Purge the Labour party of the lefties

[Viviennemary]

Just seen on BBC news that Labour wants a purge of the left. Bring it on I say. It was unelectable under Corbyn and that idiotic Momentum lot. Why doesn't Diane Abbott just retire gracefully. But loòks like its all going to cause a big row with the Tories rubbing their hands in glee. Will they ever learn.

Yes, people’s preference for stable democracy really is unfathomable, isn’t it?

Great idea, purge the Left and fill the party with more Tories. Good thinking. What else have you got for us? Can't wait. Bring it on.

I think the problem with the Corbyn stripe of far left is that Russian and Iran apologism was rampant. Most of our governments act pragmatically with allies that aren’t really considered to be particularly nice (Saudi comes to mind). But people like Corbyn managed to elevate them to victimhood, these are repressive regimes which regularly try to undermine other countries.

It’s not working class politics it’s student politics and perpetual activism. The far left is a different beast to the centre left. It’s not how you run a country, theres no real pragmatism there.

This, I would very much like to see Angela Rayner sidelined too which unfortunately won't happen.

Dianne Abbott must have been a brilliant intelligent woman at one stage to have attended Cambridge in the 70's but now presents as confused and unwell.

The roots of the Labour party was in the Trade Union movement, which wasn't originally 'left' and the Quaker movement, which is religious. The Left today is far removed from the ' origins of the Labour party'. It's not even working class for the most part.

If you have no idea, why not do some background reading, rather than making pronouncements about things you have no idea about?

Combination of Corbynites stirring things up and the mainly right wing media which has subjected her to mockery and derision for years using it to point score and paint Starmer in a bad light. It’s totally overshadowed Labours pronouncements on the NHS and will add to the discourse that Labour have no plans.

This is why I'm forced to vote Green at the next GE. Such an opportunity we had in 2019, and people listened to the right-wing media instead 😔

If labour were centre right I might actually vote for them. I’d prefer a central government to left or far right

My worry is that Starmer is so worried about his party seeming left wing and so keen on reassuring the Murdoch media and big business, that he’s not going to fix anything the Tories have broken because that would mean spending money.
So the ‘status quo’ will continue of austerity - NHS waiting times through the roof, local authorities going bankrupt, school buildings crumbling.
And all the anti-human rights measures that the Tories brought in that Labour voted against at the time probably won’t be reversed, except the Rwanda plan because that was not just cruel but unworkable and bonkers.

The far bigger issue is that we have been led by the Conservatives who have a far worse problem of having a load of right wing racist headbangers in their party they will not remove and they have allowed them to dictate policy and direction and absolutely ruin this country.

I get so upset about how right-wing Britain has become.
People talk about the NHS and the housing crisis, but when they had a real opportunity to vote for someone who had actual policies to deal with these things, they said it was too far left!
Tbh, I didn't think Corbyn's Labour was that far left at all. Just normal social democracy. People listened to right-wing media sound bites rather than actually reading to see what the real policies were.

@shearwater2 I agree. This just adds to the image that the Labour Party is at war with itself. Whilst some of the Corbynites are frothing over Lloyd Russell Moyes being suspended as well (good thing in my opinion), current worry on a certain Tory sub Reddit is that Starmer will be overthrown and replaced by Far left conspirators within 2 years 🙄 couldn’t make it up.

Governments in Europe are far to the left of anything in Labour.

Tax rates far higher than anything we have, the emphasis on public services, state interventions, mainly publicly owned utilities.

Right of centre parties in Europe, are totally different to our Tory party.

Le Penn would easily fit into todays Tory party, infact she'd be to the left of Sunak, as she supports staying in the EU, lower pension age and better state benefits.

Given that Labour has recently welcomed the distasteful Natalie Elphicke into its ranks, Le Pen would possibly be feted as a new member. At least she's not Diane Abbot. Or Angela Rayner. Or Jess Philips. Hold on tight ladies, it won't be an easy ride.

Yeah it was things like his idea to invite Russian to investigate the poisoning that they were responsible for which made me baulk. He’s either a fool or he’s malign, I’m not sure which. Cosying up to a regime that beats women to death for not wearing a hijab whilst poncing about pretending to care about justice, no thank you.

