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Every political leader needs an STW thread...
I'll just re-post what I posted on the Corbyn thread:
I’m just hoping the rumours are true (IIRC it was in the Guardian) that the first thing Kier Starmer is going to do is have a night of the long knives to clear out every last one of the utterly useless Corbynites, both on the front bench and behind the scenes, and actually appoint some people who are capable of finding their own arses using both hands.
I’m also hoping that involves firing Richard Burgon into the sun.
There needs to be a Kinnock/Militant style purge to even think dragging the labour party back from its Corbynite political irrelevence, where its presently languishing in its own delusional 'we won the argument' bullshit
I’m also hoping that involves firing Richard Burgon into the sun.
I voted for him as deputy leader.
Official?
I'd vote labour for the first time ever with Starmer at the helm.
Would the libs be up for a coalition with a Starmer labour party as he seems like a sensible person?
I voted for him as deputy leader.
Well I am shocked. Which policies of his appealed, particularly?. The Labour national newspaper to be given out free to all the now non-existant commuters or the Tony Benn memorial University of Political Education?
I though they were both guaranteed vote-winners which showcased Richards genius, and the inference that it was typically dim-witted and had worrying overtones of Stalinist totalitarianism was completely unfair
I love it when Binners sits on the fence!
I’d vote labour for the first time ever with Starmer at the helm.
Would the libs be up for a coalition with a Starmer labour party as he seems like a sensible person?
Why don’t you just vote ‘libs’?
Why don’t you just vote ‘libs’?
I do/have consistently, as they've been the left-of-middle party that matches my outlook, regardless of the fact that they'll never win. With Starmer at the helm, I think Labour would take a large portion of that vote and, you know, stand a chance of winning an election.
Why don’t you just vote ‘libs’
Lib party member but for the life of me I can't see why they agreed to an election .
God help me, we need some sort of centre left purge to come up with a sensible alternative to the Tories and mount a credible, united opposition. Starmer might be the man, but might split the Labour party doing it, so a Starmer led Lib/Lab pact may be the solution.
This whole sorry mess needs to be taken as an opportunity to redesign the political/democratic system from the ground up!
Lib party member but for the life of me I can’t see why they agreed to an election .
Same here, but it applies to Labour too. A terrible gaffe.
Would the libs be up for a coalition with a Starmer labour party as he seems like a sensible person?
I'm sure they would. What kind of coalition though? With the numbers they have between them, is it to split the cost of a cab?
I’m also hoping that involves firing Richard Burgon into the sun
Among the glittering cavalcade of mediocrity that is the current Labour front bench he really does stand out. Will him and Barry Gardiner
Lib party member but for the life of me I can’t see why they agreed to an election .
Without the benefit of hindsight, I think they over-estimated the Remain feeling in the UK, I think we (STW) did too.
I voted for him as deputy leader.
Satire?
Among the glittering cavalcade of mediocrity that is the current Labour front bench he really does stand out.
Do you follow him on Twitter? You should do. Its absolute (inadvertent) comedy gold. The bloke is a complete idiot. He just spews out endless absolutely preposterous, ill-conceived, nonsensical policy ideas into the ether like a sort of political Alan Partridge. Literally MONKEY TENNIS!!
Thankfully it looks like he's no chance of the deputy leadership. The article in the Guardian on what Kier is planning was saying that, as uber-Corbynites, Comrade Richard and Rebecca Wrong-Daily will both be getting nowhere near the font bench ever again. Thank christ!
Like
Official?
Hell no, but I figured the thread was worth a punt at this stage.
Literally MONKEY TENNIS!!
SMELL MY CHEESE
Good - the only sensible option. Is this confirmed?
my only real issue with him is that i've spent 37 years not ever really hearing my name used unless it's "for me".
Rebecca Wrong-Daily
Do you make these up yourself? Because they really are ’comedy gold’, like literally(sic).
If Daisy Cooper throws her hat in the ring for the Lib Dems she ands Kier would be a hell of a combination.
Much as the Tories and thier majority aren't going anywhere anytime soon it will be quite fun to see Boris get rhetorically hoofed in the slats every Wednesday by those 2.
As regards agreeing to the election, the opposition parties looked at the historical precedent that politicians seen to be avoiding them tend to do badly in the public eye (Gordon Brown for instance) and the fact that Johnson was very likely to get his Brexit deal through parliament anyway so why not roll the dice?
