Do you want a change of leader?

Oh, thanks. I was genuinely stumped and thought Burnham was going for David Beckham as Minister for Culture, Media and Sport.

Report for what? Apologising in advance?

There used to be a late-night programme on BBC, on about 11 p.m., and it was a conversation with Chris Mason and Laura K and two other of the usual suspects. Has it gorn by the board? I don't seem to notice it now.
In the sixties or seventies I believe that Kenneth Tynan called the Common Market/EU 'a group grope in Brussels'. I used to be reminded of that when I saw the four of them being clever and congratulating themselves on how jolly watchable they were.

I think they all have a go at stirring.

Questions for Burnham beckon (?)

I'd hope Trump was just assuming and hadn't been officially told.

If he'd been officially told before the Cabinet and the British People, that's utterly unacceptable behaviour by Starmer.

Trump is completely out of order. Did he not announce Starmer’s resignation on X before we his own population got told? Did they tell the US in confidence or was Trump speculating?
I am so confused. The US is using tech to further their own economic growth at the cost of democracy as a concept in some other countries. It is completely baffling.

I’ve already asked you to desist @1dayatatime. Any more will be reported.

The defence plan needs to be sorted and the success of that might depend on who is chancellor but the EU will want the incoming PM not the one who has resigned to attend.

And that means postponing it until it’s definite who is replacing him.

He's such a divot repeating this tired old routine. He and BBC luvvie Laura Kuenssberg actually make me feel pretty insulted with their scripted pattern of 'build 'em up and and knock 'em down', which is not much better than the way the MailOnline treats Z-list celebs. They're giddy with their own perceived power, a bit like Fiona Bruce.

I hope that the new BBC Director-General Matt Brittin has got his eye on this lot 👀

Inevitable really

So on the BBC news website this morning- “Chris Mason: Questions multiply for the man tipped to replace Starmer”. And in the article it says “… the hard questions for the Labour Party and for Burnham Beckham. And some are already worried. They fret about what this all looks like.” It’s not even 24 hours since Starmer resigned and CM is already stirring it all up again. He just can’t stop himself.

Trump is delivering on what his voters asked for namely reducing immigration and growing the economy.

Clear this comes at a cost of popularity - you can be effective but unpopular or popular but ineffective.
https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy031el03po?app-referrer=deep-link

Apologies in advance as the links do contain a lot of numbers.

Pop over to the thread about his legacy and put it there as well, please. I think it's Starmer's Record, not Legacy.

Starmer excellent in this way - was good to see the working relationship with Macron and Merz. Gave the UK some standing again ....

Tell Trump that.

Foreign policy might be the Achilles Heel. The EU have already had to postpone a conference because the pm won't be the one that started negotiations. Plus there's that defence plan that's been kicked into the long grass that caused John Healey to resign

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-uk-summit-postponed-as-keir-starmer-resigns/

Not saying you're wrong, but the poster seemed to believe that a marginal rate of 60% means an effective overall rate of 60%. I was just pointing out that this is not the case.

The same poster has said since that they pay more than half their income in tax, which the sums show isn't the case (it's a bit over 1/3), so unfortunately I don't think they have quite understood the very simple mathematical point being made.

He won't turn from the Manifesto, its a genuine Labour document but he won't make mistakes like the Winter Fuel Payment fiasco which aren't in the Manifesto.
He is already doing better at uniting the Parluamentary Labour Party than KS, who only seemed to be concerned about one very narrow faction. And he has far more ministerial experience than KS.

The key issue I see with politics now is that it's all about personality rather than policy - and this applied to the Conservatives as well..

When the key issue is how to stop the managed economic decline and create economic growth, there's not a peep out of Labour.

The problem is that popular personalities have a very short shelf life, what sustains them and wins elections is actual results and actual policies that deliver what the public wants.

Yeah. UK is a hidden tax haven. There is a tax for everything and it all adds up.
Plus the mortgage and the car ( which goes to the banks). And the average household is left with quite little these days.

I think the 400 odd Labour MPs who would lose their seats might have something to say about this!

I really can't see a snap election happening , as much as I think one should be called .

Yes I have cut my hours as has my DH. With 4 DC we are really busy and they can’t expect both of us to slave away more to the system than we get to keep for ourselves. It is completely unreasonable. We are also telling our DC to look for jobs with work life balance and to move to cheaper areas of the country. Lots of people are choosing balance over full career because of the tax system and no it’s not creating more jobs for others, it’s just plain and simple inefficiency.

Yes, but it's marginal tax rates that drive behaviour. People are going to think twice about working an extra shift, an extra day, taking a promotion, etc., if their deductions (tax, student loans, NIC, etc) are 62% or higher. Even more will take drastic action if a promotion or pay rise or extra shift takes them over £100k where they lose free childcare. Likewise at the bottom end of the scale where an extra shift in a corner shop may mean someone losing their free prescriptions or rent/council tax support, or 25-30% tax and NIC at the same time as losing some of their Universal credit. Averages don't matter when it comes to decision making, i.e. extra shift, extra day, promotion, etc - it's marginal rates that drive such behaviour.

We have public servants, but we also need leaders.
Politics doesn't work without politicians.

And that’s not specific to high earners. In fact low income households pay proportionately more when VAT, road tax, fuel duty, etc are included.