25 Comments

Well written piece AAV, I won't be voting for more of the same under the Labour party, we have already had 14 years of austerity whilst the rich have raked it in. In my constituency Labour has always held the seat so I'm sure my vote won't be missed.

Expand full comment

I want to comment, but I am too depressed. 😔

Expand full comment

When his own party stuck the knife into Jeremy Corbyn, I naively believed that was the worst that things could get. Apart from the colour of their rosettes, there now doesn't appear to be any noticeable difference between labour and the tories. We're screwed.

Expand full comment

So many of us feel hopeless and at a loss about who to vote for - wishing the Green Party would be backed by the unions instead of Labour as that might persuade more people to chance giving them support as a Socialist alternative

Expand full comment

Corbyn could have promised to make the voting system fairer, but he didn't cos he was happy with the disproportionate voting system.

Expand full comment

Idiot, simple moronic view.

Expand full comment

✌️❤️✊️

Expand full comment

What is "radical-right culture war bollocks" referring to?

Expand full comment

Brexit, immigration, LGBTQ rights or any way the far right tries to divide and distract us.

Expand full comment

Which LGBTQ rights are under threat?

Expand full comment

I don't know, 'wedge' issues of this sort.

Expand full comment

All your conclusions are correct but you are only looking at things from an electoral and parliamentary perspective, Tom. The last year has seen enormous demonstrations over the genocide in Gaza, industrial action has been ticking over steadily and it looks like wide-boy Streeting is set to pick a fight with the junior doctors.Outside of Westminster the class struggle will go on . Sometimes, just sometimes, it becomes powerful enough to alter the whole political balance - think Pentonville, Heath 's "who runs the country" election call, the poll tax riot. The danger is the unions will hold back from industrial action because it's "their" government , but the TU-Labour tie is weakening.

It's pressure from.below that can undo Starmer .

Expand full comment

A steaming, storming , factual and brilliant appraisal. Hats off, keep kicking and waking people up!

Expand full comment

I agree with your analysis and the fact there is little hope of changing the status quo. However Capitalism does not operate in a vacuum. There are many potential change likely to start happening soon in the world and which could alter the dynamics of the world order and therefore what happens in the UK. The emergence of the BRICS organisation which has the potential to represent 70% of the world’s population along with a new monetary system that will challenge the hegemony of the West/G7/G20. I therefore live in hope that a change for the better can be on the horizon!🤓

Expand full comment

A vote for Starmer is a view for the continuation of the same Tory policies that got us into this mess but the electorate believed that a view for anyone but Labour will let the Tories back in. Labour ARE the Tories! With the Uniparty in power the alternative is anyone but the Uniparty and it's clear that electorates across the Western World are seeing it and trying to do something about it. Vote Workers Party, vote Green, vote Reform, vote for anything but the more war, pro Genocide parties.

Expand full comment

Not reform, robotic monkey view.

Expand full comment

You've summarized well how bad the fix is in, at least this election; just as it is in the US.

The only real option for the left in either country remains forming new, explicitly left parties; not trying to squeeze uncomfortably and chaotically into Green or socialist/communist ones, but willing to work in concert with those as conditions favor.

It's become clear that each of us cannot accomplish this on our own, so the unaligned lefts of the UK and US should ideate and collaborate ways to build both together. There's never been a more necessary time to start this than now, or very very soon.

Expand full comment

Or just a revolution. There's more of us than them. Time for action. So bored with the status que 😴

Expand full comment

The problem with "revolutions" is, once you start one; you can't always control it. Too many would-be revolutionaries wind up consumed by the flames they kindled. And often, when the smoke cleared, some mother%^%&er nobody wanted to see near power has come up with most of it.

Expand full comment

True words, but out of anarchy you can judge most peoples true-self or self-interest. We cannot go on like this because we are screwed if we do. People now have become so wrapped up in their own enclosed lives they cannot see outside of it nor do they want to. I'm fortunate in where I live, as its a small island community and no where near as bad as the mainland. There's a lot of hate and poison being peddled right now.

Expand full comment

You're right; the status quo cannot continue. My theory is, put the forces for leftward change into a format ordinary people understand (a political party); no ARGs, no parasocial cults, no stupid psyops of any kind. A party that is formed from coalitions of various affinity groups that threatens the integrity of none of them, where politics is done transactionally and in the open. There will be attempts to sabotage it, of course; but after all we've been through in the 'wilderness' those will be much easier to spot and shelve.

Expand full comment

I would be comfortable with this format. Just now I'm so disappointed in the lack of true empathy for real world problems. Smoke and mirrors set up by current political party stunts. I've voted SNP for a while, but favour the Greens this time as a stop gap. Action now sooner than later. Afraid its been allowed to transcend, in clear view...we are trying our best, is not acceptable anymore.

Expand full comment

I wish the UK Greens and the US Greens would do some work together, along with any of the European Green parties; but that doesn't seem to be in the cards.

The Greens are but one small, particular faction of the left over here; very insular and wary of takeover attempts and major-party/deep-state chaos agents. And not without reason. That's why we need a different, looser left party than them; an influx of "feral" outsider leftists to their ranks would destabilize their brand and their ideological integrity.

Expand full comment

And "some Mother fcker" has already come to power without having a revolution.... keir starmer!!

Expand full comment