The Student Room Group

Ask a Labour Supporter Anything

Hello! I'm the Chair of the TSR Labour Party and we're looking to raise awareness of our existence and to allay any curiosity that people might have about us. We also noticed the general lack of a thread like this where you could question people who support or are a member of the Labour Party in real life. So, ask away! You can ask about anything - what our opinions are of something, what policy is, how the TSR Labour Party is different from the one in real life, etc..

We're always looking for new people to come and get involved in our party on TSR, so if you support Labour in real life and you're not a member of TSR Labour we'd very much encourage you to join here.

If you're a TSR Labourite answering questions on this thread, I'd appreciate it if you could just indicate if you think your opinion on something isn't the one held by the majority - wouldn't want people getting a false impression of where the party in general stands:smile:

Credit to the TSR Socialist Party for the idea and to @Quamquam123 for suggesting that we do it too.
(edited 7 years ago)

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Reply 1
Translation: Hi I'm the chair of the TSR Labour Party and we're looking to raise your taxes and **** up the economy...


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Reply 2
And remember kids: if you don't vote labour you're a capitalist pig and hate the poor


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Original post by chazlh
Translation: Hi I'm the chair of the TSR Labour Party and we're looking to raise your taxes and **** up the economy...


Posted from TSR Mobile

If you take a look at our manifesto, you'll see that we don't actually propose doing either of those things....
This thread is really good. :smile:
Original post by chazlh
Translation: Hi I'm the chair of the TSR Labour Party and we're looking to raise your taxes and **** up the economy...


Posted from TSR Mobile

This is not actually the case because we do not share exactly the same views and constitution as the party in real life. :smile:
OP give us some money now we have run out of Frosty Jack.
Original post by the bear
OP give us some money now we have run out of Frosty Jack.

I'm afriad Frosty Jack is not mentioned in our constituiton. :wink:
Reply 8
How successful would you rate you term in coalition? How far have you delivered on your manifesto pledges?
Original post by BenC1997
How successful would you rate you term in coalition? How far have you delivered on your manifesto pledges?


To be frank, it started very optimistically but then dropped off the pace towards the end of term.

In terms of manifesto commitments:

Achieved
* More social housing
* More clean energy and tidal power

Attempted but blocked by other parties voting against
* Cut VAT
* Reintroduce 50% tax rate
* Cut stamp duty on brownfield sites
* Reform the House of Lords
* Establish a National Education Service

Not attempted
* Reintroduce 10% tax rate (a concession IIRC to the Liberals to pay for a higher personal allowance)
* Renationalise railways (though our promise was attacking it from the wrong side)
* Purge the NHS of private interests (probably due to a change in leadership and me being less anti-privatisation than the previous leader, RayApparently)
* Scrap the right to buy (proposed by the Socialists and supported by many Labourites, my argument being that the real problem is not replacing the houses sold off)
* Establish a TSR President (something I personally wanted to do but there was clearly no appetite for it in the House)

The last promise, introducing a land value tax, appears to be a mistake in the manifesto. A land value tax was introduced in the previous Parliament, and our plan was to replace it with a ground rent tax. This we attempted to do but the bill was defeated.
Original post by cranbrook_aspie
Hello! I'm the Chair of the TSR Labour Party and we're looking to raise awareness of our existence and to allay any curiosity that people might have about us, so inspired by the Question a Socialist thread, this is a thread where ordinary users can ask us questions about policy/who we are/the MHoC/anything really.

Just to give a bit of background, the MHoC is currently having a general election, but we've spent the last 6 months in government along with the Liberal Party, during most of which time our leader, @Saracen's Fez, has been Prime Minister.

We're always looking for new people to come and get involved, so if you support Labour in real life we'd very much encourage you to join here (I gather the MHoC in general has a bit of a bad rep, but it's undeserved - it's a great thing to be involved in and we don't bite.....honest:tongue:).

If you're a Labourite answering questions on this thread, I'd appreciate it if you could just indicate if you think your opinion on something isn't the one held by the majority - wouldn't want people getting a false impression of where the party in general stands:smile:

Credit to the TSR Socialist Party for the idea and to @Quamquam123 for suggesting that we do it too.


Why don't you represent the working class anymore?


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Original post by paul514
Why don't you represent the working class anymore?


Posted from TSR Mobile

We're not entirely the same as the real life Labour Party, but as someone who is a member of the real life Labour Party as well, and who agrees that the party desperately needs to be stick up for the interests of its traditional voters, two words: New Labour.
Original post by Saracen's Fez
To be frank, it started very optimistically but then dropped off the pace towards the end of term.

