Starmer's vision quest

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

TailWindHome

Active Member
4 points of interest from the analysis of the past week

1 Starmer operation still strong enough to get the cabinet to tweet their support. Yes. I know they were forced too. But Downimg St was able to do that

2 Anas Sarwar's problem is different than the cabinet's - they've 3 years to turn things around - his reckoning is in 3 months. He's looking at coming 3rd in an election he had in the bag 18mths ago. His speech was entirely rational.

3 Angela's support had a shopping list

4 The disclosure requirements of the communications re Mandelson are very wide ranging. As pointed out by Patrick Maguire , they haven't limited it to 'relevance'. Thats a ticking time-bomb
 

briantrumpet

Pharaoh
2 Anas Sarwar's problem is different than the cabinet's - they've 3 years to turn things around - his reckoning is in 3 months. He's looking at coming 3rd in an election he had in the bag 18mths ago. His speech was entirely rational.

Maybe rational, but unwise, and rather poorly phrased, as not only did it sound like he expected Starmer to adapt his politics to suit Sarwar's local needs, he didn't give himself any space for manoeuvre. Maybe he expected a flood of other people to wield knives so didn't need an escape hatch, but either he had faulty info or just badly misjudged, based on the media frenzy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: C R

secretsqirrel

Senior Member
You do realise that Starmer was elected by Labour Party members and supporters? You do realise he leads a cabinet of ministers who have input into how he governs? You do realise that his ministers basically allowed him to stay in post yesterday rather than run a leadership election? Of course it's about how Labour are doing! He's the leader that a majority of them wanted.

You do realise that more people voted for a Starmer led Labour Party in 2024.
 

briantrumpet

Pharaoh
I do realise that. What point are you making? I said at the time that it wouldn't take long for buyers remorse to kick in.

All the alternatives are still worse despite the Labour shenanigans. And the Tories had to go, so there's that to be happy about. Just a pity they've not reflected on why so many people despised them so much that they voted for parties they'd not normally vote for just to #GTTO.

1770826721914.png
 

Shortfall

Active Member
All the alternatives are still worse despite the Labour shenanigans. And the Tories had to go, so there's that to be happy about. Just a pity they've not reflected on why so many people despised them so much that they voted for parties they'd not normally vote for just to #GTTO.

View attachment 13071

It's a matter of opinion that all of the opinions were worse. We are barely 18 months in and it's already a car crash, but nothing compared to what might happen next. Two scenarios.
1, Starmer clings on to power for the time being but he is now a prisoner of the left of the party who will demand that he follow more of their policies in return for supporting him.
2, He faces a leadership challenge following disastrous performances in the coming by and local elections which he will lose to either Milliband, Rayner or someone else on the left.

Following either outcome we can expect the money markets to extract a very high price to continue buying our debt. We know how this then ends and it isn't pretty.
 
  • Laugh
Reactions: C R

briantrumpet

Pharaoh
It's a matter of opinion that all of the opinions were worse. We are barely 18 months in and it's already a car crash, but nothing compared to what might happen next. Two scenarios.
1, Starmer clings on to power for the time being but he is now a prisoner of the left of the party who will demand that he follow more of their policies in return for supporting him.
2, He faces a leadership challenge following disastrous performances in the coming by and local elections.

Following either outcome we can expect the money markets to extract a very high price to continue buying our debt. We know how this ends and it isn't pretty.

I'm going to accept we're not going to agree on this, but the Tories not understanding why they were booted out so convincingly but with no great enthusiasm from the voters is central to the problem. There is no moderate/centre right party that is articulating a pragmatic business-friendly set of policies to counter Starmer, and there's no chance of that with Badenoch aping Farage's xenophobic populism. It's a gaping chasm in British politics, the reason for which I still can't wrap my head around.
 

Ian H

Shaman
I'm going to accept we're not going to agree on this, but the Tories not understanding why they were booted out so convincingly but with no great enthusiasm from the voters is central to the problem. There is no moderate/centre right party that is articulating a pragmatic business-friendly set of policies to counter Starmer, and there's no chance of that with Badenoch aping Farage's xenophobic populism. It's a gaping chasm in British politics, the reason for which I still can't wrap my head around.

Who needs a moderate right when you can have real fascists?
 

Shortfall

Active Member
I'm going to accept we're not going to agree on this, but the Tories not understanding why they were booted out so convincingly but with no great enthusiasm from the voters is central to the problem. There is no moderate/centre right party that is articulating a pragmatic business-friendly set of policies to counter Starmer, and there's no chance of that with Badenoch aping Farage's xenophobic populism. It's a gaping chasm in British politics, the reason for which I still can't wrap my head around.

I sort of agree with you except I think that the Conservatives AND Labour are so toxic in the minds of the electorate that there's not much hope for either of them. It remains to be seen what happens after the next election but whether they regroup, or collapse and re-emerge under some new identity and rebranding we will see. I could be wrong and Starmer turns it around or someone from the left makes a success of it as a new leader and storms to a stunning victory. Can't see it myself but hey ho.
 

the snail

Active Member
Starmer's can largely be placed in the category of incompetence, whilst the others are a right set of nefarious b********

I don't think his problem is incompetence. If you look at what he has done, he's doing fairly well if you ignore the hysteria from the right. I think that rather like G. Brown, he lacks political nouse, the presentation and PR is poor, and he has failed to control the narrative.
 

briantrumpet

Pharaoh
I sort of agree with you except I think that the Conservatives AND Labour are so toxic in the minds of the electorate that there's not much hope for either of them. It remains to be seen what happens after the next election but whether they regroup, or collapse and re-emerge under some new identity and rebranding we will see. I could be wrong and Starmer turns it around or someone from the left makes a success of it as a new leader and storms to a stunning victory. Can't see it myself but hey ho.

I'm not seeing a Starmer or Labour victory as things stand either, but, so far, the markets (as far as I'm aware) haven't got the jitters you have.

For once, it really is too early to tell.
 

briantrumpet

Pharaoh
I don't think his problem is incompetence. If you look at what he has done, he's doing fairly well if you ignore the hysteria from the right. I think that rather like G. Brown, he lacks political nouse, the presentation and PR is poor, and he has failed to control the narrative.

As discussed before, plenty of political incompetence, badly presenting poorly thought-through policies, hence the U-turns. And the pandering to xenophobes rather than using the majority and time to present a more balanced discussion on the necessity of immigration has been ill-advised, at best, shameful at worst.
 
I'm not seeing a Starmer or Labour victory as things stand either, but, so far, the markets (as far as I'm aware) haven't got the jitters you have.

For once, it really is too early to tell.

Maybe the markets are waiting to see what happens when someone is actually running the country instead of all this pointless politicking.
I don't mean this week, or even this month. I mean the last decade.
 
Top Bottom