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The New Leader of the Labour Party


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Just got back from the Q&A and...

 

Well, not much really, he played the hits, looked to cover all bases without really saying anything, talked about healing division, claimed support for Corbyn whilst looking to the future, had a pop at Boris. All in all a very 'on point', balanced, considered talk.

 

There were a few rabble rousers accusing him of betrayal and whatnot and it became a bit of a slanging match, but that's par for the course at the minute.

 

Personally I like Starmer and hope he wins the election, the rest bar Thornberry will get eaten alive at PMQ's, but he was asked an interesting question that stuck with me... 'Do you want to be PM?' and I'm not sure he's even thought of that, which he needs to. He strikes me as somebody who fell in to politics once he'd done his work in human rights, somebody who expects promotion because he's usually head and shoulders above everybody else and things come quite easy to him and that scares me.

 

He's an incredibly principled man who is fighting the good fight, but does he actually believe in the things he believed in as a student or is he on an unthinking upwards trajectory. I hope I'm wrong.

 

He said a lot without saying much in a very measured, articulate way, doesn't inspire yet...

 

 

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26 minutes ago, Bruce Spanner said:

Just got back from the Q&A and...

 

Well, not much really, he played the hits, looked to cover all bases without really saying anything, talked about healing division, claimed support for Corbyn whilst looking to the future, had a pop at Boris. All in all a very 'on point', balanced, considered talk.

 

There were a few rabble rousers accusing him of betrayal and whatnot and it became a bit of a slanging match, but that's par for the course at the minute.

 

Personally I like Starmer and hope he wins the election, the rest bar Thornberry will get eaten alive at PMQ's, but he was asked an interesting question that stuck with me... 'Do you want to be PM?' and I'm not sure he's even thought of that, which he needs to. He strikes me as somebody who fell in to politics once he'd done his work in human rights, somebody who expects promotion because he's usually head and shoulders above everybody else and things come quite easy to him and that scares me.

 

He's an incredibly principled man who is fighting the good fight, but does he actually believe in the things he believed in as a student or is he on an unthinking upwards trajectory. I hope I'm wrong.

 

He said a lot without saying much in a very measured, articulate way, doesn't inspire yet...

 

 

Nothing on Palestine? Fuck him off. 
 

(It was a joke!)

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Looking as an outsider, there's no stand out candidate for leader, Phillips is absolutely toxic for me as a socialist because she simply isn't one! Starmer is the best of a bland bunch, but some of his decisions as DPP may bite him on the arse.

 

Deputy leader is easier, Rayner by a country mile.

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Yvette Cooper article. Sounds like she’ll be considering standing next time.
 

Seven things Labour must do to win the next election

 

I’m not standing in the contest, but will be supporting the new leader to do everything to recover from December’s defeat

Labour’s leadership contest starts on Tuesday. But the scale of December’s election defeat is a challenge to all of us in the party, not just our next leader. So here are seven things the whole Labour party must now do.

 

1 Face the scale of defeat with humility

We didn’t win the argument, we lost. For the fourth time in a row. The Tory party has more power now than for a quarter of a century – power to hurt the families, communities and public services we were fighting for.

Our socialist party lost the majority of the working-class vote and fell behind in the very industrial towns that forged Labour and were hardest hit by Tory austerity. Labour values on equality, solidarity and social justice matter more than ever, and many people are crying out for a progressive government. But we couldn’t persuade people this time and unless we get our act together, we could lose even more support in future.

It wasn’t just about perceptions of Jeremy Corbyn. Or Brexit. Or scepticism about our manifesto. It was about the fact that on every one of those issues a gulf has grown between the party and the voters we lost. The next leader has to bridge that gap but they won’t stand a chance of doing so if the rest of us pretend it doesn’t exist.

 

2 Stop the factional infighting

We cannot be a narrow hard-left party. That doesn’t reflect our values or history. Nor will we win next time if we collapse into polarised factional infighting. Parties are teams. If we can’t compromise with each other, we can’t hold any coalition of voters together.

I stood against Jeremy last time – and while I agreed with him on tackling inequality and climate change, I criticised him on security and credibility. I was proud to be a minister in the last Labour government – a government that some current shadow cabinet members have strongly criticised.

