Starmer's vision quest

[briantrumpet]

Agree with most of that, however I think waiting ‘years’ to scrap the 2 child benefit cap is a bit of an exaggeration. Even if the Starmer premiership has felt like a lifetime.

Also he kept us out of a stupid war, Farage or Badenoch would have had us marching straightaway.

The final bit about brexit is the nail on the head.

On the international stage, he was very good (if you ignore the Trump brown-nosing obsequiousness). But domestically he pissed off most of his 'natural' supporters, one way or another in his idiotic quest for the 'hero voters', and even the things he got right in the end he managed do piss people off before making the right decision.

 

[Bromptonaut]

Agree with most of that, however I think waiting ‘years’ to scrap the 2 child benefit cap is a bit of an exaggeration. Even if the Starmer premiership has felt like a lifetime.

Also he kept us out of a stupid war, Farage or Badenoch would have had us marching straightaway.

The final bit about brexit is the nail on the head.

The two child limit was scrapped by legislation passed in 2025 effective when the benefit changes fo 2026/7 came in this April.

 

[C R]

Couldn't happen as Labour and Tories don't have enough seats to form a majority. They would have to also link with Lib Dems (Romania Coalition).

The only workable majority would be Broad Left (Lab / Green / Lib Dem / SNP) with Plaid, a progressive alliance (same but without Plaid) or Romania Coalition

https://www.nowcast.uk/home/pr-calculator

The Labour Party in its current incarnation would be more likely to lean towards reform than "those extremists on the left"

 

[briantrumpet]

The final bit about brexit is the nail on the head.

 

[C R]

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No lessons have been learnt.

 

[Badger_Boom]

No lessons have been learnt.

They never are.

 

[bobzmyunkle]

On the international stage, he was very good

Well apart from his implacable support of all things Zionist.
Burnham has been associated with Labour Friends of Israel, so I don't expect radical change.

This will come to nothing but might raise some interesting debate.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026...israeli-influence-on-uk-politics-what-we-know

 

[briantrumpet]

Well apart from his implacable support of all things Zionist.
Burnham has been associated with Labour Friends of Israel, so I don't expect radical change.

This will come to nothing but might raise some interesting debate.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026...israeli-influence-on-uk-politics-what-we-know

Fair.

 

[secretsqirrel]

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So he hasn’t said it yet……

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

My impression is that electoral reform to most "reformed" systems ie abandoning First Past The Post would help the smaller parties break the hold of Labour & Conservatives and thereby give eg Reform better prospects. Can't see Labour doing that, particularly when Reform are riding high in the polls and have been perceived by Labour as a massive "threat".

It would, but arguably the horse has already bolted. We are looking like a five party system now. FPTP typically favoured the big two, but it is no longer Labour/Tory. As we saw in local elections, Reform did what Labour did at the GE, won lots of seats with minimal votes. At present FPTP now benefits Reform. PR would probably create a left vs right alliance amongst the five parties, with it likely favouring the left.

It depends really if Labour think that one party alone can still win a majority in a GE. If not, then a system that favours future coalitions might be beneficial. It is why the Lib Dems are so in favour of it, and with Reform only possibly having a very small Tory alliance, there is scope to reduce the risk of a future Reform led govt.

This is the theory anyway!

 

[briantrumpet]

I think this is all too true too. These first two/three years when Starmer could have ignored the polls and the racists, shown the £-value of immigration (in some form), the benefits of EU SM & CU, etc, and all he did was run scared of Farage because McSweeney was still acting like they weren't actually in power and needed to win an election.

He did all that electioneering, and ironically their polling was dire *because* they were electioneering against Farage rather than being Labour governing as a Labour Party. If Burnham can't break away from this destructive cycle really quickly, he'll be sunk too.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

McSweeney was still acting like they weren't actually in power and needed to win an election.

I think I have said this before, but I think it was worse than that. McSweeney's ego meant his focus was on winning Reform voters to prove how brilliant a strategist he was. I think he was partially greedy and partially scared of the Reform threat.

Regardless, I agree, Starmer by and large wasted the opportunities his Premiership afforded him. As my mother would say "I'm afraid you've only got yourself to blame"

 

[Ian H]

With Keir Starmer reportedly set to quit as PM there is some interest in looking back, nearly 40 years, to what he believed as a young socialist activist. He has made a political journey from left to centre. That of course is a cliche except for the reality that there are left MPs elected in the 1980s who are still in Parliament who have not made that journey..
https://kmflett.wordpress.com/2025/...ly-believes-interview-with-tony-benn-in-1987/

 

[Pross]

Bernal, a Professor of Politics at UEA, is well to the left of me, but his commentary on Starmer is spot on this morning.

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I'd add that the other dishonesty was the crap about learning lessons from Gorton & Denton. He had no intent about changing course.

You sure you didn’t hack his account?

 

[Pross]

I think this is all too true too. These first two/three years when Starmer could have ignored the polls and the racists, shown the £-value of immigration (in some form), the benefits of EU SM & CU, etc, and all he did was run scared of Farage because McSweeney was still acting like they weren't actually in power and needed to win an election.

He did all that electioneering, and ironically their polling was dire *because* they were electioneering against Farage rather than being Labour governing as a Labour Party. If Burnham can't break away from this destructive cycle really quickly, he'll be sunk too.

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That’s the point I’ve been making since day one. They had a few years to be unpopular and get things done, they electric to be unpopular and do nothing.