At the time Labour greatly underestimated the public's antipathy towards Corbyn, a factor so strong that it also scuppered the Lib Dems in many seats as the 'keep Corbyn out' vote was so strong. Jo Swinson's inexperience and the revoke Article 50 policy didn't help but on the doorstep it was Corbyn, Corbyn, Corbyn.
The rest is history
Where has this been announced? I cannot find it
Voting closes tomorrow, announcement Saturday (well, that was the plan).
In his defence Burgon did have this to say:
“ You know, I’m no expert at that”
Where has this been announced?
He is the forerunner but hasn't yet been announced.
Good to see Binners is now in favour of purging the ideological impure.
Not so much ideological. More a case of clearing out the quite staggeringly incompetent, really.
The most truly inept of the lot bowed out today in characteristic style with a letter demonstrating he can’t count from one to six (way to go Jezza!), hopefully the imbeciles he surrounded himself with won’t be far behind him.
Daisy Cooper for Lib Dem leader? Blimey.
I remember when she was our Lib candidate before the Tories parachuted Therese Coffey in to scoop up the local "will vote for any thing in blue" vote.
It would be ace if she helped oust the Tories at some point.
Richard Burgon is a at best thick as s**t, i want Kier to remove the collective bunch of **** wits (including Jenny Formby) that have infected the Labour Party.
We (the socialists) need to get a grip and understand the needs and aspirations of the general public.
The world has changed..
Roll with it.
The most truly inept of the lot
I thought that was McCluskey?
Daisy Cooper for Lib Dem leader?
After voting for Tim and then Jo, I am sitting this one out…
In a Tory landslide election Daisy pretty comprehensively turfed a long standing Tory MP out of St Albans and now statistically has one of the safest LD seats.
She's quite something on the campaign trail.
Whether this translates to effective party leadership remains to be seen but she's certainly earned a swing at it.
For the record I voted Ed Davey last time but was pretty conflicted about it as it was high time we had a women as a leader.
Just googled Daisy Cooper as i couldn't picture her , wasn't expecting to see Kerry Mucklowe 🙂
The only people who can remove Red Len are the members of his union. Union elections generally have a voter turnout of about 10% of the membership, which is the only reason that idiot ever got to where he is.
If he ever stood for an election with a higher turnout than that then I wouldn’t fancy his chances. A fact he’s more than aware of.
I hope that as well as getting rid of the useless Corbynites from the front bench that Starmer puts Len back in his box
Every time that *-wit opens his mouth (and let’s face it, the * never shuts up), the Tory poll ratings go up 5%
Seeing him basically dictating policy as if he was the party leader was a major contributory factor to the Labour party’s electoral catastrophe last December
The ultimate joke.
A Labour Party with a titled leader.
Why not just call themselves Tory-Lite?
Neoliberalism has many forms
The ultimate joke.
A Labour Party with a titled leader.
Why not just call themselves Tory-Lite?
Trolling or narrow minded?
Having a title does not mean someone can’t care about their fellow man.
Why not just call themselves Tory-lite?
Because the kind of complacent, sanctimonious, reactionary, left-wing idiots who like lobbing around terms like ‘Tory-lite’ just led the Labour Party to its worst election result in 85 years.
Do you actually know anything about Kier Starmers background?
He got the title for being outstanding in his field. It’s not like he inherited it along with a Manor House.
Maybe you should do a bit of research?
Without the benefit of hindsight, I think they over-estimated the Remain feeling in the UK, I think we (STW) did too.
This. They had a policy that should have strongly appealed to literally half the voters. In the event it didn't and everyone voted for a Leave party and a 'don't know' party lead by lifelong Brexiteers.
Nobody foresaw that, the polls were a total surprise.
winners
...Because the kind of complacent, sanctimonious, reactionary, left-wing idiots who like lobbing around terms like ‘Tory-lite’ just led the Labour Party to its worst election result in 85 years....
Indeed they did. You forgot hypocrisy among their flaws. I've not much regard for Corbyn the Great Abstainer.
I don't really care whose arse he crawled up to get his title, I'm sure he earned it. It's not compulsory to accept a title, and better men than him have declined the honour of bowing down to royalty.
Without the benefit of hindsight, I think they over-estimated the Remain feeling in the UK, I think we (STW) did too
<spellcheck>Without the benefit of hindsight, I think they over-estimated the potential for foot-shooting ****-wittery in the UK, I think we (STW) did too</spellcheck>
Satire?
Obviously. Unless you're binners.
I voted Keir and Angela. I’ve had enough of the Corbynite nonsense. The Labour Party needs to be electable, which Keir it could be, unless the Worried Testicle gets the press to make his work on Human Rights a bad thing.
