Governing is hard but Corbyn rightly never even got to that stage, and never wanted to. He failed twice, anyone who can possibly think that the third time will be a charm is delulu
Replies
It's upsetting watching the UK centrists fall into the same trap as our American centrists. Attacking the left and trying to appeal to the right is how we ended up with another term of Trump.
aug 22, 2025, 12:01 pm • 1 0 • view
Not really. Failing to make Biden see sense and not seek a second term was a far bigger issue.
aug 22, 2025, 5:05 pm • 1 0 • view
They did it in 2016 too. They've tried to do it now, near where I live, with the New York City mayor's race. Maybe I'm just projecting because of how supremely weak the Democrats are... but the center-left party attacking their own left flank has been a political disaster over here.
aug 22, 2025, 10:40 pm • 1 0 • view
Bernie Sanders lost two Democratic primaries on the trot, just like Corbyn lost two GEs. There are reasons for that which aren’t all to do with the centre left
aug 22, 2025, 10:49 pm • 0 0 • view
Literally my thoughts- no self reflection whatsoever but will blame everyone else but themselves when they get a fascistic government. And then will subsequently persist making the same mistakes.
aug 22, 2025, 12:17 pm • 0 0 • view
I mean take the Ukrainian flag in your bio for instance - Corbyn says he just wants to “stop war” and like Farage echoes Russian rhetoric. In that context it’s clear who the best available PM was at the election and is now
aug 22, 2025, 12:39 pm • 0 0 • view
But what we do know, as it’s been tried twice before and tested to destruction, is that Corbyn is simply never going to command the necessary voter coalition to form a gov under FPTP. Ergo everybody is responsible for voting to stop certain chaos - they won’t be able to say they weren’t warned
aug 22, 2025, 12:34 pm • 0 0 • view
Is it though? I agree the proposed welfare reforms didn’t meet the socially democratic nature of the moment, but there’s no getting around that the universal WFA was a joke and fundamentally more people need to be in work. Similarly it’s hardly Starmer’s fault that Trump and Netanyahu are in power
aug 22, 2025, 12:30 pm • 0 0 • view
Labour has its seats in large part because Reform split the vote with Tories. Ever since those results came in, I've predicated that Tories would radicalize and/or Reform would get bigger, while the wimpy centrist policies of Starmer's Labour would lead to defeat in the next election.
aug 22, 2025, 12:56 pm • 1 0 • view
The problem is this is all premised on the idea that the voting public would love the left if only they gave it a chance. They won’t, so in the alternative someone has to get on with making the best of things
aug 22, 2025, 1:07 pm • 0 0 • view
Between the Tories + Reform appealing to the right because that's their base, and Labour appealing to the right in the name of "unity" or electoral strategy, there are vanishingly few parties that appeal to the left. I suppose we'll see if my prediction comes true.
aug 22, 2025, 10:35 pm • 0 0 • view
It’s what the centre left needs to do to win a under the FPTP system in the UK. This isn’t news. And Labour needs time to fix the fundamental issue of, all at once, broken public finances & public services, high borrowing costs and low growth. The left don’t have any good answers to that challenge
aug 22, 2025, 10:56 pm • 0 0 • view
"It's what the centre left needs to do"? Does this mean that Labour can adopt certain policy positions primarily to win people over in a FPTP election, and not because they necessarily believe it's the best policy?
aug 22, 2025, 11:21 pm • 0 0 • view
It’s called politics. The ‘best’ policies don’t go anywhere if you can’t get elected in the first place
aug 23, 2025, 12:04 am • 0 0 • view
The problem comes down to money. Interest payments on govt debt are around £80 billion more now compared to when Corbyn agreed a manifesto (and even then he choose to promise abolishing uni fees over welfare spending).
aug 22, 2025, 5:11 pm • 0 0 • view
I remember a bloke who pledged to increase income tax on the top 5% of earners given the top 1% in this country have more wealth than the bottom 70% put together and the UN has chastised us for poverty levels utterly unacceptable given the nation's wealth. Here's a screenshot of those pledges.
aug 23, 2025, 11:59 am • 1 0 • view
I often wonder... what happened to that guy? Where is he now?
aug 23, 2025, 11:59 am • 0 0 • view
Chasing Reform voters who hate him
aug 23, 2025, 12:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Completely ignoring the concerns of half the electorate doesn’t work under FPTP. There were significantly more Leave than Remain constituencies, and Corbyn piled up votes in cities but delivered the lowest number of seats for Labour in living memory. These are just the facts
aug 23, 2025, 12:19 pm • 0 0 • view
The last budget was the highest tax raising budget in at least 30 years. Personally I'm in favour of higher income tax rates for high earners. But if you want to target wealth, Increasing capital gains tax is a more effective way of doing so. Which is what the last budget did.
aug 23, 2025, 5:53 pm • 1 0 • view
Do both. CGT? 10% on most assets... 18% on residential property gains... 20% for higher-rate taxpayers on most assets... 24% on residential property for higher-rate taxpayers... that's what it is now. I thought that's what they inherited.
aug 23, 2025, 6:04 pm • 0 0 • view
Headline tax rises in the last budget were employer NI, an energy profits levy, some inheritance tax rules, landfill and vehicle duties. Not particularly targeted at that top 1%.
aug 23, 2025, 6:08 pm • 0 0 • view
Oops, my apologies, there were CGT increases. I hit the wrong document.
aug 23, 2025, 6:22 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes exactly, the Corbyn fanclub just want to pretend that the fiscal impacts of Covid and Brexit never happened
aug 22, 2025, 9:03 pm • 0 0 • view
Do we? Oh. Okay, thanks for letting us know.
aug 23, 2025, 11:55 am • 1 0 • view
Yes, Corbyn and his fans either don’t know or pretend that the markets will wear unfunded borrowing. You have more in common with Truss and Farage than you care to admit
aug 23, 2025, 12:17 pm • 0 0 • view
There are no options other than borrowing? In a nation where the top 1% own as much wealth as the bottom 70%? Which the UN has chastised for poverty levels utterly unacceptable given the nation's wealth overall? Oh. Okay again, then.
aug 23, 2025, 12:19 pm • 0 0 • view
Blanket wealth taxes have failed everywhere they’ve been tried. That’s not to say the tax take from the richest can’t and shouldn’t be increased, but it has to be done gradually and strategically as Lab have done and will continue to do. The Corbyn lot are addicted to easy answers just like Farage
aug 23, 2025, 12:24 pm • 0 0 • view
I didn't say Starmer himself is to blame for Trump. I said that a political culture of centrists who attack the left, believing the best electoral strategy is appealing to the right, while the right-wing radicalizes and embraces populism, is exactly the conditions of Trump-era America.
aug 22, 2025, 12:53 pm • 1 0 • view