Labour will never win again as long they continue to hate the working class

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8973859/PAUL-EMBERY-Labour-never-win-power-stops-hating-working-class.html

A thought provoking piece for any fellow travelers on the left by union leader Paul Embry.

Says similar here in an interview if you prefer to watch an interview and not read the DM.

https://youtu.be/1Ug2qyf8Jys

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 1

imlikeahermit

14

Ah yes, lets listen to Doris, Jean, Ralph and Doug here about making Britain great again by leaving the biggest trade bloc in the world.

In all seriousness, I think Labour (unfortunately) will get into power when Brexit goes tits up. With a bit of luck these people above will realise that they were lied to, and will come back to Labour. I cannot see the new blue wall lasting.

Reply 2

username402722

19

Whilst I don't see the blue wall lasting, the one in dark blue with a white diagonal cross is unlikely to go from the SNP to Labour, and this will stop Labour getting a majority.

Reply 3

username1799249

19

I don't think Labour do hate the working classes. They do hate union leaders and rightly so. I am in a union for the first time in my life and can't stand it but apparently I need to be in a union as a kind of insurance cover type thing. I certainly don't find that the union speaks for my views or the membership as a whole. They seem to spend their whole time looking for fights, shunning responsibility or working to find solutions. Unions are always part of the problem and never of the solution. They are never happy.

Reply 4

anarchism101

17

Takes like this have been going around for years. For what it's worth, those who identify as working class are still more likely to vote Labour than those who don't, but all of this is missing the wood for the trees. We're not so much seeing a party-class realignment as the decline of class as a salient demographic in British politics - the growing divide is age. Increasingly, the divide is that young people vote Labour, older people vote Tory.

Reply 5

Napp

22

Doesnt this implicitly imply that the Tories somehow like the working class? Given their MP's actively call the working class plebs and wouldnt know their way around a tradies van if their pet ponies life depended on it, well...

Reply 6

Stiff Little Fingers

21

This only follows if you take a very reductive and frankly outdated idea of what the working class is. The working class is not white old men who hate immigration, certainly not now and arguably not even so 50 years ago, a lot of the working class is racial minorities, sexual minorities, young graduates and the "urban liberals", who have very little power within labour relations, nothing to sell but their labour and often shut out of any marks of ambition like home ownership, locked into exorbitant rents instead. It's particularly true of marginalised communities, who will be part of these "social activists" being decried, given how the labour market is leveraged to maintain that marginalisation (like for instance how having a non-white name on a CV can reduce callbacks).

Now, labour are abandoning the working class under Ser Brylcream ****hawk QC, but not because they're angling towards these groups but precisely because they're angling away from them and telling the young precariats to shut up and **** off.

Reply 7

username4986690

19

"Man from union says Labour is the problem... sells story to Daily Mail to raise publicity for his new book".

Greedy unions are the problem here, once for the people now for their own bank account.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 8

Drewski

19

Without Scotland there's no feasible way for Labour to win a parliamentary majority.

Reply 9

adam271

21

Labour attitude in the last election was a disgrace. I admit they were between a rock and a hard place. London Labour remaining but Labour of the North wanted to leave.
Migration is a hot topic for labour.

I dont see Kier Starmer winning over Labour heartlands.
His position on Brexit was wrong and helped in Labour losing the election.
He has always been a vocal adovacte of lockdowns even trying to push the PM further on increasing lockdowns. Despite the damage it is doing to working class communities.
I have voted Labour before but I do not see myself ever voting for Kier Starmer.

I dont see how Labour can get back to a position in which it represents traditional Labour values when you have someone like Kier Starmer in charge.
Yea, maybe he can beat Boris Johnson in question time. But who couldn't? The thing with Boris is he can rugby tackle a 5 year old and its funny. He can get stuck upside down on a zip line and its a win for him. He has nailed the science of looking like a complete prat and still coming out on top.

