To think Keir Starmer is looking more ridiculous by the day

I would far prefer Sunak/Hunt to Starmer/Reeves. For me it’s a hands down, no contest, very clear choice between competence and incompetence.

Eh? The climate emergency/crisis has been the drumbeat of the last 20 years. We have made a lot of stupid, emotional moves be cause of it too.

I don’t understand the narrative that Starmer gets a pass for being an average PM because the Tories who came before him were such a shambles.

Are we saying that Johnson and Truss set the bar so low that we should be content with anything slightly better?

Starmer’s election campaign was predicated on Labour being better and doing better. Don’t be surprised that people are frustrated when that turns out not to be true.

Karen Pearce was doing a great job when Labour were elected and Trump’s team respected her.

But Starmer needed a charismatic person like Mandelson to help him with Trump because he knew he wasn’t capable of it himself.

Not if he continues to show a lack of understanding and political will. Giving an ineffective leader more time, just because the last lot had more time is crazy.

I agree that knee jerk reactions aren’t helpful and politics does take time to have an effect but many are lacking confidence in the foundations he and his team are laying. That’s a problem. Starmer came into government with a series of unconnected policies, not one big vision. He doesn’t have a clear strategy for recovery and he is losing the respect of his backbenchers.

He really is not much better than Rishi Sunak. And Rachel Reeves is a whole lot worse than Jeremy Hunt who had started to stabilise the economy. Growth was starting to take place at the end of the Conservative government.

What she has done since is terrible.

I also don’t think it’s just down to the talents of Farage as a communicator- he is platformed non stop by the BBC and other media outlets and the vast majority of the press is there to back up his opinions. (Headlines about the ‘evils’ of migration have been in the papers for at least twenty years)

The number of appearances by Farage on question time is exponential given he was not an MP or a party leader when he did most of them.

If Caroline Lucas for example had had such exposure or the climate agenda had been backed by screaming headlines for 25 years then maybe the picture in the UK would look very different.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79lvdd9z5lo.amp

You are missing a key fact! Perhaps you don't know much about Welsh politics.

Plaid would never in a million years form a coalition with Reform. Which is why it will be a Plaid/Labour coalition. We have had such a coalition before.

The point for me is that Reform won't run Wales. I am not too bothered that Labour won't be the main party. I'd like to give PC a chance.

My map doesn't show a Plaid/Labour coalition. It shows a Plaid/Reform one!
The point is, Labour are on track to lose Wales.

OK. Thank you.

The latest graphic Twisty just posted shows it is the probable outcome -a Plaid/Labour coalition.

The new system means that coalitions will be the future for Wales. As I understand it, around a 45%+ share of the vote is need to win a majority of the 96 seats.

How do you think that would translate Pandora? I was hoping you'd pop up on the LIW thread and share your thoughts. Are you thinking that would mean a left wing coalition?

This is the map showing PR result on current polling. So either way, Labour will lose Wales

SENEDD POLL | Labour plunge to just 14%

🟩 PLAID – 30% (-)
➡️ REF – 29% (+4)
🔴 LAB – 14% (-4)
🔵 CON – 11% (-2)
🟠 LD – 6% (-1)
🟢 GRN – 6% (+1)

Via @YouGov, 4-10 Sep (+/- vs 23-30

Thank God the Senedd elections next year are under PR is all I can say. Reform has no chance of controlling Wales with that vote share.

I don't think he's exceptionally talent, just that the rest of them are such an astonishingly low calibre that even farage can look impressive in terms of work ethic, communication, consistency, level of understanding, grasp of reality etc.

I think Starmer is broadly making the right decisions but getting undermined by his own MPs and perhaps his own lack of bravery in attempting to push through certain policies even if he risks a defeat in the Commons.

The one thing about his period in charge that I absolutely do not understand is when the pressure came on for a new inquiry into the grooming gang scandal. This started after it became known that Oldham council had requested a government inquiry into what had happened in their area, and for some reason Jess Phillips told them to investigate themselves. She then came over all I-said-no-and-I-mean-NO and amazingly, a minister treating the nation like primary school children made the government unpopular ... who'd have thought?

All Starmer had to do was say, OK, we clearly do need a new enquiry. Instead, he battened down the hatches for weeks to the point people started to wonder whether Labour were trying to hide something. Why do that? What was the benefit to him of denying an inquiry into a terrible national scandal? By the time he gave in and U-turned, everyone had turned against him anyway.

Is he just bad at politics?

You're right, May had pissed away the majority by calling another general election before Johnson.

So many errors, fuck ups, mistakes, and a massive amount of idiocy from the Tories at that time. I got confused about the order they came in.

Reform are a threat to us all just a lot of people don't realise it.

Latest polling for Wales

NEW | Poll shows Welsh Labour WIPEOUT
➡️ REF – 29% (+5)
🟩 PLAID – 23% (-1)
🔴 LAB – 18% (-2)
🔵 CON – 11% (-2)
🟠 LD – 9% (-)
🟢 GRN – 7% (-)
Via @YouGov, 4-10 Sep (+/- vs 23-30 Apr)

No problem 😊

Very true 👍

Thank you.
I thought the pp's chart didn't look quite right. Makes sense now.

Well 72% still think he is ridiculous and only 11% approve of him.

Yep and supports the Red Wall deserting Labour. As does the Grauniad today.