Sir! Keir! Starmer!

actually being sharp enough to think on his feet in response to Raabs half-arsed answers

9/10

A strong first appearance.

[as an aside – found myself cheering at Ian Blackford’s questions]

Even I could kick a ball into an open goal 9 times out of 10 so lets not get carried away.

Well, perhaps even you would be better at PMQs than the previous leader then.

The main problem with his predecessor was that when presented with an open goal, which he regularly was, you knew that 9 times out of 10 the ball would end up in Row Z

Nice to see someone capable of doing more than just reading what’s been written on the piece of paper in front of him. Corbyn even struggled with that.

All a bit of a phoney war at the moment though, isn’t it? PMQs in that format was a bit odd, we’re in the middle of a national emergency which requires treading carefully and its Patrick Bateman standing in for Joris.

Who cares about the previous leader? I’m more interested in this one, and so far I’ve seen little actual opposition. Lets hope today is a turning point. Even Alastair Campbell agrees.

I’m more interested in this one, and so far I’ve seen little actual opposition.

Well, there’s been none whatsoever for the last four years so think of it as a period of adjustment.

I thought he did well in highlighting the yawning chasm between what the government promised (100,000 tests a day) and what’s being delivered (18,000 tests a day). Raab looked, as he has done at the press conferences, like a rabbit in the headlights and certainly didn’t have satisfactory answers to any questions

Raab claiming that it was ‘lack of demand’ for tests that was limiting how many were being performed was another low point for him. He can’t slide that kind of nonsense past Starmer.

The truth? Sweet baby Jesus and the orphans? Because JHB says it, it can’t possibly be true? Grow up!

Oh do leave off. You’d be jumping all over her if she’d said something in defence of Corbyn. The idea of admitting that the facts don’t entirely support your opinions is obviously too much to bear.

Anyway, Starmer. I thought he did ok but no more than that. I actually agree with Campbell of all people.

You’d be jumping all over her if she’d said something in defence of Corbyn.

Pfft! Get real! The chances of that happening are about the same as finding a load of the Beardy Messiahs fan club now quoting Alastair Campbell

Oh….erm…..

😀

Pfft! Get real! The chances of that happening are about the same as finding a load of the Beardy Messiahs fan club now quoting Alastair Campbell

Oh, I agree absolutely: JHB is as myopic as you.

p.s. if you really think that I’m in the Corbyn fan club, I think that says more about the relative position of the observer 😉

Just this.

PMQs is like watching a City solicitor trying to wing it against an experienced QC

Which is, in fact, what it actually is

— David Allen Green (@davidallengreen) April 22, 2020

I think Bojo’s team will be dreading him coming back for pmqs. His shtick is not suited to this crisis.

Raab was nervous, Starmer seemed comfortable.

“I put the minister on notice that I will ask the same question next week”

Was a boss move! Run along Raab and do as your told 😉

I think Bojo’s team will be dreading him coming back for pmqs.

If he comes back. He’s got a cast-iron excuse to absolve himself of this nightmare. By all accounts manoevres are already underway to put Gove in his place.

‘Manor House’ is not a proper noun but ‘Labour Party’ is. Just sayin

Johnson has always been a poor performer in the commons (Life?)

Looking forward to seeing him opposite Starmer tbh. Think there’ll be a gulf in class.

I don’t doubt there will be a huge gulf in class, and I have everything crossed that KS can make the difference I’d like to see, exposing the Conservative party for what they’ve become.

I suspect that the former Director of Public Prosecutions is quite relishing, once this is all over, conducting what will essentially be a public inquiry with Boris in the dock

One can but hope, binners !

He was knighted because he’s a man of the establishment with the added bonus that he’s an arriviste, which appears to make the class system look like a meriticracy. I don’t think Trevor Chinn gave him £50k without expecting a return on his investment. So far he’s rejected UBI, supported the tories on Universal Credit and seems oddly reluctant to spend too much time revisiting the anti-Corbyn AS campaign. He’s more electable because in no way is he a threat and blimey, Jess Phillips on the front bench?
Osborne is already talking about a new era of austerity for the employees to pay for this crisis and I doubt whether neo-liberal Labour will have many or any arguments against it.

