this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025

96 points (95.3% liked)

UK Politics

4106 readers

192 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

tom@feddit.uk

GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk

flamingos@feddit.uk

frankPodmore@slrpnk.net

Jeremy and Zarah's new left party surges towards half a million sign ups (www.thecanary.co)

submitted 5 days ago by Salamence@lemmy.zip to c/uk_politics@feddit.uk

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 25 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Borger@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Just signed up! Thanks.

[–] IcyToes@sh.itjust.works 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

No way! Me too!

Let's hit the half a million.

[–] samc@feddit.uk 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

To put this into context: Labour currently has an estimated 300,000 members, a figure which seems to be declining rapidly. (Its hard to get exact figures since they stopped publicising them...)

Obviously there's a much lower barrier to entry here, but for that many people to be that engaged already is frankly astounding to me

[–] Tamo240@programming.dev 4 points 5 days ago

500,000 people joining a mailing list would probably result in around 25,000 (5%) actually paying for a membership. This is still extremely impressive for a new party, but people really need to stop comparing the number to other party's paying memberships.

[–] baggins@beehaw.org 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

'The system is rigged'

So they'll be campaigning for proportional representation then?

Or they could just join up with Green Party, seeing as their spiel is essentially the same.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, not sute why they don't just join with The Greens ?

[–] baggins@beehaw.org -3 points 4 days ago

Possibly because JC wouldn’t be the main focal point. I think he likes being the centre of attention.

[–] leraje@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The problem, I'm afraid, is not the idea but Jeremy Corbyn. A quick look at Yougov polling currently has him less popular than Keir Starmer at 21%. It's a shame we live in such a personality led culture but we do - en masse, people just don't like him and won't vote for him.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 0 points 5 days ago

He seems decent enough until he tried to bothr sides Russian invasion of ukraine

[+] Flax_vert@feddit.uk -11 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Is this so he can lose an election for the third time?

[–] IcyToes@sh.itjust.works 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

So you're just parroting Labour HQ narratives?

And you're simply going to ignore the right working against him. Shadow cabinet resignations, daily briefings, redirected election funding away from marginals to right wingers seats.

I'm curious to see what he could do without his party stabbing him in the back.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk -1 points 5 days ago (2 children)

He literally refused to condemn the IRA. He spoke for himself.

[–] IcyToes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago

Sorry, when was the last active IRA involvement?

He was actively involved in the peace process nearly 20 years ago. Pretty sure Blair asked him to assist in getting parties to the table. This peace has lasted too. What are you? A BBC journalist? If you don't say x words, you're complicit. Such tabloid BS.

[–] G4Z@feddit.uk 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That's just not true, he did he just included all groups and refused to single them out, which is quite right imo.

Yeah, they were terrorists but they didn't come to exist in a vacuum and our government was also responsible for some decidedly shady shit.

In my estimation the IRA were worse, but this is still one of those emotive topics that can be exploited by the media to paint it to suit their agenda, and as we know their agenda is to protect capital. People always lose their shit about the IRA, and I understand, I've been alive long enough to remember the troubles but it does in fact take 2 to tango.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 points 5 days ago (2 children)

IRA murdered Catholics just for doing business with the wrong people.

Also, Jeremy Corbyn chose to be neutral over brexit in the 2019 referendum. Only Lib Dems were anti brexit. So the vote split. He would have been better just pushing a second referendum.

[–] G4Z@feddit.uk 3 points 5 days ago

They did plenty yeah, how does that make the bad things the UK government did ok?

Also, Jeremy Corbyn chose to be neutral over brexit in the 2019 referendum.

Fair enough, I disagree with him on that as well. There again the society I would like would be a bit incompatible with the EU as it is right now, maybe I'm just more radical than I was in 2016.

[–] IcyToes@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Oh, we moved on from IRA to Brexit. Seems you just hate Corbyn and are running through the greatest hits. Waiting for the next whatabout...

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I can dislike a politician for multiple reasons. Vote splits are bad. Kier isn't too bad as people let on. A little spineless though

[–] IcyToes@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago

In your opinion, he isn't bad. Vote splits aren't ideal and hopefully it doesn't help Reform. However, Keir would be wise to remember he leads the Labour party and his inability to take on the views of his MPs is arrogance of the highest order that may be his downfall. The choice is in his hands.

Of course, his authoritarian streak in regards to proscribing orgs, and removing privacy from adults trying to access sensitive websites is just pushing people to Farage and Corbyn. If he was spineless, he wouldn't be ignoring his whole party.

Many members got pushed from Labour, or banned and he should own his decisions.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Farage must be licking his lips at this delicious bit of vote splitting.

Sigh, we're getting Reform next by the looks of it...

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I honestly don't understand how people don't see that. FPTP is so dangerous. We desperately need to change our voting system before we end up with a jackboot Faragist government on like 1/3 of the vote. The majority don't want that. Which isn't unusual as our voting system never gives a reflective parliament.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Indeed.

I'm not even making a judgement on Corbyn here. People can love him or hate him, either way it doesn't change the fact that by splintering support, under our voting system, you only strengthen the opposing side.

It's like... one of the headline problems with FPTP as a system.

At the very least, Sultana and Corbyn could've joined or allied with an existing party they align with, the Greens. Seriously look at Corbyn's recent remarks and his open letter, and Sultana's too.

There's basically no distinction between them and the Greens, yet they're choosing to battle against them in each constituency? It's just electoral self-harm.

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 1 points 5 days ago

Couldn't agree more. Everyone should be hollowing about our voting system as it is at the root of so much of our political problems. That and the 2008 crash and 14 years of bad handling of it.

[–] IcyToes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago

We don't know that. There could be a pact. They could avoid running against Green's, Lib Dems, and left Labour folk. Take out Starmer, Steeting and the nasty ones. Can build up support in locals and not run in certain generals.

The one splitting votes is Keir who has taken over the workers party on anti-migration Austerity politics. It's hard to differentiate them and the Tories under Cameron...

Someone has to have the stones to help shift the Overton window back and Corbyn has done it before.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 4 points 5 days ago

I want chaos with Ed Milliband ☹️