The lesson for Labour: The UK doesn't want socialism

Every single election that was based around socialist ideals was crushed by the electorate.

Labour need to understand this and go back being a center left party as it was during Blair's reign.

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Reply 1

demx9

Original post by Tawheed

Labour were hardly socialist and far more right than they were under blair in this election

wat ?

Reply 2

chocolate hottie

Original post by Tawheed

Labour were hardly socialist and far more right than they were under blair in this election. It was won on the incompetence's of the shadow cabinet, Ed not seeming leader material, and yes , rupert murdoch and other media campaigns. Ed made a brave but foolish mistake going after the rich billionares who own coorporate media, non-doms etc

Garbage

Reply 3

Tawheed

Original post by chocolate hottie

Garbage

If you followed their campaign, they intended to learn from the lessons of the past, be a little bit more balanced etc

Reply 4

username1315644

That's not the conclusion to be drawn. Labour have not regained the trust of the people, and the their is little belief in the Labour leadership. Scotland didn't vote SNP rather than Labour because they didn't want a more socialist government. Even the voters of the Tory's, many of whom will have been part of the Labour vote during the Blair years, aren't voting for that they want, they are voting for what they believe the country needs at this moment in time. I think very few of the electorate are looking at the Conservatives plans as a blue print for the future of Britain, its a harsh short term measure.

Reply 5

Tawheed

Original post by demx9

wat ?

Let me correct myself, when i say hardly, i don't mean they weren't. What i mean is what i saw was a labour government which would learnt the lessons of the past and be a bit smarter.

Reply 6

Gwilym101

Not sure what you are basing that on given that Labour isn't socialist and whilst the tories got more than half the seats, they didn't get more than half the votes.

Reply 7

The two eds

No I think Labour need to move further left to borderline communism, It will do them great

Reply 8

MatureStudent36

Original post by The two eds

No I think Labour need to move further left to borderline communism, It will do them great

And get them even less votes in the process.

Reply 9

chocolate hottie

Original post by Tawheed

If you followed their campaign, they intended to learn from the lessons of the past, be a little bit more balanced etc

I did follow their campaign and I noticed plans for rent controls, energy price fixing, repeal of non dom status, a property wealth tax, and harsh anti business rhetoric with wealth creators stigmatised.

Blair would have never contemplated such policies, knowing they are electoral poison in this largely right wing country.

Don't listen to me listen to the man himself, last year:

[h="1"]Miliband is too Left-wing to win election, says Blair in withering attack on Labour leader[/h]

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Former prime minster has predicted Ed Miliband will lose general election

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Issued most outspoken assessment of Labour leader to date in interview

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Indicated he believes Mr Miliband has deserted political centre and made Labour a 'traditional Left-wing party' leaving the Tories likely to win

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Labour’s lead in polls has evaporated - now neck-and-neck with the Tories

Reply 10

The two eds

Original post by MatureStudent36

And get them even less votes in the process.

They will stand for their true values and pride is more important than votes.

P.S. Tory majority

Fewer.

Original post by chocolate hottie

I did follow their campaign and I noticed plans for rent controls, energy price fixing, repeal of non dom status, a property wealth tax, and harsh anti business rhetoric with wealth creators stigmatised.

Blair would have never contemplated such policies, knowing they are electoral poison in this largely right wing country.

Don't listen to me listen to the man himself, last year:

Miliband is too Left-wing to win election, says Blair in withering attack on Labour leader

•

Former prime minster has predicted Ed Miliband will lose general election

•

Issued most outspoken assessment of Labour leader to date in interview

•

Indicated he believes Mr Miliband has deserted political centre and made Labour a 'traditional Left-wing party' leaving the Tories likely to win

•

Labour’s lead in polls has evaporated - now neck-and-neck with the Tories

I'll look into what you've said. I personally saw Blair giving Ed a full endorsement, but i'll see if more research changes my views.

Reply 13

Bill_Gates

we can only afford socialism when we have the monies. Until then if you think we should feed a chav before looking after our interests? no thanks.

Reply 14

MatureStudent36

Original post by The two eds

They will stand for their true values and pride is more important than votes.

P.S. Tory majority

I tend to find extreme left wing socialists like to think they have pride. I tend to find it difficult to exhibit pride when my existence is funded through tax payer funded benefit payouts.

