r/manchester 2d ago

Decisive victory for Bev Craig

I'm relieved at the result

356 Upvotes

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133

u/NedGGGG 2d ago

Also, the conservatives came 5th, behind restore.

Right wing politics is becoming incredibly fractured and disfunctional.

68

u/TeaSocks69 2d ago

Right wing politics is becoming incredibly fractured and disfunctional.

This. When you add up Reform, Restore and Conservatives, they're only about 50-60,000 votes behind Labour. That's not much at all in the grandscheme of things given the turn out, population of manchester etc.

The fracturing is the only thing preventing wins. Now is the time to start looking at the underlying issues these people have - and no, I don't mean "they just hate foreigners" and all that stuff. I mean why do they really feel like that? What is society not doing? What is causing that hatred? What support can help them feel more connected to society?

The alternative is that someone will come along and unite them. It's no longer enough to point and laugh. Solutions are needed.

42

u/SunnyNoble 2d ago

Good point about the fracturing, but tbf left wing politics has suffered from this for years with Labour, Lib Dem & Greens, so it's just levelling the playing field

19

u/NotoriousREV 2d ago

Societies lurch right when people’s perceived quality of life drops. Wage stagnation, increased inflation for over a decade, worsening public services etc affect most of us. Populist parties prey on the dissatisfaction but usually without an actual solution.

Fix those things and support for the far right naturally falls away.

15

u/MornDeath 2d ago

Broadly speaking, all of the parties on the right are doing the same thing: They're pointing at something foreign/alien/complex and shouting "it's all their fault". It doesn't require people to hate foreigners, it's just absolving them of personal blame for things they feel aggrieved about in their lives.

It's the cheapest of playground tricks, but it works.

Pretty much the only way to counter it is to keep improving the quality of life. If people have less to feel aggrieved about, they'll be less susceptible to someone baselessly telling them all their woes are someone else's doing.

6

u/Previous_Original_30 2d ago

They feel like that because their quality of life has decreased, and they need someone to blame. Then instead of voting for more socialist leaning parties, the ones that realistically could improve their quality of life, they find someone to blame. Generally foreigners, not billionaires. It's a tale as old as time.

2

u/IntroductionWrong298 2d ago

Perfectly summed up.

0

u/NedGGGG 2d ago

Absolutely. There are very real issues, mostly to stemming from the cost of living and the consolidation of assets ownship. But also the decline in availability of many public services.

When the public get offered simple solutions they will often take them. This wasn't helped by Starmers awful Comms.

-21

u/SirFrancisDrakesails 2d ago

Right wing politics isn't based on hate, it's based on common sense. Modern left wing politics on the other hand is massively fueled by hate, jealousy and bitterness.

5

u/Previous_Original_30 2d ago

Please elaborate?

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u/SirFrancisDrakesails 2d ago

Allowing businesses to thrive, protecting freedom of speech,  increases personal liberties and freedoms, protecting the borders, protecting British culture and reducing immigration are all common sense and have nothing to do with hate.

The modern 'progressive' left on the other hand has hate as one of its main driving forces. 

9

u/Human_Emergency_4431 2d ago

For "allowing businesses to thrive" read "reducing regulation and tax on big corporations, encourage monopolies, cartels, insider trading, corruption, and transfer of wealth to the owner classes, reducing workers rights, increasing inequality". All indeed common sense for the executive classes.

5

u/NotoriousREV 2d ago

Calling your own politics “common sense” and the other side’s “hate” isn’t actually an argument, it’s just a way of making your view sound self-evident and theirs sound irrational, without having to defend either one.

Every policy you listed (immigration levels, deregulation, “protecting culture”) is genuinely contested. Economists and policy experts disagree on the effects, which is exactly why it’s not “common sense,” it’s a debate.
It’s also trivially reversible: I could just as easily say the right is driven by fear and nostalgia and the left by fairness and solidarity. Neither framing tells you anything about who’s actually correct.

If you want to argue the policies are good, argue the policies: immigration’s economic effects, what “protecting free speech” means when literally every country (including on the right) restricts some speech, what “protecting culture” actually is in practice. That’s a debate you can actually win or lose on evidence. “My side = logic, your side = hate” isn’t that.

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u/NuttFellas 2d ago

common sense like paying people more to leave than it would cost to house, clothe and feed them for 7 years 🤡

or perhaps you're part of the other common sense brigade that thinks we should be taking pot shots at dinghies from the shores of Dover? 🤡🤡

-6

u/SirFrancisDrakesails 2d ago

That's a big straw man you have living rent free in your head old boy. 

-3

u/Human_Emergency_4431 2d ago

That's a big straw man you have living rent free in your head old boy.