Welcome to openDemocracy’s weekly reader comments round-up. This is an opportunity for us to showcase some of the many carefully considered messages we receive on a range of topics.
These comments are edited for clarity, accuracy and length and don’t necessarily reflect openDemocracy's editorial position.
Re: The City’s big investment in Starmer’s Labour is about to pay dividends
Money makes the world go around, so they say. So, how come those who already have a shed load of it always seem to get more, while those living pay cheque to pay cheque never do? Also, it’s past time to put a stop to political donations from bankers and businesses. They are only giving money to politicians to increase their own wealth. Or do they expect us to believe they are just being philanthropic? Give me a break! –Vee
They've clearly forgotten Gordon Brown’s ‘light-touch regulation’. That was a Mansion House speech, too. It ultimately led to disaster in 2008/9. Which in turn led to George Osborne's perma-austerity, which led to Brexit and the rise of Farage. –Judith
I switched my vote from Labour to the Greens many years ago. Yes, I know it's a lot easier to make promises in opposition than it is to deliver policies when in power. But the Green Party’s policies are much closer to ‘traditional Labour values’ than those of the current Labour Party. –Steve
Ethan Shone makes the case that Rachel Reeves and the Labour Party are now a wholly owned subsidiary of the financial services industry and are focused on a corporate-privileging agenda. While this may or may not be exaggerated (after all, we might point to some non-corporate favouring actions this year), as an overall trend, it does explain Reeves's position-taking. –Christopher
I was wondering how the current situation is different from under the Tories. Not in a ‘they’re all the same’ way, but whether finance correctly spotted a chance to get more radical (and profitable) changes pushed through because Labour is so vacuous and easily manipulated, while senior Tories who know better how the city works might pushback. –Bash
Re: Weekly Poll: Is a socialist-led government possible in your country?
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Do you not think that your question is simplistic? Socialism in one country, just like that? What world do you think we live in? You do risk sounding like entitled young things who expect to get everything they want without understanding the context at all. Working for socialism is harder than that, as your own research surely tells you! –Jennifer
I do think a socialist government is possible for the UK. Just look at what happened in 1945. There was a longing for a kinder, fairer, healthier world, with its shoots appearing even during the war.
Now we are approaching a tipping point, where the general public has had enough of both Big C and Small C conservative governments. Inequality is so clear to see, yet it's getting worse. Old Labour principles have been thrown out in favour of ‘growth’ and cosying up to Big Business. Our services and local government are underfunded, reducing our quality of life, while the distortion of the housing market is increasing homelessness, and the government won’t meaningfully commit to ditching fossil fuels. The British people feel they deserve better, and it is possible they will demand it soon. –Susan
A socialist government is electable in the UK, especially if the left pulls together. However, it would need the support of other socialist governments to counter the corporate efforts that would undermine it, specifically deals that include investor/state dispute clauses, corporate arbitration and exemptions from national laws, as well as so-called free trade zones. –Lesley G
Of course it is possible! We've had socialist-led governments in this country in the past, though not really since Harold Wilson’s. It was with Tony Blair’s premiership that the rot set in within Labour; he was no socialist, and it all went downhill from his first day in office. Now, we've got middle-class, lawyerly Keir Starmer, whose bourgeois ways and colleagues, as well as his habit of ousting anyone whose ideology isn’t in lockstep with his own, make socialism an impossibility under what passes for a Labour Party today.
But there’s hope! Jeremy Corbyn has already had a very uneasy five years as the Labour leader before all those right-wing Blair hangovers managed to oust him. Now he seems to be planning to launch a new socialist party with the fresh and enthusiastic young MP, Zarah Sultana. There’s certainly a hunger in the electorate for a socialist party to represent them, even just to listen to them with left-wing ears, so to speak, and then move on from there with fresh ideas and additional active support.
I'll do everything I can to help, little though that is. I'm rooting for them, and I know I'm not the only one. So yes, of course we can have a socialist-led government in England – even in the UK – just as we’ve had (too rarely) in the past. Live in hope, hope for the best but plan for the worst, all that kind of thing. –Val
Yes, in my country, Scotland, if it manages to gain its independence. I believe that English votes will bring the UK a Reform-led government at the next general election, and Scotland, just as happened when it voted to remain in the EU, will find itself outvoted – and governed by that right-wing bunch of charlatans.
Reform Ltd will not need a single vote from Scotland to achieve its goal of forming the next government, although it will get some with the money it is currently pouring into winning Scottish votes. But polling suggests that most people in Scotland intend to vote for the centre-left SNP which already runs the UK’s best performing, better paid and only strike-free health service, NHS Scotland; operates the internationally acclaimed Scottish Child Payment, lifting more Scots kids out of poverty than any other part of the UK; offers free bus travel for young and old; free prescriptions and tuition; more and better paid police with lower crime rates across all metrics; more teachers and GPs per head of population; better building standards – I could go on. In other words, it is a far more socialist government and is currently politically left of Labour. –Lesley M
I hope a socialist-led government is possible; it’s the only way to save our miserable species (though it may be best for all other species if we don't survive). But until left-wing radicals can come together in a convincing way, I can't see it happening. –Amanda
The prospect of a new party involving Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana appears immensely popular but would face tremendous opposition from the establishment and right-wing media. So, yes, it's possible, but only if brutal opposition can be overcome. –Barrie
The more I learn about the world, the more I doubt that socialism is possible, and this is coming from someone who likes socialism. - CAT via Mastodon