Jenny Formby stands down; saves Starmer from booting her out.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52528829

Jumped before she was pushed. Hopefully the rest of the lefty PFJ rabble will be right behind her.

It’s been hilarious watching the faux outrage of the Corbynites since the world gave a collective shrug regarding everybody being horrid to poor Jeremy.

Starmer, along with everybody else, bar a small bunch of six formers (I’m sure they’ll be along shortly) really couldn’t give a flying ****, and would just clearly like to get on with returning the Labour Party to being an actual opposition

And let’s face it, the Corbynites are happy as Larry really because they get to feel a burning sense of injustice, no matter how manufactured, to be all indignant about in their Twitter echo chambers.

It’s all just, like… SOOOOOO NOT FAIR!

Still waiting for Career Starmer to pull in those Polls. Yikes!

As for PMQs – yeah the James O’ Brien club are all over him with his ‘scrutiny and clinical analysis’ – yet all the passion of a Scrabble board. Even George Osborne is in love.

When you’re opponent loves you then you are not really an opponent

Westminster voting intention:

CON: 51% (+1)
LAB: 33% (-)
LDEM: 6% (-1)
GRN: 3% (-)

via @OpiniumResearch, 29 Apr – 01 May
Chgs. w/ 23 Apr

— Britain Elects (@britainelects) May 3, 2020

When’s the bounce coming Binners? And what is your exist strategy?

The bounce isn’t coming, for obvious reasons. Blindingly obvious reasons. And I don’t mean Starmer’s lack of charisma for voters (which I still think will be a major problem long term), I mean the current health emergency. Have you heard of that? And I’m not making excuses for “my man”… I still consider Starmer someone who would make a great PM if he got the chance but does not have what it takes to ever win a general election… but I honestly don’t think anyone should expect a new leader of the opposition to get a bounce in these conditions.

When’s the next election? 4 and a half years away, isn’t it?

Politics isn’t happening at the moment. It’s on hold. For glaringly obvious reasons. But once we’re out the other side of this it’ll be back with a vengeance as the post-mortem begins, literally and metaphorically

I would expect that that’s when Starmers extensive legal experience comes into its own. Boris will know that too. He’s not going to be able to bluster his way past that, or swat him aside like he did with Jeremy ‘I’ll stand here and read the questions someone’s written for me’ Corbyn.

The days of zero effective scrutiny from the ‘opposition’ are over. But there’s a time for that scrutiny and it isn’t now.

When you’re opponent loves you then you are not really an opponent

Your beardy allotment-dwelling hero had no greater fans that the Tory party. Their ever-giving ‘get out of jail free’
Card

It’s been hilarious watching the faux outrage of the Corbynites since the world gave a collective shrug regarding everybody being horrid to poor Jeremy.

The ends justify the means. You don’t really have anything else, do you?

Anything else?

Any word on how much paying off this cabal of Marxist Millionaires to **** off has cost union subs payers and party members?

What, with those gold-plated new contracts they wrote themselves a week before they delivered the worst labour defeat since the 1930’s?

Socialism in action eh, comrade?

Socialism in action eh, comrade?

You seem to have a specific view on what socialism should be. Things you agree with, mostly.

Socialism or not, those juicy new contracts were indefensible. Using their grip on the party to extract money from it.

100%

If you’ve been taken in by these shysters, which you clearly have, then you may want to analyse your critical faculties

Their last act, once they knew what was coming, because they delivered it, was to handsomely line their own pockets for their abject failure. With the money coming from Labour Party members and union members subs. Despite the fact that they were all millionaires anyway – including the beardy messiah.

A week later they were, without a shred of shame, handing out redundancy notices to Labour Party staff while they counted their cash.

All a bit Degsy Hatton and Militant, isn’t it? They’ve not changed. They’re all the ****ing same! Leeches! At least the Tory’s are open about the fact they’re about to bend you over and go in dry.

Socialism?

Yeah, right. Do me a favour…. **** off!

