Do you want a change of leader?

@MissCharlotteLutterell - there is also council tax, road tax, VAT at 20% on everything you spend pretty much. It adds up to roughly 60%. DH and I did the calculations.

We don't need leaders. We need public servants who serve the people.

I think your maths is wrong. Even when you are in the marginal band of just over 60% (which I agree is dotty but is a Tory policy/legacy) far larger slices of income are charged at 0%, 20% and 45%.

So someone earning, say, £110k pays income tax at an overall rate of 34.2%. I hope you feel better now. 😎

source: HMRC calculator www.tax.service.gov.uk/estimate-paye-take-home-pay/

Low taxes? Is that a joke. Plenty of us have been paying more than 60 per cent on our income for the last few years and have the highest tax burden since world war 2. So yes in return we deserve good public services. Most people in this country don’t pay their way, that is a fact.

Well I’ve seen that Burnham hasn’t ruled out a snap election, so it looks like we’re on track for a Reform Government / Reform Tory coalition then. I’m absolutely flabbergasted that Burnham thinks Labour would even come close to winning when they are doing so badly in the polls at the moment. Seriously, what planet are these people on? They would have been better off leaving Starmer in power. Not a fan of Labour myself, but certainly not a fan of Reform either. Worrying times ahead.

We have an ungovernable country driven by a public desire for excellent public services and low taxes which is incompatible. Social media and cynical grifters like Farage are trying to split society. Far right extremists are using racism as a weapon to get themselves into power. Russia and other bad actors are finding their money can destabilise the country quite cheaply. Good luck trying to sort all that out

A new chancellor who can undo at least some of the huge amount of damage caused by Rachel Reeves would be a very good start. We shall wait and see.

I don't understand your sentence 'Burnham's whole schtick seems to be that he likes Angela Rayner is more in touch with the party's soul because Northern'.
What does it mean?

That somebody from the North, or Scotland, is more innately authentic a labour politician.

Look at the groans every time Starmer told people his father did manual work. Bo one believed him and it felt like he had to keep saying that to re emphasise his working class credentials to count as labour. Burnham doesn't need to parrot "my father was a telecoms engineer and my mother was a GP receptionist" .

For instance, Burnham doesn't have the largest political mandate as Manchester mayor. That's Sadiq Khan as London mayor. He's also generally well thought of by London voters.
So why isn't he being fast tracked to take over from Starmer?

No one else got enough votes to stand against him so he became Leader, and consequently PM. Sounds like that is what will happen now .....

Did Gordon Brown 'push Blair out'? I clearly remember he took over, and he hadn't been elected to the position by way of a General Election, but what are the details of this push? I don't think they liked one another and I do think they had an arrangement that Brown would take over but I genuinely don't remember why.

He'll go on to better things that's for sure - let's all hope the same for the country, that is my concern ...

I don't understand your sentence 'Burnham's whole schtick seems to be that he likes Angela Rayner is more in touch with the party's soul because Northern'.
What does it mean?

The PM's job is really a poisoned chalice

Rishi Sunak warns against a coronation as he had

https://nitter.net/RishiSunak/status/2068574639799124444#m

Political capital now depreciates faster than ever. Across Europe, leaders are facing the same pressures, from weak growth to rising defence spending and a state that too often cannot deliver. These are arduous times for incumbents. Anyone who wants to govern should understand why.

https://www.thetimes.com/business/economics/article/rishi-sunak-andy-burnham-skl889lxs

Archive ph doesn't seem to be working

Why on earth would he want to 'clock up some more mileage'? The sooner he's gone the better - this morning's debacle was a complete humiliation for him.

Starmer in at number 43 of prime ministers by tenure. He's still PM but has resigned as Labour leader so he can still clock up some more mileage

He's actually overtaken Sunak

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prime_ministers_of_the_United_Kingdom_by_length_of_tenure

Market expects Burnham and eg Streeting as Chancellor to make difficult decisions.
Those on the Left, be careful what you wished for. If a more left winger comes in especially as Chancellor, we will all be screwed. The pound will tank, it will be worse than Liz Truss.

The pound seems to be going up slightly. Which means the market expects a Chancellor to come in and a PM who is less left wing, not more. Someone who is going to cut costs.

💯

No, I want a change in policies which will benefit the uk. The leader is irrelevant.

Saw a comment elsewhere that in 18 months labour MPs will be at the same position and wondering if Darren Jones could make a good PM.

Burnham's whole schtick seems to be that he likes Angles Rayner is more in touch with the party's soul because Northern. The assumption is that he will try and level up the north as it were. But here's the thing. The population is increasingly below the midlands in terms of residence. Quite a lot of the decreases in funding have been because of the funding formulae that base sums on population count. I'm not sure Labour except for London, which he seems to think is too dominant, quite wants southern supporters

Absolutely not. This is a huge mistake.

Over on the green woes thread, the upcoming competition for votes has already been likened to a "dick swinging contest", Kemi excepted.

It's going to be Burnham, Farage, Lowe and Polanski. Will no one think of Ed Davey

Oh great. We are a banana republic now.
Burnham will not be able to magically fix the country, and neither will Farage or Kemi or Lowe.

Of course it’s not just ‘media froth’. Labour MPs want a different leader to shore up their jobs. It might not work and they lose the next GE anyway. But it’s MPs driving this.