God I hate Blue Labour. Reactionary poison - ThreadSky

dorianlynskey.bsky.social • 7 days ago

God I hate Blue Labour. Reactionary poison

As ever, the loudest voices calling for the collapse of universities, presumably in the post-92 sector, benefitted from privileged educations.

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thatdocphoenix.com•7 days ago

It’s bonkers that they’re as fringe and mad as the ERG were and yet also have influence like they did

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•7 days ago

My feeling is that the mainstream of the party has had enough of their bullshit and is pushing back

davidpattie.bsky.social•7 days ago

Speaking, I can guess, for the other former working-class academics out there: Blue Labour don't actually like Labour voters very much- and I don't think they actually like the working class either.

basking-crow.bsky.social•7 days ago

I think they use the ‘concerns’ of the ‘traditional working class’ label to provide covering fire for what is actually their own posho bigotry; which says a lot for how they view most Labour voters, none of it good.

drdjb.bsky.social•7 days ago

Isn’t this a steal from Trump? “I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land,"

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•7 days ago

No it’s a standard argument. I doubt they’re following Trump

drdjb.bsky.social•6 days ago

Ah - ok - you will know much more about this than I do!

renkadima.bsky.social•7 days ago

Can we not teach "the skills required for production" at universities then? Or must 'the trades' never be allowed the same status as 'professions'?

judithfairbairn.bsky.social•7 days ago

Make it a requirement for a degree to do a skills practicum. But don’t lose the critical analysis training. The apprenticeship degrees might be onto something.

pennyhorwood3.bsky.social•7 days ago

It always used to be the left that was accused of pulling up the ladder of opportunity.

martyoconnor.bsky.social•7 days ago

‘Email jobs’ is such a tell.

steviechick.bsky.social•7 days ago

Stolen vocational valor by people who also do “email jobs” but were given them by their dad’s friend so that’s alright

martyoconnor.bsky.social•7 days ago

Who is this for?!

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•7 days ago

Red Reform would be a more apt name

magnificocleary.bsky.social•7 days ago

I wish this had never happened but my brain made a connection between blue labour and tight fisted wankers and now you have to live with this too

luketurner.bsky.social•7 days ago

Blue Labour, blue balls

turpywurpy.bsky.social•7 days ago

Nothing red about them

chimpzilla.bsky.social•7 days ago

Hopefully Starmer is breaking with them but they have set the agenda so far and then taken no responsibility for the collapse in trust in Labour.

mathewheath.bsky.social•7 days ago

Yeah this is nuts thinking. No wonder that Lord has connections with Trump. It's exactly the same kind of thinking.

mathewheath.bsky.social•7 days ago

Stop educating people, bring back manufacturing and proper jobs. It's all just fantasy.

camtreblig.bsky.social•7 days ago

The lack of self-awareness is astounding. And ironically it demonstrates why a wider array of universities is so important, because that kind of sociopathy is very specific to elite educational institutions

andyinafield.bsky.social•7 days ago

Know-your-place-itis is in these freaks DNA.

rosaweisener.bsky.social•7 days ago

Do they think no-one at university studies engineering, ffs?

danitinkov.co.uk•7 days ago

The Soviet Union also thought that universities are stupid and people should focus on STEM because of industrial job. How’s that working out for them?

commonninja.bsky.social•7 days ago

Educated citizens are less likely to vote for neoliberalism?

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•7 days ago

Is that true? I don't think so

commonninja.bsky.social•7 days ago

There are papers that suggest voters attaining higher levels of education are less likely to support orthodox political views.

And I would consider neoliberalism to be quite orthodox.

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•7 days ago

I think that needs updating in the age of Trump, Brexit and populism. Your average remainer graduate is more pro-free market than your average Reform voter. Depends what you mean by neoliberalism I guess

commonninja.bsky.social•7 days ago

It is the 'minimal Government intervention' and 'free markets can regulate themselves' aspects of classic neoliberlism that Starmer et. al. have dedicated themselves to which more educated voters may reject?

Ironic I say this given Trumps attemptee tariff interventions.

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•7 days ago

Starmer is not a classic neoliberal. Words have to mean something

commonninja.bsky.social•7 days ago

*attempted

gargarin.bsky.social•7 days ago

Me too, my grandparents left school at 14 with sparse meagre education mum and dad benefitted from university (and this education to benefit the NHS and society) one of my nephews grows stem cells (one of his other grandad's was a face worker).

edbenegg.bsky.social•7 days ago

Nostalgia (Reform vote?) seems to make people want to bring back factories, but just not for themselves

balmachreuchie.bsky.social•7 days ago

Good point, much like the Brexit commentators who wanted ‘our own’ people harvesting veg, “all back to the fields” - but would definitely never be seen dead picking a single cabbage 🥬

gargarin.bsky.social•7 days ago

Lots of public discourse is folk proposing things for other people to do

gargarin.bsky.social•7 days ago

Mainly folk who struggle changing the cartridge on a computer printer or finding the wash bottle in their car .

sarahrichards.bsky.social•7 days ago

Imagine if every university (established to foster academic excellence) were a football academy. Would anyone seriously suggest the same percentage of school leavers as now head to university have a genuine aptitude for sport? Equality of opportunity was the problem, not availability.

sarahrichards.bsky.social•7 days ago

Giving me a piano doesn’t make me a pianist, or even any kudos (“life chances”) if everyone else I know has one too.

crittendentyndall.bsky.social•7 days ago

Universities by their very being insist we think

timleachwriter.bsky.social•7 days ago

Whenever they say that they'd be 'happy for several universities to collapse', they need to have the guts to say exactly which towns and cities they'd be happy to put to the sword, economically speaking.

guyburton.net•6 days ago

Ex academic here. There is more to university than preparing graduates for the world of work. Unfortunately, we seem to have lost sight of that.

johnmulvey.bsky.social•7 days ago

Amazing that someone notionally in the Labour Party has looked at what's happened in the last decade or so and concluded: yeah, we definitely need a less-educated electorate.

dorianlynskey.bsky.social•7 days ago

Carden's been on a "journey" but I honestly have no idea why Hinder is a Labour MP

janemccallion.bsky.social•7 days ago

Snobbish behaviour towards former polytechnics, ignoring the fact that many of them are now leading institutions in science and technology (cf my alma mater, University of Portsmouth, which does amazing marine science). Is there anyone outside their bubble really calling for this?

donmac.bsky.social•7 days ago

'Not for the likes of you' Brigade. They would put their foot down and baulk if any of their offspring chose vocational over university. They just really need to fuck off.

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