Kier and Kemi showed the best of British politics today

Jeeesus.

I think a lot of people believe this.

I live in Canada. Years ago, when Stephen Harper was PM here, he had a sort of right-hand man who was known as his "attack-dog." He was always giving the bad news, making angry speeches in Parliament, was sort of a big angry looking guy like a bouncer.

He consistently won the vote among civil servants working in Parliament as the nicest MP. People were always surprised by that.

Similarly there are some very famous cross -arty friendships in the UK people are often surprised by.

Politically tribal citizens are often much less likely to talk to people of other persuasions than actual politicians.

Why can't AI run the country? Ask a random, sample of citizens what they want. Generate a manifesto to maximise the fulfilment of the citizens wants. Then a plan to deliver the manifesto. Then get on with it.

We are stupid, that’s for sure.

yup

plus when you swim with sharks what hope is there if your a fish so to speak

It was nice to end on a warm note and I agree Kemi's was a good performance. I think you might be looking to the past through rise tinted glasses if you think PMQs was polite pre-brexit though!

I'm watching yesterday's session for the first time. It was nice to see the joviality in the house, along with Starmer's accolades to his constituents. Badenoch did well in gently pushing her questions about Burnham. It was a 'leaving party' full of grace. He wasn't PM material but he gave it his best shot. I wish him well in the foreign arena.

I disagree with Starmer's politics and I think he has failed as a PM in many ways, but I don't think he deserved to be stabbed in the back . I also think fundamentally that both he and Kemi are decent, intelligent human beings who want the best for the UK, but differ on how to achieve that. Yesterday's PMQ's showed that. I thought Kemi was respectful and amusing.

That's fair enough.
It's nice to see someone have something positive to say about the change rather than just hoping it will trigger an election.

I'm unsure but willing to give him a try (not much choice to anything else at this stage)

This ‘not dragged into the Iran war’…Starmer was only asked to let the US use UK airbases. Starmer said no, then said yes, on a completely fudged and bogus argument.

What’s he done that’s so statesmanlike and well-judged?

Not sure about left I don’t think it’ll work but I listened to AB’s speeches and already appreciate a shift in tone. His words are right, but whether that’s pre getting in or the desire to just tax people to anti growth again is still there idk.

He actually cited a conservative policy which he put forward in Manchester with success, he did not talk about inherited x or y or blame others.

I think he has a narrow path forward but perhaps he’ll do it. Or maybe he’ll struggle with his own MPs and policy, let’s see.

I thought they didn’t have time to undo any of the terrible destruction wreaked by the apalling Tory government. Is that untrue, and actually they have improved everything very quickly?

which one is it? Putting aside, for the moment, statistic juggling to create press release ‘ truths’ to placate us.

No the country doesn't need to go any further left!

That’s because funding for many operations and treatments has been pulled! Therefore waiting lists were removed, don’t be so naive. Early prison release was also a disaster. Immigration figures are also not accurate due to the amendments to reporting. KS has backtracked on many of his election promises, what he has been good at is not dragging us into another war.

I mostly agree. I'm not a party political person - not Labour or Tory but I liked Keir. He was most defnitely someone with more integrity than we've had for ages - since Theresa May, I'd say.

I don't think it was all the 'right-wing press' - I suspect it was the hard left, as much as them.

Lovely to see kind words from him and Kemi. It was touching that he said that, despite their Commons spats, how kind she had been to him in private.

I've often heard politicians say that cross-party friendships are very common - and it sort of makes sense, if you think about it. MPs in your own party are going to be super-critical and often ambitious and ready to stab you in the back, whereas those in other parties have no skin in the game.

It does seem to be mainly Labour MPs that don't like him.
Do you agree with them that the country needs to go a bit further to the left?

What are you most looking forward to about Andy Burnham?

.

He was. And luckily for me loads don’t like him including his own MPs and he’s gone.

You just like him but you’re in the minority.

'Charisma?? Like Boris Johnson? Lacking in integrity, getting stuck half way down a trip wire, lying about how leaving Europe would bring millions into the NHS. Personally I do not want a bafoon like him representing my country on the world stage'

Well exactly. Talk of Johnson's 'charisma' just makes me sick. He was a non stop bullshitter who had an out of control ego and was way out of his depth. A total disgrace from start to finish

He really was. It was unbearable. Perhaps Burnham will take a different tack.

A man of integrity brought down by the right wing press and also stabbed in the back by his own party. He made mistakes but he was respected on the international stage and refused to allow us to be dragged into Trump's/America's illegal war. All the derogatory talk about Charisma was a disgrace and an insult to most people's intelligence. Charisma?? Like Boris Johnson? Lacking in integrity, getting stuck half way down a trip wire, lying about how leaving Europe would bring millions into the NHS. Personally I do not want a bafoon like him representing my country on the world stage.
The goodbye accolades yesterday made me very sad. Starmer brought Labour back from the brink with Corbyn. Now the left will go further left and the right is going further and further right. Our politics are sadly becoming more polarised and extreme.

A sad day for British Politics.

It is the job of the opposition parties to hold the government to account and it is the job of the government to defend their record. Political debate should be robust and challenging.

However, I think it descends far too often into party political point scoring, and that doesn't actually help anybody. I don't blame individual politicians for this at all - Kemi and Keir are both clearly capable of behaving like decent, civilised human beings towards each other, and it was refreshing to see that on both sides, but the adversarial culture in the House of Commons somehow pushes them to behave like children in a school playground.

Burnham has said that he wants to move away from point scoring towards more collaborative problem solving. I would love to see him achieve this, but I'm sceptical as to whether he will make it happen as the adversarial culture at Westminster is so deeply ingrained. I don't think he is the first to want to change it. Whether he can is a different question.

Imagine the kind of grown-up politics we could have if politicians worked together to find long term cross-party solutions to the horribly complex problems that our country is facing, engaging in passionate but respectful debates about the best way of resolving issues without trying to score points off each other. They can and do work together very effectively on some of the select committees etc. Why can't we have more of this and less of the pantomime?