In short, if Starmer's Labour Party had set out to destroy its chances of re-election, and roll out the red carpet for Reform, it could not have done a better job.
Replies
It's so embarrassing watching them twitch and flail around, stepping on every rake and scoring every own-goal. Truly cringe-inducing stuff. bsky.app/profile/glen...
sep 2, 2025, 9:30 am • 1 0 • view
‘Fraid that’s absolutely true.
sep 3, 2025, 8:30 pm • 0 0 • view
Sad, but true. Winter fuel allowance NI contributions for employers Benefits, PIP All these started the decline of support for Labour. Fromage and Reform “cleverly” jumping on people’s genuine concerns re their concerns of migrants being placed in hotels. This has clobbered them.
sep 2, 2025, 6:14 am • 2 0 • view
The other thing is that people mostly didn’t care about the issue until Farage started spouting off about it and pretending it was some huge existential crisis to the very fabric of the country.
sep 2, 2025, 7:43 am • 1 0 • view
It used to be the EU. Now it’s immigrants. Next it’ll be “the queers”. And it won’t stop, because he needs someone to be angry about for his brand of politics to work.
sep 2, 2025, 7:43 am • 1 0 • view
Always got to have scapegoats.
sep 2, 2025, 8:20 am • 0 0 • view
I voted Labour in 2024 and I've regretted that decision almost every day since. The government we got is far from what I imagined. The bar was low: don't be as shit as the Tories were; yet they've barely managed to keep above it.
sep 2, 2025, 7:17 am • 3 0 • view
The great problem is… who else? The idea that Reform would be able to do better is frankly laughable, and FPTP means that if you vote for anyone else you just increase the chances of someone you dislike even more winning the seat.
sep 2, 2025, 7:38 am • 1 0 • view
Oh there isn't a chance in hell I'd vote for Reform. But I am not voting Labour next time around unless there really is no option. But there are options there and if sufficient numbers realise it too, then FPTP doesn't have to be the electoral prison it currently is.
sep 2, 2025, 7:41 am • 1 0 • view
I’d much rather not have to vote tactically, and be able to vote for the people I actually want without worrying about splitting the vote. And for that we need electoral reform and some variant of PR.
sep 2, 2025, 7:44 am • 2 0 • view
People always say "what if we have PR and Reform gets a majority?" but they never ask "what if we don't switch to PR and they get a majority?" which is a worse scenario in my opinion, and somewhat likely too. At least in the former it's more likely a coalition can be formed to stop them
sep 2, 2025, 8:01 am • 2 0 • view
Also if we switch to PR and Reform get a majority then it’s clear they genuinely have widespread support and should be treated as such. Basing electoral systems on how likely they are to stop a popular party gaining power isn’t a sane position for anyone to hold.
sep 2, 2025, 8:04 am • 0 0 • view
That's the entire basis for the Scottish electoral system; and it didn't work.
sep 2, 2025, 8:05 am • 0 0 • view
With the added bonus that if they get seats but not a majority it becomes painfully obvious how much they suck at the job.
sep 2, 2025, 8:05 am • 0 0 • view
If Labour want to put the brakes on Reform they need to implement electoral reform. Something like STV would be preferable, so people can rank candidates to express opinions like “I’d prefer Lib Dem, failing that Green, and if not then Labour, but I’ll see a Tory in the seat before Reform”.
sep 2, 2025, 7:39 am • 0 0 • view
Me too, I am very much a fan of electoral reform and think it is badly needed.
sep 2, 2025, 7:44 am • 2 0 • view
And destroy the Labour Party.
sep 2, 2025, 6:50 pm • 0 0 • view
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social I don't think, at this point, that it's unreasonable to suspect that's exactly what they're trying to do. Some of us haven't forgotten how the Labour right were overjoyed to *lose* in 2019.
sep 2, 2025, 6:21 am • 8 1 • view
They were so disappointed in 2017 when the results started to come in. Not the wipe out they had worked for (they did), Corbyn almost wiped out May's majority so she had to bung the DUP. There's a video somewhere with their disappointment on show.
sep 2, 2025, 9:32 am • 3 0 • view
There's also the WhatsApp transcripts from the leaked reports. To the tune of 'we worked so hard for nothing, stiff upper lip we need to put a good face on and at least the shorting money will be good' to paraphrase it all.
sep 2, 2025, 9:43 am • 2 0 • view
Secretly diverting money to a shadow camaign, diverting funds to seats with big majorities. Unite asked the questions and submitted it to the Forde inquiry, those questions were never answered.
