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Voting labour for the first time. Anyone else?

571 replies

Lupina12 · 04/07/2024 06:31

Labour are far from perfect, but I like Keir Starmer and I think they are the best party to turn things around from the awful mess the incumbents have got us into.

He’s not glossy or witty or funny, but he seems decent - (he clearly has a wonderful wife and that only reflects well on him!)

Anyway, just curious - anyone else voting Labour for the first time? I’m 40 by the way and in the south east.

OP posts:
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VimtoVimto · 04/07/2024 16:48

@Proudtobeanortherner she took her A levels in 2009.

DontBiteTheCat · 04/07/2024 15:38

Livelovebehappy · 04/07/2024 15:26

Ah, so the two posters upthread were talking crap then? Okay, that explains it. And I doubt it’s mind fryingly intense. Not looking at the standard of people coming out of education. Our company takes on many teens who can’t even spell or do simple maths. We have to teach them….

Of course you do.

LostTheMarble · 04/07/2024 15:29

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 15:20

Maybe educate yourself on teacher training first losing your shit unnecessarily? There's a year's intense study – mind-fryingly intense – to become an ECT (Early Career Teacher). Then ECTs undergo a two-year induction period in the classroom to refine their teaching skills and be assessed on their performance. They are not just thrown in and left to it.

And it's not schools failing children, it's the lack of central Govt funding to run them adequately.

And it's not schools failing children, it's the lack of central Govt funding to run them adequately.

That is a tiny part of it. Schools are dividing themselves between higher ups who are paying themselves a huge amount whilst only hiring newly qualified teachers to save money whilst not focusing on the real issues facing said schools in terms of behaviour issues and sen. Teachers who aren’t SLT are left to try and reach academic targets whilst also having children in their class who need specialists settings. Either way they’re blamed for failing standards instead of supported by school leaders.

Livelovebehappy · 04/07/2024 15:26

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 15:20

Maybe educate yourself on teacher training first losing your shit unnecessarily? There's a year's intense study – mind-fryingly intense – to become an ECT (Early Career Teacher). Then ECTs undergo a two-year induction period in the classroom to refine their teaching skills and be assessed on their performance. They are not just thrown in and left to it.

And it's not schools failing children, it's the lack of central Govt funding to run them adequately.

Ah, so the two posters upthread were talking crap then? Okay, that explains it. And I doubt it’s mind fryingly intense. Not looking at the standard of people coming out of education. Our company takes on many teens who can’t even spell or do simple maths. We have to teach them….

LostTheMarble · 04/07/2024 15:24

Livelovebehappy · 04/07/2024 15:15

Takes just one year!!? No wonder our schools are failing our children. Madness.

With a degree. And you have to prove you have the subject knowledge. It’s not necessary but it’s highly recommended you have work experience in a school environment because most of the people who drop out of teacher training do so because they haven’t the slightest clue what teaching is actually about beyond knowledge of said subject. It’s highly intense and many people don’t actually complete the course (they usually have their arms twisted to leave so a Fail doesn’t reflect badly on the already awful numbers).

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 15:20

Livelovebehappy · 04/07/2024 15:15

Takes just one year!!? No wonder our schools are failing our children. Madness.

Maybe educate yourself on teacher training first losing your shit unnecessarily? There's a year's intense study – mind-fryingly intense – to become an ECT (Early Career Teacher). Then ECTs undergo a two-year induction period in the classroom to refine their teaching skills and be assessed on their performance. They are not just thrown in and left to it.

And it's not schools failing children, it's the lack of central Govt funding to run them adequately.

DontBiteTheCat · 04/07/2024 15:19

Livelovebehappy · 04/07/2024 15:15

Takes just one year!!? No wonder our schools are failing our children. Madness.

If you have a degree, the PGCE takes a year.

Livelovebehappy · 04/07/2024 15:15

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 14:38

Doesn't take four years. It takes one. I know because my DP retrained to be one.

Takes just one year!!? No wonder our schools are failing our children. Madness.

Livelovebehappy · 04/07/2024 15:10

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 04/07/2024 12:55

No, it's been left in place because it's utterly impossible to reset the narrative without being labelled a "Far Left" lunatic, vilified the way Corbyn was, for not much more than espousing a few reasonably mundane policies like taking certain services back into public ownership. The sort of thing that is commonplace in a lot of countries who haven't yet sold anything not nailed down for a quick injection of cash, to hell with the long-term consequences.

Thatcher sorted nothing, she just pushed the bills further down the road, and we've continued to do that through successive governments regardless of Tory or Labour. The problem is, someday those bills come due, and when that day arrives while you are trying to deal with the aftereffects of a pandemic that you were wholly unprepared for, in part due to your own fiscal intransigence and short-termism, and also against the backdrop of a global CoL crisis, you are rather up shit creek.

Have you not noticed that over the past 14 years, and despite swingeing cuts to spending, national debt has trebled, government borrowing is through the roof, and STILL the economy is absolutely flat-lining, wages are stagnant, and costs are STILL rising. Our national credit rating has tanked, because we simply aren't the "safe bet" for lending we used to be.

This is what Thatcher got the UK, a few more decades of living it up on money we simply didn't have, at the price of leaving the consequences to be dealt with by people who weren't even alive when she was elected. This country is absolutely fucked, completely and utterly, without an enormous change of approach in respect to how it fundamentally spends its money and goes about things, but it won't happen because of this idiotic ingrained idea in public heads that you can demand low taxes and quality public service, and there is somehow no contradiction there, or consequences for pandering to that.

