Burnham unopposed & likely to be PM by mid July

“Do you know anyone with a working class made up sob story?”

@MulberryBrandy - yes loads. And usually revolves around going to Oxford and not being quite as privileged as the rest of them there and then carrying a chip for the rest of your life via envy.
When to the common man anyone going to Oxford and getting that chance is uber privileged and damn lucky to have been given that amazing opportunity.

The NEU are clear.

They’re asking for Phillipson to go, the policy has been a failure.

It was disingenuous of Badenoch to quote the poll without being clear.

It is disingenuous of you, once this was pointed out. to imply that your anecdata of state school teachers means that a state teacher poll result would be the same.

Badenoch is the more disingenuous, if that helps.

Do you know anyone with a working class made up sob story?

I quoted Hansard and the debate in Parliament.

And as someone who has multiple children and is in school governance and speaks to heads and deputies and teachers regularly, I do know how they feel and what the funding situation is like.

I don’t disagree that there is dissatisfaction (though I’m not sure teachers ever love the education secretary, as a group).

But it is disingenuous to quote a specific poll without noting that the poll was of private school teachers.

Maybe you’ve got a link to a poll of state school teachers?

@blossomtoes - the NEU and state sector teachers largely feel the same! Especially about the SEND and underfunding.

Yes it’ll likely cost BP her job too.

“Bridget Phillipson’s promised 6,500 extra teachers have failed to materialise. She has been reduced to creative accounting in order to talk up historic lows in recruitment and deny the continued crisis in retention. The reasons for this are clear. It is workload, it is pay, it is a complete lack of adequate funding. Those on the frontline have no faith that help is coming.

“Educators have lost confidence in Bridget Phillipson, and Labour members have lost confidence in the government's direction. The party as a whole needs a fundamental change of direction, starting with education. That means new leadership at the top of the party and new leadership in the Department for Education.”

https://neu.org.uk/latest/press-releases/government-fails-new-polls-teachers-and-support-staff-and-labours-own-members

Ed Miliband is like your mother’s stinky old sofa that she insists that you keep in your conservatory, part of the furniture you cannot get rid of but really should because every toddler and lab or Siamese cat has peed on it at least once.

Basically, all the champagne socialists with the working class made up sob stories that are fake and lacking in competence should be in for the chop if we a stand any chance of change and becoming a dynamic forward looking country again.

And I am pro green agenda, just not in the fake Milliband way (eg carbon capture). When sorting out the grid first is far more urgent.

That poll was only of teachers in the independent sector.

“For those who raised their hands—the two people who raised their hands—yesterday, a poll found that 0% of teachers think that the Education Secretary is doing a good job. She taxed private schools to pay for more teachers, but the number of teachers has gone down. It turns out that appointing a spiteful class warrior as Education Secretary was a disaster. Does the Prime Minister agree that he has been let down by her incompetence?”
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2026-06-24/debates/E50E9137-E975-4D13-A4E2-F1B54319E788/PrimeMinister

Parliamentary privilege et al.. Go Kemi! Education has never been this bad and the SEND and funding crisis is absolutely real. Unless they sort that out properly, there won’t be any more teachers.

Ed Miliband is an educated man who is wrong about everything. The most damming thing he is wrong about is Ed Miliband, who is a thin-skinned, arrogant zealot hiding in the body of a substitute Geography teacher, not a Big Beast.

Rachel Reeves has meanwhile declared she has unfinished business as Chancellor in a pitch to keep her job under Andy Burnham.

Give me strength…

How things change. Thinking back to Ed v David challenge

How much of a nut zero cultist do you need to be that even the unions don’t want you in charge! Brilliant.

Two of Britain’s biggest trade unions are increasing pressure on Andy Burnham not to pick Ed Miliband as the UK’s next finance minister, arguing that his North Sea oil policy has damaged jobs in the sector.

Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite the Union, and Gary Smith, general secretary of the GMB — two unions that are major donors to the Labour Party — have both pushed the likely next prime minister to choose an alternative candidate to run the Treasury.

Thank you! Will have a watch.

Yes, one of which was him being compelled to leave her in situ, despite her obvious shortcomings and incompetence.

To add to his failings, Starmer was evidently not blessed with a functioning antennae when it came to people.

Ed Davey completely owned the Commons. He said that amidst their robustness in the House they should still all remember they are human. He then just paused, and paused, and looked. And everyone knew it was Badenoch that was off ...

From 17.30
Prime Minister's Questions - 24/06/2026 - BBC iPlayer

Although she still needs to go and Phillipson too, thankfully looks likely given the press release from the NEU.

I think it’s more on him. It’s his own failings.

It's a clever ad from the Lib dems.

I missed PMQs yesterday - what happened?

Reeves is toxic, I’m afraid.

In large part, she is responsible for Starmer’s demise.

Reeves and Phillipson really need to go. Phillipson has really failed education and SEND and is the worst representation of Labour spite. If she doesn’t go there is no change! She is the prime person who needs the chop!

I think it's established that (a) nobody can clear the bar for nomination and (b) even if they could then barring something earth shattering Burnham would win a membership ballot hands down.

Very good. And the pregnant pause at PMQs yesterday.