Simon Parker

This is pretty awesome.

Fascinating piece of history which dramatises the debate within the Labour movement between improving material conditions for the working class and aiming for a broader transformation of society. The former won out, the latter remains a fascinating road not taken.

People who have watched Farage's career should know by now that vibes-based leadership is largely immune to policy-based attack.

'Lol Polanski isn't good at policy' would be an excellent own if he wasn't polling in second place.

Ok but leaving it there seems a bit incurious. The really interesting thing is that it's working incredibly well for him. Policy-based attacks bounce off vibes-based leaders.

Exactly. I think part of the issue here is that 'working people' no longer equals 'working class'. If you seek to represent the former you're looking at first generation uber drivers, office cleaners, the bottom rungs of the graduate class etc etc.

Yes. The working class as Blue Labour imagines it has been in decline since the mid-1970s.

Of course I recognise they all went through similarly reformist phases and have landed in much the same place, but I think this is a distinct product of the postwar era.

This is a fairer point, and it's notable that the south west has never really voted Labour despite being deeply methodist. However, I do think the non-conformist tradition more broadly helps explain some of what makes British politics distinctive.

I'm not sure the trajectory bit is true. The SPD was formally Marxist until 1959 and didn't see power until the mid-60s. The French socialists didn't see power until the 80s and were initially very influenced by the new left. Labour got there sooner and without much Marx.

Say a bit more? It does seem to me that British socialism has quite a limited Marxian component, at least pre-60s. I mean one of our leading Marxists was William Morris.

As others have said, it's looking increasingly sensible to keep our options open.

Keep up Pete. I not only looked it up, I just RT'd you and recognised I didn't know. Always happy to admit when I'm wrong.

For the record, I looked it up and to my considerable surprise the Greens do not want to leave NATO.

LOL I actually just looked it up. Yeah fair point.

My point is precisely that it doesn't matter. Policy attacks don't work against charismatic, vibes-based politicians. Farage demonstrated this amply. Labour can't grapple with it because in their hearts they still think they're fighting Corbyn.

No one is voting for Polanski - or otherwise - because of his views on NATO.

And I'm very happy to grant him that. I thought he was right at the time. It is possible to make the wrong decision in good faith and emerge with integrity. But it does require that you accept you were wrong.

Yes. Accepting it was morally wrong would fundamentally undermine his whole self-construct I think. It would imply penance from a man who doesn't make a habit of it.

A sickening society is clear in these statistics

So why is it not in the news?

Powerful wake-up call from @chakrabortty.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Happy birthday to us @shirvill.bsky.social (and all who celebrate).

Those hippies you keep punching...

I'm genuinely having a moment of wondering what Iran's 'unconditional surrender' actually looks like? I *think* it's that Trump has veto power on the country's next leader per Venezuela. As you suggest, this sort of demand has not ended well, historically.

Iran and Ukraine should join the Commonwealth? Mate...

Support for grammar schools implies support for secondary moderns doesn't it? A few poorer kids get a better opportunity, the rest get concentrated in worse schools.

I recall there was at some point an 'e-champion' and I couldn't resist saying it in a Yorkshire accent.

Huge respect for those skills. My real target is the mild hypocrisy of a British elite composed of humanities and social science grads saying everyone else's kids should do STEM.

The dirty secret of almost every politician who tells you to do STEM is that they didn't. Eng Lit rocks.

What I read in OP was a faint echo of my stance on Iraq. I felt my colleagues at The Guardian were being mealy mouthed when they said they supported the Iraqi people but weren't prepared to back military action.