sep 2, 2025, 9:49 am • 2 0 • view
Hoping the @greenparty.org.uk and @libdems.org.uk fill the void left by @teamlabouruk.bsky.social who are now electoral toast Tactical voting 🗳️ to stop Fartrage here we come ✊🏼 @eddavey.libdems.org.uk @zackpolanski.bsky.social @carladenyer.bsky.social @libdemdaisy.bsky.social @josiah.writes.news
sep 2, 2025, 6:13 am • 0 0 • view
One feels Starmer will have a lucrative post-premiership career at the American Enterprise Institute, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and as an oil and gas lobbyist Wasn't much of a Corbyn fan but how could Labour be so unimaginably worse than that
sep 2, 2025, 6:19 am • 2 0 • view
Why the "if" in this sentence? It seems pretty obvious to me that that's exactly what he set out to do.
sep 2, 2025, 6:41 am • 0 0 • view
😢
sep 2, 2025, 6:13 am • 0 0 • view
The thread on one page: skywriter.blue/pages/did:pl...
sep 2, 2025, 6:05 am • 97 20 • view
As in Germany the coalition of CDU & SPD (before the election even some Greens) - or in US many Democrats (there are many more similar examples in Europe, all around the world & in my country, Switzerland). Why do they repeatedly not understand?
sep 2, 2025, 7:01 am • 1 0 • view
It's naive to place trust in Starmer and his inner circle. He's a conservative cuckoo in the nest, who conspired with others to take over the Labour Party. Corbyn was their biggest coup. Kangaroo courts expelled party workers on fake charges of racism / anti-Semitism, leaving a rump of sycophants
sep 2, 2025, 6:19 am • 6 1 • view
Maybe it is just as simple to assume that if it quacks like a duck the chances are it is in fact a duck, maybe facism is the intention of Starmers handlers
sep 2, 2025, 8:50 am • 1 0 • view
Bookmarked this thread for any time I encounter a Gavin Newsom stan on bsky.
sep 2, 2025, 11:57 am • 0 0 • view
If only we put as much effort into dealing with child poverty as we do arguing about small boats then we would be a long way towards eradicating child poverty. All this small boat stuff is a distraction from dealing with the real issues we face.
sep 2, 2025, 7:05 am • 9 0 • view
You can't help but conclude that it's all by design. The alternative is that we're governed by people with zero political nuance, strategy or common sense. And as it keeps repeating itself here and across the world it would appear a strategy not a mistake.
sep 2, 2025, 8:22 am • 2 0 • view
I can't think of a better term for it than suicide politics. It's not just the humiliation of its own voters, it's the gifting of awareness and credibility to its enemy for free. How much easier could they make it? And what's the next nail in its own coffin move? A snap election right now?
sep 2, 2025, 6:18 am • 59 7 • view
It is. People give me grief for my handle, but this neoliberal nihilism leads nowhere but collapse, and honestly, I just hope it goes before it takes us all with it.
sep 2, 2025, 6:44 am • 21 2 • view
It won't go of its own accord, that's for sure.
sep 2, 2025, 1:43 pm • 2 0 • view
Even when it collapses in on itself, the self-interested interests keep inventing inequitable ways to prop it up like it's still alive. Long deceased, by any other measure. So it does seem that an intervention is required to lop off the fabricated extension strategies.
sep 2, 2025, 5:53 pm • 2 0 • view
Its like Hydra, you cut off one head, and several grow in its stead.
sep 2, 2025, 8:00 pm • 2 0 • view
That's a good analogy, Monika. More sensibly, though, the Hydra rarely lopped its own head off.
sep 2, 2025, 8:15 pm • 2 0 • view
The only hope I can find in the world at the moment is that the US might destroy itself before it destroys everyone else.
sep 2, 2025, 7:24 am • 3 0 • view
Me too. I think Balkanisation/secession is one of our only hopes.
sep 2, 2025, 7:49 am • 4 0 • view
Is Obi-Wan Kenobi one of our other hopes? Sorry about these silly films references, I don't know what's wrong with me this morning.
sep 2, 2025, 7:57 am • 4 0 • view
I still haven't been insulted in person yet by Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, so we're still OK for a bit. How about that for a niche reference? (Thanks to Sean for the reminder on the name a couple of moments ago.)
sep 2, 2025, 7:54 am • 3 0 • view
Neoliberal nihilism is a cracking term. It is indeed self defeating and will inevitably bring itself down under its own weight of greed, exploitation & debt. What I still strive for is whatever we can do to sustain our shared biosphere and its natural systems long enough to outlast its destruction.
sep 2, 2025, 6:56 am • 23 3 • view
They realise this, which is why they wish to replace it with corporate fascism.
sep 2, 2025, 9:48 am • 5 0 • view
I occasionally get the sense that they'd concrete over it all if they could.
sep 2, 2025, 9:51 am • 5 0 • view
I think of it more as McSweeney's party. Starmer clearly enjoys doing the lawyerly international stuff but has little interest in UK politics, or saving the economy. To be fair this is exactly why McSweeney selected Starmer for his project. Wake up Labour - you are making it too easy for Farage!
sep 2, 2025, 6:25 am • 2 0 • view