UK Election June 08

[peejaye]

All those 3 are Tories in my book Savros! With undecided voters it would come down to personalities & that's not what Politics is all about!
Some people will laugh but I'd like to see George Galloway(I know he's not even a Labour MP) or Unite Union leader Len McCluskey take the reigns. Jeremy Corbyn struggles to defend himself against his critics & the far right, he's just not aggressive enough.
Realistically though I suppose Corbyns No.2 John McDonald could do a job?

[broncofan]

My longer term bet, if he wants the job, would be London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Prepare yourselves for a Muslim Prime Minister, but not in the next 5 years...

Every time I've seen an interview with Mr. Khan he has come across as intelligent, temperate, and charismatic. I hope those characteristics don't make him suspect, but based on the attacks I've seen him deal with, he seems like someone who is resilient and dignified. There is no doubt that being a Muslim would make him subject to personal attack from every angle by the nationalist right wing, and that his attempts to be diplomatic and promote cohesion might even be challenged.

But just because someone is a lighting rod for the intolerant does not mean he would not make a great candidate. He's described as center left in bios I've read of him; personally center left does not automatically translate to militaristic in my mind. He's probably not as comfortable with Russia's actions in Ukraine as say George Galloway who in 2014 said he believed Russia had a right to act in Ukraine, but some might think there's a moral basis for that.

[peejaye]

He is NOT centre left, you have been mis-informed! He is actually centre right, just the kind of candidate Labour doesn't need!
Although I'm sure the media and their friends would disagree!

[broncofan]

All those 3 are Tories in my book Savros!

Even though our views are different, I enjoy your posts. I know that bc I'm not British I don't have my finger on the pulse of these issues like you guys do, and also do not have to live as directly with the consequences of your vote.

I'm just curious what makes Sadiq Khan a Tory? Does he support intervention and active foreign policy? Does he want to cut social programs? I guess I'd also be curious what make George Galloway left wing except him professing that he is.

[Stavros]

All those 3 are Tories in my book Savros! With undecided voters it would come down to personalities & that's not what Politics is all about!
Some people will laugh but I'd like to see George Galloway(I know he's not even a Labour MP) or Unite Union leader Len McCluskey take the reigns. Jeremy Corbyn struggles to defend himself against his critics & the far right, he's just not aggressive enough.
Realistically though I suppose Corbyns No.2 John McDonald could do a job?

Peejaye I understand your frustration with the political class that has been in power at least since 2010 and probably before, but I don't think anger and resentment are a sound basis for policy making, and the UK has tended not to vote for candidates who appear to be extreme. George Galloway is a three-legged show pony, completely untrustworthy and too much of a maverick to be a team leader. Len McCluskey reminds me of the trade union barons of the 1970s who were, as the saying goes, all mouth and no trousers, campaigning for worker's rights and socialism but yet when offered a seat in the House of Lords tripped over their left feet in the mad rush to don the ermine and claim their daily allowance. The closest we have come to an extremist was Margaret Thatcher, yet in spite of her flamboyant rhetoric, she was in essence a pragmatist, indeed it was only when she became fixated on a policy nobody else believed in, the Poll Tax, that she was challenged in her own party and forced to resign. The appeal of Theresa May is precisely that sense that she is a safe pair of hands, as was also true of Blair, and is also why Nigel Farage has been on the fringe of British politics where he is destined to remain, having decided after 7 failed attempts he won't be making an 8th attempt to become an MP. As for John McDonnell, the Leninist mind-set he has is not suited to government, he is and would probably prefer to be in perpetual opposition, but if he was Prime Minister, my guess is the UK would be bankrupt in six months.

