Sir! Keir! Starmer!

the lib dems are positioning themselves to take back the votes of all those young idealistic people who the labour party need.

So, the people who failed to get Grandad elected twice (by largely not bothering to actually go out and vote), including delivering the worst electoral drubbing in the parties history are now going to sweep the Lib Dems, a party that presently has 11 MPs, to victory at the next general election?

Erm… ok….

It’s early days, but it seems quite clear where this ‘don’t rock the boat’ approach leads.

3 consecutive Labour election victories?

Fair play. Great leadership.

That’s the nice thing about ex-politicians. They can finally be honest and tell it straight.

They might not call it right, but at least you know they have no reason to lie.

Hence ex-politicians make good political pundits.

It’s early days, but it seems quite clear where this ‘don’t rock the boat’ approach leads.

3 consecutive Labour election victories?

😀

are now going to sweep the Lib Dems, a party that presently has 11 MPs, to victory at the next general election?

Don’t be daft I never said that. It will however put enough of a dent in the labour vote to make it much more difficult for them to win back the seats they lost. The other significant impact is that those young members who put so much time into campaigning and supporting constituency offices will leave, especially if Keir fails to boot out the blairites who actively obstructed the party’s campaign in 2017.

3 consecutive Labour election victories?

Or more likely a repeat of 2010 and 2015.

It will however put enough of a dent in the labour vote to make it much more difficult for them to win back the seats they lost.

So all the age-group who don’t bother voting are going to lose the next election for the labour party by not bothering to vote Lib Dem, as opposed to their previous position of not bothering to vote labour?

Ok… I think I get it now.

The other significant impact is that those young members who put so much time into campaigning and supporting constituency offices will leave

That’s a shame. They clearly did such a great job last time out that their skill set will be sorely missed

All the lib dems have ever done is put the tories in power. either directly or indirectly.

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

I don’t believe that I offered any comment on them. Perhaps you could break with tradition, and read something properly before putting finger to keyboard.

No, the issue is that your politics is no more sophisticated than “Jeremy = bad; people who oppose Jeremy = good”.

I’m just glad that under SirKeir, all the problem antisemitism plaguing the Labour party has disappeared, and nobody has had to resign at politically embarasing moments over it!

all the problem antisemitism plaguing the Labour party has disappeared

Wonder why that is? 🙂

No, the issue is that your politics is no more sophisticated than “Jeremy = bad; people who oppose Jeremy = good”.

I’m not the sharpest tool in the box, but I can recognise a cabal of unelectable charlatans when I see one. Its not difficult.

The point is that I really, really want to see the Tory’s booted out of power, and it was glaringly obvious to anyone with even a modicum of political nouse that that would never, ever happen with Magic Grandad at the helm, despite Theresa Mays very best efforts.

I have no idea whether Keir Starmer is the one who can deliver a Labour victory, before Boris and chums get to completely destroy the country – I certainly hope so – but I knew with absolute certainty, as did the vast majority of all but the hopelessly naive, that Jeremy Corbyn and the gang of chancers that surrounded him would never form a government.

So in that respect, ANYTHING is an improvement on the depressing endless Tory hegemony that Karl Marx’s Garden Gnome delivered. 3-4 years too late, but better late than never

I’m not the sharpest tool in the box, but I can recognise a gang of unelectable charlatans when I see one.

That’s pretty much what I was saying: that you object to people because of how you perceive them, rather than judging them by what they say and do. So when it became apparent that people within the party were prepared to deliberately damage its prospects in their efforts to remove Corbyn, that was ok because you don’t like Corbyn. I think that some things are never ok.

that you object to people because of how you perceive them, rather than judging them by what they say and do

A) Eh? What on earth are you on about. The two things are the same. You perceive people and make a subsequent judgement on them exactly because of what they say and do. I do and so does everyone else on the planet. You’d be mental not too!

B) When the overwhelming majority of the electorate share my extremely low opinion of him – let’s not forget he scored the lowest approval rating of any party leader in British political history – then it’s a moot point. He’s never going to be elected, so he is therefore pointless and his ‘leadership’ would inevitably deliver nothing other than permanent Tory rule

I think that some things are never ok.

Aaawwwww…. bless.

A) Eh? What on earth are you on about. The two things are the same. You perceive people and make a subsequent judgement on them exactly because of what they say and do. I do and so does everyone else on the planet. You’d be mental not too!

No, I don’t think you do. I think you take an instant dislike to someone and then ignore anything that may contradict your view. It’s classic cognitive dissonance.

He’s never going to be elected, so he is therefore pointless and his ‘leadership’ would inevitably deliver nothing other than permanent Tory rule

We get that you don’t like the Tories but it’s not clear why. It seems as tribal as your hatred of Corbyn.

Aaawwwww…. bless.

Yeah, knowing right from wrong is so old fashioned.

Don’t know why you bother binners.