As a result, whether fair or not, I recognise there are many in our party who won’t see me as the person to pull all sides of the party together following Jeremy’s departure. And rebuilding towards a Labour government is more important than any one person. So I am really grateful to everyone who urged me to stand again but this isn’t the time for me to do so. However, I’m not going anywhere – the next leader needs support and we all need to keep fighting for the Labour government our country so badly needs.

 

3 Be a party for the whole country – not just a liberal-labour party for the cities

Being a broad church isn’t just about left and centre. Through our history we’ve included Fabians, trades unionists, Methodists and Marxists, middle class and working class, city and town, young and old, liberal and communitarian.

Right now both the left and the centre wings of our party are concentrated in the cities, appealing to younger, more liberal and more middle-class voters – but drifting away from older, working class voters in towns. Brexit put that problem on steroids as leave voters in towns such as mine in Yorkshire felt neither Jeremy Corbyn nor Tony Blair were listening to them.

I’m worried too that some members from all sides of the party are criticising candidates for talking about patriotism. Of course we should be patriotic – if Labour can’t show people we love our country, we won’t ever get to be in government again.

Outgoing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in Blackpool during last year’s general election campaign.Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

 

4 Learn to love the achievements of the last Labour government

If we keep slagging off the last Labour government, why are we surprised if voters don’t want another one? On the doorstep when we pointed out Tory failures, too often people responded “yeah, but was Labour any better?” Actually yes – GP appointments within two days not two weeks, fewer kids in poverty, more police officers, more buses, fewer people sleeping on the street, more investment in our towns … I could go on.

Of course Labour’s future programme needs to be more radical and ambitious for the 2020s and not go back to 1997. Of course there are things that the last Labour government got wrong. But we also need to show how Labour can make a difference.

 

5 Be a strong and credible opposition, as well as a radical alternative government

Boris Johnson’s government has to be held to account through forensic scrutiny – and that involves all of us, not just the new leader. Opposition is hard work but it matters. At stake is our NHS, our public services, the future of manufacturing industry. Britain is leaving the EU at the end of January and our future trading relationships will be crucial. We also have to be credible as an alternative government. It isn’t enough to admit the manifesto was too crowded and wasn’t believed if we still freak out when the leadership candidates tell us we can’t have every new policy we want. Socialism is still the language of priorities.

 

6 Bring kindness and integrity back into politics

The next leader must take strong action against antisemitism and they need all our support in doing so to stop racism or prejudice corroding our soul. But all of us have a responsibility to stop the abuse on and offline. I’ve seen those on both the left and centre of our party accused by other members of being traitors. We should leave that kind of vitriol behind and stand up for something better.

 

7 Get involved

Don’t despair. The first election I campaigned in was 1992 and afterwards I feared we would never win again. But I remember John Smith saying to young activists: “As long as people like you still join and fight for our party, I know we have a future.”

We are further behind than in 1992 and face bigger challenges, not least in Scotland. But we also still have great strengths and passion, amazing activists who worked hard for every vote and believe in a better Britain. And it feels like things change faster now so who knows what we can achieve if we try. So join. Or rejoin. Be part of this.

Those who built the Labour party more than a century ago created something incredible – a party for ordinary decent people who believe we must stand together when one of us is struggling. We won’t stop fighting for social justice. When we are strong, when we are broad, we change the world. That’s what we must do again.

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Rebecca Long-Bailey article. Talk of uniting the party itself notable by its absence among talk of uniting Labour voting coalition.
 

To Win We Must Unite All of Labour’s Heartlands

 

06.01.2020

 

The election result was devastating. But with the climate crisis spiralling and the far-right on the march, we must regroup for the struggles ahead. Our task is to build a winning vision of a socialist future, and this task has never been more urgent.

 

Many candidates in the leadership election say they will not return to the triangulation and Tory-lite policies that held our party back before Jeremy. But we need a leader that can be trusted with our socialist agenda. A leader who is totally committed to the policies and has the political backbone to defend them. We need a proud socialist to lead the Labour Party, driven by their principles and an unwavering determination to see democratic socialism in our lifetime. 
 

For all of these reasons and more, I have decided to stand for election to become the next leader of our Party. I don’t just agree with the policies, I’ve spent the last four years writing them. Labour’s Green New Deal, our plans to radically democratise the economy and to renew the high streets of towns across the country are the foundations for an economic transformation that will combat the climate crisis and hand back wealth and power to ordinary people. 
 

