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T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
Tue Apr 7, 2015, 07:21 AM Apr 2015

UK Parties: The Labour Party

Last edited Wed Apr 8, 2015, 03:13 AM - Edit history (1)

A thread about the Labour party. Currently the 2nd biggest political party in the UK and the main opposition party to the government.

I would post some bumph from the Labour party website, but it demands to know the answer to the below (ever so slightly loaded) question before it will let me in. Very annoying when all I want is some sort of statement of what the Labour party stands for

http://www.labour.org.uk/index.php/w/splash-survey#utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.uk%2F

Are you with us?

YES, I'll be voting Labour

MAYBE, I'm still undecided

18 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

non sociopath skin

(4,972 posts)
1. I'll be voting Labour, faut de mieux ...
Tue Apr 7, 2015, 07:59 AM
Apr 2015

.... though if Blair does much more campaigning for them, I could reconsider ...



The Skin

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
2. Thing is....
Tue Apr 7, 2015, 08:04 AM
Apr 2015

....I'd like to get some actual information from Labour's website, without having to answer any loaded questions before I'm granted access to the website.

Why do the main parties feel the need to make it so difficult to find out anything about what they stand for?

Ironing Man

(164 posts)
4. answered your own question...
Tue Apr 7, 2015, 09:41 AM
Apr 2015

they make it difficult to find out what they stand for because if they made it easy everyone would be disappointed.

Ed Balls made it all pretty clear during the last budget bebate - Labour, who decry everything this government has done over the last five years, wouldn't reverse anything in the 2015 budget. ok, so it wasn't the most radical budget in british history, but if they aren't going to change much, whats the point of voting for them?

similar thing with the Greens this morning - Natalie Bennet was on the Today programme talking about defence cuts. whats their actual policy? to retain current capabilities (except CASD) and planned manpower levels till at least 2020.

if being a Green is your thing - with all the peace and love crap that goes with the rhetoric of the green party - why on earth would you bother your arse getting out of bed to vote for the reality of their policy? nice dig about Brighton council - Green party run - being 308th out of 328 councils for recycling as well....

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
5. The impression it gives me...
Tue Apr 7, 2015, 10:37 AM
Apr 2015

...is of a party who are clearly saying different things to different people to win votes.

Which doesn't give me any confidence in what the Labour party is saying.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,082 posts)
6. There's a "continue to main site" button up in the top right hand corner
Wed Apr 8, 2015, 03:11 AM
Apr 2015

which gets you past the annoying question. There's also a 'close' button for a pop-up that wants to ask you another question that comes next (about what your priorities are, I think). I suspect they want to get some email addresses from people, and a bit of feedback about what parts of their canvassing is working. After that you get link to pages about:

A Labour government will build a strong economic foundation and balance the books

A Labour government will create jobs for young people

A Labour government will freeze gas and electricity bills until 2017

plus more issues, and a link to a page about the senior politicians.

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
7. The "continue to main site" link is in teeny tiny writing in the corner...
Wed Apr 8, 2015, 03:19 AM
Apr 2015

....well, what's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Once you get in, the Labour website isn't nearly as negative as the Conservatives website, but it does seem to have been produced with an eye to getting personal information from visitors to the website.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,082 posts)
8. ... hidden in a locked toilet in the basement with 'beware of the leopard' on the door ...
Wed Apr 8, 2015, 03:34 AM
Apr 2015

Yeah, they are definitely trying to make saying 'maybe' (or 'yes') the easy option, and I suspect 'yes' would lead to 'will you volunteer or put up posters' questions, and 'maybe' would lead to 'what would persuade you? Let us email you' questions.

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
9. The 15 worst sentences from the Labour Party manifesto
Wed Apr 15, 2015, 07:19 AM
Apr 2015

Anyone inspired to vote for a party that supports a model of knowledge clusters?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband/11536108/Election-2015-The-15-worst-sentences-from-the-Labour-Party-manifesto.html

