[Politics] Do we need a General Strike?

[B-right-on]

would you hold up america as an example for britain to follow?

Far from it. Country is screwed up.

Plenty more capitalistic countries around the world in far better state.

 

[The Clamp]

Good old Thatcherism working its magic so many years on

There shouldn't be any debate about whether there should be strikes, workers have a legal right to do so and being demonised by a billionaire who broke (their own) law during lockdowns and support breaking the law on Brexit NI Protocol. Know your enemy

Quite. Imagine what the Nazti party would be doing if it weren't for unions!

 

[Albion my Albion]

Do we need a General Strike?​

No!!!!! The last time the General hit me it hurt worse than a large enema up the bum.

 

[abc]

Strikes and meeting the demands of the public sector unions will sadly ultimately hit the most in need in our society the hardest. I don’t think they can take any more ‘hits’.
I also don’t think an election will serve the country well - yet. Labour are not prepared for government yet and being ‘anyone but the tories’ is good but is not a policy to get us out of the mess we are in.
Labour now have c 18 months to develop genuine well thought out policies that will inspire the electorate, rebuild some belief in Westminster, our society and economy and thus give a new government a mandate for real change.
Personally, I think that’s our best hope.

 

[Randy McNob]

Strikes and meeting the demands of the public sector unions will sadly ultimately hit the most in need in our society the hardest. I don’t think they can take any more ‘hits’.
I also don’t think an election will serve the country well - yet. Labour are not prepared for government yet and being ‘anyone but the tories’ is good but is not a policy to get us out of the mess we are in.
Labour now have c 18 months to develop genuine well thought out policies that will inspire the electorate, rebuild some belief in Westminster, our society and economy and thus give a new government a mandate for real change.
Personally, I think that’s our best hope.

I don't agree with this at all. Do you mean that unless labour look completely electable and ready for government we will vote this lot back in and give them another 5 years ?

Presumably in 2024 at the ballot box the choice would still be the loony Brexit sect of the conservatives rather than the actual sensible version? I'd rather spoil my paper or vote for Lord Sutch

Using a football analogy, if the manager has lost the plot, lost the dressing room and cannot buy a win, the whole thing has become toxic, you just have to get rid, even if you don't know the next step

 

[abc]

I don't agree with this at all. Do you mean that unless labour look completely electable and ready for government we will vote this lot back in and give them another 5 years ?

Presumably in 2024 at the ballot box the choice would still be the loony Brexit sect of the conservatives rather than the actual sensible version? I'd rather spoil my paper or vote for Lord Sutch

Using a football analogy, if the manager has lost the plot, lost the dressing room and cannot buy a win, the whole thing has become toxic, you just have to get rid, even if you don't know the next step

No, that's not what I mean at all or what I said.

 

[Zeberdi]

Strikes and meeting the demands of the public sector unions will sadly ultimately hit the most in need in our society the hardest. I don’t think they can take any more ‘hits’.
I also don’t think an election will serve the country well … ‘anyone but the tories’ is good but is not a policy to get us out of the mess we are in.
Labour now have c 18 months to develop genuine well thought out policies …

Wouldn’t a situation that the ‘most in need’ ‘couldn’t take anymore hits’ be a reason for these strikes come to a resolution as quickly as possible? Not waiting for the Tory’s to reach full term.

I also don’t understand your point why ‘meeting the demands of the public sector unions would hit the most need in our society the hardest’? That depends does it not on how we fund pay increases in the public sector- ie by cutting benefits and/or public services or do we fund our public services from taxation on wealth/capital gains/top income brackets etc - This is where an election could serve us well - which Party do we think is most likely to protect our public services and the vulnerable in our society at the same time?

Tabling a Motion of No Confidence is not a policy decision nor is the Government loosing the Vote of No Confidence but it is conventional a way for Parliament to precipitate a General Election when the Government has loss control of the Country - which it will unless it resolves the strike action ASAP

On your final point, Labour has had nearly 13 years in Opposition and while I take your point about Labour lacking meat to their policy positions (whatever they are) - I can’t see another 18 mnths of Tory rule achieving anything- other than maybe another 18 mnths of worsening strike action, even further contraction of public services, increasing national debt burden and increasing personal financial hardship for millions - not just those on very low income but also hitting the middle incomes too as more and more small businesses go to the wall and public sector workers like nurses and teachers simply cannot afford to met their basic living requirements.

 

[worthingseagull123]

We need a General Strike AND a General Election to get this callous, thick, self-serving bunch of unelected (yes they are...) scumbags out of government. As for those on my side who go 'but....Starmer...' I was at Wapping in 1986 with thousands of others fighting for freedom of the press, he kept people I know out of jail doing pro bono work as a young lawyer and even if everything a Starmer government does is a parody of what he was then it'll still be a vast improvement on this.