I happen to agree with an awful lot of “corbynite” policies, but the man was an awful leader, if you can call him that, carrying far too much baggage which made him too easy a target, and the kind of divisive attitude in his followers, particularly towards other members of the labour movement, that you can only be truly “left wing” if it was the corbynite left wing, All other flavours were traitors to the cause, the kind of cronies he surrounded himself with, Milne etc, and finally for me being a brexiter. Unforgivable as far as I’m concerned.

I’m just glad that under SirKeir, all the problem antisemitism plaguing the Labour party has disappeared

Not so. I’m sure Keir will stamp it out quickly (real or imagined) but it’s still rumbling on – there was a story a few days ago about Dianne Abott [1]. I suspect the media have other things to talk about at the moment.

[1] https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/diane-abbott-s-platform-sharing-paradox

outofbreath
Member

there was a story a few days ago about Dianne Abott

There was, and it was ridiculous.

There was, and it was ridiculous.

I’m not saying it wasn’t ridiculous, merely that it hasn’t gone away.

Surprising then that Starmer is so keen to suppress the findings of the report on AS.

I’m not following as closely as I’d like – is he suppressing it?
That’s disappointing.

No comment on PMQ’s?

Starmer forensically took bumbling boris apart, which admittedly is not a hard task as anyone with basic competence could do that. Obviously boris didn’t have his crowd to play to sat behind him.

A couple of things about Starmer, is he charismatic enough to be leader, some would say this is not a necessary quality, but they’d be wrong, hopefully he’ll grow into it.

Also the ‘sir’ bit, some saying “they won’t vote for a sir”, some are corbynites, but others ironically voted tory.

I wonder how much life span Boris has as PM. While he was “good enough” to win an election, his competence during this crisis has put the tory party’s backers plans in jeopardy. I would imagine that someone like Gove will be manoeuvred into position to see out the term of this Government.

Starmer forensically took bumbling boris apart,

It was like a 5 year old pulling the wings and legs off a fly.

Can’t wait for Boris to get more of it.

Boris needs all his props for the act to work. The smartarse blustering you can get away with a hoard of braying ruddy-faced backbencher begins you, but not in this environment

It’s like a courtroom. Which suits Starmer perfectly. Boris best get used to it. There are going to be a lot of courtrooms and committee rooms in the near future. It ruthlessly exposes him for the bumbling chancer that he is, while Starmer will feel perfectly at home, like he did today.

It’s a mystery to me why people here are so invested in relative performances at PMQs. Is there any evidence at all to suggest that it is related to subsequent election victories?

Casting my mind back, William Hague was an excellent public speaker who frequently wiped the floor with Blair. Didn’t seem to do him much good.

I enjoyed that performance, what with Boris constantly fidgeting and looking over his shoulder for a support that was no longer there. The ‘Silence in Court’ suited Starmer well.

Not getting to excited though, he’s got to be able to sell it to the public, and as yet I’m not sure what message Labour are trying to sell. We’re going through the biggest existential threat of our lifetimes and until now Labour has remained silent……Not a peep.

Starmers questions were incisive when they should have been excoriating. Plays well to the Newsnight crowd but I can’t see it grabbing many headlines beyond that. Maybe he should have called Boris a murdering ****, that would have grabbed a few headlines, though Boris could have responded that Labour’s said shit all about it until now.

We’re going through the biggest existential threat of our lifetimes and until now Labour has remained silent……Not a peep.

It’s a tightrope. If they go aggressive against the Government, then that will be used against them. The Tories propaganda to hide how bad they are dong things, is working. Clap the NHS, Capt (Sir) Tom, are all being manipulated to generate the “Dunkirk Spirit”, so that any criticism of Boris and his team of **** will be deflected as political games when we should “all be pulling together”.

We’re going through the biggest existential threat of our lifetimes and until now Labour has remained silent……Not a peep

I don’t think anyone is expecting the usual party politics stuff at the moment.

I’m not sure what message Labour are trying to sell.

Simple, it’s ‘Don’t worry, you can trust us keep things pretty much the same, but we’ll all feel much better about it’. Given how great we’ve become at national virtue signalling by clapping and raising small amounts of money for the NHS, he may be on to something 🙂

I’m not sure what message Labour are trying to sell.

You’re not supposed to be. That narrative will be developed in the run up to the next election. Labour would be foolish in the extreme to nail their colours to the mast while the situation is still evolving.

Now they might call it wrong, with hindsight they will call it spot on and their message can be tailored to the public mood at the time.

Surprising then that Starmer is so keen to suppress the findings of the report on AS.

Not really.

It’s a badly done hatchet job that will see the Labour party taken to court. At least 30 Labour staffers have taken advice on some of the legal implications of Formby’s homework.

Good job they now have a lawyer in charge, they are going need some legal representation.

That ‘report’ that has the sixth form getting their petticoats well and truly ruffled (while eliciting a collective shrug from everybody else) is indeed a hatchet job.

