AIBU to feel the media is pushing Starmer out?

It has been an odd sensation watching “back home” become a Magic Roundabout of Leaders when compared to my “adopted home” (Italy).

The media/information/opinion sharing & influencing landscape has changed so radically that would be onerous, if not actually impossible, to revert to the way things used to be. So perhaps some conventions need to be changed to provide more stability rather than feed into the online volatility.

If the convention of “you vote for the party you want locally, not its leader” were superseded by “you vote for the party you want locally, on the understanding that it will retain its leader unless the leader dies (note 1) or becomes incapacitated by ill health (note 2)”. With the understanding that if the government is loses confidence in its leader it must take the New Package Deal to the electorate. Would that help avoid what is starting to look like an over active reaction to poor press ?

I may not be very up to date with British politics. But I have 30+ years of lived experience of Italian Magic Roundabout of Leaders. And I can’t recommend it as a way to run a country. It’s not that stability of leadership at any cost is a garden party. And a too high frequency of elections can be a real pain in the arse (especially since schools are where the voting happens and personally as a teacher this fucks up my plans for the programme of study). But Magic Roundabout of Leaders was the worst of all worlds. With FPTP you’d be able to avoid too frequent elections because you’ll likely have far fewer unhappy coalitions ready to to fall apart at the seams 20 minutes after forming.

Note 1 - Might have the unwanted consequence of more attempted assassinations
Note 2 - Might have the unwanted consequences of invented maladies to cling to power while jettisoning an unpopular leader.

I feel a bit relieved for him. Imagine trying to work with people calling you a nonce and baying for your blood constantly?!

It's shit for the country though. There's too much aggro in the world to have a leadership change.

Well describing a Reform term as "horrible" and then leading to Labour being voted in. If you're talking about. Government being horrible, it's hardly explaining your reasoning but I think I can guess what key words would be involved. Then expecting Labour to come straight in on the back of that. The Tories will be where?

Starmer made his bed. A very shallow and uncomfortable one.

Good riddance.

Agree with what you say here (although not convinced about Sunak and Hunt).

Constantly changing leaders and Cabinets means tackling those structural problems gets endlessly kicked down the curb. In a way, it's just a massive avoidance tactic that masks the fact that neither Labour or the Tories (or Reform but they're idiots so it goes without saying) have the faintest idea how to tackle those structural problems.

I think you're correct, structural issues can be fixed but require pain experienced now for future gains. This can't be met through for to nimbyism and political short termism.

Yes and she doesn't seem to care about being liked, which given the circumstances we find ourselves in, is a plus.

I think Kemi. Pretty much everything she says is sensible.

Someone always crops up eventually. It's just a matter of how long it takes to find them.

Once people start to realise there is no choice but to make tough choices, the situation will probably stabilise around a person who is willing to make those choices and sells the public a vision that they are necessary and will lead to improvement down the line.

Absolutely right, but will there be anyone with the ability and the leadership left who actually wants to put him/herself into that position?

Care to explain?

I don't think that's true.

There are individual cases. I know of a family from Pakistan, the Dad has mainly lived here for years and about 18 months ago brought over his wife and three children and now wife has just given birth to a 4th.

The Dad is a taxi driver.

I think the point remains though that Burnham will have an impossible job, just like Starmer had (Starmer's weaknesses aside). There are enormous structural problems in British society and the economy, and the general public don't have the patience or the attention span which would allow even a competent and experienced leader to begin to put them right. All egged on by the media.

Sunak and Hunt were beginning to make inroads.

Probably because that's how democracy in this country works.

In fact the idea that we can displace Prime Ministers and governments who aren't acting in ways we want (see Truss, Johnson as well as Starmer) shows they are ultimately accountable to us (thorugh public pressure on the party).

They don't get to be elected and then just have carte blanche to do whatever they want for 5 years.

Rather than destabilising democracy it actually proves it is functioning.

And I would argue it actually functions a lot better in this country than in others such as the US, where it is very difficult to oust a President even if they are going strongly against public opinion after being elected.

I see the churn in leadership as part of the process that the country needs to go through to come to the realisation it needs to take strong medicine in order to resolve it's issues.

Once people start to realise there is no choice but to make tough choices, the situation will probably stabilise around a person who is willing to make those choices and sells the public a vision that they are necessary and will lead to improvement down the line.

Rather than a journeyman like Starmer whose only objective was to try to stay in power as long as possible by doing as little as possible.

I honestly don't get the hate for Starmer.

Yes, he's a bit boring and not the most charismatic, and potentially a bit of a fence sitter.

But he HAS done a lot of good things for the country. Economy, NHS, both improving. He did well with Trump for a while. He's good at forming relationships wherever he goes, in fact.

I think it's a shame he's out. I'm unsure about Burnham. Everything he says sounds good, and he seems quite refreshing, but for some reason I have my reservations. I heard somebody being interviewed on the BBC who said (very diplomatically) that Burnham needs to be liked, and that's going to cause him problems when he's under scrutiny in government and if he faces criticism. I think he might have an ego hidden under his common man exterior.

😆 🤣

Labour can’t ’support the working classes’. I don’t know if you’ve realised but the country is skint. The working classes have to start supporting themselves. We need to hugely cut welfare to be able to invest for growth, grow the economy and hopefully bring down taxes on working people in the future. What 100% will not work is giving more money away to people who haven’t earned that money. Andy Burnham will do just that and so Nigel Farage will walk the next election. Cheers Andy you Twat.

I do wonder whether this also puts off other good politicians from ever wanting to run for PM as who would want to put yourself in that position when you know that it will inevitably tarnish your reputation and in a few years (or less) you’ll be turned on by your own party.

Why the sneer?

Rubbish. You can't get a visa to enter the country on a low paying job.
This right wing nonsense has been debunked.
The reason young people are leaving the country is because brexit has left it an economic basket case.

Again, you’re talking absolute nonsense.

What I think is we get one term of reform it's horrible doesn't work. And then we have another labour gov with the promise to rejoin the EU and we do it

In a way, I think 'bring it on.' If Farage actually has to deliver on his promises, instead of just carping from the sidelines, he will fail spectacularly. He wouldn't last any longer than any of our other two-year PMs. That at least would be wonderful schadenfreude.

Yes, they are and as soon as Burnham gets in they will start on him. If it is Burnham. They are already screeching about him being 'hard left' and 'even worse'. God help us if it's Rayner or Milliband, we may as well roll out the red carpet for Farage and his dodgy billionaire paymasters.

The problem is the self-destructive weaponised ignorance of the divisive brexit vote has not reached it's apogee (or nadir depending on your perspective). These angry little people, the UK's MAGA will not rest until they've got their 'proper brexit' and their Mr Brexit Prime Minister and God help us all when they do.

Gb news is where you get your information from 😂