I look at climate change and wonder what those on the right can possibly be arguing against.
I look at growing inequality in this country, the lack of empathy to those in war-torn or food deprived countries, the ongoing(failed) war on drugs, the criminalisation of addicts and the simultaneous cutting of services that help them, blaming of immigrants whilst cutting services to aid integration and affected communities, the ostracising of those with physical and mental disabilities, the lack of focus upon critical thinking skills taught in schools, the privatisation of the NHS/schools/prisons/mail, Grenfell, Jo Cox, cutting of legal aid, tuition fees, executive pay, off-shore accounting and tax avoidance etc etc.
The conservative party has, at the very least, exacerbated all of these problems. I see the left as being on the correct side of nearly every argument you can have with regards to public policy. While Teresa May stands on the steps of downing street talking about the 'jams', no one believed her, did they? They knew that, at most, we'd see some slight tinkering at the edges. Some massaging of figures and we'd all carry on as normal. Just as their party donors demand.
Public opinion indicates strong support for many of the arguments from the left. The tories got 43.6% of the vote share. Apart from maybe the brexit party on 2%, everyone else can be considered to the left of their them, so... a majority, if you like. Like May and Cameron before, Boris used the 'moving to the centre' lie to stop people who would probably fit better with lib dem policies should the tories be brave(stupid) enough to advertise their true intentions. The consensus IS there to be found, but the lies are pretty much entirely coming from the side who lost the argument, but managed to win the rigged war, once again.
So what do you do if you're on the left? Bend to the centre, I hear many say. But in practice, that means that when the Labour party next get into power, they are only able to make the smallest of changes or the cries of MARXIST! get so loud that it becomes paralysing. Without radical change, any small changes made will be dwarfed by the chunks taken out of our society the next time the conservatives get in, and Labour will once again have 'abandonded the working classes'.
So consensus would be great. But until we have a press that is prepared to consistantly challenge the lies, the liars will profit. While I don't want to stop any criticism of the left, or Labour in particular. It's important to remember that the peddlers of 'trickle-down' economics and austerity were wrong, if they ever actually believed it in the first place. And that, without their self-professed 'best for the economy' tag, they fail miserably at nearly everything apart from making the richest even richer. So when making sweeping statements about how incompetent the left apparently is, or they only care about identity politics, or whatever the right wing attack narrative of the day is, remember who is slowly eroding this country right now.
