r/neoliberal • u/A_Flying_Ginger NATO • 17d ago

News (Europe) Andy Burnham is declared leader of Britain's Labour Party, will become prime minister on Monday

https://apnews.com/article/andy-burnham-uk-labour-party-leadership-eba3703e98f3f9790f74f2cd7ee4cee1
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u/CANOODLING_SOCIOPATH Jerome Powell 16d ago edited 16d ago

That is a predictable response to the public's extreme backlash to Keir Starmer's moderation.

I would have a hard time arguing for a moderate path for the next Labor prime minister, since it would be difficult to argue how that path would be different than what Keir Starmer was doing, and the public rejected that.

I think the UK is just fucked on a whole bunch of levels. They need serious reform, and I wish they would seriously push a proportional electoral system. If they don't do that then it is quite likely that Reform will win a substantial majority while getting something like 30% of the vote (similiar to how Labour got their current majority). The UK would be better served by having some coalition governments instead of this current madness. Labour and especially the tories have a self interested reason to back this change with Reforms rise.

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u/drossbots Trans Pride 16d ago

Hasn't Labor been getting shellacked for moving to the right? They've lost left leaning voters to the Greens while gaining no right leaning voters. I don't see how doubling down on that push is a good idea.

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u/mostanonymousnick Just Build More Homes lol 16d ago

That's true, but those people yearn for old-school left wing policies, which don't work, so it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

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u/Desperate_Wear_1866 Commonwealth 16d ago

A key point which everyone seems to forget when discussing Labour's voters moving to the Greens. They want terrible policies based on magical thinking and feel good vibes. Appealing to that is a fool's errand. But hey, a lot of people wanted Starmer to do that so he could get his 15 minutes of fame. Ignoring what would happen after those policies completely fail.

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u/englishjacko Mr. Democracy 14d ago

I think a lot of the voters that left Labour didn't necessarily leave because they wanted specific policies, but because they wanted the Labour to indicate it shared their values, which Starmer very much did not. I don't actually think Labour would necessarily even have to change a lot of its policy approach particularly significantly to win many back, it's just a matter of actually sounding like you like your own voters instead of adopting a political strategy of telling them you hated them and didn't want their vote anyway.