To wonder what could Starmer do, to turn things around?

the pot holes have been fixed using money diverted from the cancelled HS2 so you've Rishi to thank for that!

The problem for Labour is that they have to fix problems which are essentially structural in nature and very difficult to fix- for example, aging population. It can't be fixed. People just don't want to have loads of kids anymore and it's not just financial or Sweden wouldn't have exactly the same issue. People live a lot longer but they're old for longer, not young for longer- they are dependent for far too much of their total lives. So there's now this period where we're all going to pretend that adult social care, pensions and the NHS for more and more old people can be funded from a dwindling pool of net contributors who will be getting more and more fucked off with their tax bills. At some point it will become untenable and something drastic and insanely unpopular will have to happen but until then the poisoned chalice will keep getting passed back and forth.

Labour need better PR, and to get at least one right-leaning tabloid on-side. And the BBC. They are doing good things, but it's getting drowned out by the constant negative press from rich Tory business owners who want their mates back in power.

I'm still very happy they're in power. I haven't agreed with all their decisions but it's obvious they're trying to do the least popular things first (like Tony Blair did) and hopefully things will improve. I have personally had a hospital appointment come through that I'd been waiting for for over a year, and the roads around where we live have been fixed - both likely due to extra funding since Labour came in.

I remain convinced Starmer is a good, serious and thoughtful PM who is doing his best, but needs some social media training and for Alastair Campbell or equivalent to step in and guide the media story.

He's doing a good job. Of you actually loon what he's achieved already rather than the rhetoric in the press. He needs a good PR man and balanced journalism

Definitely invest and legislate for the infrastructure.

The next big crisis will be a water one. Unless we invest heavily now then we will be in trouble later.

And crime. Even an illusion of a lawless state is highly demoralising.

Resign. 🤷‍♀️

I agree that the Conservatives lost as opposed to Labour winning. Not that it makes any difference. I look at it this way:

Starmer has found himself in a sinking boat. He can't see the size of the holes under the waterline accurately, and he has a bucket. He has changed the size and shape of the bucket and is bailing frantically. He does not yet know whether his reshaped and resized bucket is actually getting water out faster than it is coming in. He may need to reshape or resize the bucket again. Or both.

Using that analogy, the previous administration appeared to be using a thimble to bail without any recognition that water was still entering the boat, so the fact that Starmer has a) recognised this, and b) tried a different bucket is at least a step in the right direction.

It must be quite a challenge to be bailing frantically, while everyone on the Quay watching is just saying "you don't want to do it like that, you want to do it like this".

That said, I don't think that the increase in NI for employers is going to promote growth.

Hopefully the boat analogy doesn't start off any debate about small boat crossings.

I think it was very clear, right from the time the election was announced, that the only think Starmer’s Labour had got going for it is that it’s not the Tories

I’d been wondering what a successful Labour administration would look like at this point. And I think they should do less in most areas. And really work on the reform of social care (without which you will never be able to have real change in NHS)

Nothing.

The country is broke and public services are broken beyond repair. Way back in 2008 the capitalist economic model failed. It was artificially supported through zero interest rates and money printing. That could only last for so long.

We have reached a point now where the true cost of all goods and services far exceeds what Government or individuals can pay.

Because the system is now broken and there are no viable alternatives, we continue to limp on, delusional and distracted and hoping something else will come along to fix it all.

Likely not much, it’s harder to get people back after you’ve lost support

It is unusual to lose it so soon after a GE which does give them ages to go. We’ll see what other parties do, particularly Reform in that time

Votes they may get as already in the polls, the electoral system is the main help away from that rather than connection with voters

Best hope he has is not making things worse, if he does then @TheNoonBell might have it

He needs to do something to fix the new NI stuff for businesses. We need businesses to prosper - or the jobs market will contract. He should tax their profitability, not just slam them all so they stop hiring / make redundancies. So increase corporation tax.

i also think income tax should go up across the board but with the tax free threshold increasing. So up to £15k a year tax free and then 1% on all the tax bands. Or 2%. Whatever makes enough to mean he can change the employers’ NI.

