Pathetic lack of vision exposes Labour’s lack of substance
The absolute lack of vision, backbone and political imagination of Keir Starmer’s Labour has been exposed yet again, after some details of tomorrow’s budget were leaked to the media.
Jeremy Hunt’s budget looks set to be the usual Tory vapour and spin – but still more substantial than anything Labour has put forward, as Resolution Foundation CEO Torsten Bell noted:
Earlier in the day, Hunt’s Labour ‘shadow’, the dire Rachel Reeves, had ‘promised’ to ‘keep energy bills low’ – when any idiot knows they are nowhere near low – and was shredded by angry respondents:
Reeves has previously trumpeted Labour’s supposed ambition to freeze bills at their current level – when the current level is already ridiculous, unjustifiable and causing huge suffering to struggling families. Starmer has abandoned his promise to renationalise energy – the real, meaningful fix for that problem – along with all the other promises he made to con Labour members into voting him in as leader.
Yet again, Starmer’s desperation to please corporations and billionaires is costing ordinary people dear – and yet again, his sheer political cowardice and idiocy is gifting the Tories an easy opportunity to ‘outflank him on the left’. Neither compassionate, nor competent – Labour under Starmer is an empty shell.
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It would be naive stupidity for Labour to lay out all their plans at this stage of the election cycle.
You don’t know shit from shinola, lad.
Pledge is what you use to polish those turds.
Mr Toffee…..Starmer and his mates like Pledges. But they never keep them for long, do they?
They barely even get to the full stop before they’re ditched, baz.
As an aside, an interesting write-up on fatboy Evans and his PR firm in the latest issue of “eye” (p14).
Where the moolah gone, Fatboy? 😙🎵
(Can’t publish photos on here for some reason otherwise I’d have done so. Won’t even post YouTube videos or GIFs for me, only allows me to post the links 😕)
It’s folly to NOT show they have a workable, systemic alternative. Lower bills and free breakfasts for selected kids tells us Kieor Starmer is committed to the system that causes extreme income inequality and globalism. He’s an Establishment stooge who’s leadership neuters Labour
He won’t get my vote.
Neither would Starmer get mine. I am not going to go as far as voting Tory but, Green is a suitable alternative.
@Maria
They’ve just backed NATO so their green credentials ain’t all that. They’re just lib Dems into recycling. Equally untrustworthy. Look at Germany
NVLA, thank you for the update on the Green, it looks that at this rate the best option is to abstain from voting. Unless of course you are in a position to vote for a Labour MP or independent with principles.
Perhaps, I should consider renting in Leicester just before the GE to have an opportunity to vote for Claudia Webbe.
This superb article by US economist Paul Craig Roberts gets to much of the background to what has been going on in the world since 2020 resulting in the “cost of living crisis ” – which began in late 2021 some 6 months before Putin invaded Ukraine – and warns of a crisis like 2007-8 or even worse:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/03/13/banking-troubles-on-the-horizon/
Many links in the article to further explanation.
This is in addition to Costas Lapavitsas et al’s new book “The Cost of Living Crisis ( and how to get out of it)” which is @ a fiver with free ebook from Verso.
Thanks for the link Brian.
Reply to Maria. Do you think that the SS will allow Claudia to stand. We are talking about a heartless brutal organisation. I don’t think that anything thing is beyond them: horse heads, fishes.
There is absolutely nothing preventing Claudia from standing at the next General Election, whether many will vote for her or not is an entirely different matter.
A crisis which is systemic and which will require radical structural remedies to resolve rather than tinkering around the edges leaving the same unworkable and unfit for purpose structures and process producing that crisis in place.
A tinkering which is all the present Labour Party leadership are offering as the loyal second eleven. Stretching the concept of “credible” not only beyond credulity but also parody.
As this article from Michael Hudson in yesterdays Counterpunch on the breaking banking contagion outlines.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/03/15/why-the-bank-crisis-isnt-over/
An article which contains probably the scariest graphic currently doing the rounds.
Recalling how bad things were in the aftermath of what has been dubbed “The Great Financial Crash” of 2007/08 and looking at the far left hand column of that chart (2008-09) comparing it with the far right hand side (2022) the only words which do the situation justice are those attributed to Captain Blackadder:
“It rhymes with clucking bell!”
