New Labour | Jotup

Indigenous Australians supported Voice referendum by large margins; Labor retains large Newspoll lead

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

With 79% of enrolled voters counted nationally, “no” has won the Voice referendum by a 60.7–39.3 margin.

Key Points:

With 79% of enrolled voters counted nationally, “no” has won the Voice referendum by a 60.7–39.3 margin.
In Lingiari, where 40 of the population is Indigenous, “no” leads by a 56–44 margin.
The large wins for “no” in Lingiari and other seats with high Indigenous populations are caused by non-Indigenous people in those seats voting heavily “no”.
Most Labor seats have substantial support for right-wing parties, so this doesn’t mean “no” won Labor voters.
Dutton and Thorpe are negatively perceived for reasons other than the Voice, and Thorpe was opposing the Voice from the left.

Labor improved in pre-referendum Newspoll as Dutton sank

A Newspoll, conducted October 4–12 from a sample of 2,638, gave Labor a 54–46 lead, a one-point gain for Labor since October 3–6.
Primary votes were 36% Labor (up two), 35% Coalition (down one), 12% Greens (steady), 6% One Nation (up one) and 11% for all Others (down two).

Essential poll: Albanese’s ratings steady, Dutton down

Albanese’s ratings were steady since September at 46% approve, 43% disapprove (net +3), while Dutton’s net approval dropped two points to -7.
Essential has a Voice question that had “no” ahead by 53–38, out from 49–43 in early October.

Victorian Resolve poll: Coalition gains but Labor still far ahead

While Resolve doesn’t give a two party estimate until near elections, I estimate this poll would give Labor a 57–43 lead, a three-point gain for the Coalition since August.
New Labor Premier Jacinta Allan had a 38–19 lead over Liberal leader John Pesutto as preferred premier from the October sample of 553.

Liberal conservative alliance to replace authoritarian party in Poland

Ed Balls and George Osborne's new podcast is essential listening – but not for the reasons they think

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Well, People, Human, Poverty, Life, Bile, Politics, Parent, Policy, University, Anger, Achievement, Thought, Conservatism, Currency, Russell Brand, Man, Sibling, Guilty Men, Time, Child, Brexit, Toy, Machine tool, Tutoring, Central bank, Labour, Miliband, New Labour

In an apparent attempt to “talk across the political divide”, former chancellor George Osborne and former shadow chancellor Ed Balls have launched a podcast.

Key Points:

In an apparent attempt to “talk across the political divide”, former chancellor George Osborne and former shadow chancellor Ed Balls have launched a podcast.
Political Currency has been billed as a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the rooms and minds where the key decisions are made.
It hasn’t taken long for the two men to use the podcast to celebrate their joint achievements.
So, things which are contested can become consensual and when people agree, that is often how our county moves forward.
And yet poverty itself has so far only been mentioned once on the podcast, around halfway through episode one.

Listen to the ‘grown-ups’

They appear very happy with the current state of British politics and the people in charge.
For them, in 2023, the grown-ups are back in charge again – and that includes their gaining air time.
We forced our opponents to change their minds.” There is an older parallel to be drawn, too.
They were Michael Foot, Peter Howard and Frank Owen and their targets were the British public figures who appeased 1930s Germany.

What a Labour government would mean for the right to roam

Retrieved on:

Thursday, August 31, 2023

The Labour Party has promised to introduce a Scottish-style right to roam over the English and Welsh countryside if elected to government.

Key Points:

The Labour Party has promised to introduce a Scottish-style right to roam over the English and Welsh countryside if elected to government.
How might that change your ability to enjoy the great outdoors and what lessons does Scotland offer?
While the landowner lost on appeal and the right to camp was restored, the right to camp still applies only to common land in Dartmoor National Park.

Labour and the right to roam

The history of the Labour Party and the right to roam are heavily entwined.
His government introduced a new right to roam under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 (CRoW Act).
These compromises weakened the new right to roam, which was not extended to more accessible lowland areas, other farmland or woodland.
Opponents to a wider right to roam often cite the risk to the environment, farming and the privacy of landowners.

What can be learned from Scotland?

This was until the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 introduced a generous and sweeping right to roam.
This simplifies access rights and removes the need for complex signage and maps full of dead ends and no-go areas.
The Scottish Land Reform Act makes an explicit connection between wider access and cultural heritage.
And in truth, the people of Scotland have always enjoyed more generous rights of access through traditions and practice.

