spen666
Ăśber Member
Hmmm... an interesting idea 🤡
Starmer's vision quest
- Thread starter mjr
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
TailWindHome
Ăśber Member
Hold Ed Miliband
briantrumpet
Timewaster
I think he's a good minister, likeable and in charge of his brief (and sticks to his guns), but hasn't got the gravitas for PM (mind you, I don't know who has).
Memories of dour Gordon Brown looking ridiculous when he was told to smile more: it didn't come naturally.
It's a tough gig. In another life, without the policies/party they were lumbered with (and the choices they made), both Cameron and Sunak could have pulled it off, at least as an act. As it was, both were disasters, in different ways.
Psamathe
Legendary Member
Maybe Starmer is losing faith in Ms Reeves? Bringing back Gordon Brown as an adviser on finance. And trust in Jess Phillips now Harriet Harman needing to be brought in to advise on violence against women and girls.
Makes you wonder about his confidence in these previous appointments and how stuff under their responsibility is going when such additional "experience" is needed to advise them (or maybe they are advising the PM on the decisions those ministers are making?
Makes you wonder about his confidence in these previous appointments and how stuff under their responsibility is going when such additional "experience" is needed to advise them (or maybe they are advising the PM on the decisions those ministers are making?
AuroraSaab
Pharaoh
I thought Sunak was a genuine bloke, not particularly ideological. Like God, I love a trier. He had the misfortune of having to try to clear up after Johnson and Truss though so he was on a hiding to nothing really.
briantrumpet
Timewaster
I think he's just flailing around for ideas and is just window dressing. Without understanding why they lost so many votes to the Greens, and without a change in the policy of trying to get Reform votes with Reform-lite policies delivered with glee by Mahmood, he's only going to keep on bolstering the Greens and Reform. He's a plonker, Rodney.
Pross
Veteran
Plus he committed the cardinal sin of not eating a bacon buttie properly which is apparently a sign you’ll ne a terrible PM (unlike taking £5 million in questionable gifts).
secretsqirrel
Ăśber Member
Like Starmer really.
Psamathe
Legendary Member
What's really shocked me about Starmer since the General Election is his stance on asylum seekers. I'd have expected/hoped somebody so focused on human rights would have stood up for those in desperate need. I'd have expected him to show some empathy, to have pushed against the "illegal", to talk about how Britain is better than that, how we as a nation can help those so desperate. Instead giving/pushing Mahmood to be as nasty as she can be whilst he talks up how we're going to stop these illegals - no thinking they are actually people needing help,
Psamathe
Legendary Member
Listened to The Rest Is Politics epidode covering the election results (Campbell & Stewart).
Rory Stewart had a good way of describing Starmer clinging on. He (frequently) referred to it as the Biden option - somebody destined to lose clings on too long ensuring their last minute replacement has no time to establish themselves (and in UK this means achieving some things) and thus opposing parties win.
Rory Stewart had a good way of describing Starmer clinging on. He (frequently) referred to it as the Biden option - somebody destined to lose clings on too long ensuring their last minute replacement has no time to establish themselves (and in UK this means achieving some things) and thus opposing parties win.
briantrumpet
Timewaster
Exactly so - it just feels like he's taken that stance because McSweeney told him it would appeal to Reform voters. And it appals a lot of a Labour's natural supporters. And by going counter to his existence as a human rights lawyer, you start to question if he's got any core beliefs at all he'd stand up for.
Rusty Nails
Country Member
I have never understood this idea that Labour's natural supporters are saintly types who cannot include closet racists in their ranks. Being poor and working class does not come with any guarantee of nobility of morality.
I was at a family funeral this week where I know that most of those present would have considered themselves as working class and once Labour supporters, but it was sadly obvious when chatting in the post-funeral drinks and food at the pub that their views were coloured by a belief that illegal immigration had got out of hand and only Reform would start to fix it...that and the other vitally important issue that Reform have said they would scrap the 20 mph limits in Wales.
briantrumpet
Timewaster
Of course it's a broad church, as the Tories used to be. But a big chunk of them have always been (to use a cliché) the liberal left - academics, educated well-off types, students, etc., and who were instrumental in giving Starmer his massive majority in 2024. They feel utterly betrayed by the overt anti-migrant rhetoric. I know, because I've really just described my bubble. Mahmood telling them - or rather, us - to FRO, only confirms the sense of betrayal.
As I've said previously, their massive majority gave them some leeway to 'change the conversation', with hard data to prove their points... instead, they've just agreed with the prejudices, despite the data.
Last edited:
Pross
Veteran
Isn’t the point more that non-white Brits are far more likely, traditionally, to vote Labour than any other Party? The ones you are describing will vote Reform no matter whether Labour try to emulate Reform immigration policy or not so why alienate the voters that find that rhetoric unpalatable as well? You’re throwing away what should be safe votes to chase lost votes you are unlikely to get back. It”s like a place I used to work where a new MD came in and told us to focus on chasing new clients, we then had to prioritise the work from those clients ahead of our more established ones so they went off to become someone else’s new clients.
briantrumpet
Timewaster
I'll leave that to Mrs Miliband.