Elsewhere – link provided below in separate post – Michael Roberts, writing about the SVB collapse and the wider banking crisis arising from it, highlights the double standards in play – which the so called “credible alternative” of Starmer’s Labour being touted studiously avoids tackling:
“The irony here is that those demanding bailouts now are the very venture capitalists who usually stand firmly for the ‘free market and no government intervention’. Another bailout supporter is one Sacks, a longtime associate of investor Peter Thiel, who fervently believes in ‘free markets’ and in ‘capitalism’. But it was Thiel’s Founders Fund that helped kick off the bank run that sank SVB in the first place.”
Concluding with a structural analysis of the consequences of politicians of all political party’s in the West not tackling these issues:
“But times have changed. It has become increasingly difficult for the strategists of capital: the monetary authorities and governments to consider liquidation. Instead ‘moral hazard’ is only option to avoid a major slump and political disaster for incumbent governments. But bailouts and a new wound of liquidity injections would not only completely reverse the vain attempts of the monetary authorities to control still high inflation rates. It also means the continuation of low profitability, low investment and productivity growth in economies unable to escape from their zombie state. Just more long depression.”
Let that sink in for those pushing, from a safe haven far away, the substance free narrative that what is offer is any kind of “credible” alternative: “the continuation of low profitability, low investment and productivity growth in economies unable to escape from their zombie state. Just more long depression.”
Link to Micheal Roberts article referenced above:
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2023/03/15/moral-hazard-or-creative-destruction/
Which also contains this pertinent observation which is not on offer from any political party in the UK/West because unlike some official enemies in the West the State is a servant of corporate capital rather than its master:
“Nobody has anything to say for public ownership of the banks; nothing about making banking a public service and not a vast sector of reckless speculation for profit. SVB collapsed because its owners bet on rising government bond prices and low interest rates to boost their profits. But it went pear-shaped and now other bank customers will pay for this in increased fees and losses for the Federal Reserve – and there will lees funding of productive investment to pay for yet another banking mess.”
Reply to Steve H
Wouldn’t matter what Starmer said – He wouldn’t stick to it anyway – his word is worth nothing
SteveH, it would be idiotic for any party to presume what the world will be like come the next GE. The global changes occur daily. Who could have foretold the Chinese diplomatic success 🙌 in the M.E? Arabs and Persions coming to a settlement. No-one knows what the future holds regarding oil prices next week. Countries are queuing up to join BRICS. So yes. Best to keep mum.
Alex, I don’t believe for a second that Starmer is going to allow Claudia Webbe to stand in Leicester. I am hoping that she would stand as an independent.
I don’t live far away, so it is a question of renting a room in her CLP, register to vote, help her canvassing and voting for her.
So to sum up steveH’s position and argument;
Labour under its current leadership offers a credible alternative because I, steveH, says so, but no one is allowed to know how that claimed credible alternative will actually work.*
Glad we’ve got that sorted as everyone with a working brain cell alternates between a yawn at the sheer predictability of yet another example of this contradictory ‘I believe in magic’ argument and a guffaw at the naivety on display.
*Because the relevant criteria (which the resident troll does not want to understand or accept) is whether something will work or not – does/will it do what it says on the tin. Not whether it is arguably a minor improvement of what the Blue side of the Uniparty are offering.
Dave – Come back and tell us all about it when you’ve got a tin to write on.
The “naive stupidity” of setting out one’s plans in advance only holds true on the basis that one keeps to one’s word: Starmer’s pledges have the lifespan of a mayfly. The windfall tax, deployed as if it were a blade that might scythe through the many disparities that hamper the country is a blunt, ineffectual instrument that serves as a suitable metaphor for a neutered, complicit opposition. To get your hands on levers that transform energy nationalisation is a key first step.
Raskolnikov does gloss the second of Reeves’ three points – ending non-dom status – and it is a significant one both if it constituted part of a larger move to require high net worth individuals and multinationals to pay taxes in full and if there were people in Labour one had confidence in delivering such an outcome but Ashworth’s risible, indeed inexcusable ignorance is indicative of the whole. We are treated with such contempt that Labour offer up either automatons like Reeves who can be relied upon to trot out meaningless three-word mantras such as “pensions in peril”and “sticking-plaster politics” or dolts like Ashworth who appears to have been awakened from hibernation before the rejeuvenating spring of Labour had arrived.