You are deluded if you think the idiots in the Labour party will be any better.

We’ll replace one set of incompetent morons with another.

 

[stewart12]

You are deluded if you think the idiots in the Labour party will be any better.

We’ll replace one set of incompetent morons with another.

whether or not you're correct, this Tory government is completely done and has run out of steam. I feel like everything that's happened in the past 12 years...austerity, Brexit, Covid, scandal upon scandal alongside a near constant turnover of senior governmental positions has done them in.

You can see it in parliament and whenever any of them bother to face the media...there's no energy or spark there whatsoever. They know the game is up and they need a bit of time away to regroup and come up with some fresh ideas

 

[chickens]

You are deluded if you think the idiots in the Labour party will be any better.

We’ll replace one set of incompetent morons with another.

I think, to speak frankly having lived through the past couple of years, I’d give almost any party on earth a crack at the whip as an alternative to what the Conservative Party has become.

 

[worthingseagull123]

I think, to speak frankly having lived through the past couple of years, I’d give almost any party on earth a crack at the whip as an alternative to what the Conservative Party has become.

I agree it is utter dross.

But we will replace one set of idiots with another.

 

[abc]

Wouldn’t a situation that the ‘most in need’ ‘couldn’t take anymore hits’ be a reason for these strikes come to a resolution as quickly as possible? Not waiting for the Tory’s to reach full term.

I also don’t understand your point why ‘meeting the demands of the public sector unions would hit the most need in our society the hardest’? That depends does it not on how we fund pay increases in the public sector- ie by cutting benefits and/or public services or do we fund our public services from taxation on wealth/capital gains/top income brackets etc - This is where an election could serve us well - which Party do we think is most likely to protect our public services and the vulnerable in our society at the same time?

Tabling a Motion of No Confidence is not a policy decision nor is the Government loosing the Vote of No Confidence but it is conventional a way for Parliament to precipitate a General Election when the Government has loss control of the Country - which it will unless it resolves the strike action ASAP

On your final point, Labour has had nearly 13 years in Opposition and while I take your point about Labour lacking meat to their policy positions (whatever they are) - I can’t see another 18 mnths of Tory rule achieving anything- other than maybe another 18 mnths of worsening strike action, even further contraction of public services, increasing national debt burden and increasing personal financial hardship for millions - not just those on very low income but also hitting the middle incomes too as more and more small businesses go to the wall and public sector workers like nurses and teachers simply cannot afford to met their basic living requirements.

I take your points and I share your misgivings about this gov staying in power for another 18 months. I felt like that at the end of the last long period of Tory rule which saw Tony Blair come to power on a wave of national optimism and, for me at least, genuine excitement. Labour fought that on a whole pile of credible policies and they won the election rather than relied on the Tories to lose it. Labour today appear to have nothing to offer except they are not the Tories. Under the current circumstances I will take that, but it would be so much more positive if they came to an election with some policies. But then I guess they have had years to do this as much as the Tories have years to get the country in order - both have failed miserably.
Slightly off the topic, but I believe we need some form of PR so that both Labour and Tories never have the political freedom to be able to behave as the Tories have and yet remain in power, or ,in the case of Labour, know they will gain power even if they have no policies (or worse, because they have no policies)

 

[abc]

Quite. Imagine what the Nazti party would be doing if it weren't for unions!

What is the link between the Nazi party and the unions? Lost me....

 

[Zeberdi]

What is the link between the Nazi party and the unions? Lost me....

I think the comment was referring to the Tories - ‘Nazti’ not ‘Nazi’ although the ‘Nasti’ Party would be more politically correct (and also means ‘No way!’ In Spainish and the Tories clearly have lost their way.)

(How a certain Spanish forward might feel about having his name used as an epithet for the Tories is another issue of course !)

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Does anyone actually notice if the Royal Mail are on strike?

 

[rogersix]

I agree it is utter dross.

But we will replace one set of idiots with another.

no one is anywhere near as mindless as the modern tories; cameron, may, bungle****, truss, sunak.

a veritable rogues gallery; seriously, how could anyone sink to those, depths of humanity?

 

[worthingseagull123]

no one is anywhere near as mindless as the modern tories; cameron, may, bungle****, truss, sunak.

a veritable rogues gallery; seriously, how could anyone sink to those, depths of humanity?

Time will tell whether the idiots in red equal the idiots in blue.

 

[WATFORD zero]

You are deluded if you think the idiots in the Labour party will be any better.

We’ll replace one set of incompetent morons with another.

You stick with your 'they're all the same' mantra. The last defence of the indefensible

 

[St Leonards Seagull]

Does anyone actually notice if the Royal Mail are on strike?

Since privatisation, I doubt it.

 

[rogersix]

Time will tell whether the idiots in red equal the idiots in blue.

could we not learn from our history, so we don't have to wait so long?