Rishi Sunakās Conservatives on Friday suffered two crushing UK parliamentary by-election defeats but averted a ā3-0ā drubbing by unexpectedly holding on to Boris Johnsonās old Uxbridge seat.
The grave problems facing the British prime minister were highlighted when the opposition Labour party secured its biggest-ever by-election win in the once-safe Tory seat of Selby and Ainsty in Yorkshire.
Earlier the centrist Liberal Democrats demolished a massive Tory majority to win the seat of Somerton and Frome, opening up a dangerous new front for Sunak in the Tory heartlands of Englandās South West.
I didnāt say Labour was perfect, I said they made things better. And they did. For example, they didnāt spend enough on building new housing, itās true, but they did massively improve the remaining council housing stock. You canāt expect them to fix everything and itās quite safe to blame the Tories for the continued failure: they paused or scrapped a lot of new council building belatedly started by Labour, for example.
Labourās current pledge to reform planning rules to allow more housebuilding (and actually more building generally, including onshore wind) will go some way to fixing that problem. If those reforms are effective, theyāll lead to greater economic growth and Labour will then be able to spend and invest more in other areas. Thatās the plan.
None of that will happen if they donāt get elected. Thatās the bit youāre calling āpanderingā and Iām calling āmedia managementā. Allowing yourself to get distracted by the marketing, which Iām afraid is what youāre doing, instead of the substance, is a mistake.
I donāt but I do expect them to grapple the big issues, like our broken electoral system (and the media and itās ownership for that matter) and climate change, Iād like them to actually redistribute all the wealth in this country i.e take it off the billionaires and aristocrats and companies that are hoarding wealth.
It wonāt, it is faffing about at the edges, we need to stop anybody who isnāt resident here owning property and we need taxes on multiple ownership as well as a mass social house building program.
I know, and I personally think is cowardly as fuck.
Make your case and bring people with you is the way to actually gain support, all he is doing is playing the same old FPTP game. With no intention of reforming it.
I know I know perfect enemy of good and whatever, but I think heās shite, Iām very disappointed.
None of what youāre saying makes the slightest sense. Youāre advocating for a bunch of policies proposed by no parties and with no popular support and then saying youāre going to vote Lib Dem? Itās totally incoherent. You started out complaining about Tory voters voting Tory. How will you persuade those Tory voters to vote for your dystopian daydream?
The party that comes closest to what you say you want is Labour. The cowardly thing for them to do would be to pretend that everythingās just great, that we can all just cross our fingers and wish the Tories away. Theyāre actually out there trying to win the votes they need to make things better.
How doesnāt it make sense, those are policies I would like to see, that a lot of voters would like to see actually.
Yeah no shit mate, thatās exactly the problem.
So what? Iāve voted LD in the past because they have had more progressive policy and they support PR voting reform unlike Labour they actually implement as policy objectives the things their members vote for, unlike Keir who just ignores his party on issues like PR. Yeah Daveys not inspiring, but neither is Keith.
No it isnāt, I just laid out for you the kind of policy I want and Labour are a million miles away in Tory land.
Isnāt that exactly what heās doing? Crossing his fingers and having power handed to him by default because the Tories are hated and the voting system is shit? Thatās what it seems like to me.
They are trying to won votes, but HOW are they going to make things better? Are they going to do anything about those major issues I mentioned?
Because all Iāve heard from fucking Keith is Tory talking points about growth and tough on crime and it makes me want to fucking vomit.
You know if he said he was going to be tough on Tory criminals and criminal wealth hoarders like the Royal familyā¦ I could get on board with that, but we all know what that shit is about itāll be āanti social behaviourā and cracking down on poor people smoking weed and shit.
Edit :
Also, I know this is youtube comments but I just came across this, just take a look at the comments under Starmers interview here itās remarkable how similar in general they are to what I am saying and thereās LOADS of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcPqLVUQn4c
As I have already explained, Labourās plan is to raise taxes on the rich (through abolishing non-dom status and VAT exemption for private schools) and to invest that money in building green infrastructure and housing, while reforming planning to make that happen. Starmer says this stuff all the time but youāve instead opted to get your news from YouTube comments.
As for the Lib Dems, doing what their members ask, I have two words: tuiton fees.
Itās not nearly enough none of that actually fixes anything itās again just faffing at the edges and I donāt believe he wonāt u-turn the second the Daily Heil throws a headline at him.
What you need to realise is that thereās a growing number of people feel the same, we are sick of this shit.
Yeah, a fucking Labour policy in the first place.
Youāve obviously decided to vote Lib Dem regardless of reality, so Iām not sure thereās any point continuing this discussion.
What weāve established is that the Lib Dems and Labour have the same vices, as enumerated by you, but that Labour have the policies closest to your own. If you think thatās a reason to vote Lib Dem, I guess thatās your right. As for me, Iām going to vote for the party most likely to do the kinds of things that we both want: Labour.
I havenāt decided anything yet, thereās a long time until the election.
Maybe Keith will be toppled and Ed Miliband will come in and start saying things I like, and then Iāll change my mind.
Well I have listened to your points, I did some research on the ULEZ thing and I just donāt think thatās the reason they lost this by-election. the current state of things Labour should be walking that and I donāt believe ULEZ explains it, most people wonāt have to pay anything for ULEZ itās a total non issue.
I mean, they support PR donāt they?
They always have and theyāve never played politics with the issue, same for the SNP. Iād vote for that even if I didnāt like their other policies.
If I thought they were going to do the things I think we agree need doing, then I would agree, but I donāt trust them and I definitely donāt trust Keith.
I should say, I quite liked what he had to say about Brexit and things before he became leader and in fact he was my prefered choice for leader (not that I get a vote as I am not a member of any party and I wouldnāt last 5 mins in Labour with all their rules anyway) , I am judging him based on what Iāve seen.
The trouble is, there is no party that really is offering the radical change we needed 20 years ago. At least voting for a PR party we can maybe get that done and maybe in 5 - 10 more years we can start getting some actual good policy.
Iād be quite interested to know why it is you have as much faith in Starmer as you do?