Apologies, I was not going to post anymore on Thursday's by-election.... but I've just read this comment by an un-named Labour ministersin the FT:

[bnorbury@mastodon.social]

@ChrisMayLA6 Perhaps he/she is more confident of seeing off Reform than the Greens. I can imagine swapping my vote to Green but never to Reform. They may be worried there are lots more like me.

[chrismayla6@zirk.us]

@RaymondPierreL3

Its depressing isn't it, but as you imply, nothing new

[etchedpixels@mastodon.social]

@ChrisMayLA6 the level of cope on display is positively Russian in class at this point with Starmer talking nonsense about Galloway rather than trying a little self reflection. Sooner he is out the better for labour, so hopefully he stays put

[skua@mastodon.social]

@ChrisMayLA6
Liking ministersin.
Tickles memories of the Faction Paradox Doctor Who.

ἀλήθεια
alḗtheia

#FactionParadox #DoctorWho

[walrus@toot.wales]

@celeduc @ChrisMayLA6

They had already abandoned those when I left, over 30 years ago.

[tristrambrelstaff@mathstodon.xyz]

@ChrisMayLA6
I gave up on Labour membership when Jeremy Corbyn failed to come to an agreement with the Greens and Liberals. He might have actually got into power had he done so.
I think that such an agreement will be even more necessary now that Labour are bringing 16 and 17 year olds into the electorate.

[timwardcam@c.im]

@ChrisMayLA6 For many on the left, squabbling amongst themselves is *much* more important than fighting the right. Always has been, always will be. So statements like that are hardly a surprise.

[pionir@masto.bike]

@ChrisMayLA6 worst for labour, not the constituency or country?

[andydearden@mastodon.green]

@Walrus @celeduc @ChrisMayLA6 they held a special conference specificaĺly to abandon their principles.

[celeduc@mastodon.social]

@Walrus @ChrisMayLA6 New Labour! Third Way! Red Dogs! It was remarkable how the US Dems and Labour sold out in lockstep. Blair/Clinton used to maintain a thin pretense of leftism over their rapacious neoliberalism, but neither party can be bothered to even *gesture* to its base anymore.

I argue that Labour is now to the right of Boris Johnson's government: climate, economy, immigration, health, and gender scrutiny madness.

Here's hoping the lot of them fucks off to Dubai, like Spain's ex-king.

[quantillion@mstdn.io]

@ChrisMayLA6
What is very revealing is that Labour now see themselves as closer to Reform than to the #Greens.
The upside is that this should see SWATHS of disaffected once-traditional – but also young – Labour supporters going #Green.

[felichsdakatze@mastodon.social]

@ChrisMayLA6

the people getting what they want IS the worst outcome.

For them.

[zappes@mastodon.online]

@Quantillion @ChrisMayLA6 That seems to be what's happening in Germany right now. Our labour-equivalent party (the SPD) managed to piss off their traditional voters so effectively that the poll results of the Greens and SPD have basically been swapped.

At least the SPD never moved towards our reform-equivalent (the AfD). But our tories (CDU) made it very clear, repeatedly, that they consider the Greens their main enemy while inching closer to the fascists with every election.

[zappes@mastodon.online]

@Quantillion @ChrisMayLA6 The worst thing about this development is that we now have two democratic parties (Green and CDU) that , in combination, represent most of the country - but one of them sees the other as the antichrist which makes a sensible democratic discourse extremely difficult. The only ones who really benefit from that are the nazis.

[astrocat@masto.bike]

@ChrisMayLA6 they can't even discern the evil anymore

[remittancegirl@mstdn.social]

@ChrisMayLA6 Exactly this.

But I was smelling this coming for a while now, that PLP saw the left as a greater existential threat to its power than Reform.

And that is what convinced me that I belonged to an immoral party and needed to leave it.

[usmu@kind.social]

@celeduc @Walrus @ChrisMayLA6
A bit more niche, but the Dutch labor party (PvdA) did exactly the same thing in the 90s and have now merged with the Greens (Groen Links) because they got punished for it hard and went from coalition partner to small opposition party. Not a fan of that, because it causes a lack of diversity of left wing parties, but it is what it is.

Edit: spelling error

[xs4me2@mastodon.social]

@ChrisMayLA6

Exactly...

[usmu@kind.social]

@zappes @Quantillion @ChrisMayLA6 It's very similar here in the Netherlands, with the exception the Dutch labor party (PvdA) has now merged with the dutch Greens (Groen Links), after they got decimated in the last election. This is causing a lack of diversity on the left wing that worries me

[heathermj@mastodon.social]

@ChrisMayLA6
They are not going to learn the lesson that moving to the right does not give them support. Thay have the opportunity now to become the Labour Party the country needs. They need to change now before it is too late. They are not going to