Chuka Umunna is the last thing Labour needs – a pro-austerity MP who calls people ‘trash’ – Comment – Voices – The Independent
He’s pro-austerity, anti-immigration (despite being of immigrant parentage) and won’t be winning Scotland back in a hurry. Umunna must not be Labour leader.
Umunna – who describes himself as “Blue Labour” – is seen by Blairites as the man to bring back all the Tory voters who didn’t trust Labour this time round. However, this genius plan of simply becoming more like the Tories just won’t work, as there’s already a party that does this expertly: the Tories.
Instead of trying to engage with the voters Labour is meant to represent, Umunna says he wants to be “on the side of those who are doing well”. Seeing as the richest are probably only going to get richer over the next five years, it’s clear who he means. It’s who Blairites call the “aspirational voter”. But what about those who aspire to live in a much fairer society?
Chuka saying that he wants to side with the rich is nearly as vacuous as the statement his Labour colleague, Tristam Hunt, made recently – blurting out that Labour needs to be “on the side of families who want to shop at John Lewis”. Right.
… and there you have a good reason not to support Tristram Hunt either (if you’re a Labour member)!
dont agree if you can convince the swing back to labour then we can make the changes like blair what the hell is the problem?
Blair was a neoliberal who doesn’t seem to have understood the long-term harm he was setting up for working people.
Do you think Blair was that naive? He saw what Thatcherism did and pretty much carried on her economic ideology. He was more woman, LGBT and ethnic minority-friendly which made a lot of people believe he was a decent man but a socially liberal (in the gay/black/women friendly sense) Thatcherite just spreads the rampant inequality around more representatively..
It’s like the glass ceiling school of feminism as opposed to the real version. Middle class white women complaining about the lack of women in boardrooms etc. No mention of working class women being harassed into work then persecuted for not looking after their kids. No mention of working class women doing most of the low wage drudge work. Black women don’t even exist in this sphere but they get upset because not enough women are earning 300,000k a year. This is not left wing thinking.
New Labour was for the middle class and Labour’s membership and voter turnout has steadily decreased since, except for an initial burst.
Btw is anybody wondering why, exactly, Umunna is in the Labour Party? How has me convinced himself he’s a Labour man? Is there a deliberate ploy by the right to nullify any left wing opposition in this country?
Well, now you’re discussing the difference between what he thinks and what he says. From what he says, he didn’t understand.
“of immigrant parentage”
You mean he’s black! Why don’t you just say he’s black?
Because Ed Miliband is also of immigrant parentage and had just as much of a problem with the immigration question, perhaps?
Lord above, I assume you saw Tristram Hunt on QT? Is he genuinely that useless or does he put some effort into it?
Astonishing ineptitude on ‘Labour overspent/ruined the economy’ accusation. This man has the nervet o think he’s got what it takes to get Labour elected again??
Dear lord, we’re all doomed!
You see why I don’t like him either, then.
Well no, Christo. Mr Umunna is of mixed ‘racial’ heritage, with one white parent. Your comment says more about you and your hypodescendent-centred prejudices than anything else.
because the colour of a person’s skin doesn’t tell you whether their parents were immigrants or not, and that piece of information is crucial to the point being made? perhaps?
He’s withdrawn from the race, anyway :-)