Keir Starmer Labour Leader

EwanI Ted

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I haven’t watched it so I can’t comment, but on the whole campaign Corbyn had a better grasp of his policies and detail. Johnson didn’t even bother pretending that he did. So my point stands that when it comes to winning/losing votes its influence is, sadly, negligible (or was in 2019).

As for it being true that middle/low earners would lose income, I’m pretty certain that was essentially debunked at the time. Wasn’t it just the case that some married couples would lose out a small tax allowance of a couple hundred pounds, but such a small loss would be far more outweighed by gains from other policies so to say they ‘lost’ out was not true overall.
No it was shown to be correct. Labours pledge was specifically on there being no more tax to the 95% and it was shown to be false. Doesn’t matter if they gain from other services. But more importantly, as you can see in the interview itself, Corbyn just had no idea. He didn’t believe that what Neil was telling him was true, because he didn’t know the manifesto.
 

Ubik

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the eu negotiations aren't going to be over even if the next election is in 2024, the LDs will be arguing to rejoin and tories will still be making sure they don't lose votes to UKIP. Labour will again try and walk the tightrope and fall off, being accused both of being too racist and not being racist enough
We're about to have a huge recession amid a public health crisis, and it's going to dominate politics for the foreseeable future. I'm sceptical that the trade deal will have the same kind of impact. I saw people predicting that Starmer would fall into the "trap" of arguing for an extension to negotiations beyond this year, the same "trap" that Isabel Oakeshott has today fallen into.

Didn't the same research break down the reasons people had given Corbyn as their reason for not supporting Labour and the main one (or at least, a major one) was his Brexit stance?
Not in this particular research -

The biggest reason for defection, mentioned by 35% of those surveyed, was Jeremy Corbyn and his leadership. Most people didn’t expand on this, just mentioning the leader by name. This is consistent with the drop in Jeremy Corbyn’s favourability we have seen since 2017 and has clearly alienated voters.
But it did mention previous research which showed it was a large factor in his negative rating, mainly because he looked weak on it -

But also because of the way that the party’s view on Brexit interacted with views of the party’s leadership. When we polled earlier in the year on why they were going off the Labour leader, the main responses were around Brexit.

The data then showed that it wasn’t just due to his position being too far towards Remain (just 3% thought this) or too far towards Leave (just 6% said this), but rather the fact that he doesn’t seem to have any position at all - making him look weak and indecisive.

In total 13% of respondents mentioned that he had been too weak on Brexit, and not taken a decisive stance.
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politic...3/their-own-words-why-voters-abandoned-labour

And given that brexit itself was an option, it doesn't seem persuasive to say that the "Corbyn/the leadership" answer is another way of saying "it was brexit". It's a factor, but the main issue with them is still the person and whether they think he's capable as a leader.

This is also without taking into account the 1/3 of people voting Labour that thought he was doing badly - https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.n...0h01ub/TheSundayTimes_VI_Results_191206_w.pdf - something not particularly tenable for someone hoping to become Prime Minister.
 

Sweet Square

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If he was American, he'd 100% be against free healthcare
I'm coming around to the idea that conservatives act as a giant bolder and chain locked around the foot of human progress. They can't be reasoned with or argued out of their political positions(As we've seen over the last few pages, their political positions are insane), instead they have to be dragged by the rest of us to a better world. It's only the past work of the labour movement, socialists, the labour party etc that old clayton isn't against free healthcare.

Also whenever I hear talk of ''what next free food!'' I'm reminded of this recent video


He clapped for the doctors though so it's all ok.
Which is the cheapest most important thing.
 

ivaldo

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He still thinks he's arguing with Tories :lol:
 

ivaldo

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Let's just pray the nation lets him finish lets him finish lets him finish.
 

SteveJ

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I'm going to shoot myself if I see another graph.
 

Kentonio

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First, mainstream Jewish organisations were the ones who complained Jewish fears about antisemitism weren’t being listened to. If they now feel that is changing, that’s good enough for me frankly.

Second, I sincerely don’t know where you are going with your hitler analogy since Astor, despite some toe curling views, wasn’t a nazi. Choose any British hero from them last 200 years and you will probably find they were out and out racists - Churchill being one. Plenty of statutes to him though. Nobody is celebrating Churchill’s racism though when they look at his statue outside parliament.