Kick out the Tories
Keep out Labour
The real problems that the country faces call out for socialist policies, and they require explanation as specific solutions to the socio economic chaos after decades of Neo-liberal attacks on the working class.
This isn’t about ‘election cycles’ and other idiocy. It is about repairing a society after generations of ‘occupation’ by the agents of a malignant philosophy draining the country of its capital, its infrastructure and its inheritance.
Starmer’s policies have no end in view except the enrichment of the tiny caste of careerists surrounding him and sustaining him. Like his friend Biden he has promised the ruling class that “nothing will change” at least not for the better.
Socialists have no excuse for not leaving the Party and organizing to mobilize the great majority of the population in self-defence. The essential political task is to explain to the electorate that the Labour Party no longer deserves the automatic support of the poor and disinherited majority: it is, in fact, what it has long appeared to be, the other cheek of the arse that the arrogant rich shove in the people’s faces.
In a word: it is of cardinal importance that socialists explain what they will do, given power, why they will do it and how any advance towards real social and economic justice will require conscious and vigilant popular support.
As the 2019 election showed the days of ‘red walls’ are over. And that is a good thing. The days of Humpty Dumpty ‘election cycles’ are, mercifully, over too. We live in an age in which the choice between socialism and barbarism can no longer be postponed.
bevin – “Starmer’s policies have no end in view except the enrichment of the tiny caste of careerists surrounding him and sustaining him. “
So which of Labour’s current policies fulfil the criteria you have given?
Labour’s got more Missionary positions than the Kama Sutra…..
Labour will do this and do that…blah blah blah.
baz2001 – That’s a bit rich coming from someone who has absolutely nothing tangible to offer the electorate.
“naive stupidity”? – I guess that this is the theory of “keeping your powder dry”.
Maybe people should consider the theory that there is nom powder.
For “nom” read “no”.
We know what you meant, Goldie. More popcorn, please…
https://media.tenor.com/NVLc6Zhu7b8AAAAM/nom-nom-nom-eating.gif
Popcorn?
Don’t think so. Have you not heard there’s a supply shortage because its all gone up to Scotland:
https://wingsoverscotland.com/rogue-trooper/
goldbach – Where does that leave ‘the left’, what is your tangible and/or credible offer.
Meanwhile, I think that we have a little inconsistency here.
I have read that UK and German fighter jets have “intercepted” a Russian “military” fuel transport plane in international airspace on the way from St Petersburg to Kaliningrad, and a Russian passenger plane of unreported origin or destination, also in international airspace over the Baltic. These actions are presented by the BBC as being perfectly acceptable.
In another report they present the interference (probably electronic though they claim that it was a dumping of aviation fuel) with a US drone over the Black Sea, which caused the drone to crash, as “provocation”.
Either both actions are provocation or both are perfectly acceptable.
The Russians have been waiting a long time to get their hands on one of them. Re-engineering will be happening soon. It’s a good 👍 win for Russians. All the propaganda in the West cannot change that. Technically it was an act of war by the Gringo war machine.
Re-engineered from what, the silicon chips they use in washing machines. That’s of course always providing there is anything left that is worthwhile recovering, which I doubt.
The BBC’s war reporting needs a linekar “moment”, but of course it won’t happen. This is how propaganda works. Misinformation enables outright Lies.
You’re right there qwertboi.
The BBC should be renamed – THE NATO BROADCASTING CORPORATION.
There is only one narrative permitted.
It was interesting to read a link to the Washington Post the other day.
The Wa-Po is very much the voice of the American establishment.
Their reporting was still a bit propagandist, but they at least presented both sides of the argument.
See Washington Post article
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/13/ukraine-casualties-pessimism-ammunition-shortage/
Remember – NATO is the military arm of American foreign policy in Europe.
Starmer is a member of the Trilateral Commission – The political arm of American foreign policy for running the World Order.
Starmer is America’s fifth-columnist in the Labour Party.
Is Healy dead?
Starmer’s Labour = Washington Generals
(The Geherals is the basketball team always playing against the Harlem Globetrotters)
The connection between the trilateral commission and NATO (and America’s uni-polarism) is the one fact that would open the current membership’s eyes about how dangerous Keior Starmer’s leadership of Labour is.
Kier Starmer is a fraud and his position as leader of the UK Labour Party is ridiculous.
