To think Andy Burnham is doing a decent job so far?

Like he would have turned up anyway. He was hardly ever at the European Parliament, rarely attends the house of commons, and never holds surgeries in Clacton.

He's too busy toadying up to billionaires and making money

He's not here to make the UK better, just himself richer

Reform have 5 MPs, LibDems have 72! Why on earth would you invite Reform??

He did mutter about standing up to the US if necessary whether he would actually do this and what the consequences would be who knows. He hasn't really changed any policies so far and up till now our support for the US in Iran has been minimal. And as said by others most of the Arab countries support the US and Iran isn't Arabic but Persian.

And, as PP said, means they can’t undo it. Politics needs to be consensus driven now - it’s what works in Scandinavian countries. Maybe give him a chance before writing him off 🙄

I think he's full of good intentions. However things like having a No 10 in Manchester doesn't really work out .I think giving 4.5 grand to neet parents is also a bit of a gimmick.however he has got time yet

This is what triggered the October 7 attacks in the first place. Saudi Arabia were due to start talks with Israel on trade etc cooperation and Iran wanted to scupper them so used their Hamas thugs to try and trigger another war in the ME. It was obvious Netenyahu was going to retaliate. He'd been itching for a reason to attack and Hamas/Iran were only too willing to give him one.

I think he is doing ok. Nothing to write home about yet but he hasn't yet done a Truss and crashed the economy. I think the cross party stuff is probably to soften us for another "I'm going to work on social care but not give you any substance for 2 years " type speech today.

He hasn't really done anything yet, he's going to talk about social care, where it will lead no one knows, he may be just covering his back so when he does whatever he does he can say (most of) the other parties agreed with him. although how much common ground may be found is dubious.

I mean he is a very skilled career politician, which Starmer was not. I do wonder why he lost 2 Labour leadership contests, but then I notice the winners were Ed Milliband and Jeremy Corbyn so says more about the Labour party arguably than him!

No political leader has been able to find a viable solution to social care yet. I hope that Burnham can work constructively with the Tories and the Libdems to come up with something that is actually workable and sustainable regardless of who is in power. It makes perfect sense to do this collaboratively.

The real question is not whether the talks are a good idea, as they obviously are, but whether politicians from all of the mainstream parties can put aside their political differences and engage constructively with the process in order to come up with a solution that they can all genuinely sign up to.

I would like to see far more cross party working across lots of issues - they do already do this effectively on many of the select committees etc. As Burnham has said, less point-scoring and more problem-solving. It would definitely help to restore people's trust in politics and politicians. But whether or not Burnham can actually drive this change and make it happen remains to be seen.

Not a bad point.

@Thismountain Would you feel better if the US and Israel allied with Arabic countries instead, and focused their attack on their main military foe in the region?

The Libdems have got zero chance of forming a majority government. Should have included Reform.

At the very least, we would have seen whether Reform do have any workable ideas.

I’m not arguing it’s a bad thing. It’s a shrewd political move and you’d expect politicians to politician. I just think this is his motivation.

We have absolutely no say in what America does or what happens in the ME. Neither do any of those other European leaders. The difference between them and us is that we like to pretend we are equal partners to the US and have any kind of 'special relationship' whatsoever. So voting on issues in another country that has nothing to do with us and who will take no notice of us is pure virtue signalling nonsense ( and a pretty colonialist mindset).

Yes. Most 'Arabic' countries are allies of America ( Qatar, SA) and are also enemies of Iran (Persian) and are being bombed by them.

Well if that's what's needed then so be it. They previous attempts have been scuppered by successive opposition parties/press ( death tax/dementia tax) so a consensus is really the only way. And they have excluded the ideological populists of Reform and the Greens so have a better chance of success ( hopefully)

Is this a reference to Iran?

Iran is not an Arab country.

He seems to have spent most of his time so far making videos for social media?

Well this is historical reinvention at its finest. In reality there was peace until Iran backed Hamas launched a deliberately sadistic attack on Israeli civilians which they followed up with continual internal terrorist attacks and tens of thousands of rocket strikes, along with Hezbollah and Houthis.

And they have promised to continue committing Oct 7th style attacks over and over.

Israel is fighting a conglomeration of ME actors who are determined to genuinely destroy their nation and people. Israel has no need to apologise for failing to lose the war that Hamas/Iran/ Hezbollah started.

Oh and btw, 2 million Arab people live peacefully and as equal citizens as citizens of Israel. So no, it’s not about ‘killing Arabs’ as you are anti-Semitically trying to demonize Israel. It’s about defeating State and terrorist entities who want to destroy Israel and Israelis.

So you're a Jack Alright , do you suck up to bullies too?

I interpreted the cross party working as coming up with a long term plan that all parties agree with so who ever gets in next will continue with it.

FGS the point of Andy is keep Reform out of power, Labour have now overtaken reform.

We’re living in such dangerous times this is literally the standard, keep the far right out.

So yes, he’s smashing it.