It's difficult isn't it? The party strategists seem to think the priority is winning over a certain type of voter. The type that used to vote labour, but whose politics are socially quite to the right and so have been suckered into voting against their own interests with rhetoric that appeals to them alongside unrealistic promises.
I'm not a strategist, I've not done the analysis, but they seem pretty sure this is the approach needed to beat the Tories. It's not just numbers of voters they need to win, it's voters in the right places.
They can afford to lose voters in cities in order to pick them up elsewhere.
Is that the only option they have? Don't know. But seems that's what they think.
What I do know is it's F***ing depressing that we've got a system in this country so broken that a minority of voters have disproportionate influence on our politics.
And that that minority happen to largely hold out of date views and are easily manipulated.
Is pandering to them a bit a price worth paying to remove the Tories? For me yes, no doubt about it. I don't know if evil is too strong a word, but the Tories are not far off it.
Doesn't mean anyone has to like it though. I certainly don't, it's bloody depressing.
That is a fair summary of the situation and what Labour NEED to do to get into power. It is largely what i was saying in 2019. In order to win power, somebody has to win over the centre ground, our archaic 2 party system leaves no choice for Labour to do otherwise. Contrary to what many on here think, Starmer is a bright enough man and so are most of the men and women on his team. He can’t come out and say he will do x,y and z on some of the policies we may like to see straight away, privatisations of rail, water, energy etc, there really isn’t the money. I genuinely think the aim is to win power, then he has 5 years to implement reforms. I am sure he will do many left of centre things once power is won, if he goes all in now it will scare off voters he needs and it will not all be affordable and the country will know that.
Totally agree with all of this. When it comes to it, I will be putting my cross in the red box and holding my nose as I do it. I hate that that's the case, I hate that my vote will be taken as an endorsement of their stance / policies, I hate that Starmer is not courting my vote and hate that our electoral system means I have no other alternative unless I want to help the Tories back in. Either way I am gonna get screwed ... so I have no option than to just pick the one that'll be more likely to use lube and maybe give me a cuddle afterwards if I'm lucky :-(.
Please hold your nose as I did in 2019 when I voted for Labour despite my huge distrust of Corbyn. First things first, get the wicked tories out at all costs. I genuinely think once in power Labour will review and amend the terrible new bill re police powers etc. People need to vote tactically, it is a must to avoid another 5 disastrous years of Sunak, Patel, Raab will probably be back in too unless he lost his seat. It may not sit right, it may not be anyones utopia straight away, but once power is won, changes can be started within the funds available. He has to be seen to do it without raising taxes beforehand. Manifesto’s are broken willy nilly now and nobody bats an eyelid, see Johnsons manifesto and what happened after. If we don’t tow the Starmer line we WILL be cussing at Sunak still.
I genuinely believe the party will not forgot all its roots in the long run, but the short term is about getting the keys to No10. In order to do much that we want to see, taxes will NEED to go up and i hope traditional Labour supporters will accept that, he can’t bankrupt the country to try to do so. There will need to be some pain, some nose holding, but i hope one day soon that this rigged 2 party system can be changed to a form of PR to finally put a final nail in the Tories coffin forever.
