As some economists and probably some members of the Labour Party are warning about Reform's uncoated spending intentions characterising them as small state, Thatcherite, slash and burn is probably wide of the mark. Nationalisation isn't something Thatcher advocated for. I think you are making the same mistake that people make about Le Pen in France characterising her as some sort of Thatcherite, she isn't, her economic policies are statist, interventionist and definitely left wing.
The reality is the country cannot afford the size of State we have at the moment. We are going bust. But no politician is courageous enough to have that conversation.
No. The reality is that what the country cannot afford is another 5 years of Treasury orthodoxy.
The reason we cannot afford the size of the state isn’t because it’s too bloated it’s because a) wealth does not circulate around the economy, all too often it goes offshore and in the case of unearned wealth is barely taxed b) because wages are too low, preventing spending that increases tax revenues and economic activity and c) because market diktat is the spectre that drives all Treasury thinking.
Farage and co are clearly willing to challenge that orthodoxy, but the reality is that Farage, Kruger and the bulk of their key players are disaffected Tories longing for the type of free market orthodoxy that landed Britain in the mess we now find ourselves.
I have zero confidence that either of the two Labour Party deputy candidates will offer a similar break but from a social democratic position. To do so would require a break with elite liberalism and both are saturated in its nostrums
I agree with this analysis. I am an economically left and patriotic voter who was once a labour party member.
The current labour Party disgusts me. I see them as globalist liberal elites with no patriotism, as described in the article.
At the same time I don't trust reform one iota. The likes of Tice, Farage and Kruger are unreformed economic liberals, who I have little doubt would seek to re-impose the failed doctrine of economic Thatcherism on us.
Matthew Goodwin has become a mouthpiece for them and constantly posts on X in favour of slashing taxes and dismantling the welfare state.
I hear you Innes. I’m also economically left but reject the identity politics and social liberalism of what describes itself as the left.
There are many of us who feel the same if you look at UK polling.
So many in fact, that any party offering a mixture of a left economic programme married to a social agent that was patriotic, ground in family and community and traditional values would easily defeat Reform in my opinion.
Sadly, there isn’t a party that we can vote for. Labour is unrecoverable. Its membership is entirely middle class liberal and the unions - which once offered a dose of working class realism - are too weak.
Corbyn’s new party will be economically left but an ugly car crash on social matters
I think Reform are, for political reasons, giving the impression of being interventionist, such as by supporting nationalisation. But the instincts of those who run the party - e.g. Farage and Tice - are undeniably Thatcherite.
Paul, thank for your reply. I'd always listen to what people are saying rather than what you wish they were saying. That's why our politicians mouth platitudes about "The Religion of Peace" when a review of what they actually say and do gives a very different impression. Likewise with Reform, it seems you'd like them to be Thatcherite (so you can use that to scare ex-Labour voters) but what they say is very different. Time will tell of course.
It depends what else they do. If they made the whole of the Department of Net Zero and other Lunacy redundant that'd free up a bit of cash 🤣 But sure, their sums at present don't add up, but TBF no political parties numbers add up.
I fear you’re almost a lone voice of common sense in Labour. Their drive to lower the voting age and bring in immigrants who generally vote Labour and give them the vote is against the wishes of most working class communities to protect our borders. I can’t see this changing. I would love to be proved wrong. I can’t see Labour shifting from its open borders belief (despite what they might sometimes say to the contrary).
Whilst the Deputy Leader elections are largely irrelevant, the Burnham support machine seems to grow and is probably more important. Although he’s been elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester that was on a 22% turnout and other than Labour fanatics almost all Mancs despise him.
So can Dodgy Burnham get into Parliament and replace Starmer?
Reform won Runcorn when 10,000 former Labour voters switched to Reform. Out of the 25 Greater Manchester seats held by Labour, only 8 have majorities that are greater than 10,000. Of those 8, Blackley is held by Labour’s only sensible MP, Graham Stringer and I doubt he’d give up his seat for Burnham. If he did, it’s definitely winnable by Reform.
Gorton is held by disgraced Labour MP Andrew Gwynne. He was forced to resign from Labour after he was exposed as making jokes at the expense of a disabled constituent whilst he was a junior health minister. Gorton could probably be won by Reform.
The others are safe seats in mainly yuppie areas but with quite ambitious MPs who are unlikely to stand aside, one of which is Dogwhistle Lucy’s own seat of Manchester Central. The others are Withington, Salford, Stockport, Stretford, Worsley and Wythenshawe.
