Starmer's vision quest

[Ian H]

I might bet 30p on Lee Anderson rejoining Labour and standing for PM.

 

[briantrumpet]

I might bet 30p on Lee Anderson rejoining Labour and standing for PM.

And the sad thing is I might bet 30p on Starmer-McSweeney welcoming him back.

 

[Psamathe]

I wonder whether John Healey would stand.

I don't think he resigned in preparation but to the electorate he does present a lot of potential positives eg "sensible" (Starmer keeps highlighting himself as "sensible"), acts in the interests of the country rather than party, whilst a loyalist he also predates Starmer so has a track record.

After the Makerfield by-election I don't expect but would not be surprised to be hearing "Colleagues have persuaded me what the country needs now is ... so I've been persuaded to stand for party leader".

Unlike other resignations, Healey didn't start running an "sources within ..." anonymous briefing campaign leading up to his parting which I interpret as him resigning for the reasons he stated.

 

[Psamathe]

Something I'm increasingly noticing is how politicians leap on to and single positive statistic and start declaring "our plan is working" and when statistics not so great they become invisible. Ms Reeves does this a lot, one better indicator in a single statistic and she's in a hard hat visiting some industrial site with reporters in tow. They all do it but either I'm noticing it more or they are getting worse.

Recent example, Government continually declaring how they are getting NHS waiting lists down. But what they are not saying is

Record number of people waiting for NHS diagnostic tests in England
A record number of people are waiting for a diagnostic test on the NHS, triggering fears that delays in accessing CT and MRI scans could endanger patients’ health.

A total of 1.92 million patients in England are waiting to have a test to diagnose their illness such as by an ultrasound scan, assessment of their hearing, bone scan or various tests for cancer.

And if you've not been diagnosed you can't be on the waiting list for operations/treatment/etc.

 

[briantrumpet]

A piece in The Times arguing that the Government should leave X.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/e8...a?shareToken=bf8f42d0244e0429e8879abae95b9e1e

Were the government to choose elsewhere for its posts, thousands of journalists, businesses and politically interested citizens would have to follow. It is also, frankly, a nationally demeaning position for the government of a nuclear-armed permanent member of the UN security council to argue meekly that it has no choice but to create massive revenue generation opportunities for a tycoon actively hostile to its objectives, running a platform it seems to believe is responsible for inciting violence and other ills.

So the next time any government minister moans about the evils of X and its impact on our social fabric, don’t take them seriously. Just ask them why, at the very same time as they’re whinging about its iniquities, somebody, somewhere in government is creating content on X to make money for it.
To govern is to choose. The government should either stop using X, or stop moaning about it.