Dizzee Rascal's Boy In Da Corner turns 20 – here's how it ushered in the era of grime

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

For the black community – especially its boys and men – it became clear the promise was as empty as Tony Blair’s Millennium Dome was eventually left.

Key Points:

For the black community – especially its boys and men – it became clear the promise was as empty as Tony Blair’s Millennium Dome was eventually left.
In their quest for economic survival, they were still not regarding each other’s lives as sacred.
With no money for advanced music technology, a skeletal sound emerged from the most basic of DIY music tech.
Developed to deliver the reportage of early-2000s east London life contained in his lyrics, grime was perfect for his urgent, high-pitched, staccato delivery.
Read more:
25 Years of Garage review – music documentary falls prey to the same mistakes that killed the scene
His first album, Boy in da Corner, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023.

Boy in da Corner’s track list

And it’s the same old story, Ninja bikes, gun fights and scary nights.
And it’s the same old story, Window tints and gloves for finger prints.
Stop Dat is an energising rap battle track.
Boy In Da Corner made young black men and boys feel seen.
The rapturous reception Da Boy In Da Corner received from both the estate and the establishment illustrated that black British stories (and therefore black British lives) were important.

Labour take note: red-wall voters want an ambitious plan for renewal – not tough talk and flag waving

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

A Tory-to-Labour swing of 4.5% in 2023’s local elections fell marginally short of the 5% switch-around he needs to enter single-party government at Westminster.

Key Points:

A Tory-to-Labour swing of 4.5% in 2023’s local elections fell marginally short of the 5% switch-around he needs to enter single-party government at Westminster.
Labour made gains in this year’s red wall salvage operation, which included the successful recapture of councils in Stoke-on-Trent and Blackpool.
And why is it still struggling to fully exploit the mix of ennui and anger felt by so many voters who turned Tory in 2019?

Buses, doctors, jobs

Doing so gave me a clear sense of the concerns preoccupying red-wall and left-behind voters.
Most apparent was the need for a vision of a more socially just, interventionist approach to regulating the economy and reviving public services.
This is the most likely way to motivate a resurgence in Labour support.
A carless foodbank volunteer, from nearby Gorleston, said she had been forced to turn down several paid jobs in town because she had no way of reaching work in time for the start of her shifts.

Asking the wrong questions

As ever, perceptions of which issues are most salient to voters depend on what exactly you ask them and how you frame your questions.
The “deep-dive” focus groups that pollster Deborah Mattinson conducted in ex-Labour strongholds for her 2020 book, Beyond the Red Wall, were almost exclusively concerned with asking why so many people had abandoned the party in 2019.
In the three years since, Mattinson, now Starmer’s director of strategy, seems to have continued asking herself (and subsequent focus-groups) much the same questions.

Why the Turner prize shortlist is a cultural barometer of our political times

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 28, 2023

The 2023 Turner prize shortlist has been announced featuring British artists Jesse Darling, Rory Pilgrim, Ghislaine Leung and Barbara Walker.

Key Points:

The 2023 Turner prize shortlist has been announced featuring British artists Jesse Darling, Rory Pilgrim, Ghislaine Leung and Barbara Walker.
With a whirlwind 40-year socio-political history this lens can be applied to the prize.

From Thatcher’s 1980s to Channel 4’s 1990s

Things changed in 1991 with Channel 4 as a hip new sponsor and a ban on artists over 50.
The prize would raise interest in a newly youthful, increasingly fashionable area of UK culture.
The 1990s prizes are remembered for Young British Art.
The televised celebrity-strewn Channel 4 under 50s version of the Turner prize was part of this – feeding the feel-good 1990s vibes, fuelled by PR and underwritten by a debt-driven boom.

2000’s third way

Some of the tax income from a seemingly buoyant economy was spent on the arts, which were newly redefined as consumer services and required to prove value and efficiency using metrics.
Titled State Britain, it was created when Tony Blair passed a law to make it illegal to protest within a mile of Parliament.
Positioned across the perimeter of the one mile from Parliament no-protest-zone, it probed a line between art and politics.

2008’s financial crash and a new outlook

Shortlisted Turner prize art from that time didn’t say much about austerity or that moment, instead looking a lot like the art of the early 2000s.
Anti-austerity movements found a home alongside trade unions in a Labour Party reimagined under the radically social democratic leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
Lubaina Himid, aged 62, was named winner in 2017, after the Turner prize age cap was dropped.
By implication, the work conveys something about the failure of institutions to provide either basic support or transformative change.
Hope is found instead in a politics of community and care, vulnerability and interconnection, which offers occasional glimpses of better worlds.