Burnham has a job on his hands to become a Labour MP in Greater Manchester but even if he managed it, his murky past, his support for the rape gangs, awarding his wife’s company a huge low emission zone contract and continuing to support Sacha Lord, his disgraced Nighttime Czar who fiddled the Arts Council out of a £450,000 Covid grant would come back to haunt him.
I found this comment I made in The Times in January 2020 on my iPad notes. Andy Burnham had claimed that he would have won the 2017 election had he been the leader at that time. I think it's worth repeating given how he's again being touted as a possible leader. BTW, The Times deleted my comment because it didn't meet their community guidelines. I cancelled my subscription at that point.
The many people of Manchester who don't think Andy is the Second Coming would probably dispute his claim to have been able to beat Mother Theresa in 2017 and they'd probably use past performance of centrist Labour Leaders as the basis of their opinion.
Quite how well Corbyn did in 2017 has never been given the credit it deserves as the following table shows.
2019 Corbyn 32.2%
2017 Corbyn 40.0%
2015 Milliband 30.4%
2010 Brown 29.0%
2005 Blair 35.2%
2001 Blair 40.2%
1997 Blair 43.2%
So, given that Andy had much the same policies as Brown and Moribund and didn't have half the charisma of Blair, how on God's Fair Earth does he think that he could have added more than a third to Moribund's 2015 vote?
Corbyn's disaster last December was actually better than both Brown and Moribund and we shouldn't forget that without Brown's Scottish seats that his successors didn't have thru no fault of their own, Brown would have managed around 27% which would have been in Michael Foot territory.
The other thing to note about the 2019 result is that if you added the 2.5% of the vote that Corbyn didn't have in Scotland but Blair did have, then his 32.2% would have been 34.7% which isn't too far away from Blair's 35.2% in 2005 that won him that election. Go even further down this lost Scottish vote argument and add the 2.5% to Corbyn's 2017 40% and you see him beating Blair's 2001 result and being within less than 1% of Blair's 1997 landslide. Not being a Corbyn fan myself, I'd say his 2017 result was nothing short of remarkable.
So no, Andy. You couldn't have won in 2017. You could only manage 8.7% of Labour Party members in 2010 and 19% in 2015.
With respect, looking at your comparisons table, I feel that vote share of one party, in isolation, doesn't tell us a great deal. If we don't also include the vote share of the other party next to it, we don't get a full picture.
If my football team scores three goals one week but loses 3-4, and then my team only gets one goal the next week but wins 1-0, then the second result is clearly better even though fewer goals were scored.
I'd disagree Karl. I was comparing the percentage share of the vote between the right wing of the LP and the left wing represented by Corbyn.
It seems to be that the received wisdom is that the LP needs to be on the right in order to win elections, however the results do not bear out that theory.
I was particularly commenting (back in January 2020) about Burnham's preposterous claim that he could have won the 2017 election when Corbyn polled a huge 40%. The results of other right wing LP leaders in recent elections indicates that Burnham's claim did not hold water.
However, I'm perfectly happy for you to do a bit more research on this and put your own numbers into the debate.
You called it many years ago Paul. Amazed that you stay, like General Custer surrounded by circling Indians around the wagons. You are almost alone, a last stand. Admirable.
I am going to be blunt, so you understand, and I am sure you have heard this from many others. And I am going to tell you that my background is not a million miles from yours. The Labour Party now physically disgust me. They make me sick. What/who they've embraced, who they have left behind, the working class. Their lack of understanding of real people. Labour turns my stomach. Above all the lies, the spin, the fake, the deception, the posing, virtue signalling. To me they deceived a nation to be elected. They simply care about votes, not people. Even how the march on Saturday was downplayed and any violence overplayed while ignoring the Notting Hill carnival for example. Distortion. They are also economically illiterate and just do not understand how the country feel about immigration. the wrong people are in charge, like a coup. The Khan's, Starmers etc. Fake people. Fake Party. When you think of how/why Labour was set up it is tragedy, but one can't sit around crying about it, hoping for a tomorrow that never comes. I don't see a saviour, other than yourself. The Labour Party is run by cowards.
Labour will be severely burnt in every election in the next few years because they still do not understand. They think the Gen Election vindicated them. It did not. It was a unique situation where the right of centre split (are the conservatives really right of centre any more in any case?). Just 33.8% voted Labour in a 59% turnout voted. That's less than 20% if you do the maths. Like the Conservatives, Labour will not learn until they are humiliated in the polls.
