Tories in disguise are bad, Tories on steroids are worse
Imagine being infuriated that Starmer's Labour are just a bunch of Tories in disguise, then voting for Farage's Tories on steroids!
It’s hardly surprising that Keir Starmer’s bastardised version of the Labour Party has made itself deeply unpopular with the public already.
So many of their policies and so much of their rhetoric is indistinguishable from the horrific 2010-2015 austerity coalition.
They lazily blame the previous government for the poor state of the economy, rather than Westminster’s crippling decades-long adherence to the deranged radical-right economic insanity of privatisation mania; financial deregulation; deliberate infrastructure under-investment; lax taxation of corporations and the mega-rich; and wanton vandalism of the social safety net.
They push deluded "cut our way to prosperity" austerity narratives and deceptive "trickle-down" economics about how we all supposedly benefit from the greed and profiteering of the rich.
They viciously punch down on the vulnerable by maintaining cruel Tory two-child economic sanctions on families; impoverishing disabled people; and mugging pensioners.
Meanwhile they openly pander to the mega-rich; allow their wealthy donors to dictate Labour Party policy; and outright refuse to even equalise taxation on passive income with taxation on actual work, let alone create economic incentives for the capital rich to engage in actually productive activity rather than idle speculation and greedy property hoarding.
If you read Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer’s speeches, huge chunks of them are literally indistinguishable from the lamentable crap that George Osborne and David Cameron were spouting over a decade ago.
It’s as if Starmer’s rotten inner circle see Cameron and Osborne’s 2010-15 government as a great success story to be emulated, rather than a despised government that sowed the seeds of discontent that grew into the Brexit backlash.
It’s entirely understandable that people are disillusioned with more of the same economic idiocy; conscious cruelty; and outright lies that characterised Cameron’s cruel and economically incompetent coalition.
And it’s alarming that so many seem to be turning to Farage’s radical-right Reform snake oil salesmen, just as so many voted for Brexit without thinking through the consequences of giving the far-right fringe of the Tory party the green light to radically reform the UK’s unwritten constitution to impose harsh economic and social sanctions on ourselves.
Of course there are many different kinds of Reform voters. They’ve successfully soaked up the millions who used to vote for extreme-right parties like the BNP and UKIP, as well as a large chunk of the Tory right who are somehow disappointed that the Tories didn’t go far enough with privatisation mania; austerity ruination; wage repression; and conscious cruelty against the vulnerable.
However, the polls show clear evidence that a significant chunk of traditional Labour voters, especially in the so-called "Red Wall" are shifting allegiance to Farage’s extreme-right mob too.
Who gets disillusioned with an ugly Tory tribute act like Starmer’s deeply unpopular iteration of the Labour Party, and thinks that what we really need is to empower Farage’s Tories-on-steroids?
They're happy to destroy their own country if it means immigrants won't get to use it.
Starmer pushed the Overton window so closed that there is barely a chink of light.
The media has acted as a PR department for reform ignoring that they are surely educated enough to know about the bandwagon effect in their hunger for clicks.
Most ppl aren’t engaged enough with uk politics to read beyond the headlines and photos of Farages grinning face.
Also I suspect that they are desperate enough for change that they will vote for anyone that ends business as usual. This later point I can sort of understand, as I’ve thought for some years now that system change won’t come through evolution but as a result of it crashing and burning.