Labour have been in Opposition for 13 years, after 4 terms in office (involving most of the present senior members and older backbenchers) and they don’t have a policy platform?

Sorry, not buying that for a moment. We know exactly what to expect from Labour; continuing mass immigration, continuing expansion of the criminalisation of free speech, continuing move towards confiscatory taxation with particular emphasis on housing stock.

Abolition of civil rights for the white, notionally Christian, British population on a scale never before seen. Increasingly blatant discrimination against that population, including forcing immigrants into their very homes if they think it feasible.

Kier Starmer has previous, particularly as DPP presiding over the huge and filthy things allowed to happen in Rotherham and elsewhere.

Trans extremism will continue to run amok, or be abruptly replaced with some OTHER freshly minted insanity; it doesn’t actually matter, the purpose and outcome are the same – the corruption and subversion of the law.

Only 40% of those polled, thought Labour had the best interests of the country at heart? It defies belief that ANYONE could think they do.

I was wondering about the possibility of a modern left-wing party, of any flavour, dumping identity politics and being genuinely tough on crime. Then a pig flew by my window and I found myself distracted.

The thing to understand is that NO current political party are either Left or Right, as the terms are generally understood.

All are unbendingly committed to open borders, uncontrolled mass immigration. All pander shamelessly to Islam. None give a fisherman’s fart for the wishes or interests of the British electorate, workforce or nation.

All are committed to the continuing abolition of freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and civil rights for the British population. All are committed to confiscation of personal assets in one form or another.

The great perversity of Labour’s lead in the polls is that the Tories and the country are in the mess they are in because the Tories have spent 13 years being continuity New Labour, drifting in recent years in to Corbynism.
When Labour attacks the Tories on inflation, government borrowing and the increasingly unsustainable national debt, NHS waiting lists, lost education and strikes, the retort that should be given is obvious, The most proximate causes of these things was the idiotic decision to shutdown the British economy and splurge hundreds of billions to sustain businesses and individuals. The Tories were utter fools to do this, but Labour demanded more and longer lockdows and restrictions and more splurging on handouts. Never have I heard the Tories make the obvious point that the current mess is the result of the response to Covid that the public demanded, and that if they had listened to Labour’s demands to prolong the measures, things would be much worse.
Unwilling to put the public straight on their complicity in the catastrophic economic consequenses of Covid by their overwhelming demands for lockdowns and handouts, the Tories are not only hurting themselves electorally and helping Labour escape culpability, they are failing to teach the public that government handouts may be very nice in the short term, but eventually there is a very heavy price to pay, socially and economically.
Tax the rich and rent controls.
Socialists never learn. The Socialist government cycle: the government gives out enormous handouts and taxes the very wealthy to pay for it. The very wealthy leave the country; the government taxes the less wealthy and borrows more to fund the handouts; the less wealthy leave; eventually the tax base is so diminished and borrowing so expensive that we get economic collapse
Rent controls have been tried in numerous European countries and have always failed and been repealed. Berlin and Scotland are the latest disastrous examples The result is always the same; rent controls lead to sharp reduction in available rented accommodation, a fall in the quality of accommodation and increases the cost of accommodation. Anyone advocating for them at this point is either ignorant of history or stupid.

The more worrying aspect of this is that the left-wing insurgency happened long ago – and It will re-appear within days of a Labour win.
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Doubtless the clever Peter Mandelson is behind the recent suppression of this “tendency”, but Starmer won’t be able to keep it up after Labour gets into office.

Tax the rich until only senior civil servants are rich.
Tax oil & gas companies out of existence to fund windfarms and then blame the oil & gas companies for the shortage of oil & gas leading to high prices , and tax them again. Ignore the consequent thousands of job losses in NE Scotland (already happening) but fly in emergency delegations to save some subsidised boondoggle employing 300 in Englandshire. Justify it by claiming oil & gas companies are subsidised if they pay anything less than 110% tax. Describe grants to hopeless green ventures as “investment”. Paint yourself as heroic vanquishers of Big Oil long after Big Oil has left and the remaining companies are all smaller than the inner London branches of Greenpeace and Just Stop Everything.
And that’s before Labour even gets in.

Sounds like wishful thinking to me. Yes, there certainly are people who want more socialist politics, just as there are people that want more conservative politics. Both sets of people will find it very difficult to elbow their way into government, no matter how popular/populist their political desires. UKIP and its successors didn’t gain Members of Parliament even after benefitting from the results of the Referendum – so a Johnny-come-lately Leftish insurgency is probably already too late to have any major effect on the results of the next General Election.
Another perspective is not to expect Left or Right labels to be much of a Unique Selling Point… both the main parties are relentlessly pandering to the Establishment and the disaffected still have an enormous barrier to overcome. In my opinion the disaffected cannot do it from within an existing party.