I could just as easily argue the campaign against Astor and the women MPs who celebrated her achievement is motivated by good old fashioned sexism, because these arguments are otherwise so disingenuous.
True. Judging historical figures by today’s standards is basically just going to result in the conclusion that they were all vile assholes.
 
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They are the same thing or at the very least play into each other. If people dislike Labour Brexit policy(Or anything other policy) that will then play into their view of the labour leadership and vice versa.



It's depressing that the only reason people like @ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg aren't for privatised air is because some company hasn't figured it out yet.
You don’t know me - or the fact I’ve worked for the NHS. I don’t think broadband, the provision of water, electric, gas or food should be free. Those in need get benefits - if everything v was free there would be no incentive for investment.

we all know that the NHS needs more money, and elements of society will need to start paying more for it and for some services. That’s inevitable.
 

Sweet Square

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True. Judging historical figures by today’s standards is basically just going to result in the conclusion that they were all vile assholes.
Er.....she was vile even for her time

Lady Astor was among the upper-class English twits who, in a letter to British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, cheered on Hitler’s march into the Rhineland in 1936. As quoted in the second volume of William Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill, Lady Astor and her friends told Baldwin that they “‘wholeheartedly’ endorsed the Führer ‘s act.”

The Cliveden set entertained Nazi apologist Charles Lindbergh in 1938 at a party during which Lady Astor argued with those-including her husband-who insisted that Britain would have to go to war if Germany threatened Czechoslovakia. And when Churchill rose to condemn the Munich Pact in 1938, Lady Astor continually interrupted the speech with cries of: “Rude! Rude!” The Condé Nasties of the world no doubt would cite the latter anecdote as evidence that Lady Astor certainly had manners and would tolerate no unseemly breaches of decorum.

https://observer.com/2000/01/vanity-fair-forgets-lady-astors-nazi-leanings/

She reportedly once told MP Alan Graham "only a Jew like you would dare to be rude to me", according to Harold Nicolson.

The politician reportedly expressed her dislike for the Jewish community to the US ambassador Joseph P Kennedy and wrote to him that it would have to take much more than Hitler giving "a rough time" to "the killers of Christ" before supporting the launch of "Armageddon to save them", according to the book The Kennedys at War: 1937-1945.


Astor did hold views “which blamed antisemitism on the Jews”, said David Feldman, director of the Pears Institute for the study of antisemitism at Birkbeck University of London.

He shared an anecdote from the diary of James McDonald, a League of Nations employee, who claimed Astor said at an event held by a wealthy Jewish family: “Did I not after all believe there must be something in the Jews themselves that had bought them persecution throughout all the ages?”


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...s-johnson-antisemitism-plymouth-a9226106.html
 
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Why do you healthcare should be ''free'' but not water, electric, gas or food?
Good question. Generally the NHS provides appropriate and essential care to us. It doesn’t provide non essential functions, like boob jobs, or hair transplants.

I wouldn’t be against free water, internet, or food - but it would clearly need to be the amount needed to survive. So we wouldn’t be providing everyone with steak and chips every day or gallons of water to wash your car - it would be a very inefficient way of providing recourses to people. The wastage would be phenomenal is everyone had access to free resources.
 

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True. Judging historical figures by today’s standards is basically just going to result in the conclusion that they were all vile assholes.
There’s some leeway involved when assessing the morality of people in a completely different era, but I think we can accept praising Hitler because he’ll deal with the ‘Jews’ kind of transgresses the boundary of any time, no?


Surprised at how many people already know about Starmer.
I like Starmer. I genuinely do. He’s a good guy with a good moral compass and solid principles. Incomparable to Blair in my view. I would not hesitate to vote for him as things stand. But some people are in for a shock when they realise that, lo and behold, Labour’s problems are actually far more complex and deeper than simply removing Corbyn.
 

2cents

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I'm sure Adolf Hitler was the first of something good too but we don't fecking commemorate that do we because he was a fecking Nazi. You don't commemorate Nazis - if you do then we call that being a Nazi sympathiser. Just because it's accepted by the mainstream doesn't make it okay - in fact that makes it even more dangerous as it normalises people who had abhorrent views like Astor. It's whitewashing the worst kind of racism, pure and simple and you are actively supporting this country having statues of fecking Nazis. What the feck is going on
Anyways you carry on white washing a nazi, it's working out brilliantly for you.
Sweet Square said:
Er.....she was vile even for her time
Jeremy Corbyn: “I’m really pleased the statue is going up.”