His political allegiances are clearly elsewhere – The USofA and the zionist state of Israel.
Anyone who believes that he has the interests of working people at heart is clearly deluded.
Have you forgotten that droves of the working class made their opinion of Corbyn very clear at the last General Election by voting for the Conservative Party.
Of course, one outcome of the conflict in Ukraine is that most of the world seems to be waking up, and is becoming confident in challenging the twaddle that is pumped out.
Here’s the President of Namibia taking no nonsense from a senior German politician.
Goldbach. Head honcho of the Christian Deoncrats. Merkel old hunting ground; might as well be a MAGA.
One of two recent and similar events captured on video – the other one being Macron also getting his arse handed to him by Félix Tshisekedi, the head of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formally Zaire), – discussed by the Duran Duo here:
https://www.rokfin.com/post/127795/African-leaders-collective-west-is-not-the-only-game-in-town
The video made me smile.
The “Global South” is certainly waking up to a clearer understanding of who are their friends and who has been screwing them over for years.
Bitcoin will replace yankee dollar as no one trusts America now they have weaponised financial system
Lesson for this country and EU is dont be caught on the wrong side of history
Bipolar world based on trade not war
No left or right just right or wrong
Questions unanswered………how much is the war in Ukraine costing the British taxpayer and why are energy prices so high? Profits are multiplying for energy companies who sell on the international spot market and not directly to Britain Why not? If the chancellor wants to re-finance the British economy he could introduce a transaction tax on the City of London (in conjunction with EU & USA) and put money into the pockets of the poor majority to kick-start the economy. Serving the people is not on their agenda.
Wasn’t it fear of an EU transaction tax and increased banking and ownership transparency the real reason why the Tories promoted Brexit.
The problem with bitcoin is that few understand it and no one trusts it either.
De-Dollarisation is coming.
China is seriously looking to develop an alternative digital reserve currency via the SCO and its increasing number of supporters.
Russia, China, India, and countries like Saudi Arabia + Iran are increasing developing an alliance to rival/replace USA’s hegemony.
The irony is that America’s proxy war on Russia is hastening this process.
Saudi Bank was the main backer of Credit Suisse.
Saudi pulled out and refused to support CS.
Switzerland has given its support to the USA’s war.
Could the two factors be related ?
Just asking !
China recently facilitated an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
China seeks to build friendship and alliances.
USA spreads war and death.
Ukraine has been ruthlessly used as USA’s proxy against Russia and is economically and militarily devastated.
If I was the “last Ukrainian”, I would be pretty-damned-angry …… and it wouldn’t be with Russia.
Steve101704 asks how much is the USA’s way costing UK taxpayers.
How much is it costing all European countries.
What is the matter with politicians in UK and all NATO countries ?
They are seeing their economies ruined for America’s way.
None of them dare stand up to USA.
Germany, in particular, knows that its industrial success has been largely built on the availability of cheap Russian gas.
It knows that America blew up the Nordstream gas pipelines.
Scholz daren’t open his mouth.
Who loses ? Who benefits ?
What does the BBC tell us ?
Sweet FA.
Or just maybe most people are horrified by the corrupt Putin’s imperialist ambitions and draw the line at supporting or capitulating to a war criminal like Putin who is responsible for abducting and illegally trafficked 10s of 1,000s of Ukrainian children.
Spelling Correction :
Steve101704 asks how much is the USA’s WAR costing UK taxpayers
bevin – “In a word: it is of cardinal importance that socialists explain what they will do, given power, why they will do it and how any advance towards real social and economic justice will require conscious and vigilant popular support “
Yes, it was a disappointment that Corbyn and his team made zero effort to consolidate and build on their partial success in the 17GE and instead chose to hide behind ‘constructive ambiguity’ for month after bloody month. Jeremy prevaricated for so long that by the time they’d done fence sitting it was too late and as we all witnessed in the 19GE neither side trusted them.
As things currently stand you don’t have a party, a leader or a policy platform (do you have any updates on this?). Is it any wonder that your polling is currently languishing as a small unnamed fraction of the 2% labelled ‘Other’. Hardly anybody knows who you are or what you stand for.
Unfortunately for you, you and your comrades are a bit lacking in the ‘popular support’ department so it is less than clear how you are going to make your call for “[conscientious] and vigilant popular support” work if you ever actually get around to having something tangible to offer the electorate.