It is true that one reason we lost the election was that Labour’s campaign lacked a coherent narrative. But this was a failure of campaign strategy, not of our socialist programme. Labour’s Green New Deal is the most ambitious agenda for tackling climate change of any major political party. And throughout the election it was tragically undersold. 
 

Not only did it provide a compelling frame for our entire economic programme, it was most popular in those deindustrialised regions where we suffered our most devastating losses: the North West, the West Midlands and the North East. The popularity of our Green New Deal bridges the divides in our electoral coalition, with huge support in the cities and marginals in the South East too. It should have been a core part of our offer: this is how Labour will help you take back control.

 

I developed these policies with every part of our movement, working with trade unions, grassroots campaigners, school climate strikers, and countless party members. I’ve held meetings around the country, ensuring that the Green New Deal and our agenda for a democratic economy has the interests of communities at its heart. This is how policy should be made – by our movement and from the bottom up – and as leader you can trust me to open up Labour’s policy process to the movement at every level. 
 

There is nothing our movement cannot achieve. I truly believe that. Already we’ve demonstrated determination and resilience the political establishment did not expect. And while it’s easy to become disheartened seeing images of Australia burning and Jakarta flooded, remember that you’re part of a courageous movement of millions of people who are ready to stake everything for a better world. 
 

Under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn we’ve drawn upon the collective knowledge and experience of that movement to develop a radical, ambitious socialist vision for the future. This is our greatest strength, and we need a leader who comes from and will stay true to that movement. 
 

But an ambitious socialist vision is only the first step. We also need to rebuild our electoral coalition and implement our vision. Labour’s path to victory lies in reuniting all our heartlands, from the communities that voted to leave in the North and Midlands, to those in Scotland who abandoned Labour in 2015 and our growing young, diverse strongholds in cities.  
 

For some, there will be a temptation to compromise on our anti-racist and internationalist principles. Let me be clear: as leader I will never throw migrants or BAME communities under the bus. Never again will our party put ‘controls on immigration’ on a mug. It would be a betrayal of our principles, and of our core supporters and activists. We must defeat Johnson and the nationalist right, never pander to them.

 

While our heartlands are diverse, there is a common cause that underlies the rejection of our party from Durham to Dundee: people across these islands are sick of the British state’s distant and undemocratic institutions. They have no trust in politicians to deliver, and have a deep desire for political as well as economic transformation. 
 

Time and again this showed on the doorstep. We struggled to marry our ambitious programme with voters’ fundamental lack of trust in politicians. We had no plan to overhaul a broken political system and voters came to see Labour as part of the problem, another bunch of politicians making promises we couldn’t keep. We’ve also, at times, been too close to the establishment we are meant to be taking on – whether cosying up to Rupert Murdoch, joining forces with David Cameron in the Better Together campaign in 2014 or turning our focus inwards on parliamentary manoeuvring for the last year. 
 

To win, we need to rebuild Labour as an insurgent force and offer a vision for a new democracy. We must go to war with the political establishment, pledging a constitutional revolution that sweeps away the House of Lords, takes big money out of politics and radically shifts power away from Westminster. My vision of a democratic, decarbonised economy alongside a new democracy that hands power and wealth back to ordinary people is one that can win. It can unite all of Labour’s heartlands, from our young, diverse strongholds in English cities to Scotland, Wales, and de-industrialised areas in the Midlands and North.

 

I haven’t rushed to announce my candidacy because I wanted to take time to reflect following the devastating results in December. I didn’t emerge from the election with a ready-made leadership campaign because my every effort during the election went into campaigning for a Labour victory. I’m not driven by personal ambition, but by my principles and an unwavering desire to change our country and our world for the better. 
 

And those principles have led me here. I’m not your typical politician. I’m not a millionaire or a landlord, and I didn’t go to a posh school. Instead I’m a lifelong socialist, dedicated to our movement and determined to do my bit. You’re as likely to see me on a picket line as you are at the dispatch box, and you can trust me to fight the establishment tooth and nail.

