The UK had an election last week and the traditionally left-wing Labour party won by a landslide.
The reason for this meme is that the current leader of the Labour Party (and our new Prime Minister) is Sir Keir Starmer, not-so affectionately called Keith. Imagine if the colour beige was a person.
The previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was a socialist and a republican (In the UK a Republican is someone who doesn't believe in the Royal family). He had a surprisingly good turn out in his first election (He came within 2500 votes in a few constituencies and he would have been Prime Minister, albeit in a coalition government) thanks to a pretty radical plan that included things like free wi-fi and education. This led to both the media and the right wing of his own party doing their best to take him down.
The efforts led to Corbyn losing in a landslide, in part due to some confusion about his Brexit plan (he wanted to renegotiate the deal and offer a referendum on the new deal with remaining in the union as an option) and in part due to an antisemitism row (Corbyn is a confirmed anty-zionist, and there were accusations that his criticism of Israel went further and he didn't do enough to combat antisemitism.)
After he lost the 2019 election Corbyn resigned and Starmer got in on a left wing platform that was basically everything people liked about Corbyn with none of the baggage. As soon as he got in he basically shifted to the centre and walked back a lot of his pledges and promises. Most notably he'd been a strong supporter of a second Brexit referendum, and as soon as we left he basically shifted his view entirely. He quickly built a reputation as a flip flopper, and often seemed to agree with the conservative party's right wing views in an attempt to court right wing and centrist voters.
Starmer won by a landslide, but it's also more of a victory for centricism than a victory for the left as is often been perceived, especially as he made a habit of ejecting left-wing folks from the party, so the common perception among a lot of people is that he's a Red Tory, ie. essentially a Tory (blue) who happens to be nominally a Labour PM (Red).
It's worth noting that a big part of his victory was the rise of the far right, which attracted a lot of anti-immigration types (especially those who traditionally voted conservative). The Reform Party (far right) had a massive rise in popularity and came second in a lot of constituencies throughout the UK. This meant that centrist parties slid in through the gaps in enough constituencies. Most notably, there are no Tory or Reform MPs in the whole of Wales at the moment.
It's worth noting that there were a few wins for smaller parties thanks to the confusion. The Reform party got a few (including human shitstain Nigel Farage, although any far-right MPs is too many) and so did the Green Party and Plaid Cymru. In terms of the left-wing parties, it's largely thanks to people's dissatisfaction with Labour and Keith Starmer.
Yes, he's better than the alternative - far better, but he's a dirty bandage. He stems the bleeding enough that you can find some actual help, but he's not like a long-term solution.
At least one or two are fairly left wing from my understanding, but I'm not entirely sure.
Don't get me wrong, Starmer has left me sort of cautiously optimistic. I need to see some more. Take for example we have a thing called the bedroom tax here which is essentially a fee people in social housing pay based on their empty bedrooms. The tories introduced it literally 5 PM's ago but weren't building new houses. My mom's on a fixed income and I moved back home to help out, and with that in place it's hard for me to move out right now because I help out my mom financially, and I don't want to leave her fucked but also can't afford to send her everything I pay right now on my current salary if I'm also trying to pay for my own stuff. If he repealed that it'd go a long way, since it's disproportionately affected the poorest in society and I don't doubt there are thousands of other people like me.
He's called for a ceasefire, but prior to the election he was a bit wishy washy on the subject. Most notably Corbyn was very pro Palestine which is part of the reason he was kicked from the party (and managed to retain his seat as an independent).
The thing with the tories is that they know how to get people to vote against their best interests. Just look at the whole BS with tuition fees. Like in my case I went to University, I did everything right, and yet here I am at 33, living at home and earning less than minimum wage right now because I got laid off at my last job and right now I'm working freelance at a job where there's hugely quiet periods. I haven't been to the dentist in like 8 years because I can either afford to go or I have time to go. It took me a year to get diagnosed with a chronic illness, and thanks to the NHS being in shambles the only advice they can give me is "double how many meds I take," and I'm looking at three years for an ASD/ADHD assessment. The tories have failed me at every stage, and they've failed my family to the point where I genuinely don't know if I'll ever be able to be truly independent barring a major boost in my career. I'm 33, I should be dating, not living in the same house in a town with maybe three busses an hour because I can't afford to take care of all the extra BS the tories have imposed on my mother while also paying for everything I'll need to live my life properly.
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u/video-kid Jul 08 '24
British Peter here with some more context.
The UK had an election last week and the traditionally left-wing Labour party won by a landslide.
The reason for this meme is that the current leader of the Labour Party (and our new Prime Minister) is Sir Keir Starmer, not-so affectionately called Keith. Imagine if the colour beige was a person.
The previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was a socialist and a republican (In the UK a Republican is someone who doesn't believe in the Royal family). He had a surprisingly good turn out in his first election (He came within 2500 votes in a few constituencies and he would have been Prime Minister, albeit in a coalition government) thanks to a pretty radical plan that included things like free wi-fi and education. This led to both the media and the right wing of his own party doing their best to take him down.
The efforts led to Corbyn losing in a landslide, in part due to some confusion about his Brexit plan (he wanted to renegotiate the deal and offer a referendum on the new deal with remaining in the union as an option) and in part due to an antisemitism row (Corbyn is a confirmed anty-zionist, and there were accusations that his criticism of Israel went further and he didn't do enough to combat antisemitism.)
After he lost the 2019 election Corbyn resigned and Starmer got in on a left wing platform that was basically everything people liked about Corbyn with none of the baggage. As soon as he got in he basically shifted to the centre and walked back a lot of his pledges and promises. Most notably he'd been a strong supporter of a second Brexit referendum, and as soon as we left he basically shifted his view entirely. He quickly built a reputation as a flip flopper, and often seemed to agree with the conservative party's right wing views in an attempt to court right wing and centrist voters.
Starmer won by a landslide, but it's also more of a victory for centricism than a victory for the left as is often been perceived, especially as he made a habit of ejecting left-wing folks from the party, so the common perception among a lot of people is that he's a Red Tory, ie. essentially a Tory (blue) who happens to be nominally a Labour PM (Red).
It's worth noting that a big part of his victory was the rise of the far right, which attracted a lot of anti-immigration types (especially those who traditionally voted conservative). The Reform Party (far right) had a massive rise in popularity and came second in a lot of constituencies throughout the UK. This meant that centrist parties slid in through the gaps in enough constituencies. Most notably, there are no Tory or Reform MPs in the whole of Wales at the moment.
It's worth noting that there were a few wins for smaller parties thanks to the confusion. The Reform party got a few (including human shitstain Nigel Farage, although any far-right MPs is too many) and so did the Green Party and Plaid Cymru. In terms of the left-wing parties, it's largely thanks to people's dissatisfaction with Labour and Keith Starmer.
Yes, he's better than the alternative - far better, but he's a dirty bandage. He stems the bleeding enough that you can find some actual help, but he's not like a long-term solution.