Also, a motion from the archives, December 1994 - “That this House celebrates the election of Nancy Astor, the first woman Member of Parliament to take her seat in the House of Commons, on 1st December 1919...”

Tabled by Jeremy Corbyn.
 

Sweet Square

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Good question. Generally the NHS provides appropriate and essential care to us. It doesn’t provide non essential functions, like boob jobs, or hair transplants.

I wouldn’t be against free water, internet, or food - but it would clearly need to be the amount needed to survive. So we wouldn’t be providing everyone with steak and chips every day or gallons of water to wash your car - it would be a very inefficient way of providing recourses to people. The wastage would be phenomenal is everyone had access to free resources.
You're in favour of mass state planning of the economy ? So what the hell is all this about then ?

Ridiculous - just like his policies.

None of the policies were costed, they were just made up on the hoof to try and win votes - they didn’t solve problems. What was the rationale behind free broadband? Do we then have free water, free electric? Labour are the Party of anti-aspiration.
Unless you thought that Labour where promising free car washes for the many and not the few ? Also aren't you annoyed at the wastage we produced under the current system ?

Jeremy Corbyn: “I’m really pleased the statue is going up.”

Also, a motion from the archives, December 1994 - “That this House celebrates the election of Nancy Astor, the first woman Member of Parliament to take her seat in the House of Commons, on 1st December 1919...”

Tabled by Jeremy Corbyn.
:lol:

Mate I'm apparently his illegitimate son but shock horror I don't actually agree with everything Corbyn has said. Although who knew the bonding issue between @nickm and Corbyn would be Nancy Astor

Edit - Just seen you fecked up the motion mentioning Markiewicz.
 
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Ubik

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Jeremy Corbyn: “I’m really pleased the statue is going up.”

Also, a motion from the archives, December 1994 - “That this House celebrates the election of Nancy Astor, the first woman Member of Parliament to take her seat in the House of Commons, on 1st December 1919...”

Tabled by Jeremy Corbyn.
That isn't actually the motion tabled by Corbyn, he's tabling an amendment that mentions Markiewicz.
 

2cents

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You're in favour of mass state planning of the economy ? So what the hell is all this about then ?



Unless you thought that Labour where promising free car washes for the many and not the few ? Also aren't you annoyed at the wastage we produced under the current system ?


:lol:

Mate I'm apparently his illegitimate son but shock horror I don't actually agree with everything Corbyn has said. Although who knew the bonding issue between @nickm and Corbyn would be Nancy Astor

Edit - Just seen you fecked up the motion mentioning Markiewicz.
That isn't actually the motion tabled by Corbyn, he's tabling an amendment that mentions Markiewicz.
My apologies. Point still stands re: statue.
 
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You're in favour of mass state planning of the economy ? So what the hell is all this about then ?



Unless you thought that Labour where promising free car washes for the many and not the few ? Also aren't you annoyed at the wastage we produced under the current system ?


:lol:
clearly I’m not in favour of “mass state planning” it was in indicative example of the fact in theory providing essentials could work.

Obviously there’s a lot of wastage, but not as much as in a communist Corbyn world. Anyway, this is all very silly and I’ve got better things to do than argue about free broadband.
 

jeff_goldblum

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To clarify @Ubik, I agree with you that Corbyn was way more toxic to voters in 2019 than in 2017. I just think that those (not necessarily you) who believe that removing Corbyn removes the most important reason why Labour did so badly in 2019 are barking up the wrong tree.
 

Ubik

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Ignoring some of the tedium and nonsense above, I highly recommend the New Statesman’s (long) profile of Starmer, which I found to be exceptionally balanced:

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/03/keir-starmer-sensible-radical

To me, I think he’s deeply moral, likeable (good to see another gooner leading the party), a pretty dull speaker, but vastly intelligent and likely to bring competence back to British politics, which has long been missed. The shadow cabinet appointments and moves to unity are a part of that - no-one controversial in a senior job, and not obviously alienating one wing of the party over another.
Yup, good article. Still a question mark over whether he has what it takes to be a leader, he could go the way of Brown in being highly competent behind the scenes only to be found wanting when front and centre, but time can only tell on that one.

