The 2024 UK General Election - news, speculation and updates

[planetgeli]

Probably one of the best things that could happen to the British working class would be for Jeremy Corbyn to cark it.

You are one seriously fucked up cunt. Seek help.

 

[emanymton]

Well that's true. But then the likes of Jeremy ('infallible saviour of the British proletariat') are politically naive, aswell as gutless.

Don't disagree much with naive, but has anyone ever said that about him being the saviour?

 

[Pickman's model]

Don't disagree much with naive, but has anyone ever said that about him being the saviour?

gs seems quite invested in that

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Don't disagree much with naive, but has anyone ever said that about him being the saviour?

It was certainly the standard right wing attack line wasn't it. As ever I've no doubt if you poked around on Twitter for long enough you could find someone who was like that but I never saw much evidence of it tbh.

 

[GroovySunday]

For the most left wing person ever you seem to have an an odd adherence to the great man idea of history.

I have no idea what you're on about and neither am I left wing (or right wing, or a centrist).

 

[GroovySunday]

I never saw much evidence of it tbh.

I saw plenty

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

I have no idea what you're on about and neither am I left wing (or right wing, or a centrist).

Nihilists were better when they put their money where their mouths were through propaganda by deed against actual tyrants - walked the walk - nowadays they are just tedious pseudo intellectual masturbators ranting at powerless leftists

 

[Humberto]

I think the Tory strategy will basically be 'are you quite sure Starmer doesn't want to abolish property and isn't an actual demon?'.

 

[PTK]

I have no idea what you're on about and neither am I left wing (or right wing, or a centrist).

By my definition, and the definition of most people, you appear to be left-wing.

 

[Rob Ray]

Left wing is pretty vague and tbf usually implies some sort of adherence to a State ownership model of the economy. I'd not consider myself a "leftist" in the sense a lot of people mean it.

 

[hitmouse]

Perhaps one for the Starmer thread, but there's more unread stuff on there I can't be arsed to catch up on right now - was reading a slightly old Notes From Below article today, thought this seemed like a reasonable look at what the future might hold post-election:

For the workers’ movement, then, the near future looks like a series of desperate defensive battles against real wage cuts, in which we try to force the bosses to bear the costs of inflation by shrinking their profits. But without the relief of a return to growth, this fight will have to be refought every year. This looks like a setup for a period of persistent conflict. In the face of such an attritional environment, it’s likely that trade union leaders will be tempted to form a social compromise with a (likely) Starmer government in 2024, even if he has shown himself to be anything but trustworthy. But despite the best will of both parties, it’s hard to see where the room for compromise would be found. Unlike in the period of Blairism, a consistent background growth rate of 4-6% seems impossible. This means that redistribution would necessarily involve taking from one class to give to another, not just shuffling the ratio by which new wealth is distributed. The Labour Party, now purged of anyone even rhetorically committed to socialism, will not risk their ruling class connections to please trade unionists, even if those trade unionists complain loudly at Labour Party conferences. Any Labour-Union social compromise would likely be very weak, and face immediate pressure from above, and as resistance increases, below. In the face of escalating social conflict, state authoritarianism (of either blue or red flavour) is likely to increasingly limit the freedom of action afforded within the law to trade unions and social movements. It is in these circumstances, that any rank-and-file networks we build now can become critical.

They spend a while before that explaining that a return to the economic growth of the Blair years is unlikely, which... I'm not an economist, but I suppose I don't have much of a plan to fix the profitability of British capital myself?

 

[steeplejack]

Well according to this happy-clappy liberal pish it's all fine really and progressive politics is in rude health

Just get out there and vote better...

 

[PTK]

Left wing is pretty vague and tbf usually implies some sort of adherence to a State ownership model of the economy. I'd not consider myself a "leftist" in the sense a lot of people mean it.

Left-wing to me means advocating an increase in the power and welfare of the working class.

 

[Rob Ray]

That'd be Labour and much of the progressive movement excluded then

 

[nottsgirl]

I saw a party political broadcast by the Conservative Party today. It was Sunak-heavy, focussing on tax cuts.

 

[Elpenor]

Have told my local elections team I will do verification and the counts, lest I come across the local variant of brogdale at a polling station

 

[redsquirrel]

Well according to this happy-clappy liberal pish it's all fine really and progressive politics is in rude health

Just get out there and vote better...

Saw that. A wonderful argument for why 'progressive' needs to be nuked from space.

 

[mojo pixy]

Probably one of the best things that could happen to the British working class would be for Jeremy Corbyn to cark it.

Not Nigel Farage. Not Suella Braverman. Not Lee Anderson. Not the entire Murdoch family.

Jeremy Corbyn.

[slow clap]

 

[Pickman's model]

I saw plenty

Then you'll have no difficulty producing some

 

[Rimbaud]

Left wing is pretty vague and tbf usually implies some sort of adherence to a State ownership model of the economy. I'd not consider myself a "leftist" in the sense a lot of people mean it.

But you're not a rightist either, and right and left are relative terms.

 

[not a trot]

Not Nigel Farage. Not Suella Braverman. Not Lee Anderson. Not the entire Murdoch family.

Jeremy Corbyn.

[slow clap]

3 of those are MPs for working class areas.

 

[Rob Ray]

right and left are relative terms.

Are they? I thought they were terms of convenience people use to box wildly different political tendencies, which have, to a great degree, served to obscure and oversimplify a conversation which tbh should have moved on since 1789.

 

[mojo pixy]

3 of those are MPs for working class areas.

Most towns are 'working class areas' though aren't they, we live all over the bloody place. Much to the chagrin of our betters.

 

[Rimbaud]

Are they? I thought they were terms of convenience people use to box wildly different political tendencies, which have, to a great degree, served to obscure and oversimplify a conversation which tbh should have moved on since 1789.

I think it makes more sense to say you reject the terms left and right rather than to say you aren't leftist, when in most people's eyes you would be seen as left wing.

 

[Penfold01]

Well according to this happy-clappy liberal pish it's all fine really and progressive politics is in rude health

Just get out there and vote better...

Incredible stuff....

"the performance of social democratic parties has, on average, been marked by a tremendous decline across western European democracies, from a vote share of nearly 40% to below 20%"

Then...

 

[Rob Ray]

I think it makes more sense to say you reject the terms left and right rather than to say you aren't leftist, when in most people's eyes you would be seen as left wing.

In most people's eyes I would be seen as a complete kook, possibly including when I'd explained myself. Personally I don't worry overly about being labelled leftist, its too incoherent to matter until some meaning has been teased out of whoever's saying it (hence the qualifier of "in the sense a lot of people mean it"), but I also don't think leftist is a particularly useful or enlightening term, and can sympathise with people who do reject it.

 

[redsquirrel]

But you're not a rightist either, and right and left are relative terms.

And so you end up with the blancmange steeplejack linked to, where New Labour or the SPD are left.

Frankly I think the terms are not that useful anyway but if it all is relative then they are nonsense.

 

[brogdale]

May it is, then.

 

[ddraig]

Heard PCC is 2 May in Wales so probably that date for GE too, unless there are council elections
Can't do PCC on it's own again surely?!?

 

[belboid]

Heard PCC is 2 May in Wales so probably that date for GE too, unless there are council elections
Can't do PCC on it's own again surely?!?

there are locals in Sheffield, and various others in England, looks like not Wales or Scotland tho