I don’t really care whose arse he crawled up to get his title,
Oh....
You were serious....
🤣🤣🤣
mrlebowski
You were serious….
Not very. 🙂
Just think it's funny that the workers' party could even contemplate having a titled leader. (To be fair he seems the most competent choice.)
But if they want an upgrade in social status, I believe Prince Andrew is at a loose end these days...
K E I R
K then E
I wonder, which Corbynite/socialist policies would have been most popular in the last few weeks?
But aye, that Boris guy was a good tactical vote, hope all you self employed have savings to tide you over till June.
I believe someone mentioned foot-shooting ****-wittery?
Yep, 'Kier', 'labour party', 'irrelevent', ....and everyone else is thick!
deleted
You've only got to see Boris Johnson's popularity going up in the last few weeks with Keir Starmer as likely leader to realise that it ain't all on Jeremy Corbyn's shoulders.
The electorate needs education in why Neolibralism doesn't works so well (they're getting it now actually) but they still think Boris is king. That is going to change.
Centrism is not the answer. Doesn't matter how many times Binners dredges up storytime or calls folk Communist.
My dog is called Kea
i before e except after K.
They had a policy that should have strongly appealed to literally half the voters.
They didn't; they thought they had a policy that appealed to all. Instead it was too woolly, too indecisive and muddled to be risked by anybody.
People like certainty. That wasn't on offer with Labour.
It was with BoJo, the certainty to be humped. But it worked.
They didn’t; they thought they had a policy that appealed to all. Instead it was too woolly, too indecisive and muddled to be risked by anybody.
People like certainty. That wasn’t on offer with Labour.
It was with BoJo, the certainty to be humped. But it worked.
I was talking about the lib dems 'remain' policy.
As you say the Lab "policy" was a joke: "Vote for us and we'll flip a coin".
Ah, misunderstood with the page turn.
Lib policy was clear, but that woman was unbearable.
Politics is the art of the possible.
Otto Eduard Leopold, Fürst (prince) von Bismarck, Graf (count) von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Herzog (duke) von Lauenburg
Better known as just Bismarck. What is in a title?
No Keir does not want or need to purge the party he needs to unite it. If you think back to Harold Wilson cabinets or indeed Tony Blaire cabinets they contained a cross-section of the party of various degrees of competence and political spectrum. Think Tony Benn (left wing) George Brown (drunk) John Prescott er could throw a punch.
One of the reasons Corbyn was hamstrung was because of the 2016 coup (Keir among them) who refused to serve so just occupied a position as an MP not really a Labour MP. Keir did return to serve Nandy did not.
This required promotion of a lot of other MPs of varying degrees of competence to the front bench/line who in most cases did their best but they did step up and they were not Blairites.
Personally if there was a purge they are the ones I would boot out but then there is a question over Keir so make an exception?
The party has never been an homogeneous unity but it is capable of working together and the art of leadership will be to get all the PLP to get off their arses and work for the party not themselves. Then all things may be possible.
The party has never been an homogeneous unity
It shouldn't be. There should be as many checks and balances within the party as without to stop any madness from going too far, particularly with a weak opposition.
Otherwise you end up with the Thatcher cabinet re imagined for the new century. It won't be any more palatable now.
They had a policy that should have strongly appealed to literally half the voters.
They had a policy?
It looked like a multiple choice question with a number of boxes you could tick depending on your interpretation
To their credit, Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy were both advocates of getting off the fence that Grandad had been increasingly inefectually sat on for 2 years and actually taking a stance one way or the other. One advocated leave, one remain. But at least they had positions.
The art of leadership is to manage these conflicting positions and make a decision. Both Starmer and Nandy were crystal clear as what they would have done if they were running the show. Either would have lost some voters, maybe even some MP's while gaining others. Who knows how it would have worked out? But either of them would have had the balls to call it!
Corbyn refused to make it because he was incpable of doing so due to being too weak and dithering, so ended up with a laughably farcical 'honest broker' position which appealed to absolutely nobody while ruthlessly exposing what a weak ditherer he was.
I'm optimistic that Starmer will display that type of leadership where theres been a yawning vacuum at the top of the party from a man completely devoid of the skills needed for the job and surrounded a cabal of idealogical incompetents. And I hope Nandy ends up in a senior position too as she's clearly incredibly capable.
My principal objection to Starmer is that he is as dull as ditchwater. I think he would be an effective leader in the managerial sense, but in terms of getting people enthused to vote for him, I'm not so sure. He will also need to develop an offer that appeals to the lost voters across the north, without which Labour has only permanent opposition.
