[weevil]

> social equality ego theme du jour

Labour actively avoid doing anything the Tories can spin to weaponise the electorate against them. They don't feel bold enough to reverse anything the Tories have done, because the Tories will spin it as Labour taking away our freedoms or charging us too much tax whatever nonsense.

[SenAnder]

> Labour actively avoid doing anything the Tories can spin to weaponise the electorate against them

Except on immigration, where the roles are reversed [1]. That's why immigration to the UK increased post-Brexit, despite the referendum being an expression of anti-immigration sentiment [2].

[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/10055613...

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/world/europe/uk-migration...

[gadders]

Easier to import supportive voters than create them.

[nradov]

If your own policies are so easily weaponized against you then maybe your policies aren't very good. Is it so hard to believe that regular voters might have ideological reasons for preferring a smaller, less intrusive government that imposes lower taxes?

And blaming a hostile media is entirely too facile. Other politicians and parties have managed to win despite such obstacles by crafting messages that actually inspire voters.

[chriswarbo]

> Is it so hard to believe that regular voters might have ideological reasons for preferring a smaller, less intrusive government that imposes lower taxes?

Those wanting a "smaller, less intrusive government" should certainly avoid the Conservatives, then; given this government's authoritarian agenda has included:

- Criminalised being noisy (Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act)

- Authorised police to stop and search without suspicion, and the banning of individuals from protesting (Public Order Act)

- Overruled a devolved government (an unprecedented action), specifically to intrude on the personal freedom of Scottish citizens.

- Violated rights (of citizens and non-citizens) so often that they're considering scrapping the Human Rights Act, and withdrawing from international rights bodies.

Those wanting "lower taxes" presumably didn't want this government to raise National Insurance (breaking a specific manifesto promise not to), or their sharp upward trend in most taxes (other than stamp duty and fuel duty; both nominally and as a percentage of GDP) https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-r...

[zht]

Like brexit right

[hanniabu]

We're seeing the same in the US. I wonder the where this rise in authoritarianism will lead, especially in the current timeframe where it's so easy to push out misinformation to win narratives and robotic armies you can control with a small team are right around the corner.

Pretty soon revolutions will be impossible and the masses will be slaves to whatever conditions the rulers desire.

Dark times are nigh.

[kbrkbr]

Once there was another republic and empire. It also had a Senate, the original one. In this republic populism became also strong, there were even civil wars. Later strong army leaders removed the republic (and then reinstated it on paper). It was not necessarily a dark time for their minions (Pax Augusta). In the end the empire broke down in the west. Much later also in the east, but some say it lives on in the Russian empire (for example Putin). Often enough in history though if a society moved fast in one direction, it would regress to the mean. We'll see.

[gadders]

The saying is in General Elections that Parties don't win them, Governments lose them.

That being the case, sitting back and doing very little could be a sensible strategy.

[ljm]

It's not the Tories alone but the mainstream media that they are in bed with, which has an overwhelmingly right wing/neoliberal bias. The stories of Rupert Murdoch's influence on our politics are not exaggerated.

The last time Labour secured an election victory on the back of a Tory government was when Tony Blair got into bed with the media and played hard ball with PR and spin, all the way back in 1997.

I've no idea what Starmer's strategy is but it seems to be successfully keeping the media's attention on the current government's incompetence.

[Lio]

I don't think Sunak is incompetent, I just think he has his own agenda to enrich himself and his cronies at the expense of the country.

Just look at how Shell and BP got new oil licenses right after they signed massive outsourcing contracts with Infosys, his in-laws business.

Or the way that Tory party donors made millions inflating the prices of PPE purchase during the Covid crisis. Tory peer Baroness Mone still hasn't faced any legal sanction or paid back £30M she initially said wasn't resting in her offshore bank account.

[3seashells]

Murdoch is still alive?

[rcarr]

Starmer's strategy is to just be plain boring. The Tories have made such a mess all he needs to do is not bring any attention on himself or the party and they pretty much win by default. He knows full well that the media in this country will use anything they possibly can to nail him and the Labour party in general, so he's being as boring as he possibly can. Once Labour are in power you'll see some actual policies that the right wing media will attack relentlessly but at that point he's got at least five years, with likely a sizeable majority, to do whatever he wants. And so long as the country feels better in six years time than it does now he's probably got a very good chance of winning the following election as well. The Tories have really fucked up bad this cycle, I reckon it'll be at minimum two election cycles until they're even considered again. With the current poll numbers they may even be relegated into being the third party. There is one major wildcard in the room though which is the potential for a Nato country to get dragged into war (e.g WW3 breaks out) in which case who fucking knows what will happen.

[CommanderData]

The media Tory relationship is very understated.

The media is very much the reason most of the British electorate will still vote Conservatives, even after years of scandals.

[gadders]

>>which has an overwhelmingly right wing/neoliberal bias

Apart from small pieces of media like the Guardian and the BBC which you have forgotten about.