Eliot

AGCS President / “Soft Left Gay for State Terror” / MHFA / #NeverKissedAWhig / Gallienite & Cassandrist

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

The Labour Party is 120 years old today, I thought I’d do a thread of some of its greatest achievements for which we can all be proud

[Jonathan Hinder MP @Jonathan_Hinder]

Which party for proper industrial socialism, rooted in solidarity and reciprocity?

It was always Labour, and it can be again 🌹

[Oz Katerji @OzKaterji]

Hasan Piker is an apologist for China’s oppression of the Uyghurs, Russia’s invasion of Crimea, the Assad regime, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Whatever your view on the ban is, it is not simply because he is a “critic of Israel”.

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

@samueljenkinson 5 includes the greats lands on the earth. Gods own

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

I find the metric bizarre, would changing the name of business rates to council tax make any material difference to Britains tax regime?

[Dan Neidle @DanNeidle]

The UK now has 90 taxes (more than any time since 1843).

Germany raises more tax than the UK, but with only 60 taxes.

France raises a bit more than that, but has 348.

What's going on? And what can we learn?

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

@Fremond_ I don’t think those figures are accurate as the Danish state pension is about $25k per year per person so a couple would be nearly twice what is reported in the graphic

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

Actually it is a bad policy with clear inbuilt exploitations and obvious onward labour market distortion

[camilo @AscendedYield]

It’s good policy

Real wages have been stagnant, especially in sectors where overtime is high, putting extra hours in has been the way for many to make ends meet, getting to keep more of what you make is a better policy than anything the government has come up

[Diane Abbott @HackneyAbbott]

The assisted suicide Bill should not come back via a private member's Bill as it became a farcical process and a terrible policy mess.
Campaigners need a party or parties to support it. Labour does not and it was not in the 2024 manifesto.

https://t.co/PAp4BE99os

[Luciana Berger @lucianaberger]

The Assisted Dying Bill raised more questions than it answered. My piece in @LabourList >>>

https://t.co/k7e71LtU1H

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

@robjeffecology @Iainite_Iain @cgdav135 That is simply not what is being proposed. In fact it is the exact opposite, the reforms specify whole family units.

[Jonathan Hinder MP @Jonathan_Hinder]

Net migration has fallen to… a city the size of Norwich, every year.

The mad Boriswave is the only reason this level is considered a “low”.

@ShabanaMahmood is restoring fairness and control to our immigration system.

[Jonathan Hinder MP @Jonathan_Hinder]

This is Labour members - not the general public, not even Labour voters.

Labour MEMBERS.

These days, a very liberal group of people.

And they support what @ShabanaMahmood is doing.

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

@cmw2003 Poor parliamentary management is the foundational stone upon which Starmer’s fall was built. All the metrics and data are noise compared to the staggering fact that even with a 165 seat majority Starmer has struggled to get key legislation through the House

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

@jhallwood 100% a Starmer ally briefing to punish “disloyal” ministers. They’re on a scorched earth approach now

[Despotic Inroad @DespoticInroad]

V popular argument on the Right that our current problems are the result of ~statism/~socialism, & that the market-liberal reforms of the last ~half century were a mirage (contradicting Thatcher's own claim that her greatest achievement was Tony Blair/New Labour, because they ~continued much of her legacy).

Here's a reminder of what the state used to do in the pre-Thatcherite era:
👉Own/run water, gas, electricity, railway companies as nationalised public monopolies (all sold off in '80s/'90s, often to foreign states, sovereign wealth, PE funds etc.)
👉Own/run municipal bus companies, coal mines, airlines, car factories, steelworks, telecommunications, shipbuilders & much else besides (all privatised in '80s/'90s, many mothballed entirely)
👉Build ~50-100k municipal homes/yr & impose rent controls on the PRS (social housebuilding, and ALL housebuilding, is now a tiny fraction of the post-war peak, millions of units have been privatised under R2B, rent controls were lifted in '88, & the Housing Benefit Bill exploded)
👉Impose strict controls on Forex & the export of capital abroad (controls lifted in 1979 & never re-imposed)
👉Have full employment as consensus policy aim & an attempt to control incomes & prices through Pay Boards/Price Commissions + corporatist relationship with trade unions (all abolished, with trade unions slowly emasculated, & with out-of-work/sickness & disability benefits bill exploding)
👉Impose punitive taxes (of 80/90%+) on high/"unearned" incomes
👉Spend ~5% of GDP on public capital investment/fixed capital formation (collapsing to ~1-2% in Thatcherite decade, where it has hovered around since)

Britain's pre-Thatcherite political economy had levels of state involvement in PRODUCTION + NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT + the MANAGEMENT/DIRECTION of capital (not simply redistribution + regulation, as today), that are unimaginable nowadays.

Many of the phenomena Ben describes below have little to do with anything approaching a social-democratic political economy – the "massive taxes" (relative to GDP) are largely a function of demographics, common across the developed world (even though our base rate/higher rate/additional rate are MUCH lower than they once were). The regulatory regime in water, energy etc. is a product of privatisation itself. And what we're seeing on stuff like the Renters'/Employment Rights Acts, energy subsidies, judicial rulings on pay via Equalities Act, minimum wage etc. is an attempt by legislators to perform a kind of post-hoc, bureaucratic, progressive distributional correction to the outcomes of a growth model still based on private ownership of core sectors, poor collective bargaining, low levels of public investment, outsourcing, PFI/PPP, globalisation/import dependency, financialisation, with the state desperately facilitating continued FDI etc. etc. rather than altering the growth model itself (which has been broken since 2008).

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

@AscendedYield Ministers become accountable and responsible in so far that their department is the shareholder. The level of control is determined by the model post nationalisation not the mere act of being nationalised

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

@MrMutantes “Collapse into an early general election” the party has a 400 seat majority

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

I wonder what the Burnham v Streeting numbers look like should Burnham reject rejoin

[Sam Coates Sky @SamCoatesSky]

NEW - YouGov Labour members polling

If there is a leadership contest, your first preference:
Burnham 47%
Starmer 31%
Rayner 8%
Streeting 4%
Miliband 3%
Cooper 3%
Mahmood 1%
Carns 0%

Head to heads:
Burnham 59% v Starmer 37%
Burnham 80% v Streeting 10%
Miliband 58% v Streeting 28%
Rayner 70% v Streeting 19%

On Keir Starmer, should he:
Take party into next election 28%
Remain as leader until closer to GE 33%
Step down no / in months 33%

YouGov polled 706 Labour members, May 14-18

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

@_lwalter_ Broadly speaking the fiscal rules are here to stay because of the bond market. Some flexible changes are possible be we have to be realistic that the endless money of the 2010s is not available to us anymore

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

@Michaelknife1 @jhallwood Momentum pushed that angle of “no to a Tory Brexit” rather than no to Brexit. The better option for Labour in 2018/19 would have been to support May’s Withdrawal Agreement, demand fresh elections for a mandate to negotiate the subsequent deal.

[Eliot @softleftlabour]

@_lwalter_ This issues with Starmer are deeper than policy though, he isn’t suited for the job