A vindictive collection of gossip, hearsay and outright lies, which Starmer, quite sensibly (and unsurprisingly given his legal background) isn’t touching with a barge pole.

It’s Sadaam setting fire to the oil wells as he fled Kuwait.Or was meant to be. But carried out with the trademark Corbynite hapless incompetence, it is obviously nothing of the sort.

There are now so many legal cases being prepared for slander and libel that it’s reckoned it could bankrupt the party.

Personally I’d like to see the people who concocted the steaming pile of vindictive horse-shot held personally liable for it. And given that it has never actually been published by the Labour Party, merely leaked by the people who wrote it as an act of sabotage, I don’t see why that shouldn’t happen.

That’d certainly be a fitting end to their hopeless ‘careers’

There are now so many legal cases being prepared for slander and libel that it’s reckoned it could bankrupt the party.

Don’t forget the GDPR breach cases as well.

I was going to post a long slam about Starmer for being too supportive of the government in multiple areas that they have and are failing as regards the current health crisis… and for being dull even where he is asking pertinent questions… but then I went on twitter… and don’t want to be on the side of those flooding it with charges of defending and supporting pedophiles… sadly from people on the left as well as the normal far right knuckle draggers. Social media just gets more and more rank.

I may become a Starmer cheerleader, just because of who seems to want him to fail.

“It’s a mystery to me why people here are so invested in relative performances at PMQs. Is there any evidence at all to suggest that it is related to subsequent election victories?“

I think a strong PMQs performance is more important for that back benchers, rather than the population as a whole. If KS is putting it into BJ for month on end the 1922 committee will start to make noises.

I for one am very much looking forward to Johnson being shown for what he is – a clueless chancer.
Sadly, until the RW media turn on the government, it will all be for nothing, as this mornings headlines have shown – no reference of the UK now having the worst death rate in Europe

RW media turning on the government you say?

Print headline in the Telegraph print edition;

“Starmer: We owe it to VE Day generation to protect them from virus in care homes.”

TELEGRAPH: ⁦@Keir_Starmer⁩ : we owe it to VE Day generation to protect them from virus in care homes #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/59BgkJvG6X

— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) May 7, 2020

looks like the government has overplayed it’s hand with with regards floating things in the press.
The end of lockdown fiasco has left some editors looking like fools and they’re starting to bite back.

Yesterday’s headlines have got Dominic Cummings, our de facto prime ministers fingerprints all over them. Hasn’t everything nowadays?

No announcement, just a convenient leak. But you’re right… when not much changes on Sunday the press are going to be left looking like suckers. Hopefully this could mark the point where the governments easy ride ends and politics can resume. They’ve literally been getting away with murder.

Starmer still needs to be pretty cautious but the mood might change significantly on Sunday when it becomes obvious they’re being taken for fools.

Boris has gone AWOL again as he always does, leaving his human shields to dispense bad news. Surely even Matt Handjob is sick of being pushed in front of the cameras to be the fall guy by now?

What are the chances Boris will actually show up on Sunday?

He will turn up Sunday, but he is nicely trapped now, between the public who generally don’t want lockdown lifting much and his own mp’s who are starting to shout about getting Britain back to work
he is screwed either way, but sadly so could we be

he is screwed either way, but sadly so could we be

Remind me who Dumbojo’s successor will be…..

We are screwed  and then ****.

It’s an interesting one, which explains why he’s been invisible.

The MPs demanding a lifting of the lockdown are all the ERG Brexiteer headbangers who make up his core support and who have been calling the shots for the last 3 years.

He’s ‘their’ man. He’s always done their bidding

But this time what they want is the opposite of what the vast majority of the electorate want.

It’s going to be interesting to see what an opportunist coward like Johnson is going to do. He can’t bluster his way out of this. Carry on hiding, probably

Labour have no need to ‘sell’ anything to anyone at present.
It’s clear that Starmer has a very focussed approach at PMQs; the start of holding the gov to account – in the recent one, using johnson’s own words against him is very much what you expect of a QC.
At present they are doing the right thing by being generally supportive of the gov.
IMO Starmer’s questioning led directly to johnson, typically, wanting to say something positive so he rashly committed (hancock) to delivering 200k tests a day by end of month and promising a statement about a roadmap out of lockdown on Sunday.
Interesting that his recent discussion with the devolved leaders is the only such discussion since he returned to ‘work’.
Surely, he should be in daily contact.
Telegraph’s headline up there^^^ is telling – as is Piers Morgan’s continued criticism of johnson and gov generally.

I think we’re witnessing what inevitably happens when you allow a lunatic like Cummings to freelance government policy.

They’ve viewed this as a PR exercise from day one and now it’s all falling apart.

Starmer is doing the sensible thing and just giving them enough rope.

It’s just a shame thousands of people have to die to prove how unfit to govern this shower are, but they’re presently doing his job for him, so he’s happy to let them get on with it