Unfortunately all very true and the parallels with the Democrats in the US couldn't be more clear. Unless Labour starts to think about wealth inequality, public services and helping the poor rather than demonising them, they're opening the door to Reform. Because what's the point of them if they're just going to give us more of the same? I hate Farage, but at least he doesn't lie about what he is.
Indeed, the situation with the Democrats in the US us eerily similar to what we have in the UK with Labour. The Dems should serve as a warning to Labour about how abstract ideas such as 'growth' and 'the economy is growing; just look at our graph!' is meaningless e.g. when people can't afford their shopping, and/or worry about putting their heating on.
Regarding Farage, we think he is honest about who he is, but only to a point. It is clear that he is honest about who he dislikes (immigrants, the poor), but he is far from transparent when he says he would represent the working classes. This is a line directly from the Trump playbook: get the electorate on side and then dismantle their protections for the benfit of the ultra wealthy when in power. Trump should serve as a warning about what we'd likely get with Farage. However, people are so desperate now, that we think they'd be willing to take a bigger punt on the unknown entity.
However, the worry is what damage Farage could do.
I was possibly giving Farage more credit than I actually intended. In many ways, far from transparent and, again, the parallels with the US are interesting. If you substitute Kamala for Starmer (two well meaning, principled, left leaning lawyers) and Trump for Farage (two right wing, populist demagogues who are clearly more interested in the billionaire class than the working one), the situation is strikingly similar.
In both cases, we KNOW who Trump/Farage are, whilst we're never clear on what Kamala/Starmer stand for, what their vision is. Knowing who Trump is, America still voted for him, greed, misogyny, racism and all. I'm afraid that the UK electorate will do the same thing for Farage.
This article is absolutely superb! It is detailed, thorough, and very accurate.
Who will vote for them? I’m desperate to keep Farage out of- and that is my only reason. I desperately want to vote Green but although they are really strong in my town at local level, I’m not sure that they’ll win at constituency level.
Thank-you for your kind words about our work, it means a lot to us that it resonates 🙏
We find ourselves in exactly the same position as you regarding vote choices. We live in a Conservative constituency, where Labour were/are the party who should get the 'tactical vote' to oust the Tories. We voted for Labour in the GE24, but it was a head over heart decision, completely loveless. Both of us would have liked to vote Green, as they had a position to rejoin Europe, a position on what is happening in Gaza, and sensible ideas for how to mend the UK.
However, a Green vote would have been a wasted vote in our constituency. Absolutely no chance of breaking through. Why does it have to be like this? Why should our Green vote mean nothing? (This is perhaps another article to write!)
The answer is that we need electoral change - Proportional Representation. But there is zero chance Labour will implement it. It's also interesting to see Reform backing away from their calls for PR now that they think they can win an election using the current FPTP system.
A major issue is that Starmer doesn't think that he needs to appeal to people on the left; all he thinks he needs to do on the run up to the next election is to say 'It's either us or Farage.' He thinks the left will hold their noses (again) and vote for Labour, but we will just end up in a death spiral of Labour's managed decline of the UK.
On anoter note, our major worry at the moment is that Trump is going to kick off a war in the Middle East involving Iran, and Starmer - wanting his Thatcher/Falklands moment to boost his domestic popularity - will join Trump on this (mis)adventure, thinking it will put him firmly in Trump's good books as well.
Unfortunately all very true and the parallels with the Democrats in the US couldn't be more clear. Unless Labour starts to think about wealth inequality, public services and helping the poor rather than demonising them, they're opening the door to Reform. Because what's the point of them if they're just going to give us more of the same? I hate Farage, but at least he doesn't lie about what he is.
Indeed, the situation with the Democrats in the US us eerily similar to what we have in the UK with Labour. The Dems should serve as a warning to Labour about how abstract ideas such as 'growth' and 'the economy is growing; just look at our graph!' is meaningless e.g. when people can't afford their shopping, and/or worry about putting their heating on.
Regarding Farage, we think he is honest about who he is, but only to a point. It is clear that he is honest about who he dislikes (immigrants, the poor), but he is far from transparent when he says he would represent the working classes. This is a line directly from the Trump playbook: get the electorate on side and then dismantle their protections for the benfit of the ultra wealthy when in power. Trump should serve as a warning about what we'd likely get with Farage. However, people are so desperate now, that we think they'd be willing to take a bigger punt on the unknown entity.
However, the worry is what damage Farage could do.
I was possibly giving Farage more credit than I actually intended. In many ways, far from transparent and, again, the parallels with the US are interesting. If you substitute Kamala for Starmer (two well meaning, principled, left leaning lawyers) and Trump for Farage (two right wing, populist demagogues who are clearly more interested in the billionaire class than the working one), the situation is strikingly similar.
In both cases, we KNOW who Trump/Farage are, whilst we're never clear on what Kamala/Starmer stand for, what their vision is. Knowing who Trump is, America still voted for him, greed, misogyny, racism and all. I'm afraid that the UK electorate will do the same thing for Farage.
This article is absolutely superb! It is detailed, thorough, and very accurate.
Who will vote for them? I’m desperate to keep Farage out of- and that is my only reason. I desperately want to vote Green but although they are really strong in my town at local level, I’m not sure that they’ll win at constituency level.
Thank-you for your kind words about our work, it means a lot to us that it resonates 🙏
We find ourselves in exactly the same position as you regarding vote choices. We live in a Conservative constituency, where Labour were/are the party who should get the 'tactical vote' to oust the Tories. We voted for Labour in the GE24, but it was a head over heart decision, completely loveless. Both of us would have liked to vote Green, as they had a position to rejoin Europe, a position on what is happening in Gaza, and sensible ideas for how to mend the UK.
However, a Green vote would have been a wasted vote in our constituency. Absolutely no chance of breaking through. Why does it have to be like this? Why should our Green vote mean nothing? (This is perhaps another article to write!)
The answer is that we need electoral change - Proportional Representation. But there is zero chance Labour will implement it. It's also interesting to see Reform backing away from their calls for PR now that they think they can win an election using the current FPTP system.
A major issue is that Starmer doesn't think that he needs to appeal to people on the left; all he thinks he needs to do on the run up to the next election is to say 'It's either us or Farage.' He thinks the left will hold their noses (again) and vote for Labour, but we will just end up in a death spiral of Labour's managed decline of the UK.
On anoter note, our major worry at the moment is that Trump is going to kick off a war in the Middle East involving Iran, and Starmer - wanting his Thatcher/Falklands moment to boost his domestic popularity - will join Trump on this (mis)adventure, thinking it will put him firmly in Trump's good books as well.