Its difficult to see any form of electable party emerging from the smouldering wreckage of Corbynism. So complete has its job been of repelling voters, right the way across the board.
Whoever ends up leader they're going to have one hell of a job on their hands. We've had a (totally inexplicable, to me) messianic cult of (non-)personality at the top of the party and just look at the state of it! Look at what it delivered? A complete electoral implosion even through its previous 'heartlands'
A stage of manegerial competence, devoid of personality politics is exactly whats required after the idealogical suicide mission of the last 4 years. Call it dull as dishwater if you like. We've had the alternative. It was an absolute disater!
If the events of the last few months have shown anything, its that voters want somebody who looks like they know what they're doing. An actual leader.
Boris is failing miserably on this score, predictably enough, but instead of Labour being able to look strong in opposition, that doddering old imbecile has still been limping on, being as totally ineffectual as he's always been and looking as shifty and untrustworthy as ever.
This charade should have been done and dusted months ago.
A stage of manegerial competence, devoid of personality politics is exactly whats required after the idealogical suicide mission of the last 4 years. Call it dull as dishwater if you like. We’ve had the alternative. It was an absolute disater!
Well no, not really. Unless Starmer is able to broaden his appeal then Labour will be no further forward. And it's a complete failure of your imagination to suppose that the only two options are "dull but competent and successful" vs "cult of personality and failure". For one thing, your hero Blair owed much of his electoral success to personality politics.
For one thing, your hero Blair owed much of his electoral success to personality politics.
Another fallacy the left likes to pedal in its re-writing of history, as its so uncomfortable with the truth
Blairs principle quality when he was elected was an image of trustworthy, pragmatic competence which appealed to large swathes of the electorate of differing political persuassions. The messiah complex came further down the line after years in power and successive comfortable election victories
Another fallacy the left likes to pedal in its re-writing of history, as its so uncomfortable with the truth
Blairs principle quality when he was elected was a pragmatic sense of competence which appealed to large swathes of the electorate of differing political persuassions. The messiah complex came further down the line after years in power and successive comfortable election victories
I suspect you've convinced yourself that Blair was elected on the basis of competence. This is arrant nonsense: the PR machine was in full swing from the very beginning, with Blair closely aligning himself with cool Britannia and all that bollocks. This isn't a criticism of him - as I say, you can't win without kerbside appeal, and Blair was very good at it. I'm not convinced that the same is true of Starmer - I hope I'm wrong.
Lets hope so.
We're now in an new era where the true colours of the noisy Boris/Trump populists is being ruthlessly exposed (seen anything of the man-frog recently?). Dull as dishwater/quiet, drama-free competence* is going to look increasingly appealling in this new world
* delete as to your political persuassion
There is one heck of a lot of rewriting of history going on here on this thread. One issue that has not been raised is all the entryists on the right who arrived under Blair - those without a socialist bone in their body who saw labour as a path to power an riches and its mainly these folk who wrecked Corbyns leadership by creating myths about him and feeding them to the right wing press - they are responsible for having a tory government!
I thin k very strongly that Starmer assuming he wins does need a damn good clear out of idiots - but the are not exclusively on the left. Get as far away from the front bench anyone who supported brexit. Utter fools and they hamstrung any chance of sensible policy on brexit. Get rid of all the peoples liberation front of Judea types, get rid of all those who used the labour party to enrich themselves.
There is also some absurd rewriting of history of the lib dems.
I am only dipping in and out of this thread so do not expect replies from me.
its mainly these folk who wrecked Corbyns leadership by creating myths about him and feeding them to the right wing press
Can you actually give us examples of this happening?
I see this accusation constantly thrown, but I have never once heard any specifics examples. Just vague lefty fluff
It just seems to be yet another example of the paranoid, bunker mentality of the tinfoil-hat conspiracy-theorists (the Jews are running the world/America is the root of all global problems) that is so representative of those around grandad.
Seems to me that its always been a handy scapegoat/excuse for the abject failure of the Corbyn project. Nothing could possibly be their fault, after all?
You’ve only got to see Boris Johnson’s popularity going up in the last few weeks
We are in the middle of a crisis, what you are seeing with Boris and other leaders around the World who are equally incompetent, is the masses hoping, clinging on to someone, anyone who is going to tell them its going to be ok, even if they know they are being lied to, which has become the norm recently.
