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Starmer bans Labour councillors from doing deals with Polanski’s Green Party
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
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Is saying "LINO" ("Labour in name only") a thing yet?
Not very related but I hate the XINO label and similar ideas. No, they're not "Democrats/Labor/whatever in name only" that's just how your (royal you) favorite influence laundering machine for the capitalist class works.
This is just what happens when reactionaries cry about a non-existent communist purge, and then take power and sideline anyone left if Thatcher. The only way to avoid this was for Corbyn to purge the Blairites.
Corbyn failed twice, he was not the guy.
Not British so I can't make very close observations, but can't both times be attributed to his own party's conservatives?
Cards on the table, I'm a labour member who voted for Corbyn as leader twice and then Starmer in 2020.
Solely attributed, no. A factor, sure.
But the fact of the matter is that the left are playing on a rigged pitch. It isn't fair, it isn't balanced, the media are hypocrites and will invent controvosies out of thin air. Plus our electoral system is fundamentally broken.
A perfect example is that Boris Johnson was known the ride a bicycle as Mayor of London. Nothing was made of it. When Corbyn became labour leader, suddenly he had a MAOIST BICYCLE.
So while Corbyn's labour did get more votes cast in 2017 and 2019 than Starmer's labour did in 2024, it was too concentrated in cities. More people also turned out to vote against him because he was easier to characture as a 1970s throwback.
Again, none of this is fair, or right. But it is the state of play, and you have to be able to overcome it. We rarely manage it, which is why the Tories have been in charge for over 2/3rds of the last 100 years.
As always, simple answers to complex questions are lies.
Corbin failed because he was utterly terrible at playing politician, and he had all these problematic associations which political adversaries used to beat him over the head with, but he wouldn't cut ties with these groups out of stubbornness. Yes the media led a smear campaign against him, but he provided them with plenty of material to work with.
Oh Labour has been bickering over ideological purity for decades.
If the right of the Labour Party were forced to break off into thor own party, no one would ever vote for them. They don't offer anyone anything, if you're that way politically inclined you're just going to vote for the conservatives, or reform these days.
There has been this constant fear from various party leaders over the years that if they actually cut out the right of the party they would somehow lose votes, but I honestly don't think they would.
Literally since day 1.
This has always been the tension between the wider labour movement - which by definition must always be advocating for more than is currently acceptable - and the party, which must present itself as a balance.