Comments by "80s Music" (@eightiesmusic1984) on "The Tories are just getting started with far-right extremism | Pubcast #23 clip" video.

  1. There are no far left extremists in Britain except as a figment of the imagination of Tories and red Tories in the Labour Party.
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  2. You cannot define centrist. See Steve Richard's article about the concept from two weeks ago. Labour are not remotely centrist- they are right wing neoliberal, the only kind of neoliberalism.
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  3.  @edwardbrady5843  Commitment to the same policies as the Tories is not Tory lite, is it? It is the same thing. Blairbour has nothing to offer.
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  4. There is no hard left in Britain. Corbyn offered no more than moderate social democracy or democratic socialism. Labour policies under him were to the right of the 1945 manifesto. Labour under Starmer is committed to Tory policy and has no meaningful answers to the major crises facing the UK. Labour has been stripped of its soul and founding principles and turned into a neoliberal party indistinguishable from the Tories.
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  5. It would not be surprising if the saving on HS2 was roughly equal to the cost of a tax cut. Word from a Tory commentator last week ( forgotten who) on television is that a tax cut is definitely planned before the GE.
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  6. Labour has never lurched to any extreme at all. The first Labour government in 1924 set about managing capitalism in order to prove it could be trusted and to increase its chances of winning future elections. Labour has always been about managing and regulating capitalism at most, not replacing it with socialism, ill defined and subject to disagreement as it is. Labour under Corbyn was to the right of the 1945 manifesto but Britain has moved so far to the right since 1979 that most people are unaware that Corbyn offered little more than moderate social democracy. By today's standards Kinnock and Smith, both on the right of the party, would have been left wing if they had become Prime Minister.
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  7.  @DJWESG1  Labour has compromised to the point of selling out everything it ever believed in. Most switchers in 1997 identified with Tory policies in focus groups conducted after the election- Britain is more right wing in many ways now than then, or at least it is under FPTP. Britain has always been right wing except perhaps for the 1945-1951 period in the exceptional circumstances of the aftermath of the war and the twenty years preceding it. Millions have cold hearts and lack compassion for others in the modern era, making it even harder to make the case for democratic socialism. It has always been difficult for Labour under FPTP but copying the Tories is pointless.
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  8.  @royboy565  Define centrist.
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  9.  @royboy565  Does not define centrist. You do not know what it is. See Steve Richard's article on how problematic it is.
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  10.  @royboy565  What is your analysis? Sounds like you do not have one.
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  11. Reversal of neoliberalism is the key. Nothing else will work.
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  12.  @kanedNunable  Labour has ruled out PR.
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  13.  @royboy565  Some unions have signalled this as a possibility, others have disaffiliated from Labour in recent years and some have cut funding already. None of this has halted the eradication of the left. Something will give in the end when it becomes undeniable that Labour is pursuing Tory policy in office ( if it forms a government) but what that will look like ( such a split in the party) is anyone's guess.
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  14. Labour has ruled it out.
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  15.  @garyt123  It might surprise you to learn that there are millions of socialists who Labour has abandoned who have legitimate criticisms of red Toryism under Starmer. It should not be so difficult to grasp. Nothing to do with Tory bot comments.
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  16. You know very well the manifesto has not yet been published, or at least you should. Labour has signalled it is not going to differ substantially from Tory policies and priorities, and there have been articles in the media recently about Labour's lack of answers to the problems Britain faces due to the absence of anything substantial to differentiate it from the Tories. Anyone who supports the Blairite consensus imposed on the party and thinks it is going to effect the changes Britain needs is delusional.
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  17.  @Coneman3  Exactly.
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  18. What do you mean?
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  19. You cannot have Scandinavian public services with American levels of taxation. Neoliberalism demands low taxes for the rich and redistribution of wealth is not part of the agenda.
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  20. Illogical. If Labour had a large majority, PR would give it an advantage in subsequent elections at least for the foreseeable future. PR would favour Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Greens, as the majority of the population consistent votes for parties other than the Conservatives.
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