Funnily enough, the only people this is actually working out for is the already mega-wealthy, who not only use and abuse their wealth and power to ensure that nothing upsets the apple cart, but will simply fuck off elsewhere when the wheels fall off completely. But most voters in the UK seem to not only be unbothered by this, but enthusiastically participate presumably because they are still buying into the complete myth of "trickle down" economics. When is some of that wealth going to actually start trickling down then? It's been 45 years.

But, like I said, Labour have been in power since Thatcher. They had the power to reset anything put in place by the Tories. That’s how politics work. You really can’t get Labour off the hook by saying they were ‘scared’ of being called ‘far left lunatics’, so abstained from getting rid of policies implemented by Thatcher. And we’ve had the predictable increased taxes in the past from Labour governments, with the promise of improved public services. It never works, because the increased taxes disappear into a black hole, and public services remain the same, but now we’re also carrying increased debt. That’s how Labour works.

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 15:06

Blaming the EU? That's straight out of the Tory playbook. Cameron and Osborne were its architects, not Brussels.

Proudtobeanortherner · 04/07/2024 15:01

VimtoVimto · 04/07/2024 08:20

My daughter managed to get excellent GCSE and A level results from a bog standard comprehensive during the last Labour government.

Was a woman a woman back then?

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 14:55

DontBiteTheCat · 04/07/2024 14:52

Do the parents of those who go to state school not work hard then?

Edited - that was to @cavalier apologies!

Edited

Don't worry, I knew who it was aimed at – the poster making wildly inaccurate claims!

DontBiteTheCat · 04/07/2024 14:52

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 14:38

Doesn't take four years. It takes one. I know because my DP retrained to be one.

Do the parents of those who go to state school not work hard then?

Edited - that was to @cavalier apologies!

HebburnPokemon · 04/07/2024 14:43

takes 4 years to train them

Oh God, why are you commenting on things you clearly don't have even a basic grasp of?

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 14:38

cavalier · 04/07/2024 14:36

Also schools .. magic wand .. thousands more teachers ? Yeah right .. takes 4 years to train them and then there will be the hard working parents who want their kids to go to private school and the tax will push them out into State schools .. great idea marvellous.. well done Labour .. sit back it’s going to be a bumpy ride

Doesn't take four years. It takes one. I know because my DP retrained to be one.

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 14:36

HesterRoon · 04/07/2024 14:30

And with the lowest rates in history, didn’t borrow to invest as a more sensible government would-instead, David and George were ideologically wedded to austerity. And I voted for them!

Exactly. Austerity was a mistake that they could've walked back from but didn't.

cavalier · 04/07/2024 14:36

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 14:12

Everyone I know who is voting for Labour knows that it's not going to be easy for Starmer. There's no magic tree to shake – your lot have given most of the money to their mates in contracts. Everyone knows that, and everyone knows that the Tories have tanked the economy and pillaged the reserves. But Starmer under pressure is still infinitely preferable to your lot continuing to rob us blind and drive public services into the ground.

Edited

Also schools .. magic wand .. thousands more teachers ? Yeah right .. takes 4 years to train them and then there will be the hard working parents who want their kids to go to private school and the tax will push them out into State schools .. great idea marvellous.. well done Labour .. sit back it’s going to be a bumpy ride

cavalier · 04/07/2024 14:33

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 14:12

Everyone I know who is voting for Labour knows that it's not going to be easy for Starmer. There's no magic tree to shake – your lot have given most of the money to their mates in contracts. Everyone knows that, and everyone knows that the Tories have tanked the economy and pillaged the reserves. But Starmer under pressure is still infinitely preferable to your lot continuing to rob us blind and drive public services into the ground.

Edited

People have got short memories and he’s going to stuff the poor pensioners with tax hikes

HesterRoon · 04/07/2024 14:30

And with the lowest rates in history, didn’t borrow to invest as a more sensible government would-instead, David and George were ideologically wedded to austerity. And I voted for them!

user1984778379202 · 04/07/2024 14:23

Voterswung · 04/07/2024 14:16

Bookmark they started 14 years ago with the infamous note : no money left.
But to be fair to Labour they ended on the credit crisis. Do you remember people Leaving desks with their stuff in boxes, runs on the bank? People loosing jobs left right and center and huge government bail outs.
That's what the tories inherited.
Then they got hit by covid /brexit and the cost of living crisis
It's not been a good run for anyone in the past 20 years.
We will probably hit a cyclic high now and labour will get praise.

Yes, the Tories did inherit an economy hit hard by the banking crisis, there's no disputing that. But instead of pushing growth by investing in manufacturing and services, the Tories brought in austerity instead and cut public services to the bone. And then kept cutting for the next 14 years. And yes, the pandemic was a fiscal nightmare for them too, but they gave away billions to their mates that could've been spent on public services. Not to mention failing to go after corporations like Amazon for tax. The Tories could've made us all richer in terms of life quality but instead they propped up the wealthy and made food banks the new corner shops.

Fightthepower · 04/07/2024 14:20

Hummingbird75 · 04/07/2024 11:18

Labour and the unions coordinated those strikes deliberately to undermine the conservative government. Everyone knows that. Most of them have been resolved, not surprising - what a coincidence.

No they didn't and no they haven't.

Voterswung · 04/07/2024 14:19

@Hummingbird75

Not one person I've read on endless threads about this who think it's a non issue: seems to have done any research into it.

Ie they don't say.. I've read x y and z and I can see the reach and brainwashing of b, however...

They don't get it and clearly don't want too (rather like starmer until backed into a wall).