Comments by "" (@charliemoore2551) on "What is the single transferable party?" video.

You're generally right here but I think you might be remembering past Labour governments through rose-tinted spectacles, Richard. By and large, Labour has been marginally more progressive than the Tories but it has always set out to preserve rather than replace capitalism. When major economic policy decisions had to be made, it came down on the Right rather than Left - consider, for example, Healey's (he was considered to be on the Left at the time) imposition of austerity in the 1970s. In terms of foreign and colonial policy, it was often more aggressive and bellicose than the Tories and certainly more slavishly compliant with US aims and wishes. But there was some difference. This was largely because there were good people in the upper levels who genuinely wished to change society for the better and they were able to achieve some wins. That started to wear thin under Kinnock and then Blair but even then there were still one or two principled gadflies buzzing around and frustrating the attempts to Thatcherise the party. Sadly, Starmer has either corrupted or expelled the few remaining Social Democrats so there is little or no resistance to the Neoliberal direction in which the Labour Party is now moving. You are quite right to say that it is now almost indistinguishable from the Tories.
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@helenheenan3447 Indeed. But I think the right have made a strategic blunder - and are continuing to do so. If they had supported JC getting into No 10 and then undermined him and forced him out, they could have done considerable long-term reputational damage to the very idea of left politics. Corbyn could have been blamed for everything and the press and media would have had a field day presenting the "evidence" and ensuring that such a thing could never happen again. As things have turned out, they've shot their bolt on the Antisemitism scam and they've created the nucleus of a new party and provided it with able politicians and experienced and committed activists. They achieved a massive majority purely because of the arithmetic of FPTP and that very same arithmetic could wipe them out as thoroughly as it did the Tories and leave room for a genuinely progressive party to fill the vacuum.
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@davidthompson797 Google "Britain's secret role in the brutal US war in Vietnam" and see the "Declassified" entry. There were also other wee post-colonial exercises carried out for the US such as the South-Yemen and Cyprus emergencies and SAS support given to US friendly dictators like the Sultan of Oman.
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