To clarify @Ubik, I agree with you that Corbyn was way more toxic to voters in 2019 than in 2017. I just think that those (not necessarily you) who believe that removing Corbyn removes the most important reason why Labour did so badly in 2019 are barking up the wrong tree.
Yeah I think there are a bunch of important reasons behind it - historical decline, brexit, an unpleasant print media among them. It's also important to recognise that the extent of his unpopularity unquestionably contributed to the scale of the defeat, and that the 2017 results needs context to it, both in terms of what went right and what went wrong. Basically, removing him was necessary but nowhere near sufficient.
 

nickm

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Er.....she was vile even for her time
I wish that the first sitting woman MP was a better role model, but sadly she wasn’t. However it was a smear to label Rachel Reeeves an anti Semite because she celebrated Astor’s anniversary, given the well known nature of Astor’s symbolism for women’s rights. It is obvious what Reeves was noting.

Similarly most grown ups are able to see Churchill is a symbol of freedom for British people, even though we also know many counties (Eg India) have very different and understandable views about the man and his unacceptable racism.
 
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Kentonio

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Er.....she was vile even for her time
Oh gosh, she called a man rude who said the following about Palestine..

Churchill said:
"I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, though he may have lain there for a very long time I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race or at any rate a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place. I do not admit it. I do not think the Red Indians had any right to say the American continent belongs to us and we are not going to have any of these European settlers coming in."
Or the man who called Indians ‘A beastly people with a beastly culture’ who he also said he hated?

Yes Lady Aster was a vile witch, but if we’re historically consistent, she was a horrible person in an age of horrible people. If we follow this line of thinking, then there are no good historical figures, and they should all just be condemned. But then again in a hundred years or so we will be too, because we’ll be the ones looking like horrific barbarians by more enlightened generations that follow (hopefully).

Personally I just don’t think it’s particularly helpful. It ignores the entire circumstances under which people are raised, and the cultural norms of their times, and just passes judgement on people using standards that aren’t of their time.

If you’re going back to the 1930’s you’re going to find a lot more anti-semites than not. There was a reason the Holocaust happened and it wasn’t just because of a few German psychopaths. It was the result of centuries of Christian hatred creating a horribly common attitude of discrimination across most of Europe.
 
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berbatrick

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Oh gosh, she called a man rude who said the following about Palestine..
Or the man who called Indians ‘A beastly people with a beastly culture’ who he also said he hated?
there's disingenuous and then there's this. she didn't call churchill rude for his view that my grandmother and her sisters were inferior humans under the spell of a naked fakir, she called him rude because he opposed hitler on a geopolitical level. that's proven by everything else his post quoted.

for the thing about context and timing, etc, that is a question of how much leeway and good faith is given to people who disagree with you politically. corbyn got none from his detractors and they in turn should expect the same.
 

Sweet Square

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Oh gosh, she called a man rude who said the following about Palestine..
She called him rude because of his stance against the 1938 Munich Pact.
And when Churchill rose to condemn the Munich Pact in 1938, Lady Astor continually interrupted the speech with cries of: “Rude! Rude!”

Yes Lady Aster was a vile witch, but if we’re historically consistent, she was a horrible person in an age of horrible people. If we follow this line of thinking, then there are no good historical figures, and they should all just be condemned. But then again in a hundred years or so we will be too, because we’ll be the ones looking like horrific barbarians by more enlightened generations that follow (hopefully).
It's worth saying we are already not being historically consistent, Aster was the second woman to be elected to westminster, if we want to be consistent and not put off by the views of historical figures then it should be a statue of Countess Markievicz, right ? Interesting side note, there is a portrait of Markievicz in Westminster, which I'm guessing is something she would have absolutely hated.

The future generations with their flying toasters and their killer robot dogs will of course look at us like the unwashed peasantry that we are but Aster wasn't someone who said homophobic or racist slurs but someone who was bang into Hilter and Nazism. We are talking about someone who supported an ideology that is the pure shit stain of humanity, a death cult, one of the few things we can call pure evil and importantly it was an ideology that was opposed by millions of people all around the globe, nazism and it's supporters were not the norm. And look this isn't me ignoring the historical context(I've literally made a USSR thread on here, I get that history isn't simply black or white but a feck ton of grey) but taking seriously the views of Astor.