In terms of manifesto commitments:

Achieved
* More social housing
* More clean energy and tidal power

Attempted but blocked by other parties voting against
* Cut VAT
* Reintroduce 50% tax rate
* Cut stamp duty on brownfield sites
* Reform the House of Lords
* Establish a National Education Service

Not attempted
* Reintroduce 10% tax rate (a concession IIRC to the Liberals to pay for a higher personal allowance)
* Renationalise railways (though our promise was attacking it from the wrong side)
* Purge the NHS of private interests (probably due to a change in leadership and me being less anti-privatisation than the previous leader, RayApparently)
* Scrap the right to buy (proposed by the Socialists and supported by many Labourites, my argument being that the real problem is not replacing the houses sold off)
* Establish a TSR President (something I personally wanted to do but there was clearly no appetite for it in the House)

The last promise, introducing a land value tax, appears to be a mistake in the manifesto. A land value tax was introduced in the previous Parliament, and our plan was to replace it with a ground rent tax. This we attempted to do but the bill was defeated.


Hm, doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

How would you approach things differently given the chance again? What are the main differences between your previous and current manifesto?
Original post by BenC1997
Hm, doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

How would you approach things differently given the chance again? What are the main differences between your previous and current manifesto?

Unfortunately you won't find any party in the MHoC which has managed to pass a lot of its pledges - we use a proportional representation system so it's very difficult to get a majority, and even if you're in coalition it's normally a minority government, which makes things difficult:smile:

I'm speaking as an individual member here, but I would say we got quite laid back which made legislation-writing quite slow, and we also focussed too much on Statements of Intent (basically, things which say what the government plans to do that wouldn't necessarily be easy to put into a bill, e.g. build more houses) rather than actual bills which is what most of the stuff we didn't get done would have required.

Our manifesto this time is a little less left-wing overall, and it focusses a bit less on economic issues, I'd say. It's also a little more realistic - for example, where we were talking about reforming the House of Lords last time round, we're now talking about giving votes to 16-year-olds and introducing compulsory education about how politics works, something which might actually pass.
Original post by cranbrook_aspie
Unfortunately you won't find any party in the MHoC which has managed to pass a lot of its pledges - we use a proportional representation system so it's very difficult to get a majority, and even if you're in coalition it's normally a minority government, which makes things difficult:smile:

I'm speaking as an individual member here, but I would say we got quite laid back which made legislation-writing quite slow, and we also focussed too much on Statements of Intent (basically, things which say what the government plans to do that wouldn't necessarily be easy to put into a bill, e.g. build more houses) rather than actual bills which is what most of the stuff we didn't get done would have required.

Our manifesto this time is a little less left-wing overall, and it focusses a bit less on economic issues, I'd say. It's also a little more realistic - for example, where we were talking about reforming the House of Lords last time round, we're now talking about giving votes to 16-year-olds and introducing compulsory education about how politics works, something which might actually pass.


Thanks for the reply.

Maybe a coalition with the Nat Libs? :wink:
Original post by BenC1997
Thanks for the reply.

Maybe a coalition with the Nat Libs? :wink:


It's unlikely we would have a great working relationship with them.
Original post by cranbrook_aspie
We're not entirely the same as the real life Labour Party, but as someone who is a member of the real life Labour Party as well, and who agrees that the party desperately needs to be stick up for the interests of its traditional voters, two words: New Labour.


Fair enough but new labour is labour there are very few old labour left hence why Corbyn is so often in trouble with the parliamentary party.


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Original post by paul514
Fair enough but new labour is labour there are very few old labour left hence why Corbyn is so often in trouble with the parliamentary party.


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As cranbrook said, TSR's Labour Party has subtle differences from the party in real life. There are several party members who are on the left of the party. For example, @cranbrook_aspie , @cBay and myself to name but a few. The combination of both people on the left and people on the right of the party works well so we can constructively criticise each other, strengthening the entire party as a result. :smile:
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by BenC1997
Thanks for the reply.

Maybe a coalition with the Nat Libs? :wink:


We'll see:lol:

Original post by paul514
Fair enough but new labour is labour there are very few old labour left hence why Corbyn is so often in trouble with the parliamentary party.


Posted from TSR Mobile

As my comrade said above, a lot of us in our party, I'd go as far as saying the majority, are Old Labour. As far as real life goes, a lot of the Parliamentary Party may be New Labour, but a hell of a lot of the ordinary members are definitely not, and as far as influencing policy goes, New Labour is mostly a thing of the past.
Original post by paul514
Why don't you represent the working class anymore?


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There's a reason we have a TSR Socialist Party (the real workers party).

"The Labour Party is a thoroughly bourgeois party, because although it consists of workers it is led by reactionaries, and the worst spirit reactionaries at that, who act fully in the spirit of the bourgeoisie. It is an organisation of the bourgeoisie which exists, in order with the help of the British Noskes and Scheidemanns to systematically deceive the workers."

Also note that their leader is a Blairite who voted for Kendall, not Corbyn.