To think Keir Starmer is looking more ridiculous by the day

That’s a big chunk of red to turquoise isn’t it?

Labour to Reform

Exactly. He has led the agenda in British politics for years now. The two (formerly) main parties are just dancing to his tune.

I’m a leftie so I despise what he stands for. But he’s obviously very talented.

Sorry but can you remind me what "massive majority" the Tories had when Johnson attempted to prorogue Parliament in August/September 2019?

I don't think they had an outright majority at all between the 2017 election and the run up to the one in December 2019.

Again Johnson tried to prorogue Parliament because he didn't have an outright majority and he wanted to avoid what May had gone through with the Labour, Tory, Lib DEm and Scot Nats remainers all denying the democratic will of the electorate by not endorsing May's efforts at reaching a deal with Brussels That (ie Labour sticking its head in the sand over the referendum result hoping it would go away) is what caused harm to the country and led to Johnson hurrying through a muddled deal.

The electorate then had it's say about the remainers in the Decmber 2019 election in which the Tories made a net gain of 53 seats against Labour. That was for ignoring the refernedum result and blocking a deal.

I didn't say it excuses Labour. Just saying that it is a well worn tradition. 🤷‍♀️

And I'm sure you pointed that out to Tory voters when they were in government.
So just because previous governments do something means it excuses Labour? I thought they were the "grown ups" and "transparent" etc. Oh no sorry that's just what they tried to convince the electorate that they were. Thankfully they've dropped that pretence now.

Neither.
Just pointing out that all Governments blame their predecessors. It's not unique to the current government.

Red Wall is now a turquoise wall, even Grauniad is reporting this

Whataboutery? Deflection?

You really want to do this?

It wasn't a loophole it was a legitimate zero rating on education based on the principle of it being a merit good. Labour were told by judges not to use language of "tax breaks" because that was an opinion not fact. You know this yet you continue to spread misinformation that it was a "loophole" when that's blatantly false.

The tax on children's education is exactly that, a taxation on the supply of education for children in certain settings. UK is now only country in the WORLD to tax education of children. We are now ideologically behind Nigeria.

"It takes a long time to fix the mess that I was left."

"We are half way through a building job,"

Who said that and when?

You are using an old chart. I've provided the most up to date one ie from this week

And here is the up to date chart based on bi-elections won since GE

At what stage do you stop blaming Tories and make Labour accountable for shit policies? Seemingly not after 14 months so is ot after 18 months? 2 years? Never?

Always someone else's fault ie Tories/Reform/right wing press/rascists isn't it?

Spot on 👏

Which is why he's doing so well in the polls, and his own party are so actively supporting him! 🤔

Farage wanted Brexit. We Brexited.

Farage started a new political party. It is now 15 points ahead of any other party in the polls.

He seems to be the most consequential politician of a generation.

Whether one agrees with his politics, is another question.

It always amazes me how people can't deviate from their own script.

Reform would be a nightmare for me if they got in. I will never vote reform.

That being said, it is ridiculous to deny that Farage is excellent at reading the general feeling of the public and appealing to it. Therefore he is successful as a politician.

Is he? He is an excellent self publicist. He is obviously crap leader of a party and a crap chooser of people.

And they didn't for the past 14 years?

You’re just confusing swap rates, inflation, BOE interest rates and 2 and 5 year Gilt yields with 30 year. Inflation was higher under Truss for example.

The spike for Truss was because of loss of short term confidence in the economy mainly affecting 2 and 5 year Gilts which are often used on swaps for mortgage rates. What’s happened with Labour is loss of long term confidence in the U.K.

Saying that Labour’s economic management is only a bit worse than Truss is hardly a vote winner.

Gilt yields are linked to the BoE interest rates, these have risen to fight inflation. However inflation has stayed higher, these have pushed up the gilt rate. There has also been gilt rate rises in other countries. The UK is not alone in having rises unlike during Truss's fuck up

What the Tories did post Truss, and Labour have continued, is try to set a more predictable fiscal policy so that the markets aren't spooked.

Truss's mini-budget caused the cost of borrowing to skyrocket. Mortgage offers with withdrawn. Rates went from 2% to 6% in a few weeks.

So on a typical 300k house, your repayment would have gone from £1100 to about £1700 depending on how much deposit you had. That's £600 a month taken from a household budget.

Is that the royal "we?" Because a lot of ordinary people are enduring austerity (by any other name) after 1 year under Starmer's Labour.

He doesn’t have any political acumen so is relying on his advisors who are making bad decisions. Everything that Labour has messed up could have been avoided by someone who was politically astute. The other problem they have is they don’t talk about the positive things they have done, the legislation they have passed for the better, so all the negative gets amplified. The press have a large part to play in this as much of it is anti-Labour and always has been so they aren’t going to highlight the positive.Trying to out-Reform Reform is never going to work either as it makes them look weak.

Same here.

Yes agreed.
I've heard the rise of Reform described as breaking the emergency glass. I think that's an accurate description of where many people are.