentions Labour’s appalling failure to call out Israel’s criminal actions in the Occupied Territories
Starmer/Lammy may soon be the only politicians outside Israel and the USA not calling out genocide.
Here is a very useful and up to date list of the major people and organisations who ARE calling out genocide. Note how many of them are Israeli.
https://www.thecanary.co/explainer/2025/08/01/genocide-accusations-israel/
But not Starmer, not MacSweeney, not MacFadden, not Lammy.
They have a speech impediment which prevents them using the word.
They and the entire Labour government are complicit, legally, practically and morally.
Much to agree with
Although Labour could recover it is also likely they will sink lower as the longer parties are in government the less popular they become. Add to this Zack Polanski from the Greens taking them to a bolder left position and the emergence of Corbyn’s and Zarah Sultana’s “Your Party” then they could loose another proportion of the electorate. History then shows that the recovery time can then be very lengthy , 10 to 15 years, in the meantime……..Nor do I have much hope that the Labour MPs will plot to change direction , the majority appear to be neo liberals at heart with a few exceptions. Someone like Clive Lewis would be there only chance of pulling off a recovery.
I think the change will be much quicker this time
We are not in transition. People are ready for something much bigger than that.
Started by a Keir and finished by one. Funny, coz it’s not a common name. And apparently no children at all were named Keir last year.
Consigning the name to history may go down and his only positive achievement.
On Radio 4 right now, I’m listening Amol Rajan who is ‘creating a safe place’ in his programme ‘Radical’ talking to some dodgy academic from the Uni of Cambridge talking about the new Right called James Orr – heading some sort of new think tank called ‘policy preference’. Orr calls himself a ‘public intellectual’.
In his intro he mentioned Peter Thiel’s influence whom he described as a ‘legendary investor’ (wonderful objectivity there Amal!!) and then gushed over his guest – Orr – whom he freely admitted was beginning to influence him!! He admitted his bias – on air!!
Wow!
So, I’m sitting here listening to this guff about Farage’s energy and new ideas and all I see – and it has to be said – is another bunch of rich dudes trying to run the country – THEIR preference as to how things are. And worryingly, many desperate people are going to fall for this.
James Orr thinks that if someone has paid you, and that you owe them something is a fallacy (‘ad pecuniam fallacy’)!!! Because it is only money – On the subject of funding think tanks, Orr literally says funding does not infer a contract, there is not Left wing money or Right wing money – just a legal tender – a very obscure point of law? Whom that money comes from infers nothing – apparently.
So, he is intellectualising the private funding of politics – he is blindsiding us – and he is nominating himself as the guardian of that transaction. Rajan has called the murky world of think tank funding ‘conspiracy theories’ – suggesting to me that such worries have no substance. It’s like I’m listening to an affirmation of something – not a critical analysis.
We are on the way to the bottom for sure – and we are not even there yet. Now cogitate on that for a while.
It is like witnessing the descent of man, with talk of ‘looking after our own’ and stuff like that. This is normalisation – we are being prepared for something really ugly.
That sounds worrying
I link Amol Rajan and Evan Davis, who is openly neoliberal.
Gosh Golly!!!! Isn’t it simply fabulous that the light blues have decided to show that they are able to compete with the intellectual rigour and years of success of the Oxford PPE in shaping UK politics. Spiffing! Lashings of ginger beer!
More seriously, it sounds scary and a worry. What we do not need right now is someone making up ever more tenuous methods of propping up excuses for ever more right wing dogma —- but let’s not ever reflect on the impact of their thinking over the last 40 odd years (minimum??). Given the news this last week, is this the priority topic for a ‘Radical’ examination of the UK’s policy and direction?
Forget the ‘public intellectual’ making up esoteric arguments to support the indefensible (and question the basis for contracts and payments). Why not demonstrate that empirically, neoliberalism doesn’t work.
Perhaps it is vested interest, naked greed — but the way that the think tanks and their puppet front men (mostly men?) have prepared and delivered their agenda is impressive — and constant re-invention when they can make progress another way (look at Farage, look at the arguments that they promote and how it migrates as the Overton window does. And now we have a new person and a new angle in the form of James Orr). I really don’t like it … but the playbook they use is definitely working for them.
Orr is an apologist for J D Vance and so Peter Thiel and shows all that they stand for.
…and this is the reason I got out of that profession.
Too many head trapped, heart blocked ‘intellectuals.’
Think they would be happy being brains in a jar.
So agree PSR. Rajan taking the Reform ‘think tank’ person on his own terms – compliments him because he is admitting where some of their funds are coming from.
Doesn’t remotely push back on the ridiculous notion of a ‘think tank’ for an organisation which dubs climate science as a hoax.
We really are in 1984 territory. Rajan and Davis – good Ministry of Truth functionaries.
It’s time to recognise that the whole rotten system needs to be swept away. Much of value in Mike Parr’s contribution.
Meanwhile we have a party waiting in the wings, Reform, that intends to end all climate change policy and preparation, making them an existential threat to our country, so no pressure.
Came across this ……. ‘Obey’: Film Based on Chris Hedges’ ‘Death of the Liberal Class’.It came out over 13 years ago and it seems scarily accurate …
https://youtu.be/hH6UynI5m7Y
To add to the list, the OSA is a privacy nightmare that will be discouraging many young voters who feel like they’re being forced to disclose personal information in many areas for very trivial reasons.
New New Labour is doing it’s absolute best to alienate just about anyone who might vote for them while doing very little they were voted in on.
This has all the feeling of being a massive data trawl.