Burnham has won. More turmoil?

“I can’t wait to no longer hear KS’s “my dad was a toolmaker””

And “let me be clear” and “I have a mandate”

AB was brought up in a detached house in a nice village, went to a Catholic school (in the days when they were much better than over-crowded bog standard comps) and then went to Cambridge. I don’t think he plays on his background much. He knows he was privileged compared to many of his peers.

I can’t wait to no longer hear KS’s “my dad was a toolmaker”

What utter hatred from you? I don't understand your position at all. I see Burnham as the narcissist.

This cost something like 226k, according to GB news.

Not a lot in the scale of things. That's about 7 hours of flight time for a UK F35 jet. The taxpayer just pays for the admin.

It's the parties who spend most on campaigning etc. And that is not taxpayers money.

“Starmer has shown a strong leadership on the world stage.”

And that’s the issue. It’s all that prick cares about, how he is seen on the world stage. He doesn’t give a shit about the UK, he only cares about how the other world leaders see him. Because he has a grandiose sense of self worth and thinks he’s far better than he really is. Complete, selfish total utter narcissist more like.
Oh and btw he’s done nothing but make a fool of himself on the world stage. He’s a laughing stock and the other world leaders know it.

Who cares? If you don’t like it scroll on by. I’ll use the name I want.

I’m pleased they won Aberdeen South, and she out polls all the men. Starmer is very low. He’s about to be ousted due to how disliked he is, Focus on that rather than use of Kemi.

AB was brought up in a detached house in a nice village, went to a Catholic school (in the days when they were much better than over-crowded bog standard comps) and then went to Cambridge. I don’t think he plays on his background much. He knows he was privileged compared to many of his peers.

I can’t wait to no longer hear KS’s “my dad was a toolmaker”

This cost something like 226k, according to GB news.

Not a lot in the scale of things. That's about 7 hours of flight time for a UK F35 jet. The taxpayer just pays for the admin.

It's the parties who spend most on campaigning etc. And that is not taxpayers money.

I hope we don’t have a sad face life story every time he takes to the podium about his father’s job and how he was brought up in a hovel. It gets a bit wearing

How much has all this cost taxpayers? A by-election? holding another election for mayor? Just to get someone into a position to challenge for the leadership of a party.

Labour was voted in. With Starmer at the head. Democratically.

What an absolute waste, and why the heck should we have to pay for this.

The next general election isn't till 2029. What would be sensible would be for Starmer to give Burnham a cabinet post to give him a period of time to get used to being in Westminster again and to learn the scale of the challenges that government is facing, with a plan to hold an orderly leadership contest no earlier than 2028 so that whoever wins is still in their honeymoon period when the general election approaches.
They will not do this.

I have absolutely no idea where they're finding their candidates from NOW. Every single one of them is like a bad caricature of a gammon or a Nazi. Like, so over the top they're not believable. Why are they fielding people that are so obviously thick, and extreme? They'd romp it if their candidates could string a sentence together and evidence a social media history free of swastikas and misogyny but nope. They CANNOT get it together.

Is he likely to take away WFA Does he hate pensioners too

All this. A leadership contest plays right into the hands of Reform. And Starmer is correct in saying Burnham will face the same issues he has. Burnham may be a better speaker and communicator but he's got the same problems piling up, the same limited room for manoeuvre, and will be hearing calls for a GE from the minute he takes office.

We need it like a hole in the head.

But it also needs to happen.

And it isn't Labour's fault. Not Keir Starmer's or Rachel Reeves.

It's the electorate, expecting change overnight and being dumb enough to believe there are easy, fast answers to longstanding, complicated issues. The media, for relentlessly covering Farage's campaign of hate and not giving equal weight to the achievements of the government.

We get the government we deserve. We deserve the turmoil because apparently we're a bunch of reactionary impatient arseholes.

The country needs stability in order to give businesses - internal and external - confidence to invest. But that won't happen under Starmer because no one - NO ONE - is talking Britain and Britain's leadership down more than Britain right now.

We're absolute twats.

We need it like a hole in the head.

But it also needs to happen.

And it isn't Labour's fault. Not Keir Starmer's or Rachel Reeves.

It's the electorate, expecting change overnight and being dumb enough to believe there are easy, fast answers to longstanding, complicated issues. The media, for relentlessly covering Farage's campaign of hate and not giving equal weight to the achievements of the government.

We get the government we deserve. We deserve the turmoil because apparently we're a bunch of reactionary impatient arseholes.

The country needs stability in order to give businesses - internal and external - confidence to invest. But that won't happen under Starmer because no one - NO ONE - is talking Britain and Britain's leadership down more than Britain right now.

We're absolute twats.

He may have said that but doesn’t mean it’s true in the minds of the voters. Most of what Farage says is dismissed by the left, and yet when he says something that goes their way, all of a sudden what he says is gospel.

Yes, Reform winning would have been humiliating for Labour and shown Reform would probably win the next GE, as it’s such a safe Labour seat.

But in reality, we have another 3ish years of Labour whether we like it or not. Whatever the outcome of this election, we would still have a Labour government, but not necessarily the same PM.

People who wouldn’t have voted for Labour in a GE would have voted for Labour in this just to get rid of Starmer. People who want Starmer to stay would have voted against Labour to stop another change in leadership.

It's been more than 6 months, ad things are substantially worse....

Perhaps Burnham got the majority as people voted primarily in a belief he’d get rid of Starmer.
Perhaps Reform achieved around a third of the vote as people wanted to signal and unhappiness with the established parties.
Perhaps that’s why Conservative received just over 2% and the LibDems 0.36%.
I don’t take this as any endorsement of Labour policy at all.

It's because of things like Instagram, everyone wants instant wins. There were 14 years of Tory austerity and yet for some reason people thought Labour could magically fix everything in six months and then were shocked when that didn't happen.

I'm genuinely embarrassed to be British.

Interesting how they confounded the many who assumed that because Makerfield is not generally an affluent area, and given that the population voted for Brexit, that they’d pretty much be a shoo-in for Reform.

Equally interesting to me was the Aberdeen South by election, going to the Tories! Almost entirely down, evidently, to Ed Miliband and his net zero policies - perhaps particularly after the current mess of Trump’s making, oil and the Straits of Hormuz, etc.