this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024

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‘Labour is fair game’: Led By Donkeys says it will hold government to account (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So they should. I've yet to really detect that Tories are no longer in charge. Perhaps it makes no difference who is.

I also think that we should be grateful to Liz Truss for so clearly demonstrating that a) politicians are stupid and b) that if they do try to really change anything in the economy they will be destroyed by the banking and media kleptocracy.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The budget is yet to arrive.

Truss and Kwarteng fucked things with unfunded cuts, not because of the media and banks.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Truss and Kwarteng fucked things with unfunded cuts, not because of the media and banks.

If I remember rightly, their budget wasn't implemented for long enough to directly cause problems - it was the financial sector's reaction to the announcement that caused the damage. It was a bad budget and definitely should have been rejected. But it should have been rejected democratically by citizens not by finance and their media friends. The reason I'm being pedantic about this is because it shows how beholden we are to the financial sector. If Truss and Kwarteng had instead come out with a good budget which would improve the lives of 99% of citizens but at the expense of the rent-seeking hoarders of capital I think the same thing would have happened. It's like "the markets" have a gun held to the governments head at all times. That's the reason why I think Labour have been banging on about economic growth rather than economic justice; the power of concentrated wealth has become too big and dangerous to risk taking anything away from, so more must be created.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If Truss and Kwarteng had instead come out with a good budget which would improve the lives of 99% of citizens but at the expense of the rent-seeking hoarders of capital I think the same thing would have happened.

That is very very easy to say, especially when they didn't. Other budgets were not unfunded messes which sought to grease their mates' pockets (so much). They thought they could fuck about and do what they wanted.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Of course, it's hypothetical. My point isn't about their specific budget (which I agree was an insane budget), it's about how the financial industry is able to manipulate the entire economy when it doesn't like a budget. We are nominally a democracy and they shouldn't have that kind of power. Truss, Kwarteng and the crash are the small story. The big story is that politicians don't have the courage to present a budget of any kind that challenges the vested interests of the financial industry. I want to see a budget that creates a fairer/more competitive market and an increase in standards of living for everyone by rolling back the massive accumulation of assets by the financial industry. But I won't see that budget because the financial industry would stand to lose by it. The economy would "crash" because we have essentially let them become the economy. Truss and Kwarteng's fiscal policy might have been worse than the crash they provoked from the financial industry - we'll never know. Personally, I'm glad they are gone because I thought it was a stupid budget. But I don't want future good policy to get killed at birth in the exactly the same way. The current Labour government are smart enough to know this, which is why they are pursuing growth instead of fairness. But it's ultimately a waste of time because the proceeds of any growth will end up in the financial industry where it will get used to further entrench their position at the expense of everyone else.

TLDR: We need a budget which is radical enough to address our problems, which will crash economy as it stands and allow it to be replaced with a better one, which is based on fairness and real assets instead of finance.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It takes more than a few weeks to undo 14 years of damage. Negotiations have started for limited regulation alignment with the EU, the response to the race riots was decent, legislation is starting to go through.

Hold them to account, but I would recommend being fair about it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Especially when parliament is in recess!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I find Led by Donkeys very annoying, but they're absolutely right that Labour are fair game for satire. How could they not be?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Some people seem to have forgotten that humour isn't limited to "our side good, your side bad, hahaha".

[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You're right and usually Led by Donkeys forget this, too, which is why they're not funny! But maybe this is a sign that they're about to turn over a new leaf and become actually amusing.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Led By Donkeys is about five years old. I don't think that in that period there was a non-Tory government for them to mock, was there?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

B-b-b-b-but, both sides!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I don't see how this is relevant to my innocuous comment about a satirical group I don't find funny.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What does this have to do with whether they're funny?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

"which is why they're not funny"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Yes. Because they think that saying:

“our side good, your side bad, hahaha”

Which is what I was replying to, is sufficient to be funny. It isn't.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They are annoying because they're just grifters. They claim to be speaking "truth to power" but really they just make shit jokes.

Of course they're going to say that Labour is fair game now, because how else are they going to get money from people just from following Liz Truss around?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

She does give good value for money in the overreacting department.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

She does, but these stunts also mean we end up hearing more from her.

I'm not sure anyone really wants that.