 

We can’t wait five years to affect change in people’s lives. We must begin organising in communities now, and resist the Tories every step of the way — in parliament, on the streets, and in our workplaces. As leader, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with you – in every campaign against Tory cuts, with every minority community and all migrants against Johnson’s hateful agenda, and with trade unions in every struggle to protect workers’ rights. 
 

We have a mountain to climb comrades, and the crises we face are stark. But we have our socialist vision, a path to victory and most importantly, we have each other. More than ever, Nye Bevan’s words ring true: “There is only one hope for humanity, and that is democratic socialism.” Our strength, determination and resilience will prevail. Together, we can do this.

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3 hours ago, Lizzie Birdsworths Wrinkled Chopper said:

Rebecca Long-Bailey article. Talk of uniting the party itself notable by its absence among talk of uniting Labour voting coalition.
 

To Win We Must Unite All of Labour’s Heartlands

 

06.01.2020

 

The election result was devastating. But with the climate crisis spiralling and the far-right on the march, we must regroup for the struggles ahead. Our task is to build a winning vision of a socialist future, and this task has never been more urgent.

 

Many candidates in the leadership election say they will not return to the triangulation and Tory-lite policies that held our party back before Jeremy. But we need a leader that can be trusted with our socialist agenda. A leader who is totally committed to the policies and has the political backbone to defend them. We need a proud socialist to lead the Labour Party, driven by their principles and an unwavering determination to see democratic socialism in our lifetime. 
 

For all of these reasons and more, I have decided to stand for election to become the next leader of our Party. I don’t just agree with the policies, I’ve spent the last four years writing them. Labour’s Green New Deal, our plans to radically democratise the economy and to renew the high streets of towns across the country are the foundations for an economic transformation that will combat the climate crisis and hand back wealth and power to ordinary people. 
 

It is true that one reason we lost the election was that Labour’s campaign lacked a coherent narrative. But this was a failure of campaign strategy, not of our socialist programme. Labour’s Green New Deal is the most ambitious agenda for tackling climate change of any major political party. And throughout the election it was tragically undersold. 
 

Not only did it provide a compelling frame for our entire economic programme, it was most popular in those deindustrialised regions where we suffered our most devastating losses: the North West, the West Midlands and the North East. The popularity of our Green New Deal bridges the divides in our electoral coalition, with huge support in the cities and marginals in the South East too. It should have been a core part of our offer: this is how Labour will help you take back control.

 

I developed these policies with every part of our movement, working with trade unions, grassroots campaigners, school climate strikers, and countless party members. I’ve held meetings around the country, ensuring that the Green New Deal and our agenda for a democratic economy has the interests of communities at its heart. This is how policy should be made – by our movement and from the bottom up – and as leader you can trust me to open up Labour’s policy process to the movement at every level. 
 

There is nothing our movement cannot achieve. I truly believe that. Already we’ve demonstrated determination and resilience the political establishment did not expect. And while it’s easy to become disheartened seeing images of Australia burning and Jakarta flooded, remember that you’re part of a courageous movement of millions of people who are ready to stake everything for a better world. 
 

Under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn we’ve drawn upon the collective knowledge and experience of that movement to develop a radical, ambitious socialist vision for the future. This is our greatest strength, and we need a leader who comes from and will stay true to that movement. 
 

But an ambitious socialist vision is only the first step. We also need to rebuild our electoral coalition and implement our vision. Labour’s path to victory lies in reuniting all our heartlands, from the communities that voted to leave in the North and Midlands, to those in Scotland who abandoned Labour in 2015 and our growing young, diverse strongholds in cities.  
 

For some, there will be a temptation to compromise on our anti-racist and internationalist principles. Let me be clear: as leader I will never throw migrants or BAME communities under the bus. Never again will our party put ‘controls on immigration’ on a mug. It would be a betrayal of our principles, and of our core supporters and activists. We must defeat Johnson and the nationalist right, never pander to them.

 

While our heartlands are diverse, there is a common cause that underlies the rejection of our party from Durham to Dundee: people across these islands are sick of the British state’s distant and undemocratic institutions. They have no trust in politicians to deliver, and have a deep desire for political as well as economic transformation. 
 