I would have more sympathy with him if he said “look we have to work with people we don’t like sometimes, we have to be practical”. But no, thats not what he was doing was it, he is their actual friend. He’s in the same bracket as George Galloway for me.

Um, Labour Party roots are left-wing! Jeremy Corbyn and co absolutely did bring the party back to its original, true and authentic principles.
Tony Blair and co had moved the party so far to the right that many people had lost sight of what Labour and socialism were really all about.
Please could you name one of the policies in Labour's 2019 manifesto that you found unpalatable?
I could name several I found very palatable indeed, all of which were about basic decency and fairness. There's nothing offensive about social democracy, except to the very wealthy, dodgy landlords and multiple home owners etc who like to keep the status quo. If you didn't fall into those categories, you had nothing to fear.
Currently, under both the Tories and the Tories Lite (Starmer's Labour) I'm very afraid indeed, especially where the housing crisis is concerned.

@TryingToSeeTheFunnySide completely agree. I found it very hard to see why anyone would disagree with the manifesto the Corbyn era produced. It was costed and made me cry because of course the media and millionaires don’t want people voting for a government that would actually help people.

What if people read the policies and didn’t agree with them? Or they didn’t want the momentum, student style of politics that Labour were offering? Those who shout loudest and all that - are then shocked when the silent majority turn out to vote and disagree with them.

perhaps you should stop trying to paint people who disagree with you as simpletons who were led by the nose by “right wing sound bites”, and consider why Labour was unpalatable to so many people. Even now Labour aren’t a credible opposition - they have an open goal and the only reason they might get there this time is because the tories are doing a piss poor job.

either way we’re fucked as a country

The vast majority do not read party manifesto's and as they aren't set in stone, they are more of a guide than set in stone.

The media left Corbyn/Labour alone in 2017, non of this "he is a terrorist sympathiser" stuff and he almost won!

They didn't make that mistake in 2019 and just as they are doing now, went for Labour, i mean what the fuck is this fascination with Diane Abbott? she isn't even on Labours front bench.

Just as did with Rayner, anything to attack them with & if there isn't anything, as with AR, they make it up - the rich and pwerful are terrified of anything non Tory.

Great news. I still won’t be voting for them though.

2019 was all about Brexit. Corbyn had no
ideas as he suppported Brexit. Therefore no real opposition to the Conservatives. Also Corbyn in 2017 produced a spending list that could not be funded. Even someone with little economic knowledge could work that out. So he lost. Many people didn’t like Momentum wagging the tail any more than they appreciated Militant in the 80/90s. They had to be eradicated too.

To understand politics, it has to be accepted that the whole reason a political party exists is to get elected in sufficient numbers to form a government. Therefore not alienating too many voters is absolutely key. Generally the centre left gets Labour elected. Extreme socislist uncosted policies just don’t win enough seats. Student politics where not a single advocate for sky high taxes is paying them just needs to stay where it belongs. In a uni political society.

We already have a high tax economy at a time of high price rises. Huge spending commitments cannot be afforded. Extreme left policies always reduce investment. So even less chance of growth. We need growth in the economy more than anything.

Isn’t this like saying we should purge the conservatives of righties? 🤔

Diane Abbott I could understand. Lloyd Russell Moyes I could understand.

What I cannot grasp is how Faiza Shaheen is caught up in this? It's possibily because I cannot find what actual tweets she liked to trigger this and so maybe am not seeing the full picture but there seems to be nothing but support and praise for her work so far. Makes it hard to understand why she has been deslected.

We already have a high tax economy at a time of high price rises. Huge spending commitments cannot be afforded. Extreme left policies always reduce investment. So even less chance of growth. We need growth in the economy more than anything

Yet the EU, with far higher taxes than the UK has, far better growth, since the pandemic, growth is overall, double that of the UK.

Europe, in general, is more left of centre than the UK is.

Tax rates are just one aspect of growth, we had a very low Corp tax rate for several years, made not a jot of difference to growth.

I wasn't a fan of some of corbyns 2019 manifesto, free broadband for all, was crackers, why should the tax payer fund BB for the wealthy? but most of his plans were, in a european context, not that extreme at all, even the Tories have had to take back some rail and if they win again, nationalise water too.

Yes JC should have been much stronger on Brexit, agree there but difficult when the country has voted for it.