I do sense your frustration, alas it is not a quick fix , for instance have you seen wes streeting tweet ( some say leadership pitch, but i couldn't possibly comment) with video about constituents feeling scared about going London at last weekend.
Identity politics must be put in the incinerator (sod net zero ) and condemned to the trash can of history.
Reform will win the next general election based purely on the same strategy that keir won , keir won purely by not being the tories , Reform will win purely for being the vehicle to get labour out ( tactical voting at its purist) .
Re big state / small state , i generally find people want an effective and efficient state, if the state done the what it was supposed to do ( the basics ) then people wouldn't mind , but they dont even do that yet continuously ask for more money .
The deputy leadership election to be honest is irrelevant, the party will only change and listen when they election a leader that actually represents the working class small c conservative viewpoint ( whether that person can win the labour leadership on that ticket is the bigger question)
I think your slash and burn comment about Reform is a little off the mark. Whilst they are doubtless Thatcherites to some extent, there is much more nuance than that and it's meaningless today to hang such labels on parties. I fully admire your loyalty to the Labour Party and even more so your faith that they will turn things around. However, they are culturally and ideologically extreme liberalists and extreme globalists and without the bomb that Reform is setting off under the two party tradition Labour will never go back to its roots. So I'm surprised you're not rooting for Reform more, because it is only through their success that Labour will ever be forced to go back to being the party of the working class.
Hmmm. Regarding Reform's economic policies, I think you're absolutely mistaken Paul. Cutting back on wasteful state spending does not mean working class areas will be devastated any more than they already are from both the Thatcher years and from decades of Labour councils spunking away ratepayers's dough on completely useless matters.
Just one example in my area of Altrincham near Manchester is the Labour controlled council buying up half the local shopping street for a fortune just when physical shopping is in terminal decline. What makes this crazy idea worse is that if locals are going to physically shop, they will travel an extra 10 minutes to the huge Trafford Centre, park for free and have access to almost every high street brand that's still going.
So what exactly is Blue Labour's economic strategy Paul and how would you and they deal with the out of control public spending that we currently suffer?
Hi Paul. I've read your piece and I'm baffled. You seem to be arguing that governments can simply print money and invest it in things that will promote growth. I think that's for the birds mate.
If you want growth then we need to encourage private investment in the economy and that means getting rid of over-regulation, lessening taxation and for jobs, not increasing NI and not giving a load of work-shy potential employees the ability to do very little from day one in their new job and claim compensation from their employer if said employer doesn't like their lack of productivity and gives them the tin tack.
As regards printing money, you talk as if it has no consequences Paul. It's absolutely inflationary because when demand exceeds supply, prices rise and that's the case no matter what state the economy is in. Never heard of stagflation?
What we have at the moment is a massive increase in public expenditure, much of which is simply wasted. We have the situation where workers and former workers in the private sector are expected to fund huge increases in wage rises for those in the public sector because it's somehow unfair not to give them an increase. So vulnerable pensioners fund wage rises for doctors and train drivers. And now they've come back for more! Why wouldn't they? If you shake a tree and the fruit drops out you'll keep on shaking it.
I sympathise with your dilemma Paul. You're of the Left and they've let you down with their obsession with cultural issues that you and most other people find strange. So instead of examining the very nature of your beliefs, you're trying to hark back to the days when Labour weren't banging on about trans women being women. But you should also look back to those halcyon days of Tony Blair's regime where growth fell from 4.9% in 1997 to 2.6% in 2007 when he left office.
Is this the Blue Labour growth plan I wonder Paul?
When I read the list of candidates it simply confirmed to me the so called higher echelons still have not listened…. As such, they continue to circle the bowl..the fact that that champagne socialist Thornbury had thrown her bonnet into the ring too, it summed up their complete disconnect….
I wrote below but have reflected further on this. I’ve asked before but didn’t get a reply. So much has the Labour Party changed choosing virtue signalling as opposed to helping the real people,of this country, at what point do you say Paul, it’s never coming back?’ I personally think the Labour Party as once was has gone forever, and is not coming back. The longer you associate yourself with these liars, the more your reputation will be damaged. To me, and I’ve written this before, while your perception and commentaries are absolutely spot on, they are no longer enough. The party you associate yourself with will damage this country beyond repair. It’s time to make a stand Paul. If you don’t, you will be tarnished because of it because you will be part of it. You have been writing the same thing for over a decade. But the party you belong to will get worse not better. I will reconsider this subscription.
I fight alongside other patriots inside the Labour party - such as the Blue Labour network - to reconnect it with its working-class heartlands. I believe there is still a chance that can be achieved. I respect those, like you, who disagree. But we all have to make our choices on that score.