The budget is the thing that has shown inexperience the most. That can be improved so I’m happy to wait to see if they learn from their mistakes. It’s a pity they’ve demonstrated their dislike of pensioners, farmers and business owners. But I suppose they think they never would have got their votes anyway so sling them under the bus. Bit class warfare-y.

I think they need to bring all the cannabis farms into the economy. It can be taxed, regulated and instead of modern day slavery, (which might reduce people traffickIng) they can be real jobs.

Prioritise social care reform - until that happens there will never be the necessary improvements in the NHS due to them having to meet the needs of elderly people who then have no care to go to, so they can't be discharged in a safe, humane and timely manner.

Stop giving excessive funds to countries abroad - e.g. his latest ambitions with Ukraine. Prioritise our own people for a change.

Start modernising the education system - start asking the question - is it still appropriate for the 21st century?

Start the conversation on energy security and how that can be achieved - spend the £20bn plus earmarked for Milliband's carbon capture on more tangible improvements e.g. increased storage.

Make it mandatory for gas and electricity companies to invest in improvements in their infrastructure - we suffered a long power cut this week due to problems with both underground and over-ground systems. This negatively affected three businesses in our village, the pub, post office and fish and chip shop who all had to close. They could obviously have done without losing their revenue for nearly a whole day. Likewise mandate the water companies and local government regarding maintaining drainage and other systems.

He doesn’t seem to have a political instinct.

On the other hand, if he goes then people like Angela Rayner will take over and it will go from bad to worse.

I think it's still very early days and they need to be given time to get on with the job and not have people constantly wanting to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Its actually laughable the amount of criticism labour are getting. After 14 years of tories using this country as a personal gravy train , labour are trying to pick up the pieces and start doing what they can. It won't be pretty, the country was left in a total mess by the tories. Yet all i read is how badly starmer is doing, how unpopular he is...its like the right wing media are desperate for him to fail.
As for pissing off the pensioners, people who need help get it through benefits and if you dont need those benefits you dont get the heating allowance, thats it. And waspi women im afraid most had notice of the changes and could prepare and if you didn't prepare you will just have to work longer like the rest of us.

Its all older people complaining whilst the young ones will never see the quality of life these older people had. Never see the early retirement ages, the great pensions, or the low cost housing or council housing options that older people had.

And im nearly 60 before someone jumps on me crying ageist.

Life is harder for young people so hearing older people complaining is annoying.

If labour can do anything i hope they introduce something to help the nhs get back on its feet and also help the housing crisis that sees so many young families and young people that didn't benefit from inheritances, stuck renting forever.

He hasn’t pissed off this WASPI pensioner. Musk and Farage are disrupters who will be a thorn in the side of any PM. Five months in polls are meaningless - look at what happened to the Tories’ poll ratings in five years.

Absolutely this.

Fire Reeves.

I want to see if they get the planning reforms through - I don't think it will turbo charge the economy the way Labour seems to hope but it would be good first step at reversing the stagnation.

I think I'd like to see them be bolder in tackling and laying the pathway for the inevitable pension reforms that are going to need to happen one day. With the working age population shrinking and people living longer I do think the state pension will become untenable. Coupled with millennials receive the largest wealth transfer ever through inheritances, I don't think the triple lock or pensions as a universal benefit will be justifiable. I'm not saying they need to snatch pensions away this second but I do think they need to start chipping away at this idea, as it will not be popular.

This. I just rolled my eyes at that pathetic comment.

There isn’t much he can do, I don’t think there’s much any prime minister can do. Politics is in 5 year cycles but the economy is in much longer cycles, decisions made in the past effect it now. The global economic situation has a huge effect on our economy and there isn’t much we can do to change that. And then there’s the markets.
If we made goods other countries wanted to buy we would be in a stronger position but we are service based with large companies taking huge amounts of money from both the government and individuals. Water companies, Royal Mail, energy companies owned by other countries or individuals based in other countries

I think he is finding his feet he is coming across strongly in PQT. Re join single market a rise in NI to put it where it’s drastically needed.

Resign and call an election. Labour are not fit for government.

He should agree to the reciprocal freedom of movement for young people within the EU that was on the table. I just don’t know what he was thinking on that.

Universal credit for a single person over the age of 25 is £393.45 a month so I don't think that people are raking it in.