For Labour to succeed it needs to embrace Corbyn values without having someone as tainted as Jeremy Corbyn in power.
I know Jeremy Corbyn gets a lot of crap. But his position on Brexit was where Labour should of been. His biggest mistake was listening to his cabinet and demanding a 2nd referendum.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 10

CyclinZH1

11

Didn't read but that much is obvious. Labour has become the party of the self-proclaimed progressives, but they are nothing but bourgeoise ideologues that clap each other on the back in a huge circle jerk. They have left the working class far behind.

Reply 11

username402722

19

Original post by CyclinZH1

Didn't read but that much is obvious. Labour has become the party of the self-proclaimed progressives, but they are nothing but bourgeoise ideologues that clap each other on the back in a huge circle jerk. They have left the working class far behind.

Much of what Labour Party activists seem to worry about is of little concern to most people- to quote a song by The Smiths 'it says nothing to me about my life'.

Reply 12

CyclinZH1

11

Original post by barnetlad

Much of what Labour Party activists seem to worry about is of little concern to most people- to quote a song by The Smiths 'it says nothing to me about my life'.

Because those things aren't easily captured in social media. They require deep, structural changes. Not a short headline and some likes.

Reply 13

SHallowvale

14

Original post by Drewski

Without Scotland there's no feasible way for Labour to win a parliamentary majority.

It'd be unlikely, but possible. Labour would have won comfortably in 1997 even without Scotland. Granted, for that to happen again would require a strong third party (like the Lib Dems) to split the Conservative vote.

Reply 14

1st superstar

22

Original post by ByEeek

I don't think Labour do hate the working classes. They do hate union leaders and rightly so. I am in a union for the first time in my life and can't stand it but apparently I need to be in a union as a kind of insurance cover type thing. I certainly don't find that the union speaks for my views or the membership as a whole. They seem to spend their whole time looking for fights, shunning responsibility or working to find solutions. Unions are always part of the problem and never of the solution. They are never happy.

Agreed. The Educational Unions are a joke hands down.

Reply 15

L i b

19

Original post by Drewski

Without Scotland there's no feasible way for Labour to win a parliamentary majority.

I suppose "win more seats in England" isn't the option you're looking for?

Labour won 328 seats in England alone in 1997, which alone would've given them an effective majority in the Commons - and just shy of an actual majority.

But yeah, it's going to be a struggle without starting to win back a respectable number of seats in Scotland - I'll grant you that. Unfortunately Scottish Labour, once a political behemoth, just looks increasingly **** at every turn.

Reply 16

Stiff Little Fingers

21

Original post by L i b

I suppose "win more seats in England" isn't the option you're looking for?

Labour won 328 seats in England alone in 1997, which alone would've given them an effective majority in the Commons - and just shy of an actual majority.

But yeah, it's going to be a struggle without starting to win back a respectable number of seats in Scotland - I'll grant you that. Unfortunately Scottish Labour, once a political behemoth, just looks increasingly **** at every turn.

Winning enough seats in England isn't going to happen though, in 2017 labour did nearly as well in England (41.9%) as they did in 1997 (43.5%) but in terms of seats were a long way off (101 less seats in England in 2017 than 1997) because in 1997 the Tories had been destroyed by Black Wednesday. To win outright without Scotland labour would need the Tories to see a similar collapse, which seems impossible when even through this pandemic the polling for them has has held steady. Alternatively, labour would need to start hitting a big enough vote share to flip seats like North East Somerset which also seems very unlikely. Without Scotland, the best labour can realistically hope for is to form a coalition government

Reply 17

caravaggio2

17

Original post by CyclinZH1

Didn't read but that much is obvious. Labour has become the party of the self-proclaimed progressives, but they are nothing but bourgeoise ideologues that clap each other on the back in a huge circle jerk. They have left the working class far behind.

I would say no small part of their problem was summed up by the guy in the vid when he said where the red wall collapsed Labour were used to weighing labour votes and not counting them. That sort of thing leads to taking them for granted, not listening to their concerns and as they found out, runs the risk of them biting them on the arse.

Labour will never win again as long they continue to hate the working class

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