To ask for your examples of loony left policies?

[ItsJustNotRight]

I had posted that on another thread but is probably better on its own. Posters keep referring to loony left policies so I would like to know
What left wing policies are, in your opinion, just plain bonkers?

Ugh, here comes all the urban legends about 'bah bah white sheep', 'personhole' covers, and Winterval.

Protective booties for pigeons?

Liverpool council hiring taxis to personally deliver P45s in the 1980s.

They effectively went bust and a student on my course had to leave as his tuition fees weren't paid .

GLC "Nuclear free London" springs to mind.

Best places to start would be Islington, Hackney, Brent, Stoke Newington (are you seeing a pattern ) ...

Anyway...

'Nuclear free London' was about objecting to the nuclear flask trains running through the city.

Living in London through the heady days of Ken and Frances Morrell, I remember 'Loony' policies as simply giving money to groups who perturbed Tories. Irish and LGBT groups spring to mind.

unilateral disarmament
saying you wouldn't be willing to 'press the button'

Cue a long list of things that never happened, and policies made up entirely by the Daily Mail.

I'm hoping that someone will detail some real policies, not the stuff that never actually happened. Im genuinely interested.

Living in London through the heady days of Ken

Having met Ken (he and Tony Benn were the only politicians who responded to an invitation to our 6th Form) back in 1983, an awful lot of what was written was pure Daily Mail tosh. And whatever your personal opinions, his views on the Troubles (that the only solution lay in negotiating) turned out to be spot on.

Ken was always a diamond geezer in my book. I met him when we were both rattling collection buckets for the miners.

Nothing wrong with Ken's GLC but a lot wrong with his predecessor - that cunt Cutler. Weird how no-one seems to remember just how corrupt Tory Sir Horace was (and how refreshingly honest Ken was in comparison).

Could we also include loony right policies? Clause 28 and Gerry Adams dubbed voice for starters

It was only really Liverpool, Lambeth and the GLC that hit a bit OTT. Sometimes. 39 years ago.

Cutler - yes , I remember him doorstepping when I lived in Brent, slimey sod. Personally I think Ken was brilliant, the only thing Thatcher could do to stop him was shut down the GLC. He and Corbyn accept that you have to engage with terrorists eventually, I don't think this is a looney idea. Corbyn also voted against Falklands, Iraq and Syria intervention has has been proved to be on the correct side on each occasion so that's not a looney action either, I'm still looking for the looney ones

Citizens' Wage for everyone. That's a Greens policy.

Communism.

I volunteer for a charity and the CEO did call the Christmas holidays "Winterval". He later stopped using the term "due to popular demand." It's not a total urban myth.

Quote from Birmingham city council who used the term first:

"Quite simply, as head of events at that time, we needed a vehicle which could cover the marketing of a whole season of events... Diwali (the Festival of Lights), Christmas Lights switch-on, BBC Children in Need, Aston Hall by Candlelight, Chinese New Year, New Year's Eve, etc. Also, a season that included theatre shows, an open-air ice-rink, the Frankfurt Open-air Christmas Market and the Christmas seasonal retail offer. Christmas—called Christmas!—and its celebration lay at the heart of Winterval.

Political correctness was never the reasoning behind Winterval, but yes, it was intended to be inclusive—which is no bad thing to my mind—and a brand to which other initiatives could be developed as part of the Winterval offer, in order to sell the city at a time when all cities are competing against each other for the seasonal trade."

No, I don't think that qualifies as a looney idea either.

I cant think of a single one (thats true). And I've lived in a Labour ward for 20 years.

They recognised Rape Crisis and Womens Aid as being valid, got the police towork with them, and gave them tax payers money. That was described as a loony policy at the time, because man haters.

The 80s called OP - they want their cliches back.

SaturdaySurprise

The citizen's wage is actually an excellent idea. By giving everyone a set amount of money each year, it would mean a smaller welfare bill. If you want extra, you work (unless disabled). A citizen's wage of £8000 would be sufficient and would mean that it still pays more to work but a disabled person would have access to better care/money because we'd be spending less money on things like housing benefit or income support.

I doubt it will ever get that far, but it's not a silly idea.

But surely they are only bonkers if you are on the opposite "side" eg I think a universal citizens income is pretty sensible...

Not renewing Trident and eventual nuclear disarmament. Great in an ideal world but really concerning with the times we are living in.

LurkingHusband

Except that the P45s were imposed on them by the Tory government - they couldn't refuse to cut staff numbers. The taxis were to make the point that they were refusing to set rates and were going to spend money, and if they were allowed to, they would keep the staff on. Of course, the Daily Mail got hold of it and made out like the council were enjoying delivering the P45s and using the taxis to rub it in, which was untrue.

Having lived through that time, Liverpool is a better city for it. There are people who got council houses thanks to Degsy that still live in them. No other council built houses on the scale that Liverpool did in the 80s. He also moved the city into different industries, ending the reliance on the docks and shipyards. He also refused to allow Liverpool to slip into disrepair, like the Tories wanted.

Degsy is a lot of things, but 'loony' isn't one of them. An excellent man.

Not saying these are current policies or even from the UK, but examples for me include

Taxes that make it pointless working or living in a place
Welfare levels that disincentivise working
Inability to fairly dismiss workers without a payoff
Not being allowed to ask workers what they're off sick with
Prisoners having the right to vote
Not being able to deport immigrants who have harmed or intend to harm your citizens

Oh and the P45 thing was actually a delaying tactic. The Tories wanted to just cut the staff, as their contracts allowed. However, by delivering a P45 it gave the employees 90 days notice, which entitled them to be paid 90 days money by the government. Degsy knew this and he knew the Tories didn't want to be paying hundreds of people for 90 days and them not doing any work. It worked, of course, because Degsy was able to save those jobs in the end and negotiated better conditions.

He was also responsible for getting rid of the slums in Liverpool and replacing them with proper houses with front and back gardens.

I think a lot of people forget that Degsy actually had a proper job before he was a politician - he was a fireman. It was seeing the slum conditions on call outs that made him get into politics. The stupidity of the right-wing press was at its best when they had a go at him for wearing scruffy clothes when he first got into politics, so he started wearing flash suits and then they had a go at that! He couldn't win. He scared the right-wing establishment, so they tried in any way they could to stop him.

The people of Liverpool did and still do love him.

Hermiones list is one I agree with.

Go (back) to the Daily Mail comments. They will tell all about it, in droves

What time's the article due? Just topping up after the Tory conference?

hermioneweasley exactly.