From the U.S., Kier Starmer really does come across as a perfect example of you cannot successfully try to ape reactionary conservative politics in the long term. Labour got a single win and Starmer proceeded to drive the party into its worst polling in generations by courting the right.
Labour have always swung between centre right and centre left. The ground however is being heavily salted by the US far right. Ever since the 2016 referendum on leaving the EU.
From Scotland he comes across as a prize prick, ready and willing to hand the reins over to Farage, then disappear, letting the rest of us deal with the chaos.
At least Cameron had the decency to look embarrassed when he dumped a mess on the lap of Theresa May.
I didn't notice. I would guess only because he thought the BREXIT ref would fail. Quite pleased with himself with years of austerity imposed on a 'union' that needed lifting.
The thing is, they're not aping it – they really want to corner what they see as the innate 'centre-right' nature of British politics and think all of this will work when election day comes. It looks reckless to everyone else, but the party higher-ups are convinced they're onto a winner.
The incoherence of it has been bugging me more and more, but I think it's important for people to understand that they're not just *playing* at being right-wing; they're pot-committed ideologues, and think they'll be seen as the smarter, more competent choice for a plurality of voters regardless.
It's "Where else are you going to go?" taken to a dangerously delusional extreme. They don't believe a significant portion of the left (broadly-defined) will walk away from the party on election day, but they also believe that enough of the right will be 'pragmatic' enough to pick them over Reform.
Corbyn alienated the electorate by presenting an image of a granola hippie / reactionary 1960s communist agitator. Starmer alienated the electorate by presenting an image of "UKIP Lite". The Tories alienate the public by pushing awful, unpopular policies. Labour does it by terrible messaging.
Labour over there, the Democrats over here Have learned NOTHING
I will say this... the Union Jack is the best looking flag. At least he's got a good product to sell.
All my English friends always ask about why there are so many flags on display in the USA. They said we only put them out for the World Cup.
Labour party got a chance after Tories were in power for 14 years to do things differently, Keir Starmer has squandered political capital, good will and now the RW Reform party lead by racist Farage is polling well in certain areas.
And so depressing. The election seemed like one bright spark in last year's litany of miseries. Now it looks like a stop-gap on the way to a far-right victory.
You win and start applying the program of your opponent (who was voted out) seems like a really bad idea.
My biggest fear is that Labour doesn't get completely destroyed in the next election and Democrats think this somehow worked. Or worse, Democrats think the problem is they didn't out flank Reform hard enough.
...so if I say I love the flag the masses will come over to team Chuck?
Does he project authenticity? No. Is his behaviour congruent? No. He might as well wear a sign round his neck saying, "Don't trust me."
Labour is the party that leftists think the Democratic party is.
Remember when Keir sent people advise Kamala in august 24?
Blue Labour tell Starmer to dance and he asks them for music
This one loves flags too. Meaningless.
📌
so disappointed in him, 13 years of Tory rule finally over and this is what he does FFS
Nut case.
What’s baffling to me is that they somehow beat the right wing politicians yet their response was “let’s be more right wing”
One Neat Trick to always getting your way on policy? Just make sure you mirror the opposition so it doesn't matter who is in power.
It's a "steal their voters" model of electoral politics.
A model which has yet to be successful.
The flaw in Starmer's moronic plan is that Labour have lost far more people from the centre-left than they will ever gain from the far-right. Hence why the government's polling numbers are so dire. He is doing to the Labour party what Johnson did to the Tory party.....destroying it.
The same model has been used again and again all over Europe. It always fails and no one ever learns.
People were just fed up with the Tories after they had been in office for over a decade and run the country into the ground.
“I’m very encouraging of flags” is perhaps the dorkiest thing anyone has ever said
“How do you do fellow [reactionaries]”
It is pretty funny how transparent it is.
Our guy is cataclysmic, and the current opposition not good enough, but this is truly sad and embarassing for the UK. Imagine a democrat proudly displaying the rebel battle flag in the white house after being elected.
Notice how few if any politicians on the right are asking themselves "how do I appeal to the left?" Yet politicians on the left routinely look for ways to appeal to to the right, even the far right. Makes no sense.
Not entirely correct. Farage and reform do go on about housing and jobs, concerns of the “common person” (including left), they just blame migrants rather than the real cause, their own billionaire backers not paying enough taxes
St. George...patron saint of Palestine
Is that image is real? If it is, it's a stupefyingly pathetic attempt to get down with the knuckle draggers. Have the Russians poisoned our water? I have my own private supply and that might explain a lot.
The right smells that you’re faking it, and the left hates you for abandoning them. A strategy only a room full of consultants could devise.
I've said before that from where I sit, UK Labour is the exact thing that folks insist and pretend that US Dems are, and there's enough daylight between them as to be absurd. And I'm very much glad we haven't approached anywhere near the cravenness of Starmer.
I’ve said it before that Starmer would likely be more right wing than even David Cameron as PM and if he couldn’t move the UK himself that way he would end up making sure someone else does.
far from being an ally, when I think about Starmer it's usually in the context of hoping he falls into a well
The Lib Dems & Greens approve 😏
I mean, would the average Lib Dem or Green voter want a Reform parliament and PM in exchange for a temporary resurgence?
+1ing this, Zack Polanski is running for Green leadership in part by directly confronting the anti-asylum-seeker rhetoric, including the most incredible campaign ad I've seen on this, which I think I might've already shared in your mentions. (Leadership results tomorrow!) bsky.app/profile/zack...
I also forget Starmer was a human rights barrister—critiqued, yes, but not this far right. And then I remember. And then want to lie down...I cited a good case he was part of in my thesis, and I honestly don't think he'd back it now.
I'll take a stab at... No? Heh 🤷♂️ I try to stay optimistic and hope the Dems win the mid terms over here, but then Starmer reminds me of their likely behavior once back in power. *sigh*
Can they do a Liz Truss and find a new Prime Minister without holding new parliamentary elections?
There’s a little soul-sucker just inside the door of every executive office. It makes you forget how you got there, if you even cared to begin with.
Maybe he could get Dick Cheney to endorse him …
This should be a lesson for the Democratic Party which incessantly attempts similar tactics, but I forsee them failing to learn it.
This is exactly correct. He has an advisor Morgan McSweeney, who is a true believer in the kindof Matt Yglesias/ David Shor 'Data Optimized Pander'. Its been a near perfect test of the "Popularist" agenda, free from any political constraints. And its the most unpopular thing since records began.
Pathetic as he seems to be, as an American I’d trade Trump for Starmer in a second
He also courted the right before the election. He just won because Conservatives lost much more votes and their electoral system is even a bigger joke than yours.
It’s just so transparently fake, too? I follow British politics more than the average American but even from my non-expert external opinion the stench of inauthentic desperation is palpable.
They absolutely learned NOTHING from the US elections.
Among my other more sophisticated descriptions of it, it’s also just loser shit.
Starker is an MI5 asset, and his assigned role is to wage class war from above, like Thatcher and Blair, and ensure that Corbin, a principled man, never becomes PM.
You have hit the nail on the head.
It’s baffling.
The numbers may have been low without the cultural politics (the economy is stuck in a rut and they spent their whole honeymoon period telling everyone things sucked and not to expect anything). What's truly remarkable is not just having driven Labour's numbers down, but Reform's numbers up!
Exactly right. I spend a ton of time in the UK and it seems even worse from the inside.
It finally happened folks. Starmer just killed satire, stone-dead.