Much appreciated Paul. Your response. I understand Blue Labour also. Actually politically we aren’t so far apart. I’ve always understood this.
But here’s the thing, I’m miles apart from your party. Not you. Your party. You should take my comments to your conference, though you know them yourself already. But perhaps what is different now is the anger ordinary people now feel about being sold out by Labour. The government made a mistake at the election. Because it won a landslide it thought it was vindicated. But it wasn’t. ‘Loveless landslide’ remember. Loveless has turned to hate now because the party is incapable of learning anything. I’ve never known a PM so hated, because that is what he is. Properly. The party continues to turn on ordinary people, branding them racist etc at the first sign of dissent. The Khans, the Starmers and the fakes that run the party continue to do this, continue to fail to acknowledge genuine concerns. They will reward you with your biggest hiding at an election that you’ve ever known. Because the public will not forgive being treated as such. The public will not forgive being scorned at. 2019 will look like a teddy bears picnic. The current Labour Party has learned nothing nor will it.
Starmer will talk today about the ‘flag being used to sow division’. He doesn’t get it. The man is an embarrassment. I work in Germany a lot. I’m embarrassed to admit I’m British now. The outside world sees what is happening in our country, I’ve been asked about it. Labour do not see it. The divsion is sown by Starmer and his like (there are many). They need to go Paul. There’s a reckoning coming, it will turn very ugly.
I agree with you the true soul of the party is you and Blue Labour. But the rest of it is SO detached from reality. It’s just a joke. People don’t want this level of immigration. People want to be acknowledged. People want to able to speak their minds. People want to feel safe. People want an economy that isn’t going bust. They don’t want to be taxed to the hilt. And they don’t want eco zealots putting idealism above common sense. On all these VERY SIMPLE points Labour fails. So the deputy leadership contest is irrelevant. Same shit different wrapper. Labour does NOT care about ordinary people. I honestlyI hope you win your fight. But to me it is miles off. It won’t happen until the party is wiped out at the poles, because it doesn’t listen Paul, and you know what else? It does not tell the truth. Your party is now dishonest. Please take that to your conference. Thanks 😀.
Actually Paul. Final post. Hope I have made clear the respect that I’ve held for you over the last decade or so. I hope you get round to reading this comment.
But something inside me has been stirred and I can t take it back. One of the Deputy Leadership Candidates is Lucy Powell. She was the one who described uproar over the Muslim rape gangs as dog whistle poltics. A typically dismissive, evasive and divisive comment that is all too familiar.
But I’ll go further. I was one of the hundreds of thousands of marchers on Saturday, marching with my girlfriend over the cultural change our country has undergone that no one voted for. Matching against the authoritarian threat from the Elites to free speech. Why the media and state authorities played down the numbers is another article in itself. You have been silent. I believe you will have much sympathy with many of us marching, even if you do not agree with the speakers.
But rather than acknowledge the issues, senior figures in YOUR party have sought to portray ordinary people like myself as racist thugs. Khan, Starmer, look at their twitter. The public see through it Paul and won’t forgive being portrayed in this way. The mask has slipped. It’s over. Nor will I. I will vote with my feet and my wallet. While I much admire you I no longer will subscribe to someone is a member of a party that would slur me in this way. Shame. I think you can do so much better.
The Ship has sailed and your loyalty does you credit. You'd be a great asset to Reform and appear to be very close in political view to Lee Anderson.
The Country has moved on, Labour and Tory are irrelevant so I'd reommend you to bite the bullet and join Reform where your abilities will be recognised.
Thanks for the article Paul, which was a really interesting read.
Do you have a preference of the two candidates? In your opinion, is Bridget Phillipson or Lucy Powell closer to the kind of pro-working class agenda that our party needs?
Also, do you think Andy Burnham would make a better leader than Keir Starmer?
As some economists and probably some members of the Labour Party are warning about Reform's uncoated spending intentions characterising them as small state, Thatcherite, slash and burn is probably wide of the mark. Nationalisation isn't something Thatcher advocated for. I think you are making the same mistake that people make about Le Pen in France characterising her as some sort of Thatcherite, she isn't, her economic policies are statist, interventionist and definitely left wing.
The reality is the country cannot afford the size of State we have at the moment. We are going bust. But no politician is courageous enough to have that conversation.
No. The reality is that what the country cannot afford is another 5 years of Treasury orthodoxy.
