I woz there! A balanced account though I picked up he theme that politics needs root and branch change, devolving power right down, including PR. Big disconnect between people and Westminster creating brexit, division, inequality, disaffection and minority tory governments that most voters don't want. Unless Labour bring in fair voting and challenge ownership of the billionaire press, nothing will change.
Nice well balanced piece and a very enjoyable read. Only time will tell if Starmer is fully accepted by Liverpool but if the Hillsborougb Law is his way of apologising for his extremely poor choice of rags to write for, then it’s a big step. Being a lefty myself ( in their eyes) I agree we have to be in power to make the changes we need to actually level up. If the polls are anything to go by we should win but Labour then needs the time to fix the last 12 years of destruction the Tory’s have caused. It’ll take longer than 12 to put it right, will people have the patience to give them the time.
It makes me smile when people criticise Starmer for betraying Liverpool because of his article in the Sun and yet still eulogise about Jeremy Corbyn. They have short memories when it comes to Corbyn's role as labour leader during the Brexit campaign. It is well know that Liverpool had more to lose than most by coming out of the EU, over many years we received hundreds of millions of pounds in aid, some of which went towards the regeneration of the waterfront where the Labour conference was held. It looks magnificent.
However during the Brexit campaign Corbyn led the most feeble defence of the argument to remain, giving the most embarassing interviews, including one where he said his desire to remain was "about 7 or 7.5 out of 10". If he had shown half the passion that the leave side had during that campaign, it might have been enough to convince enough people to vote remain and overturn the slim majority that in the end won it for the leave side. Jezza wasn't too concerned about Liverpool then was he?
For me, and this is my first post and I am not even sure this is the correct place to make the post. Why during this interview was the question not raised why Liverpool has such a poor turn out at elections. It is claimed that Liverpool is a labour city and I would argue that is only true because there is no opposition but when you get into power with a voter turn out of less than 50% Labour have no right to claim they represent the people because they don't. The represent the small amount that voted for them but the silent majority are still silent and in many ways labour, especially socialist labour have done a really good job at silencing the majority. There is a post below this where the poster say "a tory government that most voters don't want" well i would argue that Liverpool have a party in power that most people in the city did not vote for and do not enjoy the support of the city. It is similar with the Echo claiming to be the voice of the city, well it is more like the squeak of the city as it too does not carry a great deal of support. Will we ever get an investigation by the press as to why people don't vote or are those who write for papers to scared of the possible answer....
Interesting piece - and I'm glad to see you challenging the story that many like to tell of Liverpool being some sort of 'uniquely socialist' city. To quote a popular football song, if you know your history then you'll know that
a) Liverpool had a Conservative Council up to 1972 - and one of the largest other parties over the same period was the Protestant Party (the political wing of the Orange Order)
b) Between 1973 and 2010 control of the Council switched regularly between Labour and Liberal/Lib Dems.
c) There were Tory MPs in Liverpool until 1983 and a Lib Dem MP until 1997
So while it is true to say that Liverpool has been solidly Labour for the last 12 years or so, it's a complete rewriting of history to suggest that this has always been the case
Oct 1, 2022·edited Oct 2, 2022Liked by Jack Walton
Can we please stop the socialism is everything and isn't Liverpool special stereotypes, I'm totally fed up with people telling me that as a Liverpudlian I have to be a Corbyn supporter... The failure to form a wide coalition of the left and centre has left the UK with so many years of conservative rule.
At a time when even some local MPs and councillors of his party are seeing him as far from the bee's knees of Labour Party leaderships, no doubt picking Liverpool as their Party conference venue was to test the water of scouse town and to find out if it was still true most Liverpudlians would vote for any life form if it was wearing a red rosette and can mumble a few lines from The Red Flag.
With Liz (Good Guy) Truss and her gang already made a hash of things big time within ten days of taking over Downing Street and Labour found themselves leading the Tories by 33 percent in the poll, Keir Starmer must be thinking the good times are rolling in ahead of schedule.
Not only two years is a long, long time to wait for another general election, but, if the conflict in Ukraine continued to escalate, will he be just as happy to take over the PM job if by then the country was in the middle of a nuclear war?
Thank you. There are some interesting observations here. I'm so glad that the Corbyn era has passed. Labour Party members are entitled to be various shades of red, but that has led to the Party being ineffective. And look at the disastrous mess the country is in now.