Reply 15

interact

socialism always leads to totalitarian communism

Reply 16

chocolate hottie

Original post by Tawheed

I'll look into what you've said. I personally saw Blair giving Ed a full endorsement, but i'll see if more research changes my views.

You surely wouldn't expect a former Prime Minister NOT to endorse the Leader of his Party going into an election??

What he really thought all along was expressed today in the Observer:

There are three things that should govern our approach. The first: the route to the summit lies through the centre ground. Labour has to be for ambition and aspiration as well as compassion and care. “Hard-working families” don’t just want us to celebrate their hard work; they want to know that by hard work and effort they can do well, rise up, achieve. They want to be better off and they need to know we don’t just tolerate that; we support it.

We have to appeal to those running businesses as well as those working in them. We need to persuade people that we will run the economy well and efficiently and that must contain a measured defence of our economic record when in government which correctly describes the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008 but also acknowledges where we could have done better. We have to conduct the big argument on the wealth-creating potential of the macro-economy, not only the targeted campaign on the injustices of it. So we were proud in 1997 to put forward the case for Britain’s first minimum wage. But we could never have won an election on it unless set within a broader framework. The same is true with zero-hours contracts.
We must fashion a role for government that is strategic and empowering of individuals; which understands that today people will not trust or want the state to do everything for them, but who do want to know that government is at their side, ready and, as important, effective enough to deliver for them when they need it. If we aren’t the reformers of public services and the welfare state, the Tories will be the destroyers of them.
The centre ground is as much a state of mind as a set of policies. It means that we appreciate that in today’s world many of the solutions will cross traditional boundaries of left and right. We need not just to be comfortable with this; but actively to seek out the alliances to embrace those outside our tribe as well as within it. Leading the debate over why Britain should stay in Europe offers a great chance to do so.
Second, the centre is not where you split the difference between progressive and conservative politics. It is where progressive politics gets the breadth of territory to allow it to own the future. The Labour project must always be one oriented to the future. We win when we understand the way the world is changing and make sense of how those changes can be shaped for the good of the people. We have to be the policy innovators, those seeking new and creative solutions to the problems our values impel us to overcome.
The world is an extraordinary market place of new thinking right now. We should be searching out the ideas we can learn from and develop. But this requires real thinking with an open mind, not an attempt to find our way back to hallowed ground which represents a dead end.
So, for example, technology alone should be revolutionising the way we deliver public services. We would never design our health and education systems as they’re presently constituted if we were starting them today because technology offers so many ways of doing things differently.
There is great work being done around new forms of civic engagement and community delivery. Some of the best ideas are to be found in the leadership of our own local councils. Housing, infrastructure, modern industrial policy, social impact investment: there is a riot of interesting progressive analysis and thinking going on out there. We have to access it and lead it. Ed was absolutely right to raise the issue of inequality and to say that Labour should focus anew on it. This will stand as his contribution to the party’s development. In so far as this was an implied rebuke to my politics, I accept it. But we still need ways relevant to today and tomorrow – not yesterday – to tackle it.
Third, good ideas with poor organisation or strategy fail. We need to reflect on how to build a party, how it is organised, run and decisions made. I was impressed with the party machine in the election. Our people were fantastic on the ground. But I mean something different. How we build new constituencies of support, how we interact with them, how we open ourselves up to new energy and people: that is a task all in itself. This is the time for fundamental party renewal. Strategy and tactics must align. So if we’re going for the centre strategically, be careful of an accumulation of policies, even if individually popular, that, taken together, contradict that strategy and send us too far left.

Reply 17

Ritterschaft

What part of Millibean's 'I am socialist' did people not understand?

Reply 18

Ducklingz

Original post by Bill_Gates

we can only afford socialism when we have the monies. Until then if you think we should feed a chav before looking after our interests? no thanks.

Exactly. I've seen champagne socialists all over social media complaining about how 'selfish' and 'inhumane' people are for voting Conservative. When you grow up in a household where you can't spare a penny to help anyone else, you have to put yourself first. It is not being selfish, it is called survival. You can even think about helping anyone else when you can barely afford to feed yourself. Most of these left-wing complaining hippies telling us to get our Bupa health insurance at the ready have no idea what it's like fighting for everything you own.

This is generalising but especially on university campuses, many people can afford to be left wing. Their parents have always been able to put food on the table for them and help the less fortunate. They have the money to spare to help everyone else without the flicker of an eyelid. Unfortunately for low income families this is not the case.