I can’t see Starmer being guilty of that kind of grifting. After all, he comes from a real working class background, rather than Corbyn who’s manufactured his own virtue-signalling, ‘working class’ myth that he’s successfully sold to the terminally gullible and hard of thinking.

After all: when you’ve got 6 zero’s on the end of your bank balance, despite delivering nothing only failure, it doesn’t really matter who’s in power, does it? You’ll always be just fine

****s!

Starmer seems genuine, skilled and an improvement.
But something’s missing when Tories would rather face him than Piers Morgan, Leader of the Opposition.
We’ll have to see how he steps up while Piers is off recovering.

Breaking: '@uklabour under new management' (cont) I am told shadow chief sec. to the Treasury @bphillipsonMP has written to colleagues telling them not to make uncosted – or indeed costly -spending pledges and policy ideas will have to go through her and @Keir_Starmer's office

— iain watson (@iainjwatson) May 5, 2020

Not sure it’s a change, but it’s certainly an electable look.

When’s the bounce coming? Before the next election.

CV will be forgotten, but the mountain of debt will not be forgotten. Or maybe it will be the other way round, people will think not enough was borrowed to deal with CV. Either way the Govt take the blame.

Now is a bad time to be in opposition, the run up to the next election will be a superb time to be in opposition. It’s an impossible balance so the government *will* get it wrong, we just don’t know which way they’ll get it wrong.

What the hell is going on? A politician who can speak sense? Give a straight answer to questions? I’m confused.

Remember a little while back when the anti-Corbynites were wailing about them trying to get rid of Tom Watson?

Fair play. Great leadership. https://t.co/4zJgrSeF4j

— Tom Watson (@tom_watson) May 1, 2020

And meanwhile we’re back to the labour party being out-flanked on the left by the Lib Dems…

Short version:

➡️Listen to people
➡️Introduce UBI
➡️Give key workers a decent wage and benefits
➡️Invest in public services, end the postcode lottery
➡️Wellbeing indicators as well as economic
➡️Work across party lines

The time for change is now. https://t.co/xfNdWeX52h

— Layla Moran ??️ (@LaylaMoran) May 5, 2020

Tom Watson is retired, isn’t he?

Anyway… the issue with the cabal’s attempt to get rid of Tom Watson was the manner in which they did it. Or didn’t do it, more to the point.

Jennie Formby conducted it, so it was done with the typical Corbynite manner of comical incompetence. They did it on the eve of the party conference which meant that they effectively wrote the Daily Mails headlines for them for the next week and totally eclipsed anything that any labour MP’s then had to say regarding policy. And as the plot all went predictably tits up, due to the Larel and Hardy manner in which it was carried out, they denied Corbyns office knew anythign about it, which was clearly absolutely laughable but typically cowardly.

In short, they presented the Tory press with an open goal, while achieving nothing at all except once again shooting themselves in the foot by highlighting their own biblical ineptitude

*slow handclap*

He is, thank god. The point obviously was that the people who wanted to get rid of him (the 6th formers) were absolutely right. Anyway, I see Keir has set out his 7 point plan. I’ve already forgotten what it is, and while he plays at credible, realistic ‘opposition’, the lib dems are positioning themselves to take back the votes of all those young idealistic people who the labour party need. I have a pretty open mind on Keir, I did vote for him after all, but so far it looks very much like Blairism 2.0. At least the lib dems will be happy.

It looks nothing like “Blarism 2.0”… it doesn’t look like anything much yet at all… you just have a narrative you want to shoehorn in no matter what the party does over the next few years, and you are far from alone in that.

How can you possibly pass judgment when the country is in complete lockdown and politics has effectively ceased to function?

Sounds like you’ve already reached the conclusions you wanted to reach

you just have a narrative you want to shoehorn in no matter what the party does over the next few years

Not at all, quite the opposite in fact. I’m desperately looking for signs that he’ll stick to his promises in the leadership election to not switch back to the tory-lite policies of new labour. It’s early days, but it seems quite clear where this ‘don’t rock the boat’ approach leads. There’s a reason the tory press haven’t felt the need to smear him as they did with Corbyn.