Starmer's vision quest

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Guardian now reporting that Starmer is expected to announce his resignation timetable (think we all new it was coming but now sounds fairly concrete). I feel for him in the sense that I do honestly believe that he does have integrity, the way he handled situations like support for Ukraine suggests he is fundamentally a decent bloke. On the flip side, he has just got domestic policy disastrously wrong from a left perspective, and as we have discussed, his reliance on McSweeney and Glasman was catastrophic for him and Labour overall.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Thy never sold an idea of hope & optimism at all as a strand of overcoming the difficulties. The overriding message was apparently chasing Reform's negativity, with the 'island of strangers' etc. They should have paid more attention to the kind of message that propelled Obama to two terms.

Will be interesting to see Burnham. He certainly gives the impression that he is good at the positive messaging and he is certainly far more engaging with people on a human level (and from my limited meeting with him, seems to enjoy it). Assuming he becomes PM, If he can get the policy side right and convince people we have better prospects now as a country, he may just turn the ship around.

 

[briantrumpet]

To be fair, many of us pointed out in here that this was a likely outcome because of Starmer's lack of vision, even before he became prime minister. The diagnosis is clear, but will Burnham learn from Starmer's failure?

Each one of those changes was for a different reason: May couldn't square the circle of Brexit, Johnson was a lazy incompetent charlatan, Truss is a fruitcake, Sunak had no real agenda, Starmer has no political sense of how to lead. But at heart I think all of them were unprepared to deal with reality and 'fess up to the electorate that there are hard choices and that there's no easy magic bullet. I suspect that Burnham will end up with the same fate, but I hope not. Frankly, it's amazing that anyone serious and with ambition should want to become an MP, given the near-impossibility of the brief, so we shouldn't be surprised that the choice of able & charismatic potential leaders is so limited.

I'm not sure how we dig ourselves out of this hole of voting for the impossible then getting cross when the impossible doesn't happen.

 

[briantrumpet]

Will be interesting to see Burnham. He certainly gives the impression that he is good at the positive messaging and he is certainly far more engaging with people on a human level (and from my limited meeting with him, seems to enjoy it). Assuming he becomes PM, If he can get the policy side right and convince people we have better prospects now as a country, he may just turn the ship around.

There were only a few glimpses of a human Starmer, and it was never when he was reading (stiffly) from a script. And the script might as well have been written by AI with prompts provided by McSweeney along the lines of "How can Labour get votes off Reform?"

 

[briantrumpet]

Meanwhile, Unite are briefing against Miliband as Chancellor, as they want the Heathrow expansion (which a new study suggests will be a white elephant in economic terms, and disaster in climate terms) and to slow the phasing out of oil-based transport. With 'friends' like those...

 

[briantrumpet]

Happening now...

 

[C R]

Happening now...

View attachment 15870

Bets on Starmer digging in?

 

[briantrumpet]

"Required: immediately – two men with big arms to lift small items of furniture. Location: Central London."

 

[briantrumpet]

Bets on Starmer digging in?

I did wonder that myself, which would be peak Starmer-McSweeney, but I think even Starmer wouldn't be that nuts, given the fairly solid weekend briefing that he'll be resigning and laying out a departure timetable.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Meanwhile, Unite are briefing against Miliband as Chancellor, as they want the Heathrow expansion (which a new study suggests will be a white elephant in economic terms, and disaster in climate terms) and to slow the phasing out of oil-based transport. With 'friends' like those...

Again, all of this is assuming a Burnham Premiership, but it will be interesting to see where Miliband goes. Also, given the Reform/immigration disaster under Starmer, who would be his Home Secretary.

 

[C R]

Bets on Starmer digging in?

Good job I'm not a betting person.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Gone! I am fairly sure we called this months back. I wonder how much they pay Chris Mason, I was thinking of a career change 😂

 

[briantrumpet]

I did wonder that myself, which would be peak Starmer-McSweeney, but I think even Starmer wouldn't be that nuts, given the fairly solid weekend briefing that he'll be resigning and laying out a departure timetable.

No surprises then: he's going. I think the thing that ultimately did for him was thinking he could get McSweeney back into his inner circle after his "We have to learn lessons" resignation after Gorton and Denton. I suspect Labour Ministers and MPs didn't take kindly to being treated like fools. It betrayed his lack of political nous, and his inability to change as circumstances changed.

 

[briantrumpet]

Again, all of this is assuming a Burnham Premiership, but it will be interesting to see where Miliband goes. Also, given the Reform/immigration disaster under Starmer, who would be his Home Secretary.

Genuinely don't think Miliband would want to be PM. Plus I don't think he has the ease of communication of Burnham. I don't think Burnham is any kind of political genius or has magic bullets, but he has got the chance to break away from Starmer's political missteps and miscalculations, and won't sound like a Dalek.

 

[Beebo]

I feel genuinely sad for him.
He’s been a victim of circumstance and lack of political experience. I’m sure his intentions were good. He never struck me as being in it for himself.
Rather than the self inflicted downfall of Johnson and Truss.

He can go away for a long holiday and hopefully realise he’s better off out of that thankless task.