The truth is the Prime Minister, and the leaders of most parties in the UK are likely to be dull, managerial types. You need only look across the Atlantic to see the pitfalls of electing a matinee idol as Prime Minister, or a loud-mouthed fantasist as President. The policy agenda is where we should focus our energies, but without knowing how Brexit is going to look when the negotiations are done, I am not sure how much forward planning can be done in 2017 if the conditions all change in 2019, but I suppose that is the challenge. I think the voters make relatively simple judgements: Am I better off now than I was ten years ago when I voted for X, will I be better off in the next ten years if I vote for Y? Voters want a risk-free option, but even when voting for change I wonder if they know what it can really mean, like the cleaner working two jobs a day I used to know who voted for Mrs Thatcher in 1979 because he wanted lower taxes. His income tax was reduced, but VAT was doubled in a month, and by December that year he had been made redundant from his main day job because his firm went bust. But if any party, be it the Labour or the Tories, or Le Pen in France claims they will represent the 'forgotten people' they need to deliver for them in terms of jobs and economic growth, and those are the two jewels in the crown that have been missing their sparkle for some time. And Our Noble, and Most Gracious Majesty is 91 years old...

[peejaye]

Thanks for your input Stavros, fascinating as always, you are certainly a man of the world.

It certainly should be all about policies, so why were the Tories voted in? I think it came down to personalities last time; Cameron or Milliband and most people didn't like the way Milliband ate is bacon sandwich! Remember the BBC showing all it's viewers half a dozen times a day during the entire election campagne! Most people are now officially worse off than they were 10 years ago, that's there fault if they voted that way! Unfortunately, so am I now after 33 years on the railway, I have been made redundant because of Tory policy on freight on rail and coal fuelled power stations. I did receive a "pay out" thank goodness.
I can only hope and pray for a change of Government but I am not optimistic.

Brancofan; Sadiq Khan isn't a Tory but neither was Tony Blair! They are both what is now called "New Labour". Almost the opposite to traditional Labour. If Corbyn isn't elected he will no doubt be removed as leader and we will have another right wing Labour leader then will have no choice of policies to choose from, depressing isn't it.

[broncofan]

Brancofan; Sadiq Khan isn't a Tory but neither was Tony Blair! .

I suppose I know he isn't literally a Tory. I guess I just don't really know what policies he advocates that make him seem unacceptably right wing. I have a sense of why Tony Blair is seen that way, but was curious if there are deeper parallels between the two than people placing them in the same category. Anyhow, I'll be watching the election eagerly. Cheers and I hope you get what you're looking for.

[peejaye]

Thanks Bronco. No-one could ever be fairly placed in the same category as Tony Blair. He is seen by many as the most hated figure in British Politics but not by everyone I should say.

[filghy2]

Blair deserves condemnation for the Iraq war and for not preventing the behaviour in the financial sector that led to the financial crisis. But his government did expand social programs whereas the Conservatives have cut them. Surely that is a significant difference.

The striking fact at present is that conditions in the UK and other advanced countries - stagnant wages, rising inequality, economic insecurity - should have been tailor-made for left-leaning parties, yet it is the right-wing populists who are prospering. Unfortunately it is much easier to target scapegoats (aided by the tabloid press) but the centre-left will have to do a better job of developing solutions and articulating a narrative that addresses the the practical concerns of ordinary people.

On the positive side, the populist right are unlikely to be able to meet their supporters expectations when they do get into power, as we are already seeing with Trump. In particular, a key issue for the future will be the impact of technology - for instance, driverless vehicles are likely to eliminate most driving jobs over the next decade or so. Obviously there are no easy solutions, but the key challenge will be how to ensure that the benefits of technology can be realised without leaving behind large segments of the population. The populist right seems to have nothing to say on this.

[holzz]

She's right to call it, and to be fair she has a good chance of winning.

As for broken promises..haha..what? are people dim, politicians lie. its how it works.

Corbyn can say "oh the polls can be wrong!" until he's blue in the face, but then how many general elections in the last thirty years have made wrong polls? 1992 and 2015? that's out of probably 10 in that period. 2015 was an anomaly really, and the Scottish, Welsh elections have been generally accurate. Plus, I don't want Diane Abbott as Home Secretary or something. If I want to hear a shrill voice, I'd listen to a cat.