How the FUCK can anyone who actually gives a damn actually support this bastard?

We know our services are deliberately underfunded, the Tories have been doing it for 13 years already, and then be non-committal to it afterwards is ridiculous from a Labour leader.

"That has to start with responsible economics and it has to be coupled with reform,"

Except investing in public services is investing in the economy you cockwomble

Is reform needed in some areas? Yes absolutely, but also our services are already stripped to the bone that withholding money to *commit* those reforms isn't going to amount to anything other than further damaging our public services or even handing them fully to private hands

And we've seen what full privatisation has done, be it leaking more water than millions of households could use daily through leaky water infrastructure, or pumping sewage in to our waters, or royal mail services being rapidly worse than they were pre-sale, or that the majority of bus services that are in private hands either are poorly run or get stripped down to minimums, or that private contracts in the NHS cost us more than actually doing that internally

We've seen what not funding our public services correctly has done for the past 13 years, not committing to investing in them is a sign you either do not intend to actually invest and preserve Tory shambles policy or you simply do not understand what our public services are for.

At least fucking Tonty Blair put money in to our public services even if he did push privatisation along as well.

@DarkOverord I mean, yeah, but Blair didn't have to pick up after ol' pork markets.

@bencg Yeah, just had to pick up the pieces that Major left behind, especially in the wake of Black Wednesday

Like I'm not expecting him to bust out the public purse entirely, but the manner in which he's been non-committal (I.e. "somebody think of The Economyβ„’" ) doesn't really inspire confidence other than more of the same past 13 years of austerity and cuts that impact anyone who isn't earning 6, 7 or more digits sums :T

@bencg Thankfully my vote is already tied to another party I'm not exactly fond of to boot the Tory MP I currently have so I don't need the mental gymnastics to pray Sunak doesn't remain PM but it's still incredibly concerning to me

Especially as he just keeps making these kinds of own goals while the Tories are absolutely shambling everything

@DarkOverord If you live in a seat where the tactical vote isn't Labour then all power to you. Keir Star'meh' has been utterly vaguesville since he got the job in 2020, but hopefully next year we'll see what the party have to offer at last. No matter what I think, I just have to hold my nose and vote for it.
@bencg Yeah I have to vote LD in any national election and I'm still not entirely happy about that but at least they're not currently frustrating me like this :T
@DarkOverord More and more I'm fantasising about a straight up 'Progressive' party. An immovably centre-left diametric opposite to the Tories. Not whatever the LDs stand for, not a centre-right working class Labour party, not communist republican bikers with placards hard left, or a relatively single issue party like the Greens. Something credible with ideas some Tory voters might actually sympathise with at least, to consolidate the British left and have a permanent (...)
@DarkOverord presence in Parliament.
@bencg It's something LDs/Greens/PC have done before (2019) so it'd be nice if they could finally get Labour in that without Labour MPs feeling like they have to be the defacto choice for people.
@DarkOverord Yeah but that was a relatively single issue election and mostly served to just keep Corbyn out anyway. In retrospect though, I feel like that equality commish report + the pandemic would have forced Corbyn out Truss style even if he'd won. *sob*
@bencg To be fair to them, they *did* try to work with Labour on it and Labour refused
@DarkOverord After that 2017 result and how things had gone since, I remember how it felt. It felt like we genuinely had a shot, so I don't blame him. The press fought ultra dirty.
@DarkOverord I've fantasised about this Progressive party so much I've even got the bloody slogan ready. Shocking pink signs with bold black lettering. "If you think Blue and Red both stink, let them know with a vote for Pink!"