A thread to discuss the current news about the Labour Party.
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From my perspective as a disillusioned Labour Party member who is wondering why I was persuaded to join in the first place.
We have the crank left and Blairites going at each other no holds barred and not caring about who is in the way.
Starmer seems to have done more today than he has done in the last six months.
Trans people are pissed off at the speed that Corbyn was suspended, compared to how Rosie Duffield is allowed to make repeated transphobic remarks without punishment.
The NEC elections are currently happening. No slate is clean of transphobes and antisemites. I had just worked out who to vote for before this happened.
Some Jewish members are extremely pissed off at how they are being used to fight factional battles without either side caring about them.
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Seems to me that this is a outcropping of the rightward tilt of politics in general since the Blair/Clinton era and how that shapes who you can safely discriminate against.
I don’t blame them. I’d be angry, too.
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As you know, here we have a largely 2-party system, with a few very minor third parties that really don’t carry any weight electorally. Can you educate me a smidge? Is there a viable multiparty system over the waters, or is it similar to ours?
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It is mostly a two party system, but we can have hung governments so voting third party can be viable.
There are also oddities like Sinn Fein running in elections but not taking their seats when they win because they refuse to swear allegiance to the Queen (understandably considering what they stand for).
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to me, the “lesson” learned from them was always the wrong lesson. both the democrats in the states and labour in the uk took the lesson as “we have to move right so we can move the electorate left.”
ayy-yi-yi.
to me the lesson was “if you have a charismatic figure at the top of the ticket who can speak well without fumbling you can get people behind you.” which is fine for what it is but ronald fucking reagan had already demonstrated that. clearly, i regard the clinton/blair detour a waste of time and effort.
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Agreed!
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Another example of Corbyn’s cack-handedness. He could have just agreed with the findings of the report, perhaps suggested a follow-up investigation into anti-trans bigotry in the party, and been done with it. But the old bungler just couldn’t help himself.
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Well, thank you for the info, but crap, that sucks. We all need a system that allows us to vote for a party that better represents our values, rather than just the “least evil.”
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If anyone is wondering, this is not as simple as it being Labour left vs Labour right. There are several different factions with different takes on what is happening.
You could argue that within the party the rows align to
Auth-left
Lib-left
Lib-right
Auth-right
but it still isn’t that simple
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The only way that happens in either system is with some sort of ranked-choice system. Absent that, at least the Westminster parliamentary model allows smaller parties some degree of influence over minority governements (not always for the better, but that’s another issue). In the American system, third parties are completely shut out.
Thanks for posting that. Corbyn was right there in the Lexit Left faction. Where would you place Starmer?
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I’d agree with that.
In the leadership election he ran as soft left, but I’d place him as soft right from his actions as leader. I am serious when I say that I would rather have Ed Miliband back as leader than him.
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I am glad that I am not on twitter or facebook right now. 
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My GF is stanning for Starmer hard. Considering she’s rabidly pro-Palestinean and comes from a family that’s mainly just slightly to the right of the RCP (but still, clearly, misguided statists who need re-educating, natch 
), I’m at a loss as to why. I mean, it wouldn’t matter who was in charge come 2024, I’d vote for them, but he’s hardly the blue-eyed boy to save us all.
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I’m having problems answering that question myself. The transphobia issue is a big one, we have MPs who believe that I should be stripped of rights, have said far worse than what Corbyn said today and nothing has happened to them after months of complaints. How can I vote for that?
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As a follow-up as I bring myself up to speed, where do Angela Rayner and Margaret Hodge fall on that chart in your opinion? I’m trying to put their statements on the matter in context.
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Soft left, probably new soft left.
Either soft right or hard right, extremely anti-Corbyn.
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Thanks!
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and of course Gingrich took the opportunity to move the whole Overton window right instead
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