1y ago

“Wide But Thin Mandate”: Why U.K. Labour Party’s Landslide Is on Shaky Ground

www.democracynow.org “Wide But Thin Mandate”: Why U.K. Labour Party’s Landslide Is on Shaky Ground

Labour’s landslide victory in Thursday’s U.K. election gives the party a “wide but thin” mandate, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik, who says the new government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has to work hard to solidify its gains “if it’s not going to be a temporary win.” She also discusses her...

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Typical center left shit. "Oh geez, oh God, we only have everything we need to do what our voters want us to do, but what if now isn't the perfect time? Has someone consulted a star chart? Has anyone chaired eight sub committees on what to name our effort? What if we do that and it makes the people who voted for us mad? Or worse, what if it makes the people who didn't vote for us mad? Egads, fetch my inhaler"
- Hey don’t forget about them being more concerned with corporate interests over citizens.
- This honestly reeks of the Billionaire class that owns the media pushing to weaken any potential political will for strong, left-wing policies.
  The grain of truth behind this lie though, is that Labour didn’t really seem to win many new voters but rather benefited from Con voters splitting their preferences amongst multiple smaller parties.
  
  That's interesting. I was under the impression that fifteen years of bad Tory policy, the consequences thereof, and nobody else to blame it on basically led voters to turn their backs on the Tories. It sounds like maybe that is the case, but conservative voters just traded the Tories for the Tories wearing a mustache or three Tories in a trenchcoat?
  
  Yeah this is basically what happened, the vote share for labour was very low, below 40 (don't recall the exact number)
- Discount it all you want, but Labour's win is much shakier than it appears on the topline. The most notable set of figures is this:
  In 2019: Corbyn's Labour Party lost the election with 32.1% of the vote in an election where 67.3% of eligible voters cast a ballot
  In 2024: Starmer's Labour Party won the election with 33.7% of the vote in an election where 59.9% of eligible voters cast a ballot
  Labour has a stark advantage in Westminster as a result and they should use it to enact and pursue policy consistent with their philosophy and promises. However, you'd be crazy not to see that the votes cast absolutely don't paint a picture of a mandate.
  
  All I'm really saying is that the right doesn't sit around fretting and wringing their hands when they get handed a victory. They put the pedal to the metal, future or consequences or reputation be damned. As far as they're concerned, victory only comes in a single flavor, and they're going to run with it as hard as they can. That's partly why we only ever seem to ratchet right, imo. The left should take a few pages from that book and dive headlong into moving fast and unapologetically getting results.
  
  All good points, imo.
- Labour aren’t close to centre left, they’re right wing, just not as far right as the conservative party. Take a look at their manifesto, it’s all right wing stuff.

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