This already exists and it’s called the SDP.

I think 2024 too soon for an SDP surge but it will come in councils in the late 2020s once labour inevitably disappoints the voters.

Could there be a more perfect embodiment of the “left” than that woman beside McDonnell?

This would be good news and should also be replicated on the right. We need a choice. This wouldn’t be mine. But currently there is no debate between the two main parties about politics or economics or what would make this a better country and why. Nothing that sharpens the analysis or leads to better policy or a long-term outlook or proposal. Instead, we catch people eating cake and not wearing seatbelts. I didn’t like Corbyn’s world view or his principles but at least he had some you could loathe.

In contrast to UKIP and the Brexit Party, the Left does not believe tin democracy. The Left believes in totalitarian dictatorship. There will therefore be no Left-wing party trying to win power through the ballot box. Most of the Left-wing politicians are quite happy standing for Parliament on manifestos they despise and taking the salary and perks on a lie.

There is already a well established insurgency to the Left of Labour: the Green Party.

It’s also worth pointing out that Syriza and Podemos were marginalised very quickly, primarily because they threatened the EU establishment.

Whatever happens, I think that the smart money is on a few years of real chaos and a Tory landslide (a Boris comeback) c. 2028.

Though I’m still not convinced that the Tories will lose next year.

Looking at the placard held by the chap in the headline photo, I doubt there will be much in the manifesto for the Communist Party of Kurdistan Abroad and their many supporters in the Red Wall constituencies. However, they will vote Labour anyway because they are sure to implement plenty of left-wing policies not mentioned in the manifesto.

I wonder where all the immigrants come down on this.
Anyway, let’s go full throttle, on rent control and good old tax the rich.
But I think that you Brits also need a new Church of Renewable Energy to replace the current moribund religious communities. Your beloved North London luvvies clearly need a place to worship Gaia.

The obvious strategem would appear to be to run in marginals on a populist platform but to offer to stand down in return for a cast-iron commitment to electoral reform.
The goal would be to avoid gifting the Tories another victory whilst also making real progress towards the wider goal of ending the Tory/Labour duopoly (a duopoly which is especially galling to the left/progressive side of the argument, split as it is between Labour, the LibDems, Greens, SNP/Plaid and so on)
It’s not without risk but that’s kind of the point.

The Left is a mass of tiny factions, arguing about arcane historical feuds, hating each other far more than they hate the Tories, and totally without organisational or management skills. It is a point of principle with them (possibly the only thing that they agree about) that being an ideologically pure loser is preferable to compromising to win.
The only way that the Left can have any influence is within the Labour Party. Outside it, in a FPTP system, it has no chance.

The problem with the idea of “destroying the Conservative Party at the polls” is that on the evidence, the most likely consequence is the emergence of ANOTHER Blairite, globalist, false-flag operation under the Conservative banner.

After all, they have done it before. They didnt spend a decade purhing the Party to no purpose.

The Right and Centre-Right are disorganised, lacking a narrative and stalked by the shades of Mrs Thatcher and the “Party of Unemployment”. Farage has fired his broadside and cannot repeat the performance. Johnson was rapidly nobbled; Truss simply hasnt the necessary charisma or ability.

I’d vote for stopping funding the insanity in Ukraine. No NATO membership, security guarantees for Ukraine from the west and Donbass from the east. Crimea to Russia. But where is the anti-war left? Only the ‘far right’ is anti-war these days while Bill Kristol is a ‘diversity’ Democrat. Curiouser and curiouser.

If I just happened to find myself on the electoral roll in Corbyn’s constituency he’d get my vote. Paul Mason, Sam Tarry indeed.

“A socialist- populist party could still outflank Labour”

Not couldn’t. But Labour will outflank Labour once in power. The future is anything but bright

If Corbyn or his equivalent did lead a (real) Left-wing resurgence, and if it did indeed dent Labour’s lead then perhaps we might get a Tory win after all? The economic mess is so bad it seems only right (!) the Tories should have to lick up their own vomit!
It might spell the end of Toryism for a generation if not permanently – how wonderful that would be! The more Tory (right or even moderate) policies failed to more the population would lurch to real socialist policies, forcing a kiss and make up United Labour to sweep to power in 2030 ..or much sooner if the economy really hits rock bottom which seems inevitable? With 50 000 British troops dying like flies in the NATO v Russia (upgraded!) war a real revolution might be in the offing? We live in interesting times…