Is Labour Prepared for Government?

EarthRod

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, Theresa announced a snap election expecting a Tory landslide win and enhancing the Government's position with the ongoing Brexit negotiations. It was said by senior Tory politicians and newspapers that Labour was going to be wiped out.

However, the result of the snap general election proved otherwise: the Tory manifesto was torn up, the Tory government lost it's majority and Labour got the largest voting gain since 1945. Also, the Labour membership has tripled in the last two years. The political balance has changed.

The problem is can Labour now take advantage of the weakness, fragility, disarray and continuous in-fighting within the Tory government and press forward to form a coherent and stable government? Labour say they are a government-in-waiting but is that a load of bollocks?

Personally I believe Labour need another year or two before they are ready to take over the helm and run the country coherently. Jeremy is stuck in the 1970s and can't seem to break away from that mindset, his shadow ministers are replaced regularly and continually making strange pronouncements which are politically out of step or downright stupid.

So, IMO, we currently have a weak government ripe and ready for the picking and a Labour opposition who is not ready for government and cannot take advantage.

What a waste.

Greg Hook

Unfortunately that describes both parties.

tapzilla2k

I think the honest truth is no party is ready for Government. It's just one of those artificial lines of attack parties engage in to try and make a party look weak.

How a Party leader navigates being PM (with all the responsibilities) and how they manage the Civil Service is the more pertinent question to ask. But you don't know the answer until they are in the job. Democracy can be very much like taking a shot in the dark a lot of the time.

Toko Black

I tend to see it much like TV show driving challenge:

Blindfold the driver - then have two teams getting a turn at being in charge of giving the driver instructions.
Each team argues amongst themselves and essentially gives instructions in the form of a committee with additional random suggestions shouted over the mic just to make it more awkward.

The other team can challenge any direction change, acceleration or breaking as being too much or too little and generally windup the other team as much as possible while attempting to convince the audience that they would be much better at giving the instructions.

The obstacle course is made up of a mix of the prized possessions, cars, pets and elderly relatives of the audience along with a mix of special prizes. A large number of the special prizes are actually duds, with some containing a bucket of poo instead of the advertised 'Holiday in Marbella', but the audience is not informed of this and has to work it out for themselves.
Random road works, lane restrictions, pot holes and wandering moose's add to the general confusion.

At the end of each episode, the audience gets to keep whatever special prizes the driving team has won for them, along with cardboard boxes with the remains of any prized possessions and the bits of their elderly relatives that could be recovered. If the team hit a moose, strays into a restricted lane or knock over the road works traffic cones, random good prizes will be lost and maybe substituted for buckets of poo.

The audience then votes to keep in the same driving team or swap for next weeks episode .... and the individual audience members have choice to remain watching this show, apply for tickets to another TV stations version of the show or die in their seats.

EarthRod

Is it possible to have a left-wing Labour in government and implementing a radical manifesto that would put 70% of the Tory membership into cardiac arrest?

Bearing in mind Labour's recent success is in reality its 3rd general election defeat; but would that continue in the next general election?

Jeremy is now a cult figure and the media has quickly dropped his image of incompetent idiot and adopted a new image of a powerful and likeable leader of the Labour Party with a strong and large following of young people.

Many believe and are alarmed that Jeremy would take Britain back to the 1970s should he get into government, however that might not happen - the world has moved on and it could be a new model of left-wing politics has replaced the old guard dogma.

Wishful thinking?

Rasczak

The Tories don't seem ready for Government, so I am not sure readiness is any sort of requirement for taking the job.

krish

Not even the Liberals after David Steel told his MPs to go back to their constituencies and prepare for it?!

Yep, a party is as prepared for government as anyone starting a new job, but are given a much longer probationary period. Perhaps the Blair administration was more prepared than any preceding it, as it was the era of the professional politician - however they weren't prepared for such a huge majority in '97.

domtheone

Yes, labour are ready to govern although as a brexit voter, I find labour too wishy washy about brexit

Goooner

Sadly, would have to agree.

I don't see any party having the bottle to make the brave and difficult decisions to turn this super tanker (currently heading for the abyss) around.

Let Comrad Corbyn and co have a turn.  Maybe then a lot of the young (younger) left wing voters might come to their senses

tapzilla2k

Yes, it's almost tempting to vote Labour next only to watch them completely fudge things up, just so we can say "told ya so"