The problem for Labour
The problem for Labour is who do they really represent. We often hear about the poor, the unfortunates, food banks, the homeless, etc,., but the we look around us --
People spending money going to football, theatre, cinema, night clubs, drinking in clubs, pubs, coffee bars and other entertainment. Then we look at the money spent on such things as wide screen TVs and electrical items selling in abundance not to mention smart phones which everyone appears to have these days, just try looking in the I-phone shop for evidence of that. Fashion shops and boutiques doing big business with overpriced goods, like trainers and jeans brought mainly for their labels rather than wearability. Furniture shops and car sales appear to be doing quite well too.
Foreign holiday companies also appear to be doing a decent business.
Supermarket trolleys look to be stacked full of biscuits, cakes, alcohol, and ornamental crud that could hardly be termed necessities of life.
So where are all these unfortunates, certainly not the vast majority of people I see these days. I see very little austerity or cut-backs when I look around me.
That is the problem with Labour far too many people are enjoying a reasonably comfortable life these days for them to attract the people they are supposed to be attracting. The guy sitting with a begging bowl and his dog in the street playing a tin whistle is hardly going to get off his backside and put an X next to his local Labour candidate in any election, be too much like hard work.
People in this country are, in general, having it reasonable well but they sometimes do not appreciate it. There lies Labour's main problem.
People spending money going to football, theatre, cinema, night clubs, drinking in clubs, pubs, coffee bars and other entertainment. Then we look at the money spent on such things as wide screen TVs and electrical items selling in abundance not to mention smart phones which everyone appears to have these days, just try looking in the I-phone shop for evidence of that. Fashion shops and boutiques doing big business with overpriced goods, like trainers and jeans brought mainly for their labels rather than wearability. Furniture shops and car sales appear to be doing quite well too.
Foreign holiday companies also appear to be doing a decent business.
Supermarket trolleys look to be stacked full of biscuits, cakes, alcohol, and ornamental crud that could hardly be termed necessities of life.
So where are all these unfortunates, certainly not the vast majority of people I see these days. I see very little austerity or cut-backs when I look around me.
That is the problem with Labour far too many people are enjoying a reasonably comfortable life these days for them to attract the people they are supposed to be attracting. The guy sitting with a begging bowl and his dog in the street playing a tin whistle is hardly going to get off his backside and put an X next to his local Labour candidate in any election, be too much like hard work.
People in this country are, in general, having it reasonable well but they sometimes do not appreciate it. There lies Labour's main problem.
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Comments
A lot of people will remember who it was who raised the income tax threshold and froze council tax. They will remember every month and they will remember who opposed it.
The biggest danger for the Tories is the EU referendum. It was Europe that divided them last time. Plus there seemed to be a new scandal each week.
And then f***** up big style after ditching them?
Which is opinion and not relevant.
As is yours.
So when you write ths:
... It is fact, but when somebody else posts their opinion it is not relevant. I think it is you who is not relevant. Just an opinion of course.
That has come about partly because it is incapable of listening to anyone who disagrees with it.
To be honest, I think you've pretty much hit the nail on the head. By and large, people are doing well. Ed Miliband's "Cost of living crisis" didn't work because not enough people felt that way.
To win, Labour will need to do a lot more than simply bleat about policies which may be unpopular but don't actually affect too many people - like the bedroom tax. They need to present a potential future so attractive and one so attainable that we can all subscribe to it. Either that, or a) the Tories mess things up big time or b) people simply get fed up with them.
It's very hard to see the electorate inspired enough to vote for Labour in 2020.
If you read the OP's post again you will find he is not assuming anything. He is simply describing what he observes as he looks around him.
I see the very same things.
I never see any of those who are obviously poor, hungry and disadvantaged that many on this forum claim are everywhere you look, as a result of being 'punished' by the 'nasty' tory party policies.
Labour can already see they are not going to have any problems whatsoever at the next general election.
In my opinion as a Labour Party member since 1994, labour should have less dealings and maybe nothing to do with the unions.
Ian.
Massive cuts to public spending, a dead-in-the-water economy, and in-work benefits slashed.
I suppose the well-off retired person might not care about such things, but most of the public will certainly.
Ian.
That's true and it's always the same story.
Since Labour became New "Tory Light" Labour there is an increasingly less of a reason to return to Old Labour.
The lesson of the last 40 years is that Right of Centre politics is the best way to allow people to progress in life.
The OP paints a picture that might be considered a little complacent. Galbraith talked about the culture of contentment in the early 1990s and that's before the financial disaster of 2008 and the rise of Islamist global terrorism. So quite apart from the hidden face of the underclass, one should never think we are going to have it this good all the tiime.
Maybe it depends on the shops you frequent.
What do you know about the people who are doing the shopping.
How do you know what their financial situations are ?
Do you even know whether they are working and /or what they earn ?
How many of them are unemployed ?
Do you know whether or not the wide screen TVs and electrical items and all the other goods you mention are paid for or being bought on the never never ?
BTW can I ask if you make it your business to go looking into other peoples shopping trolleys in supermarkets.
Would you like to say what is normally in your shopping trolley and what you spend your money on so we can judge you as you judge everyone else ? ;-)
Actually you don't need to because it has sod all to do with us.
You seem to be implying that people are becoming too self centered and only interested in themselves to vote Labour, so which political party would you say is the party for them ?
See above
No idea
If luxury items are bought on credit it does not imply to me austerity but stupidity
I, and no doubt others, cannot fail to see items that are placed on the loading belt or what is on display on top of their trolleys
I will try to supply an itemised shopping list for you if you insist,.
Glad about that, but I was just pointing out that just by observing life as I see it I see very little evidence of people cutting back through austerity as Labour would have us believe.
Most people would vote for the party that is more represented to their lifestyle, (turkeys do not vote for Christmas, do they?} if people were so desperate financially as Labour kept telling us before the election the would have won hands down.
You did not comment on the rest of my post about the other things that do not appear to be affected by this austerity everyone appears to have suffered over the past couple of years or so.
It's hard to reply to your post when half the answers you have given don't show.
Still I will try.
You say you shop at Tesco, Sainsburys, Lidl, and that you know nothing about the people you see shopping other than they don't seem to be short of money.
In that case how can you make an observation about them, as far as you know they could be quite well off.
From my observations people are doing more of their shopping in Pound shops so may I suggest you visit pound shops and take note of what people who shop in them have in their baskets.
May I also suggest that when you're out shopping you have a look in your local charity and/ or second hand shops, you may be surprised at how many people you will see buying their 'luxury' items in them.
You see at first glance people may not appear to be affected by austerity , but when you look closer it may be a different story ;-)
Depends of course where your walking when your looking
I will say now as a member of the Labour Party, that I don't expect Labour to win in the next General Election in 2020, although of course I will always vote for them.
Ian.
The post was not relevant to the point raised by the OP.
So what does it stand for?
Certainly not the workers - since it seem happy to shaft them over it's immigration policy - and why conspicuous by their absence was anybody from a worker representative organisation when it decided to flood markets with extra workers. (It was eventually forced to accept representation for workers but only after a long fight - almost completely ignored by the press at the time).