I woz there! A balanced account though I picked up he theme that politics needs root and branch change, devolving power right down, including PR. Big disconnect between people and Westminster creating brexit, division, inequality, disaffection and minority tory governments that most voters don't want. Unless Labour bring in fair voting and challenge ownership of the billionaire press, nothing will change.
Nice well balanced piece and a very enjoyable read. Only time will tell if Starmer is fully accepted by Liverpool but if the Hillsborougb Law is his way of apologising for his extremely poor choice of rags to write for, then it’s a big step. Being a lefty myself ( in their eyes) I agree we have to be in power to make the changes we need to actually level up. If the polls are anything to go by we should win but Labour then needs the time to fix the last 12 years of destruction the Tory’s have caused. It’ll take longer than 12 to put it right, will people have the patience to give them the time.
It makes me smile when people criticise Starmer for betraying Liverpool because of his article in the Sun and yet still eulogise about Jeremy Corbyn. They have short memories when it comes to Corbyn's role as labour leader during the Brexit campaign. It is well know that Liverpool had more to lose than most by coming out of the EU, over many years we received hundreds of millions of pounds in aid, some of which went towards the regeneration of the waterfront where the Labour conference was held. It looks magnificent.
However during the Brexit campaign Corbyn led the most feeble defence of the argument to remain, giving the most embarassing interviews, including one where he said his desire to remain was "about 7 or 7.5 out of 10". If he had shown half the passion that the leave side had during that campaign, it might have been enough to convince enough people to vote remain and overturn the slim majority that in the end won it for the leave side. Jezza wasn't too concerned about Liverpool then was he?
For me, and this is my first post and I am not even sure this is the correct place to make the post. Why during this interview was the question not raised why Liverpool has such a poor turn out at elections. It is claimed that Liverpool is a labour city and I would argue that is only true because there is no opposition but when you get into power with a voter turn out of less than 50% Labour have no right to claim they represent the people because they don't. The represent the small amount that voted for them but the silent majority are still silent and in many ways labour, especially socialist labour have done a really good job at silencing the majority. There is a post below this where the poster say "a tory government that most voters don't want" well i would argue that Liverpool have a party in power that most people in the city did not vote for and do not enjoy the support of the city. It is similar with the Echo claiming to be the voice of the city, well it is more like the squeak of the city as it too does not carry a great deal of support. Will we ever get an investigation by the press as to why people don't vote or are those who write for papers to scared of the possible answer....
Interesting piece - and I'm glad to see you challenging the story that many like to tell of Liverpool being some sort of 'uniquely socialist' city. To quote a popular football song, if you know your history then you'll know that
a) Liverpool had a Conservative Council up to 1972 - and one of the largest other parties over the same period was the Protestant Party (the political wing of the Orange Order)
b) Between 1973 and 2010 control of the Council switched regularly between Labour and Liberal/Lib Dems.
c) There were Tory MPs in Liverpool until 1983 and a Lib Dem MP until 1997
So while it is true to say that Liverpool has been solidly Labour for the last 12 years or so, it's a complete rewriting of history to suggest that this has always been the case
Can we please stop the socialism is everything and isn't Liverpool special stereotypes, I'm totally fed up with people telling me that as a Liverpudlian I have to be a Corbyn supporter... The failure to form a wide coalition of the left and centre has left the UK with so many years of conservative rule.
At a time when even some local MPs and councillors of his party are seeing him as far from the bee's knees of Labour Party leaderships, no doubt picking Liverpool as their Party conference venue was to test the water of scouse town and to find out if it was still true most Liverpudlians would vote for any life form if it was wearing a red rosette and can mumble a few lines from The Red Flag.
With Liz (Good Guy) Truss and her gang already made a hash of things big time within ten days of taking over Downing Street and Labour found themselves leading the Tories by 33 percent in the poll, Keir Starmer must be thinking the good times are rolling in ahead of schedule.
Not only two years is a long, long time to wait for another general election, but, if the conflict in Ukraine continued to escalate, will he be just as happy to take over the PM job if by then the country was in the middle of a nuclear war?
We all have to warm to him, and by ‘all’ I mean the UK, otherwise we’ll have more disastrous years of Tory rule…good article 👍
Thank you. There are some interesting observations here. I'm so glad that the Corbyn era has passed. Labour Party members are entitled to be various shades of red, but that has led to the Party being ineffective. And look at the disastrous mess the country is in now.