@luminous I see your point. The Reform UK's platform of greatly constricting or eliminating migration is the reason behind the substantial under-funding of public services in the UK due to the loss of jobs and productivity from Brexit. In countries that have declining birth rates like yours, ours and other European nations, the only way to get a continuous influx of new workers is to encourage managed migration. And managed migration will only be productive if there are enough jobs available. Like you, I can't see any way out of the cycle of low productivity/low funding of the UK's public services except rejoining the EU. Although the UK has many successful industries, it's just not generating enough money for the population. Let me know if I'm missing anything.
What Labour should be doing is fighting Reform UK and challenging that right-wing narrative.
This is why I have a lot of praise for the SNP, Green Party, and Liberal Democrats, because they have challenged Reform UK on their right-wing populism and have made attempts to deconstruct their arguments about migration being the cause of all the UK problems, for example.
This is a good summary of the UK situation:
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/media/us-media-dishes-brutal-truth-about-brexit-britain-377706/
"There is mold in the walls and shit in the rivers, posh butter in the supermarkets has anti-theft tags stuck to it, the trains run on schedule about half the time, the average pub-poured pint of lager--the blood of the nation--is nearing the criminal price of 5 pounds ($6.34), and on May 22 a new general election was announced to the people of Great Britain by a prime minister who is richer than the king...As Sunak's shoulder pads gleamed in the dusk, the country is barely withstanding the damage he and his four predecessors inflicted over those 14 years: hunched and straining, poorer, meaner, grubbier, more desperate, more distressed. The prevailing moods, in common with rain, are anxiety, impatience, and grief."
The UK election is next Thursday. I will be voting Labour to help unseat the Tories. Labour are not perfect, but we cannot have 5 more years of the Conservatives. I want them out.
Edit: I am not sure why the text in the second paragraph of the quote is larger than the first.
@luminous I watched David Lammy of the Labour Party being interviewed by Fareed Zakaria last week. He was very open about the state of affairs in the UK. When Fareed asked him directly about rejoining Brexit, he said that it was not on the table but reflected that the UK's relationship with the EU was positive with recent security and other agreements expected in the future. He said that there was little interest in the UK for a more comprehensive relationship but didn't rule out anything. At one point, Fareed confronted him about Lammy's depiction of Trump as a "woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath". Lammy responded with a huge laugh and went on to say that the UK would work constructively with Trump should he be elected as POTUS. Fareed was trying to put Lammy on defense, but rather than dithering or making an excuse, Lammy gave an honest answer and it was charming.
@kathleen
Lammy is good politician. He has always been critical of the far-right and Trump, but he is also pragmatic in his approach to the possibility of Trump second term, because he knows UK-US relations are more important than the big orange buffoon . But I really hope that Trump doesn't get back in, because I think the leader of the Labour party, Keir Starmer, would get on really well with Biden more than any previous UK Prime Minister. It would be really great to see them both working together and creating an even stronger UK-US relationship, and I hope to see that in the future soon.
@luminous I agree with your thoughts about the potential for a productive partnership between Biden and Starmer. We need each other in these times!
I couldn't have said it better myself (warning: there are swearies):
https://x.com/JonathanPieNews/status/1808084571579208187?t=uKj4QwBBeFlwvbSV9uyuOQ&s=19
We kicked the Tories out.
🌹 LAB: 411 (+211)
🌳 CON: 121 (-251)
🔶 LDM: 72 (+64)
🎗️ SNP: 9 (-39)
🍀 SF: 7 (=)
🙋 INDs: 6 (+6)
➡️ RFM: 5 (+5)
🦁 DUP: 5 (-3)
🌍 GRN: 4 (+3)
🌼 PLC: 4 (+2)
💐 SDLP: 2 (=)
🅰️ ALL: 1 (=)
🔵 UUP: 1 (+1)
🗣️ TUV: 1 (+1)
+ Speaker (1)
https://electionmaps.uk/ge2024
@luminous Good for the UK! I've been watching the speeches and the political assessments. I hope that we'll have similar results here in the USA. Interesting that the LDM seat are up significantly. Why is there such a hoopla going on by the measly 5 increased votes from the RFM? You'd think they'd won!
@luminous Thanks for the video, and could you or someone here explain who the speaker is, and summarize what we are seeing? He seems like an MSNBC Rachel Maddow kind of attitude.
Most of our readers are in the U.S. and want to understand what you understand about what has happened. Most do not know the acronyms or the speaker. Swearies are no problem! Just needs more explaning.
All most Americans know is that the Tories are the conservatives (=US GOP=the wealthy class) and they lost the election; and the Labour party represents the average people (= US dems) and they kicked butt. Thanks for helping us to better understand.
@kathleen reform uk are far-right fascists led by Nigel Farage (the architect of brexit) and their 5 seats demonstrate that there is still much work to be done to drive out fascism within the UK.
Nigel Farage causing brexit also helped cause Trump. He is the one who went on Trump's campaign trail in 2016 saying that it's possible punish the establishment because it was done with brexit and can be done again in the US with Trump. He helped plant that seed.
The guy is toxic.