“The common life we share is who we are as a country.” (page 11)
“We will create a whole-person approach.” (page 34)
“Labour recognises the vital importance of the power of people’s relationships to build the capacity for love, care and resilience.” (page 44)
“We need a change in how we design our public services by pushing power down.” (page 32)
“We will support this model of knowledge clusters.” (page 21)
“We guarantee a universal entitlement to a creative education so that every young person has access to cultural activity.” (page 55)
“Labour has always believed that everyone should have access to nature, whoever they are.” (page 56)
“One of our first acts in government will be to conduct a wide-ranging review of Britain’s place in the world.” (page 74)
“We applaud those faith communities who have pioneered an inter-faith dialogue for the common good.” (page 54)
“In a globalised world, our local environment provides us with a sense of place and belonging.” (page 56)
“For our country to stay strong, with the confidence to look outwards rather than inwards, people need to feel secure in the strength of our borders, our communities, and in the workplace.” (page 49)
“Labour believes that art and culture gives form to our hopes and aspirations and defines our heritage as a nation.” (page 54)
“This will be underpinned by a new National Primary Childcare Service, a not-for-profit organisation to promote the voluntary and charitable delivery of quality extracurricular activities.” (page 44)
“Sport brings us together in an expression of our local and national pride.” (page 55)
“We will take a whole-family approach to policy-making.” (page 45)

muriel_volestrangler

(101,082 posts)
12. The Tories have plans. 121 of them, in fact.
Wed Apr 15, 2015, 02:44 PM
Apr 2015
At an earlier stage of this general election, I thought about proposing one of those drinking games in which people have a shot or swig every time a Conservative on the campaign trail used the word ‘plan’. I’m glad I didn’t go ahead with that. Anyone who’d taken up the suggestion would now be in a clinic. It was already bad, but the Tory manifesto takes it to another level entirely. Guess how many times the word ‘plan’ occurs’. For purposes of reference, the Labour manifesto uses it 27 times. Answer: 121. It’s almost as if they were trying to stress the idea that they have a plan.
...
The detail about this increased spending is generous. The detail about how it’s going to be paid for is less so. The cap on the amount of benefit received by a household is being lowered from £23,000 p.a. to £21,000. You would be forgiven for thinking that this will pay for everything, because it’s the only specific cut that is mentioned. Elsewhere there’s a promise, repeating something previously asserted by George Osborne, that the Tories will find £12 billion in ‘welfare savings’, added to another £13 billion in cuts in departmental spending. James Ball at the Guardian has made a vivid chart of what that ongoing £12 billion cut looks like:



That’s not a one-off: those cuts are money which would disappear from the annual budget. And that’s all we know about these cuts: further detail is lacking. These promised cuts, if they go ahead, will have an enormous bearing on every aspect of life in the UK, especially for the poor and the excluded and anyone needing social care, and this is the full discussion they get in the Conservative manifesto: ‘We will find £12 billion from welfare savings.’ Seven words. Whereas here’s the policy on polar bears: ‘We will press for full “endangered species” status for polar bears and a ban on the international trade in polar bear skins.’ Twenty-two words. The Tory manifesto promises £12 billion in welfare cuts, but gives three times as much space to its policy on polar bears.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2015/04/14/john-lanchester/episode-nine-polar-bears/


Polar bears are cute, from a distance; cuts look better from a distance too, but they never look cute.

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
13. Some might say that's an insult to slick advertisers!
Thu Apr 16, 2015, 02:57 AM
Apr 2015

The Tory website is the glossiest party website, but I also found it to be quite vague about their own policies, and the most negative of all the party websites.

And negative campaigning really isn't the best way to me. At times it's a bit like trying to sell burgers by endlessly slagging off hot dogs.

LeftishBrit

(41,175 posts)
14. Good point...
Thu Apr 16, 2015, 12:31 PM
Apr 2015

a good advertiser generally tries to make THEIR product memorable, rather than show pictures of the alternatives with 'don't trust this!'

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
15. Another general election kick
Wed Apr 19, 2017, 01:51 AM
Apr 2017

Very dispiriting to see the way that Labour have managed to regress since I started this thread before the last general election.

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
17. UK Parties: The Independent Group
Mon Feb 18, 2019, 03:35 PM
Feb 2019

The website for the group of seven MP's who have quit Labour over anti-Semitism, Corbyn's leadership and failure to oppose the disastrous project to leave the EU


https://www.theindependent.group/

https://www.theindependent.group/statement

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
18. 2019 general election kick
Sun Nov 3, 2019, 05:51 AM
Nov 2019

Safe to say that Labour has changed a fair bit since I first created this thread when Ed Miliband was leading Labour

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