The reason we cannot afford the size of the state isn’t because it’s too bloated it’s because a) wealth does not circulate around the economy, all too often it goes offshore and in the case of unearned wealth is barely taxed b) because wages are too low, preventing spending that increases tax revenues and economic activity and c) because market diktat is the spectre that drives all Treasury thinking.
Farage and co are clearly willing to challenge that orthodoxy, but the reality is that Farage, Kruger and the bulk of their key players are disaffected Tories longing for the type of free market orthodoxy that landed Britain in the mess we now find ourselves.
I have zero confidence that either of the two Labour Party deputy candidates will offer a similar break but from a social democratic position. To do so would require a break with elite liberalism and both are saturated in its nostrums
I agree with this analysis. I am an economically left and patriotic voter who was once a labour party member.
The current labour Party disgusts me. I see them as globalist liberal elites with no patriotism, as described in the article.
At the same time I don't trust reform one iota. The likes of Tice, Farage and Kruger are unreformed economic liberals, who I have little doubt would seek to re-impose the failed doctrine of economic Thatcherism on us.
Matthew Goodwin has become a mouthpiece for them and constantly posts on X in favour of slashing taxes and dismantling the welfare state.
Reform are not the answer in my opinion.
I hear you Innes. I’m also economically left but reject the identity politics and social liberalism of what describes itself as the left.
There are many of us who feel the same if you look at UK polling.
So many in fact, that any party offering a mixture of a left economic programme married to a social agent that was patriotic, ground in family and community and traditional values would easily defeat Reform in my opinion.
Sadly, there isn’t a party that we can vote for. Labour is unrecoverable. Its membership is entirely middle class liberal and the unions - which once offered a dose of working class realism - are too weak.
Corbyn’s new party will be economically left but an ugly car crash on social matters
I largely agree, Innes. They are not the answer for working people.
Can you define what you mean by "wealth does not circulate around the economy" and how you propose to fix that?
I think Reform are, for political reasons, giving the impression of being interventionist, such as by supporting nationalisation. But the instincts of those who run the party - e.g. Farage and Tice - are undeniably Thatcherite.
Paul, thank for your reply. I'd always listen to what people are saying rather than what you wish they were saying. That's why our politicians mouth platitudes about "The Religion of Peace" when a review of what they actually say and do gives a very different impression. Likewise with Reform, it seems you'd like them to be Thatcherite (so you can use that to scare ex-Labour voters) but what they say is very different. Time will tell of course.
As I understand it, the Reformists are pledging policies that will increased public spending, while also promising to cut income taxes.
How can they do both?
If I owned a company, I couldn't give my employees a 10% pay rise while also cutting customers prices by 10%.
It depends what else they do. If they made the whole of the Department of Net Zero and other Lunacy redundant that'd free up a bit of cash 🤣 But sure, their sums at present don't add up, but TBF no political parties numbers add up.
How much could they save if every single DEI department was canned?
They will need to be specific about proposed savings.
I've heard many aspiring politicians promising to square this 'better services and lower taxes' conundrum by pledging to 'cut out the waste'.
But they are rarely specific about what exactly they propose to cut.
That should be "uncosted"! Auto-moronic-correct!!!!
I fear you’re almost a lone voice of common sense in Labour. Their drive to lower the voting age and bring in immigrants who generally vote Labour and give them the vote is against the wishes of most working class communities to protect our borders. I can’t see this changing. I would love to be proved wrong. I can’t see Labour shifting from its open borders belief (despite what they might sometimes say to the contrary).
Whilst the Deputy Leader elections are largely irrelevant, the Burnham support machine seems to grow and is probably more important. Although he’s been elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester that was on a 22% turnout and other than Labour fanatics almost all Mancs despise him.
So can Dodgy Burnham get into Parliament and replace Starmer?
Reform won Runcorn when 10,000 former Labour voters switched to Reform. Out of the 25 Greater Manchester seats held by Labour, only 8 have majorities that are greater than 10,000. Of those 8, Blackley is held by Labour’s only sensible MP, Graham Stringer and I doubt he’d give up his seat for Burnham. If he did, it’s definitely winnable by Reform.
Gorton is held by disgraced Labour MP Andrew Gwynne. He was forced to resign from Labour after he was exposed as making jokes at the expense of a disabled constituent whilst he was a junior health minister. Gorton could probably be won by Reform.
The others are safe seats in mainly yuppie areas but with quite ambitious MPs who are unlikely to stand aside, one of which is Dogwhistle Lucy’s own seat of Manchester Central. The others are Withington, Salford, Stockport, Stretford, Worsley and Wythenshawe.