Personally I just don’t think it’s particularly helpful. It ignores the entire circumstances under which people are raised, and the cultural norms of their times, and just passes judgement on people using standards that aren’t of their time.
Personally I think what ignores the circumstances under which people are raised, and the cultural norms of their times is giving someone a statue without mentioning at all their political views.Her website has a bizarre section labelled fake news as it attempts to distance her from Nazism. How is any of this particularly helpful, educational to the public or anything but white washing of a nazi sympathiser ? As for passing judgement of people using the standards that aren't of their time -

Lauren Arrington, an English professor at Maynooth University, wrote an expansive dual biography on Constance and her husband Casimir, a painter, director, and playwright. Revolutionary Lives: Constance and Casimir Markievicz is set against the London, Paris, and Dublin avant-garde scenes that would burnish – and radicalise – their views about politics, art, and rebellion. Arrington traces both Markieviczs’s social and political trajectories. Casimir in his liberal imperialism joined the Russian imperial army to fight for Polish freedom in World War I; then Constance, who became increasingly involved in reinvigorated Irish nationalism. Arrington is keen to dispel the whitewashing and idealising of Astor. “We have to recognise the issues with painting Astor as a ‘woman of her time’. Markievicz – her political opposite – was also a woman of her time with radical, egalitarian politics”, she tells me.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politi...-history-constance-markievicz-first-female-mp
And finally statues aren't mandatory. No one is talking about removing Aster from the history books, that would of course be wrong but you can recognise someone and what they've achieved and not have to honour them with a statue. right ? In fact this is what we do with the vast majority of historical figures.
 
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Kentonio

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there's disingenuous and then there's this. she didn't call churchill rude for his view that my grandmother and her sisters were inferior humans under the spell of a naked fakir, she called him rude because he opposed hitler on a geopolitical level. that's proven by everything else his post quoted.

for the thing about context and timing, etc, that is a question of how much leeway and good faith is given to people who disagree with you politically. corbyn got none from his detractors and they in turn should expect the same.
No she didn’t, and I’m not defending her or her anti-Semitic filth in the slightest. But I think if you’re going to hold historical figures to account for their racism then you have to be consistent about it. Churchill was a racist bastard too. Vast swathes of the aristocracy and the governing classes were racist and anti-Semitic as hell. My issue is with this idea that Lady Aster was somehow an outlier. She wasn’t. Fascism had a large amount of support in the U.K. in the years before the war, and even the ones who weren’t pro-fascist were largely racist as all hell towards other ethnicities.

It just feels a bit hypocritical to call one person out for anti-semitism in the 30’s if we’re not going to call out others for blatant racism towards blacks and Asians. And let’s make no mistake, it wasn’t just bigotry, it was often support of policies that included genocide and ethnic cleansing.
 

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Na, we have to draw the line somewhere. Like how Sir Keir is big on human rights but was more than happy drawing his line in a place that left him room to bow and scrape in front of the jug eared befriender of sexual predators to pick up his British Empire title.
I see Operation Smearstarmer is ongoing...
Yeah he totally should have refused the title and spent his time drawing a line that facilitates laying wreaths for terrorists or inviting hamas to tea ... Clearly not worthy to succeed jezbollah
 

ThierryHenry

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Yup, good article. Still a question mark over whether he has what it takes to be a leader, he could go the way of Brown in being highly competent behind the scenes only to be found wanting when front and centre, but time can only tell on that one.
Clearly I could be wrong but I’d hope the signs are all positive there. Starmer seems almost universally liked by people who have worked with him from what I’ve heard. Who has ever actually complained about him? It also seems silly how many times I’ve heard journalists say that “he actually comes across as incredibly warm and charming” away from the cameras.

Brown on the other hand was seen as a bit of a weirdo from the early 90s on, as far as I’m aware. Not to mention 15 years of paranoia and bitter infighting caused by him and his people attacking the Blairs and theirs, a lot of which I think can be blamed on Brown’s personality defects.
 

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There’s some leeway involved when assessing the morality of people in a completely different era, but I think we can accept praising Hitler because he’ll deal with the ‘Jews’ kind of transgresses the boundary of any time, no?



I like Starmer. I genuinely do. He’s a good guy with a good moral compass and solid principles. Incomparable to Blair in my view. I would not hesitate to vote for him as things stand. But some people are in for a shock when they realise that, lo and behold, Labour’s problems are actually far more complex and deeper than simply removing Corbyn.
Imo, the divisions are now cultural and an economic argument cannot win when divisions are cultural, unless a catastrophic economic collapse occurs.
I think the Americanization of our poliics is already in full flow and our parliamentary system puts Tories at an advantage.
Labour will just have to decide what side of the cultural battle it is on, while making economic arguments.