O/T:- Banks

[jackal2]

And as a result of all this, we end up not with a Conservative government, but with a Conservative government drawn from a sub-section of their party, with all or most of the pro-Europeans, the One Nations, the sensible, reasonable Tories purged or driven out. It's the Tory equivalent of a Corbyn-only version of Labour.

I get your point that we don't want the Conservative and Labour parties to be full of head-banging extremists, but we should be equally wary of those that say the Conservative and Labour parties should be "broad churches". These weasel words sounds fluffy and nice on face value, but behind them is the desire by dark underlying self-serving forces to water down the values of both parties to such an extent that they're offering the public very little choice or difference between one and the other.

Little or no real choice for the public is exactly what the real power brokers behind our political facade are seeking to achieve, and you could argue that's exactly what we face at the moment with a "choice" between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. Both are far more concerned with the pursuit of power and personal status than driving a political ideology or achieving any real change.

It seems strange to even need to say this, but the Conservative Party should be assertively Conservative and the Labour Party should be proudly Socialist. That's what they're supposed to be. That's what their leaders are supposed to be. It gives people a choice, and likewise if the public genuinely want a 'centre' option (or indeed any other variation) then that's where other parties and leaders should make their pitch.

Time for a Labour government. I'd agree about not getting your hopes up... plans are uninspiring at the moment, but Labour tend to be ultra-cautious about what they promise because the vast majority of the media are against them, and that's only got worse over recent years. They're hoping to do as little as possible and say as little as possible, but I hope what we'll see is a more ambitious and radical Labour party in government. That's what I really regret about New Labour... having done a lot of brilliant stuff (Sure Start, Northern Ireland, regional devolution, minimum wage and so on) very quietly, they didn't kick on and become more radical... having established their competence, going to the electorate and saying "we've shown we can be trusted, trust us to do more."

I can't see any scenario in which I would actively want a Labour government, but politics is cyclical and if the opinion polls are to be believed, we're reaching that stage in the political cycle when a Labour government looks increasingly likely.

If that's the case, then ironically, the 'no real choice' situation I've just bitterly criticised could actually work for those like me of a Conservative persuasion. Like Tony Blair before him, Sir Keir Starmer appears to be far more motivated by the pursuit of power than any desire to advance a Socialist ideology, and the more I listen to policy announcements from Starmer and the likes of Wes Streeting, the more I'm left wondering what exactly I'm supposed to vehemently disagree with. Don't get me wrong, I don't trust Starmer as far as I can throw him, I think he's a vacuous shill of a politician, but if I've got to swallow a Labour government for a while, then from a purely selfish viewpoint I can probably tolerate the version he's offering, even though I'd never vote for it. In effect, it's 'New Labour' version two.

Tony Blair famously said "we were elected as New Labour and we will govern as New Labour", and it's fair to say he did. He stayed pretty true to the Conservative economic policies he inherited, and ended up being the best mate of George Bush Jr! Gordon Brown when he took over arguably tried to move the Labour government gradually more to the Left, but I don't think it's any coincidence that this was exactly when the underlying power brokers started to unleash the 'hounds of hell' treatment on him, effectively manufacturing the Labour government's downfall.

The point is, whether they're coming ideologically from the Left or the Right, or are simply a bit maverick and unpredictable (e.g. Boris), woe betide anyone who threatens to offer the public a genuine choice or something different outside of the narrow tram lines we're supposed to follow.