Burnham has a job on his hands to become a Labour MP in Greater Manchester but even if he managed it, his murky past, his support for the rape gangs, awarding his wife’s company a huge low emission zone contract and continuing to support Sacha Lord, his disgraced Nighttime Czar who fiddled the Arts Council out of a £450,000 Covid grant would come back to haunt him.
I found this comment I made in The Times in January 2020 on my iPad notes. Andy Burnham had claimed that he would have won the 2017 election had he been the leader at that time. I think it's worth repeating given how he's again being touted as a possible leader. BTW, The Times deleted my comment because it didn't meet their community guidelines. I cancelled my subscription at that point.
The many people of Manchester who don't think Andy is the Second Coming would probably dispute his claim to have been able to beat Mother Theresa in 2017 and they'd probably use past performance of centrist Labour Leaders as the basis of their opinion.
Quite how well Corbyn did in 2017 has never been given the credit it deserves as the following table shows.
2019 Corbyn 32.2%
2017 Corbyn 40.0%
2015 Milliband 30.4%
2010 Brown 29.0%
2005 Blair 35.2%
2001 Blair 40.2%
1997 Blair 43.2%
So, given that Andy had much the same policies as Brown and Moribund and didn't have half the charisma of Blair, how on God's Fair Earth does he think that he could have added more than a third to Moribund's 2015 vote?
Corbyn's disaster last December was actually better than both Brown and Moribund and we shouldn't forget that without Brown's Scottish seats that his successors didn't have thru no fault of their own, Brown would have managed around 27% which would have been in Michael Foot territory.
The other thing to note about the 2019 result is that if you added the 2.5% of the vote that Corbyn didn't have in Scotland but Blair did have, then his 32.2% would have been 34.7% which isn't too far away from Blair's 35.2% in 2005 that won him that election. Go even further down this lost Scottish vote argument and add the 2.5% to Corbyn's 2017 40% and you see him beating Blair's 2001 result and being within less than 1% of Blair's 1997 landslide. Not being a Corbyn fan myself, I'd say his 2017 result was nothing short of remarkable.
So no, Andy. You couldn't have won in 2017. You could only manage 8.7% of Labour Party members in 2010 and 19% in 2015.
The word delusional springs to mind.
With respect, looking at your comparisons table, I feel that vote share of one party, in isolation, doesn't tell us a great deal. If we don't also include the vote share of the other party next to it, we don't get a full picture.
If my football team scores three goals one week but loses 3-4, and then my team only gets one goal the next week but wins 1-0, then the second result is clearly better even though fewer goals were scored.
I'd disagree Karl. I was comparing the percentage share of the vote between the right wing of the LP and the left wing represented by Corbyn.
It seems to be that the received wisdom is that the LP needs to be on the right in order to win elections, however the results do not bear out that theory.
I was particularly commenting (back in January 2020) about Burnham's preposterous claim that he could have won the 2017 election when Corbyn polled a huge 40%. The results of other right wing LP leaders in recent elections indicates that Burnham's claim did not hold water.
However, I'm perfectly happy for you to do a bit more research on this and put your own numbers into the debate.
Thanks for replying Karl
You called it many years ago Paul. Amazed that you stay, like General Custer surrounded by circling Indians around the wagons. You are almost alone, a last stand. Admirable.
I am going to be blunt, so you understand, and I am sure you have heard this from many others. And I am going to tell you that my background is not a million miles from yours. The Labour Party now physically disgust me. They make me sick. What/who they've embraced, who they have left behind, the working class. Their lack of understanding of real people. Labour turns my stomach. Above all the lies, the spin, the fake, the deception, the posing, virtue signalling. To me they deceived a nation to be elected. They simply care about votes, not people. Even how the march on Saturday was downplayed and any violence overplayed while ignoring the Notting Hill carnival for example. Distortion. They are also economically illiterate and just do not understand how the country feel about immigration. the wrong people are in charge, like a coup. The Khan's, Starmers etc. Fake people. Fake Party. When you think of how/why Labour was set up it is tragedy, but one can't sit around crying about it, hoping for a tomorrow that never comes. I don't see a saviour, other than yourself. The Labour Party is run by cowards.
Labour will be severely burnt in every election in the next few years because they still do not understand. They think the Gen Election vindicated them. It did not. It was a unique situation where the right of centre split (are the conservatives really right of centre any more in any case?). Just 33.8% voted Labour in a 59% turnout voted. That's less than 20% if you do the maths. Like the Conservatives, Labour will not learn until they are humiliated in the polls.
