You want radical change, the left have always wanted radical change but they've actually hindered the fight for radical change letting ideology dictate their arguments for radical change.
Leaving the EU for one. a Isolationist policy the left of Europe disagree with. the world moved on many years ago on this, the left are the ones still living in the past believing a socialist state can prosper in isolation, it can't. we have to trade under world conditions to prosper.
Thankfully the argument for Nationalisation arguing clause 4 has also died a death over the last few yrs, another argument based in the past when the argument should have always been about decency.
The last people to preach about the world moving on is the far left.
I'm not sure where you've got the idea I'm far left, pro-Brexit or desperate for 'radical change'. As I said, I'm a realist while you seem to be more of a political dreamer. Perhaps you're right and Starmer and Reeves will pull a bait and switch to left-wing policies when they get in power, but I have grave doubts.
This is what I think is more likely:
Labour get in and Starmer says that while some may want him to spend money, the election result is a mandate for low spending and fiscal conservatism, and that he would be betraying the electorate (including you and Andy) if he did that. Instead, he'll frame the decision to do almost nothing as 'a tough decision', and in five years time "Wait until they get in power" will be "Wait until the second term" and "Don't you want to kick the Tories out?" will be "Don't you want to
keep the Tories out?" In the second term, faced with either an authoritarian, bureaucratic party that always sides with the wealthy, or a virtually fascist party that explicitly sides with the wealthy, working class voters will begin leaving in droves for more populist choices, at which point Labour will panic and shift right to try and chase Tory votes, pushing them and the Overton window as a whole even further rightward.
Do you know what I'd like to see?
It doesn't have to be radical socialism. I'd like to see Starmer attack Conservatism - not the failure of our housing policy, our polluted rivers, Brexit and its effect on small businesses, child poverty rates or the deterioration of the transport system and the NHS - but the failure of Conservatism as the idea that ties it all together. Stop just going along with idiotic notions of trickle down economics and call it what it is: economic illiteracy. Point out every negative growth point for this country against the rest of the developed world. Salt the earth for Conservatism politically.
Policies? I would like to see a public transport system that brings in minimum standards for operators and nationalises routes if they aren't met, because it's not about ideology but efficiency. A public inquiry not just on Covid but the process where sweetheart deals were doled out to donors and MP's mates. I'd like to see the party say that they will do whatever is fair on upper tax rates according to the economy and the country's needs, instead of automatically ruling out any rise for the wealthiest so any change looks like a U-turn, and a beefed up tax department that will go after offenders regardless of size. An NHS that has been built up internally instead of being advertised out as fresh meat to private companies. A housing policy focused on decent, affordable housing on brown field sites, and strict punishments for the people who unlawfully pollute our air and rivers. Because the British people are tired of getting the worst, the British people deserve the best. All of these were normal within living memory, it's ridiculous to pretend otherwise.
But what is really needed is a cultural shift, a different view on Britain, patriotism and what constitutes British Values. I'd like to see Starmer say that while this country will always be Churchill, Shakespeare and the Elizabeths, it's also Pankhurst, Berners-Lee and the Beatles - that the lesson of this is not to look back but forward, not inward but outward. That we're Britain and we can't continue to cower and hide while others run, or grumble around the edges while other countries get things done. That we should be able to meet the standards of any international market including the EU because we're capable of anything when we put our collective minds and will to it. Same with net-zero targets. That we can be a country where success is rewarded
and where people can feed their family on a full-time job. That we should be proud of what our ancestors achieved while being unafraid to look at their mistakes. That children in this country should not have to grow up looking up to statues of men who would have enslaved them.
Maybe most of all, I'd like to hear Labour say this country isn't just the flag and the anthem but the institutions we built, from the BBC to the music industry to the NHS to yes, the Premier League, and the people who work in them. That we as a country are sick of those who would divide us from each other and put barriers up between us and the rest of the world. That if we join together - rich and poor, people of all genders and ethnicities - we can make this the best country possible, where everyone can benefit. And that it isn't about political ideology
but this being the best way for things to work.
I don't expect Labour to actually achieve all this but I want to see it try. I want to see it at least act like a better world is possible, instead of spinelessly following the lead of the Conservatives and the Daily Mail, acting like hope is pointless and a slightly better version of this dystopia is the best we can ever hope for.
