Thread by @SteB777

"Starmer urges Europe’s leaders to curb ECHR to halt rise of far right"

Is Keir Starmer just stupid, or is he following orders/directions/coercion?

Keir Starmer has got this stupid idea, that if he appeases the right, with a partial anti-immigrant policy, a sort of "Reform-lite", that he will draw support from Reform, and the far right. That's his argument anyway.

It plainly doesn't work, because support for Reform and the far right has grown, and they absolutely hate Starmer and Labour. I see no evidence whatsoever, that Starmer has won over one single right wing voter, through this strategy.
theguardian.com/law/2025/dec/0…
1/🧵

The reason this is stupid strategy, a that doesn't work, is very simple.

1) It makes it falsely appear as if Reform, and the racist/xenophobic right, has a genuine point.

2) This actually increases support for Reform and the nasty right, because no one, with xenophobic or racist tendencies, would ever consider voting for Starmer/Labour.
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The right wing media, portray Starmer and Labour, as pro-immigrant, woke, and the cause of lax "immigration policy". Trying to say, we're a bit racist and xenophobic ourselves, doesn't win anyone over. It just appals traditional Labour/left voters, makes them less likely to vote Labour, and more likely to support another party.
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None of what I say is hypothetical or theoretical. It is empirically what has happened. Labour has been haemorrhaging support, and is polling very badly, and support for right wing parties is rising, because essentially Starmer's Labour, is sending out a message, saying there is a genuine immigration problem, which only helps Reform and the right.
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This is part of a weird phenomenon, for a long time, with a false idea peddled by the Labour right, that to become popular, Labour has to pander to the right, with Tory lite policy. It just doesn't work.
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The Labour right, argues that it does work, because of Tony Blair's success, and because Rupert Murdoch, and the right wing Tory Press, gave temporary support for Tony Blair. It's not clear what happened here, whether in private Blair was telling these right wing newspaper proprietors, that secretly he was a Tory Thatcherite.
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Whatever, as soon as Tony Blair resigned as PM, Rupert Murdoch et al, withdrew their support from Labour. As I say, it is not clear if that's because what Blair reassured them in private, or simply because Conservative Party, had become electable again.
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What really enabled Blair, wasn't his Thatcherite/Tory lite policy, but that the Conservative Party had become toxic, and unelectable. I think even if Rupert Murdoch had not supported Tony Blair/New Labour, that Labour would have won, because the Tories had become hated through a mixture of sleaze, incompetence, and poor leadership.
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Regardless of any secret pact between Blair and Murdoch, I think Murdoch was just being pragmatic. That Murdoch would much prefer a right wing Labour government, to a left wing Labour government, and if that meant supporting Tony Blair, it was a price worth paying.
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I don't think, for one moment, that Murdoch would have supported Blair if there had been a viable Tory alternative. Murdoch was aware, that if he had supported an unpopular Conservative Party, that not only would they have lost, but it would have damaged Murdoch's credibility as a political influencer, by supporting losers.
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At this point, I should point out my own position on this, because I am none ideological and none party political. I am not much interested in the fortunes of Labour.

As I have repeatedly explained, my perspective is long term ecological sustainability, which requires a radical new type of politics, which has never existed, which puts not damaging natural systems, ahead of economic growth.

I am also a political strategist, who has studied and observed politics to understand how to achieve this type of new politics.

What is necessary, is a 2 phase approach. Firstly, to establish a strong progressive government. But this is only transitional. To get out of neoliberal and capitalist thinking, so we can establish research and thinking, to develop this new sort of politics/thinking. Part of this, must be a gigantic research programme, based on science, to understand what a sustainable system must look like.

This could and would not happen, under a neoliberal capitalist system, where powerful vested interests, would ensure that this would never happen, which is why it never has happened.

You see, I've realized since I was very young, that the present system is totally unsustainable, and will eventually collapse, as it is predicated on the destruction of natural systems, to create economic growth.

I only explain this, to explain why I am not a secret communist. No left wing ideology, has ever dealt with long term sustainability realistically, as all are mired in the fallacy, of perpetual economic growth. I am not secretly anything, I am quite open about what I believe in.
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Coming back to the fallacy, of the Labour right, trying to claim the secret to making themselves electable, is to win over the right wing media, by making Labour right wing. That is doomed to failure, because the right wing media, will always support a genuine right wing party, over Labour making themselves a bit right wing.
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Tony Blair seemed to have made it look as though this strategy worked. But it was only a mirage, a false impression created temporarily, because Thatcher and the Tories had gone too far, and not only made themselves toxic and unelectable, but made the right itself toxic, by trying to push too far to the right, too quickly.
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All Murdoch et al, were waiting for, is a Conservative or right wing alternative, that was electable. I think even if Tony Blair had stayed Labour leader, and continued with his hidden neoliberalism, and covert Thatcherism, that Murdoch et al, would still have turned against Labour.
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Blair himself became toxic, and it wasn't just his support of the invasion of Iraq that did it. He was rather transparently right wing. Actually the British public, in terms of what they want, are quite left wing.
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Over the years, again and again, opinion polls show the British public, even Conservative voters, to be in favour of publicly owned utilities, and a well funded NHS. Nigel Farage is a right wing Tory, who favours doing away with the NHS and a lot of other stuff, that would be very unpopular with Reform voters. So he has to hide it, in an attempt to make himself electable.
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@ZackPolanski has proven that true progressive politics, can be popular, and all the political opposition is panicking, and making personal attacks on him, smears, and the @TheGreenParty to try and turn this tide.
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To conclude, Keir Starmer's strategy is stupid and suicidal for Labour. Whether that is because he is just stupid and politically incompetent, or vested interests are using Starmer as a useful idiot, is not at all clear.
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