I like neeps wrote: Tue Apr 30, 2024 5:24 pm
Andrew Marr is presumably speaking to senior senior people so this probably is an actually discussion.
Huge red flag there.
There has always been a possibility they'll copy every Tory policy and sell it on the basis of superior implementation, including things they oppose that have so many holes their feasibility is deeply questionable. If Labour support the Rwanda scheme you know they're capable of anything.
It would validate every open ended right wing argument about migration. Since Thatcher the UK economy has required immigrants, Labour like every government since her aren't going to radically change the structure of the UK's economy (Brexit just meant the same economy under worse operating conditions). It doesn't matter what the immigration numbers are the right will go crazy over them. They'll never be happy because they can't afford to be, migration is all the right have, they're never going congratulate Labour on their migration policies or migration numbers. Last time Labour were in power, the right went mad over about 200k net immigrants per year and blamed Blair for opening UK borders. A basic graph of immigration into the UK shows an upward trend from the 1980s until now, if anything there was a plateau in the 2000s. Yet they still blame Blair to this day.
Labour is also committed to "making Brexit work" without joining the SM or CU. Immigration increased to record levels once Brexit was implemented, Johnson used immigrants to fill the hole in GDP numbers he knew Brexit would create. If the Brexit deal doesn't significantly change, and the structure of the UK's economy doesn't significantly change, but immigration is significantly cut ... then what? Changing almost nothing and cutting immigration, looks economically impossible.
The Tories have crushed themselves by banging on and on about immigrants, a lot of what they've talked about before the local elections is immigrants. The Tories promised the impossible on immigration, those who believed them aren't going to vote Tory. Labour would be stupid to copy them.
If Labour do decide to be stupid everything getting worse becomes more likely. Right wing populism is about blaming immigrants for everything. It started after the 2008 GFC, the BNP got 1m votes in the 2009 Euro elections and 500k votes in the 2010 general election, then it moved to Farage/UKIP, then the Tories/Brexit, then it ate everything. If Labour supports the economic status quo and endorses "immigrants bad" rhetoric, it'll create perfect conditions for Farage or worse to deepen the crisis. Do Tory things, get Tory results.