Churchill was obviously popular during WW2, but once the end was in sight, the population started looking beyond it, who stood for what in this World after War, and thus he was voted out at the next election. The current Pm's popularity will plummet as well, particularly when a retrospective look is taken over his governments handling of this crisis.
After this is over, there will be people looking at how years of austerity have hollowed out the state, the lack of resilience in everything, how money was suddenly available to save the economy(and ultimately the ideological pursuits of neo-liberalism, socialise the losses and all that) and how quick certain people and organisations were quick to sack people, this is where Labour should now be aiming.
I'm sure some will now say that's what the party was doing under Corbyn, they probably were, but they had the wrong package, as mentioned above about personality, its needed.
To win against the right wing press etc, you need a leader, a party that is a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Absolutely spot-on that el-bent
Labour should already be setting out a bold vision for post-virus, post-austerity Britain. If anything positive is to come of this, it should be the chance to dispense with the neo-liberal consensus and build a fairer society.
Surely this is labours moment? You'd think.
Unfortunately they still have that useless lame duck and his cabal clinging on, who were never remotely capable of articulating a vision of anything.
He should be long gone! They all should! And once he's gone, he should STFU and accept he is, and always was, a hinderence to the party.
He won't, of course. He's already made it clear he intends to carry on with his valuable services to the Tory party
It just seems to be yet another example of the paranoid, bunker mentality of the tinfoil-hat conspiracy-theorists
FFS man give it a rest. I confidently predict in 6 months time when Starmer has proven his doubters correct by being the cautious technocrat that he is you'll still be banging on about bunkers and 6th formers. Or more likely you'll be having a go at him because he's part of the liberal metropolitan elite and out of touch with the decent hardworking pigeon fancying pie and chips brigade. One thing I know you won't be doing is giving Starmer any credit for whatever he does or says because the only thing you do on here is have a go at the labour party whoever it's led by.
In any case we don't need labour right now because we're already governed by Red Boris and his merry band of reluctant communists.
U OK HUN X
😀
Interesting times for Labour, no doubt. To be honest, they should have sorted this leadership farce 2 months ago, but at least we're nearing the end of it right now.
BoJo will see a drop in popularity. Although the 'leader in wartime' effect is helping him right now, the lockdown will have to go on longer than people expect and, on current tracking, may well have to be reimposed subsequently. There are already questions being asked about his government's competence to handle this, roll out testing etc; come the start of May when people are still locked inside, opinion will have turned.
And Labour need to be ready to be an actual opposition at that point - coherent, cogent and relevant in the real world.
Labour should already be setting out a bold vision for post-virus, post-austerity Britain.
Yeah, this? Ain't gonna happen until 2021 at least. Without testing on a scale that the British government simply hasn't shown itself capable of, 'post-virus' isn't until mid next year. And the economy will take even longer to bounce back - ironically, austerity will be the name of the game from 2022 onwards, as governments around the world seek to bring down their debt.
U OK HUN X
Of course! It's a massively welcome distraction from coronavirus horrors 🙂
In all seriousness though, I don't really know what the labour party should be doing right now. They've done exactly the right thing with their response to the virus and their constructively critical support of the govt. Beyond that who knows? My main question of Starmer is whether he has the political skill and courage to nail the tories to the wall over their incompetent, negligent and cavalier response to the pandemic. I have my doubts but we'll see.
God only knows what will emerge from all this
Possibly not my liver, at this rate. Hope you're all ok over t'other side of the hills Daz.
You'd hope that the labour party will have spent this crazy 3 month limbo (WTF was this timescale necccessary?!) to hit the ground running as a proper opposition again. The country has never needed it more. Now isn't the time for confrontational politics, but when this is over there are going to be some very serious questions asked about how the government conducted themselves. And right now Boris Johnson doesn't look like he'll have satisfactory answers.
Binners - you only had to read the papers to see supposed labour bigwigs briefing against Corbyn
Seems to me that its always been a handy scapegoat/excuse for the abject failure of the Corbyn project. Nothing could possibly be their fault, after all?
Equally, it seems to me that Corbyn's critics have yet to learn the lessons of why he won two leadership elections. Top tip: it wasn't about him.
Any cursory study of the results show that his support ran far deeper and wider than Momentum, yet we're told that the route to success is a return to centrism that was decisively rejected by the overwhelming majority of voters at the last two general elections.
U OK HUN X
😀
This reads as sexism, on top of the ageism above. Can you not make your point without resorting to these types of remark?
Any cursory study of the results show that his support ran far deeper and wider than Momentum
Who is the most popular leader of the Tory party with its current membership, after Thatcher? Ian Duncan Smith.