[Politics] Owen Jones

The Fits said:

Jones is quite well respected amongst a certain demographic. And that demographic, though young, are politically engaged and voters. As ludicrous as it sounds he does have a certain gravitas amongst them. A consistent voice who talks about things they're concerned about.
So, I do think there's a group of people who will respond to this, to the project. However, I do find it a little confusing.
His message doesn't seem to be 'go out and find out who your local independents are. Find out if your Green candidate has a chance. Support them- financially, canvas for them, spread the word'.
Rather, give me a pot of money and I will find and fund these candidates.
That doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me. Almost feels a bit White Knighty.

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Greg Bobkin said:

I get all that, but I just still find it self-indulgent that he feels the need to make SO much out of it (the video and other appearances, in addition to the piece in the paper). The journalist (not to be confused with their opinions) should never be the story - especially if they are writing about themselves.

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Uh_huh_him said:

No I was talking about Starmer.

The vile wing of the Tories, increasingly accounts for quite a large proportion of the country.
I assume you would include the Yaxley-lennon supporters and the various flavours of UKIP in e with that bunch too.

He is despised by the Left and Right equally, but that's a much bigger slice of the pie than it was 20 years ago.

His most ardent supporters just see him as a "grown-up" and think that will be good enough.
I don't think it will be.

Blair and Brown got into power with a vision and overcame the odds on the crest of a wave of change.
Starmer will get into power by default.

He will need to build some momentum to hold onto power and at the moment he just seems content to not f*** it up.

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Harry Wilson's tackle said:

But not actual Momentum, I hope

Look, none of us know what Starmzy will be like. We can only guess and I'm bored with that.

Before Blair got in he was painted as weak Bambi, in thrall to the unions and the looney left.

Turns out that not being a **** and largely going with what you think is right rather than what may be gammon-proof is nearly all of what is required.

A PM can't act like a dictator, and it is a lot about who on his own side he can work with and who he can safely put on ignore. Looks like this Owen twit has saved Starmer the trouble of defenestrating him.

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Weststander said:

The hard left and always angry appear to have condemned Starmer, Reeves and the shadow cabinet already. When we don’t know Labour’s future policies, bills.

Revealing what we guessed all along. They’ll try to derail the next government, unless they meet all their unelected demands.

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Uh_huh_him said:

I suspect he makes more money from his videos than he does from his journalism.

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Uh_huh_him said:

he clearly speaks for a generation that are aware that politics isn't built to help them.
So I'm not surprised that he's walked away from Labour ( I genuinely thought he had already done so, a couple of years ago).

He is also a self-financing social media-influencer, who makes a load of cash by triggering responses.
I probably have more sympathies with his views than most, but I'm not a fan.

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Weststander said:

The hard left and always angry appear to have condemned Starmer, Reeves and the shadow cabinet already. When we don’t know Labour’s future policies, bills.

Revealing what we guessed all along. They’ll try to derail the next government, unless they meet all their unelected demands.

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chip said:

I don't know who this person is, but, judging by the reactions here, he does seem to have some place and purpose and it's generated a discussion. Perhaps we have too few parties that can never represent the full spectra of opinions where we have no idea of the underlying values. I'd like to hear a politician/party campaign on a platform of no child being hungry (especially) at school or no pensioner dieing of cold because they cannot afford to heat their home. The focus on the economy is mindless if it doesn't relate to people and you cannot have growth forever, we need to learn to live well on less. Not sure that I find the left-right divide relevant anymore, this time it's a choice between crap and largely unknown and uninterested. There aren't any certain answers to this country's problems but it would be nice to have some scintilla of the planned approach. E.g. reform of the NHS has been ongoing since its foundation but do we ever have a public conversation about priorities, more targets are not going to help. Was it Jack Straw who was asked to think the unthinkable and then sacked when he told people what he had been thinking?

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chickens said:

Frankly, Momentum and the Socialist Workers Party are just factions of the left, like the ERG and the wider “Tufton Street Boys” are factions of the right. They can do a lot of damage only if they’re pandered to, which has been the Conservative Party’s weakness from Cameron to now.

We will see what Starmer’s made of should he get into power, but I genuinely don’t believe he or Labour can do worse. That’s not a ringing endorsement, but for most of us it’s enough to give them a chance. They mess it up and there’s just the Lib Dem’s or the Greens to turn to.

The fantastic thing about the far left deserting the party before the election is, it leaves them outside the tent pissing in, whereas the ERG and the Tufton Street mob at least had the sense to keep their powder dry until they were safely in power earning their salaries. In attacking Starmer and throwing their toys from the pram prior to any election, they weaken themselves irreparably.

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Blue3 said:

I quite like his views just to be different

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The Clamp said:

Has he taken time out to do his GCSE’s?

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AlexBH said:

Is this the bloke that’s in his 30s, but looks 20?

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The Fits said:

Jones is quite well respected amongst a certain demographic. And that demographic, though young, are politically engaged and voters. As ludicrous as it sounds he does have a certain gravitas amongst them. A consistent voice who talks about things they're concerned about.
So, I do think there's a group of people who will respond to this, to the project. However, I do find it a little confusing.
His message doesn't seem to be 'go out and find out who your local independents are. Find out if your Green candidate has a chance. Support them- financially, canvas for them, spread the word'.
Rather, give me a pot of money and I will find and fund these candidates.
That doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me. Almost feels a bit White Knighty.

Click to expand...