Time and again this showed on the doorstep. We struggled to marry our ambitious programme with voters’ fundamental lack of trust in politicians. We had no plan to overhaul a broken political system and voters came to see Labour as part of the problem, another bunch of politicians making promises we couldn’t keep. We’ve also, at times, been too close to the establishment we are meant to be taking on – whether cosying up to Rupert Murdoch, joining forces with David Cameron in the Better Together campaign in 2014 or turning our focus inwards on parliamentary manoeuvring for the last year. 
 

To win, we need to rebuild Labour as an insurgent force and offer a vision for a new democracy. We must go to war with the political establishment, pledging a constitutional revolution that sweeps away the House of Lords, takes big money out of politics and radically shifts power away from Westminster. My vision of a democratic, decarbonised economy alongside a new democracy that hands power and wealth back to ordinary people is one that can win. It can unite all of Labour’s heartlands, from our young, diverse strongholds in English cities to Scotland, Wales, and de-industrialised areas in the Midlands and North.

 

I haven’t rushed to announce my candidacy because I wanted to take time to reflect following the devastating results in December. I didn’t emerge from the election with a ready-made leadership campaign because my every effort during the election went into campaigning for a Labour victory. I’m not driven by personal ambition, but by my principles and an unwavering desire to change our country and our world for the better. 
 

And those principles have led me here. I’m not your typical politician. I’m not a millionaire or a landlord, and I didn’t go to a posh school. Instead I’m a lifelong socialist, dedicated to our movement and determined to do my bit. You’re as likely to see me on a picket line as you are at the dispatch box, and you can trust me to fight the establishment tooth and nail.

 

We can’t wait five years to affect change in people’s lives. We must begin organising in communities now, and resist the Tories every step of the way — in parliament, on the streets, and in our workplaces. As leader, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with you – in every campaign against Tory cuts, with every minority community and all migrants against Johnson’s hateful agenda, and with trade unions in every struggle to protect workers’ rights. 
 

We have a mountain to climb comrades, and the crises we face are stark. But we have our socialist vision, a path to victory and most importantly, we have each other. More than ever, Nye Bevan’s words ring true: “There is only one hope for humanity, and that is democratic socialism.” Our strength, determination and resilience will prevail. Together, we can do this.

Bit fighty.  Think she might have misread the mood.

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On 05/01/2020 at 11:20, Rico1304 said:

So, how are you paying for the nationalisation then?  

Depends which nationalisations, but for the most part the reinvestment of money that currently leeches out in profits and dividends; also, the savings in the social costs of picking up the pieces when people are not properly served by privatised services. 

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On 05/01/2020 at 11:11, SasaS said:

 

As I remember, there was no manifesto bounce in the polls and there is anecdotal evidence in various articles reporting activists struggling to explain the manifesto policies, due to lack of focus or priorities. For what it's worth surveys said that it was the leadership more than Brexit.  

That's pretty much my point. There's no real evidence of people understanding the manifesto and rejecting it: the problem is one of messaging. 

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1 hour ago, AngryofTuebrook said:

That's pretty much my point. There's no real evidence of people understanding the manifesto and rejecting it: the problem is one of messaging. 

The problem is, everything is "messaging" in politics, from how you eat your burger to having wonky glasses to grabbing peoples mobiles and using Latin phrases. I know I was not the target audience but the message I got from the manifesto is that Labour was so desperate to move the election "narrative" (apologies to Mook and Tony) from Brexit to social change that they lost all sense of priorities, most sense of perspective and a good slice of reality. And then they kept piling on, almost as if with every bad poll there was a new promise. That must have created a credibility problem, and various candidates now speak of the loss of voters' trust.

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If my boy Clive makes it as far as TV debates then a lot of people will swing towards him. I’m sure of it. He’s just not getting the same amount of publicity as the more prominent names. Him making it that far is a big ‘if’ though. 
 

Obviously Jess Philips is a no-no but the choice between Starmer and RLB is just so uninspiring. I think it’s pretty clear that Starmer has better leadership potential and would probably be less divisive but I’d like him to explain some of the more unsavoury things in his voting record. 

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45 minutes ago, Brownie said:

So RLB is being painted as the “Corbyn continuity candidate” in the media already. I thought that Corbyn was the issue and not the policies? If that’s true then why is she being given that label?

 

It's hardly the fault of the media that she's his preferred successor, is it. 

 

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