Is Keir Starmer too boring to be prime minister?

He might be perceived as boring, but charisma shouldn't be the main criteria for being a prime minister.

Solid morals and the desire and competence to create a better society would outclass any quirks of personality.

I would like to see him have a go at running the country. He can't be any worse than what we've had recently.

Labour party members voted for Ed to lead because he let them scratch a leftist itch. Had they chosen David - who was more palatable to the general population you'd have had a different outcome.

But better to blame the electorate. It was them who got it wrong.

Labour actually favouring sterilising children and becoming life long medical patients.

Do you have any evidence that Labour favours something that has exploded exponentially in 13 years of Tory government? I’m assuming you mean puberty blockers, of course you might have something else in mind.

And the really depressing thing is that it worked...

That's because of feelings.

Cleverly made a mean joke but people are kindly sterilizing vulnerable children.

Do people seriously think Labour are united? They are not capable, Raynor and Starmer hate each other, they are so driven by ideology they ban people from conference etc. The tories are a broad church and know when to come together. The Labour factions would rather not be in power than cede an inch to further left or right in their own party.

Also amusing to see people saying cleverly actually wants to drug people and how awful that it, from a terrible joke, then excusing Labour actually favouring sterilising children and becoming life long medical patients. Very very odd priorities tbh. Lisa Nandy said male rapists who think they are women should be in women's Prisons. One trans teenage constituent and all ability to judge reality out the window. How can people like that even be mps now?

Hopefully the sdp field lots of candidates or it'll have to be tory for many women.

Nearly every country will face this issue. Hence the rise of the far right in the EU

Current international laws will strain, the public will show it in votes and some politicians will be able to deal with it but many won’t

The split we’re seeing is just because they’re in power atm and it’s hard to deal with current laws and the issue. In the same way a fair few EU countries are seeing PR votes go to the right some will propose measures but currently few have suggested what will actually work. That will increase though

Not long ago Labour were decrying ‘culture wars’ and ‘distraction’ now they’ve moved to offshore processing. All parties will shift but not all politicians at the same rate, so you’ll get splits. The end point is inevitable though - voters demanding change

Not just here either

Every party that has ever existed has a left wing and right wing. Therefore logically having a right-left spectrum in the party does not indicate your party is split - because we all know we have seen united parties (of all political colours) and disunited parties throughout history and across the globe. This is not up for debate.

Look at Labour in the early 1980s. Look at Labour now. There is an obvious difference. The SDP split off in 1981 - that is the level of disagreement the Tories are currently engaged in.

To go in the Braverman/Badenoch direction or not is an existential choice the Tories are going to have to make. And they do not know what to do.

Just a reminder that those women have men in those spaces now under a government those on the right claim is gender critical. Words are cheap, it’s deeds that count. What have the Tories done for those vulnerable women? Sweet FA.

Have you not noticed a left and centre of the Labour party in all that time?

Why not?

Did you notice Blair won by a landslide and Corbyn lost by a landslide defeat at least? The electorate shows you they see the difference

Because the opportunity to avoid the march of predatory men is disabled by policies that untether biology from sex and truth from reality.

Observing what? UK politics since 1992.

Observing what? They haven’t been in power for a long time

Of course it’s easier from the opposition

And yes they also have ideological differences- left of party to right. You can’t have missed that?

Please explain the irony? If you mean the part about predatory men, well yes, I know predatory men have and still are trying to take advantage. That's why I said I think the main issue is preventing that happening.

I don’t think Labour are any more together Anyone thinking this is either kidding themselves or not very observant!

The Tories are split split split with no resolution in sight.

Without a trace of irony.

As I said in an earlier post, there are issues to be addressed, but it can be done. It will mean compromise. Being completely hostile to trans people is not the answer.

I actually think the main issue is, as always, ensuring predatory men don't take advantage.

I don’t see this as particularly problematic. They clearly have survived in power despite this over the last few decades, only Blair and he was very centre. The left of Labour and centre have their own ideological differences anyway.

They seem to agree on what the outcome is wanted, the major differences come down to how. That is incredibly tough as there’s no easy way to fix it - this applies to many countries and we’ll see it across the EU

I don’t think Labour are any more together, just out of power for a long time so we haven’t seen clashes. Centre and to the left have their differences

Have to agree to disagree I think @EasternStandard as I'm not sure we are approaching the question from the same starting point.

Just to restate the difference, what to do about asylum is a policy level disagreement. Policy level disagreements are standard in all political parties. There is always a fudge if all parties agree on basic principles.

The Tory party's future position on the political spectrum is an ideological question. That is very different, it underpins everything and will be much more difficult to resolve.

😬 absolutely. Or that rabbit in headlights look

It won’t do much and they’ll face the same issues as anyone in power over the same period

But will he announce the policy kindly, with a tear in his eye? That's the main thing.

Not really. Any party will struggle with the pressures of asylum. Hence Starmer’s recent shift to offshore processing. It won’t do much and they’ll face the same issues as anyone in power over the same period.

The difficulty of how to approach it doesn’t just disappear.

Claiming Labour policy disagreements are in any way comparable to the Tory situation demonstrates a total lack of understanding about what is going on in the Tory party, which is fundamental and about the future ideological direction of the party (after they lose the next election, which they currently expect to do).

It's not saying it, is it? It's when they are are lining up to vote on a bill about the relationship between sex and women in a reality defying act of misogyny.

You’re in a privileged position to not have been affected by this, surely you can recognise that not all women are as lucky as you are to not have been affected “a jot”.

Do you think some of the most vulnerable women in society - those in prisons or domestic violence shelters or psychiatric wards or care homes - may feel differently to you?? They are the ones likely to be most affected by such flippant statements as “trans women are women and trans men are men.”