Hi Paul 👋
Good morning 😀
I do sense your frustration, alas it is not a quick fix , for instance have you seen wes streeting tweet ( some say leadership pitch, but i couldn't possibly comment) with video about constituents feeling scared about going London at last weekend.
Identity politics must be put in the incinerator (sod net zero ) and condemned to the trash can of history.
Reform will win the next general election based purely on the same strategy that keir won , keir won purely by not being the tories , Reform will win purely for being the vehicle to get labour out ( tactical voting at its purist) .
Re big state / small state , i generally find people want an effective and efficient state, if the state done the what it was supposed to do ( the basics ) then people wouldn't mind , but they dont even do that yet continuously ask for more money .
The deputy leadership election to be honest is irrelevant, the party will only change and listen when they election a leader that actually represents the working class small c conservative viewpoint ( whether that person can win the labour leadership on that ticket is the bigger question)
Sorry for the long winded ramble
Have a lovely week Paul and all others readers 😊
I think your slash and burn comment about Reform is a little off the mark. Whilst they are doubtless Thatcherites to some extent, there is much more nuance than that and it's meaningless today to hang such labels on parties. I fully admire your loyalty to the Labour Party and even more so your faith that they will turn things around. However, they are culturally and ideologically extreme liberalists and extreme globalists and without the bomb that Reform is setting off under the two party tradition Labour will never go back to its roots. So I'm surprised you're not rooting for Reform more, because it is only through their success that Labour will ever be forced to go back to being the party of the working class.
Hmmm. Regarding Reform's economic policies, I think you're absolutely mistaken Paul. Cutting back on wasteful state spending does not mean working class areas will be devastated any more than they already are from both the Thatcher years and from decades of Labour councils spunking away ratepayers's dough on completely useless matters.
Just one example in my area of Altrincham near Manchester is the Labour controlled council buying up half the local shopping street for a fortune just when physical shopping is in terminal decline. What makes this crazy idea worse is that if locals are going to physically shop, they will travel an extra 10 minutes to the huge Trafford Centre, park for free and have access to almost every high street brand that's still going.
So what exactly is Blue Labour's economic strategy Paul and how would you and they deal with the out of control public spending that we currently suffer?
This piece gives an insight to my thinking on that score, Big Blue. https://www.paulembery.com/p/the-hope-sapping-timidity-of-rachel
Hi Paul. I've read your piece and I'm baffled. You seem to be arguing that governments can simply print money and invest it in things that will promote growth. I think that's for the birds mate.
If you want growth then we need to encourage private investment in the economy and that means getting rid of over-regulation, lessening taxation and for jobs, not increasing NI and not giving a load of work-shy potential employees the ability to do very little from day one in their new job and claim compensation from their employer if said employer doesn't like their lack of productivity and gives them the tin tack.
As regards printing money, you talk as if it has no consequences Paul. It's absolutely inflationary because when demand exceeds supply, prices rise and that's the case no matter what state the economy is in. Never heard of stagflation?
What we have at the moment is a massive increase in public expenditure, much of which is simply wasted. We have the situation where workers and former workers in the private sector are expected to fund huge increases in wage rises for those in the public sector because it's somehow unfair not to give them an increase. So vulnerable pensioners fund wage rises for doctors and train drivers. And now they've come back for more! Why wouldn't they? If you shake a tree and the fruit drops out you'll keep on shaking it.
I sympathise with your dilemma Paul. You're of the Left and they've let you down with their obsession with cultural issues that you and most other people find strange. So instead of examining the very nature of your beliefs, you're trying to hark back to the days when Labour weren't banging on about trans women being women. But you should also look back to those halcyon days of Tony Blair's regime where growth fell from 4.9% in 1997 to 2.6% in 2007 when he left office.
Is this the Blue Labour growth plan I wonder Paul?
Thanks Paul. I'll give it a read and response
When I read the list of candidates it simply confirmed to me the so called higher echelons still have not listened…. As such, they continue to circle the bowl..the fact that that champagne socialist Thornbury had thrown her bonnet into the ring too, it summed up their complete disconnect….
I wrote below but have reflected further on this. I’ve asked before but didn’t get a reply. So much has the Labour Party changed choosing virtue signalling as opposed to helping the real people,of this country, at what point do you say Paul, it’s never coming back?’ I personally think the Labour Party as once was has gone forever, and is not coming back. The longer you associate yourself with these liars, the more your reputation will be damaged. To me, and I’ve written this before, while your perception and commentaries are absolutely spot on, they are no longer enough. The party you associate yourself with will damage this country beyond repair. It’s time to make a stand Paul. If you don’t, you will be tarnished because of it because you will be part of it. You have been writing the same thing for over a decade. But the party you belong to will get worse not better. I will reconsider this subscription.
