Journal of Political, Sociological and Philosophical Readings

- November 4th, 2025-

Just to set out a programme for what I'm doing, I shall start by reading up on the manifestos of various parties and trying to read whatever texts I can on the politics of places around the world. I'll start with trying to understand British politics throughout the 21st century to the best of my ability. Starting with the manifestos of the major political parties at the moment.

Maybe perhaps I should try a dualistic approach to this as well. I'll have one path focusing on trying to be as educated as I can about... the world. And one path focusing on that in politics, philosophy and elsewhere that I find interesting. Perhaps starting with progressive or council communist texts.

- November 5th 2025-

The recent video by TLDR News provided some valuable insight into Starmer's current instability - they believe that there are three big structural failings which may contribute to Starmer's removal in the near future. These are his budget dilemma in respect to the economic promises he made in the Labour Manifesto of 2024, his massive unpopularity which has depopularised certain actions and his lack of a long-term grand plan or vision for Britain. These are interesting points yet none mention the immigration issue that has been reported on by the media, perhaps the more pressing issues are economic after all? Planning to read the Labour Manifesto 2024 now and see how things have held up.

Change - Keir Starmer: Labour Manifesto for the 2024 General Election

Like many Labour politicians, what stands out immediately is an ideological support for working people and of course the usual commitments to common liberal democratic ideals such as serving the country. Labour had been in the Opposition for many years by now... So it makes sense that a lot of preamble in his Manifesto is focused on criticising the state of affairs at the time and calling attention to issues in society such as sewage in British rivers. His critique mentions three important things though: the lack of investment into clean energy and dependency on Russian gas leading to an unfortunate situation when Ukraine was invaded, tax cuts to the 1% crashing the pound (which I believe happened under Liz Truss?) and "degrading public services because of a mess made by the banks". I'll have to look into all of these things. Despite all, what matters in the now is what he promised and if he's living up to it.

The specifics on what TLDR News mentioned in the video is that Starmer had set strict fiscal rules on borrowing and a promise to not raise taxes in the Manifesto based on the idea that the UK economy would boom which unfortunately did not occur due to Trump's global tariff policies. This means that Labour has to skirt around raising minor taxes or reducing spending in an unsustainable way to fund public revenue. So at the next budget on the 26th, Labour will have to break one of the two promises in the Manifesto. I'll have to read the passages myself and do some investigating before coming to a judgement. Obviously, like many other leftists at the moment, I'm biased against Starmer.

I'll continue reading tomorrow and reserve judgement due to not having gotten to the meat of the text yet.

- November 6th, 2025

Labour's first steps for change seem to be a list of policies/activities that the Labour government would've immediately taken following re-election. It includes the tough spending rules that were mentioned in the TLDR video as well as goals such as cutting NHS waiting times, employing 6,500 new teachers and setting up a clean publicly-owned company known as Great British Energy. What stands out most is the positions on social issues which seem increasingly right-wing: a new Border Security Command with more specialists, increasing the number of neighbourhood police and tougher penalties for offenders. Although, the youth hubs do seem more in line with progressive views of justice. My first investigation will be into whether or not these initial promises were upheld.

Cutting NHS waiting times: The NHS seems to have launched an elective reform plan in early 2025, but it is find to hard data on whether or not waiting times have actually been cut down without having to navigate growing links of NHS bureaucracy (or is that my incompetence talking?). What I have gathered however is that there has been a marginal decrease in waiting list from 7.6 million before the election to around 7.4 million now. There also seems to be a slight increase in percentage of cancer patients who were treated within 62 days, from around 65% to around 69-70%. From the statistics I can see, I think it's fair to say that while the Labour government and NHS did follow up on this promise, it has only been marginally successful. Although, 200K people is a lot!

Recruiting 6,500 new teachers: