I think we’re seeing the shine taken off Johnson, rather than people taking to Starmer.

I did say a few months back on this thread I think that Labour will only win when people are completely fed up with Tory bullshit and it is for the Tories to lose rather than Labour to win. It takes a long time (almost 20 years last time) but it is starting to happen.
Nowhere near enough yet but by the next election even more people may have woken up a bit more to Brexit mess, Tory lies and corruption, not actually helping them as they hoped etc,. and want rid of them.

It all seems to be focused on Boris (of the cabinet members anyway). I think they might be gearing up to ditch him.

Truss’ twitter feed is an endless stream of staged photo ops, which are obviously directed at the membership, she’s ready

Truss’ twitter feed is an endless stream of staged photo ops

We can only hope. Liz Truss as PM would be the most hilarious and amazing thing. It won’t happen though.

I think they might be gearing up to ditch him.

Thats one thing that the Tories do with the same ruthless lack of sentimentality that they apply to everything. once Johnson starts to look like an electoral liability, he’ll be gone. Its not as if he inspires any loyalty from anyone, being completely devoid of that particular sentiment himself.

The usual caveat applies though: be careful what you wish for. liz Truss would be absolutely nailed on to succeed him as the membership (who’ll be doing the voting) absolutely love her.

Imagine her stupid gurning mug stood at the door to number ten. We think we’re an international laughing stock now? (we are) Imagine what a Liz Truss premiership would look like. You can literally hear the cogs whirring when she’s asked a question as the stuff slowly happens in the vacant space between her ears

😃

Liz Truss!

Don’t know why the Liz truss thread has been closed. I can’t think of a better candidate for their own thread. She’s a comedy genius.

Well that ^^ clip shows how polite and compassionate a Tory audience is.
After her first gag falls completely flat the party faithful quickly clock on that they should be amused and applauding.

After a shaky start it ends with rousing approval from the audience as she declares what a disgrace it is that nine tenths of our pears are imported.

Had that been a Labour Party audience they probably would have heckled her, shouted out “what a load of rubbish”, and told her to get off.

And they probably wouldn’t have understood proper British measurements like nine tenths…with their foreign decimal points and percentages.

Looks like Starmer is now writing government policy.

Johnson has just nicked all his proposals, wholesale, on paid work for MPs while he was still announcing them

It’s going to be interesting to see how this goes down with the snouts-in-the-trough brigade on his own benches

Looks like Starmer is now writing government policy

Not Starmer. 2019 manifesto.

He’d probably have dropped that too if he’d had half a chance.

The good ideas came in 2017 and 2019. Starmer doesn’t have any of his own.

Johnson is focusing on “hours” rather than money. As you would expect from someone who approves of doing as little work as possible for as much money as possible. So, politicians could still be bought/influenced by outside interests, just not record too many hours for them.

Labour’s proposals are quite different. And if they are pretty consistent with those from before Starmer’s shift to being leader, I don’t see anything wrong with that.

Labour’s proposals are quite different. And if they are pretty consistent with those from before Starmer’s shift to being leader, I don’t see anything wrong with that.

Other than the idea was born in the 2019 manifesto. Implementation is another thing.

Starmer himself recently referred to “our 2019 manifesto” about second jobs.

It ain’t that hard to come up with something that’s already in your previous manifesto and you’re in opposition.

So no credit for Starmer as was suggested.

So, when he’s pushing long standing polices he gets no credit? But if he distances the party from them he gets derided? Well, looks like he can’t win in more ways than one then.

Johnson is focusing on “hours” rather than money. As you would expect from someone who approves of doing as little work as possible for as much money as possible. So, politicians could still be bought/influenced by outside interests, just not record too many hours for them.

A key point and would make it even more obvious, i.e. an MP getting paid £100,000 for 4 hours work a year. I wonder why anyone would pay that much for 4 hours work…

Not Starmer. 2019 manifesto.

He’d probably have dropped that too if he’d had half a chance.

The good ideas came in 2017 and 2019. Starmer doesn’t have any of his own.

So it would be better if he didn’t try to implement this?

Did Johnson just accuse Starmer of corruption in PMQs, then not withdraw it? Pretty noisy, so I might just have missed it – any penalty if he didn’t withdraw it?

No, he (claims he) said “mish-conduct”. The man’s a joke.

No, he (claims he) said “mish-conduct”.

Yes it was a hilarious joke based on Starmer having done some work for Mischon de Reya law firm.
Top bants there from the combover.

No, he (claims he) said “mish-conduct”. The man’s a joke.

Ah – very droll. He sounded poorly – hope he gets worse soon.

Just seen the highlights from PMQs, someone put an extra shot of expresso in shot of expresso in starmers coffee today

Johnson is failing to get a grip on the sleaze thing and Starmer seems much more comfortable on this than anything else

Both Starmer and Hoyle giving johnson a kicking.
Made my day.

You know how Starmer made a point about the Randox documents… in a “we’ll believe it when we see it” way…

Helpful update from @PA: "The Government sought to clarify that it has not lost the minutes of a meeting between Randox and a health minister, only that it cannot find them at the moment."

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) November 17, 2021

At this rate the Tories will ditch Johnson before the GE, whch actually kinda sucks for starmer because as an ex QC he seems most comfortable going after the sleaze angle- and you know that johnson is in up to his nuts in all kinds of corruption

Both Starmer and Hoyle giving johnson a kicking.
Made my day.

Caught a clip of Hoyle on the news headlines. Made me happy.

The sleeper has awakened

Coward. https://t.co/2nvjtTze7j

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) November 18, 2021

A key point and would make it even more obvious, i.e. an MP getting paid £100,000 for 4 hours work a year. I wonder why anyone would pay that much for 4 hours work…

Someone who’s far better with words has put it better than either you or I could…

I love the idea enshrined in the bill that the problem with MPs second jobs was how much time they took up, rather than how they corrupted the common wealth. Like sentencing burglars based not on how much harm they did but on how quick they were about it.

— Frank Cottrell-Boyce (@frankcottrell_b) November 18, 2021

Hoyle finally growing a pair with Johnson just furthers the idea the Tories are getting ready to ditch him, IMO.

Now Graham Brady has been dragged into 2nd jobs row, he might well be soliciting those letters

fwiw I dont think Johnson is done yet, the Daily Mail just fired Jordy Greig who was antibrexit and has been instrumental in attacking Johnson lately, Dacre is heading to OFCOM & his protege is being brought in to replace Greig

FFS! Is that it?!

Today I visited Bradford with @RachelReevesMP on the day Boris Johnson announced he's scrapping a crucial part of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail.

The Prime Minister has betrayed Yorkshire and the North. pic.twitter.com/BgLMf7c30S

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) November 18, 2021

Even I’m starting to miss Grandads shouty 10 second YouTube rants. At least he meant it.

There’s a general feeling in the north about this total betrayal, which registers on the scale as ‘apoplectic’ with many people, that we’re having the piss taken out of us and this is the best he can muster

And this is in the constituencies he needs to win back

Absolutely ****ing clueless!

Will the last person out of the Labour Party office kindly turn off the lights. I think they’re done

Andy Burnham was quoted on R4 news about it, Starmer wasn’t even mentioned.

BBC News had Starmer saying levelling up was a Tory luevsnd you couldn’t believe a word they said.

For once I thought he was getting the message and tone right. Very dependent on how widely it gets reported, but more people probably saw it than read that thst lame Twitter post

Starmer was looking way more confident on the news earlier than he has in a while.

See his HR is at least at 95bpm here

"The north of England has been been betrayed"

Sir Keir Starmer says the PM made "very important promises" which have been "ripped up" by the updated rail pledges.

Latest: https://t.co/0bjvOz6HGr pic.twitter.com/4D9pcJxMJY

— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 18, 2021

Oh really? (jokes aside you would’ve at least expected a few weeks of the Tories on an immediate downtrend.)

Westminster Voting Intention:

CON: 36% (+1)
LAB: 34% (-1)
GRN: 10% (=)
LDM: 7% (-1)
REF: 5% (+1)
SNP: 4% (-1)

Via @YouGov, On 17-18 November,
Changes w/ 10-11 November.

— British Electoral Politics (@electpoliticsuk) November 19, 2021

Corruption doesn’t stick – maybe for a few days.

Absolutely ****ing clueless!

Will the last person out of the Labour Party office kindly turn off the lights. I think they’re done

And that’s why Labour polling is crap.

Starmer doesn’t do politics.

(He’d be okay helping you sort a spreadsheet for areas with limited cycle infrastructure.)

jokes aside you would’ve at least expected a few weeks of the Tories on an immediate downtrend.

Tbh I’m surprised it lasted that long. Once the Tories backtracked on Paterson I expected them to recover fairly quickly in the opinion polls.

One greedy individual who has been caught out is unlikely to damage a political party, whatever hue it might be, but the party throwing its weight behind him is likely to cause a public backlash.

Johnson has corrected his error over Paterson and whilst there might still be a few ripples to be felt I think it is unlikely to cause lasting damage.

After all the opposition hasn’t changed due to this debacle, and an effective opposition is the only sure way to defeat Johnson/the Tories. Relying on Johnson’s regular blunders to defeat the Tories is a particularly poor strategy.

Johnson has been performing blunders throughout his political life. It didn’t stop him from becoming leader of the Tory Party, becoming Prime Minister, and easily winning a general election.

Same polling data saw Starmers approval above Johnsons for first time in a long time

Do you have a favourable or unfavourable opinion of the following?

(Favourable)
Sunak (CON): 41% (=)
Starmer (LAB): 31% (+3)
Johnson (CON): 30% (-1)
Patel (CON): 17% (-3)
Truss (CON): 14% (-1)

via @YouGov, 10-11 Nov

(Changes with 21 Oct)

— Opros Politics (@OprosUK) November 18, 2021

its bascically saying theyre level given margin of error

now obviously that isnt good enough midterm and while its an improvement on 2019 it likely means a Tory government for the forseeable

Whilst personal approval polls are great fun the only question that actually matters is, “how would you vote if there was a general election tomorrow?”.

Btw Priti Patel in fourth place is scary.

And Liz Truss in fifth just funny.

Sunak in first place is scary; balance the books = more austerity.
His personal circumstances mean he’s totally insulated from the effects of any policies which are implemented on his watch.
He’s equally as corrupt as any other tory – just in a different way.

Johnson has been performing blunders throughout his political life. It didn’t stop him from becoming leader of the Tory Party, becoming Prime Minister, and easily winning a general election.

All of your text rings true Ernie.

But I’m still expecting a bit of fatigue to gnaw away at their polling eventually. If not now – when?

Sunak in first place is scary; balance the books = more austerity.

Yup.

Although to be fair all Tory politicians are generally well insulated from the effect of their economic policies. Which is of course why they fear a left-wing Labour government so much.