I fight alongside other patriots inside the Labour party - such as the Blue Labour network - to reconnect it with its working-class heartlands. I believe there is still a chance that can be achieved. I respect those, like you, who disagree. But we all have to make our choices on that score.
Much appreciated Paul. Your response. I understand Blue Labour also. Actually politically we aren’t so far apart. I’ve always understood this.
But here’s the thing, I’m miles apart from your party. Not you. Your party. You should take my comments to your conference, though you know them yourself already. But perhaps what is different now is the anger ordinary people now feel about being sold out by Labour. The government made a mistake at the election. Because it won a landslide it thought it was vindicated. But it wasn’t. ‘Loveless landslide’ remember. Loveless has turned to hate now because the party is incapable of learning anything. I’ve never known a PM so hated, because that is what he is. Properly. The party continues to turn on ordinary people, branding them racist etc at the first sign of dissent. The Khans, the Starmers and the fakes that run the party continue to do this, continue to fail to acknowledge genuine concerns. They will reward you with your biggest hiding at an election that you’ve ever known. Because the public will not forgive being treated as such. The public will not forgive being scorned at. 2019 will look like a teddy bears picnic. The current Labour Party has learned nothing nor will it.
Starmer will talk today about the ‘flag being used to sow division’. He doesn’t get it. The man is an embarrassment. I work in Germany a lot. I’m embarrassed to admit I’m British now. The outside world sees what is happening in our country, I’ve been asked about it. Labour do not see it. The divsion is sown by Starmer and his like (there are many). They need to go Paul. There’s a reckoning coming, it will turn very ugly.
I agree with you the true soul of the party is you and Blue Labour. But the rest of it is SO detached from reality. It’s just a joke. People don’t want this level of immigration. People want to be acknowledged. People want to able to speak their minds. People want to feel safe. People want an economy that isn’t going bust. They don’t want to be taxed to the hilt. And they don’t want eco zealots putting idealism above common sense. On all these VERY SIMPLE points Labour fails. So the deputy leadership contest is irrelevant. Same shit different wrapper. Labour does NOT care about ordinary people. I honestlyI hope you win your fight. But to me it is miles off. It won’t happen until the party is wiped out at the poles, because it doesn’t listen Paul, and you know what else? It does not tell the truth. Your party is now dishonest. Please take that to your conference. Thanks 😀.
Actually Paul. Final post. Hope I have made clear the respect that I’ve held for you over the last decade or so. I hope you get round to reading this comment.
But something inside me has been stirred and I can t take it back. One of the Deputy Leadership Candidates is Lucy Powell. She was the one who described uproar over the Muslim rape gangs as dog whistle poltics. A typically dismissive, evasive and divisive comment that is all too familiar.
But I’ll go further. I was one of the hundreds of thousands of marchers on Saturday, marching with my girlfriend over the cultural change our country has undergone that no one voted for. Matching against the authoritarian threat from the Elites to free speech. Why the media and state authorities played down the numbers is another article in itself. You have been silent. I believe you will have much sympathy with many of us marching, even if you do not agree with the speakers.
But rather than acknowledge the issues, senior figures in YOUR party have sought to portray ordinary people like myself as racist thugs. Khan, Starmer, look at their twitter. The public see through it Paul and won’t forgive being portrayed in this way. The mask has slipped. It’s over. Nor will I. I will vote with my feet and my wallet. While I much admire you I no longer will subscribe to someone is a member of a party that would slur me in this way. Shame. I think you can do so much better.
Paul,
The Ship has sailed and your loyalty does you credit. You'd be a great asset to Reform and appear to be very close in political view to Lee Anderson.
The Country has moved on, Labour and Tory are irrelevant so I'd reommend you to bite the bullet and join Reform where your abilities will be recognised.
Appreciate the suggestion, but I'd be lying if I said it was likely to happen!
Thanks for the article Paul, which was a really interesting read.
Do you have a preference of the two candidates? In your opinion, is Bridget Phillipson or Lucy Powell closer to the kind of pro-working class agenda that our party needs?
Also, do you think Andy Burnham would make a better leader than Keir Starmer?
I'm open-minded on Powell/Phillipson, Karl. I want to hear what they say. On the Burnham question, yes.