Andy B’s speech

He writes his own speeches. And that’s verified from a number of sources from Downing Street to his wife. Nobody else could write something so heartfelt and so personal. And I say that as someone who used to write speeches professionally for other people.

The polls currently suggest they're on the wane, thankfully. There is a long way to go though. I hope Badenoch can pull her socks up and win back some of the Reform supporters.

They aren't small but I don't think their support is wide. They get a lot of votes in poorer towns and deprived coastal areas. They would benefit from PR. I may be wrong. I also think they are on the wane.

Talk is cheap. The country is falling apart so I’ll judge him on his actions not his words because anyone can read a speech that’s been prepared by a team of people.

Given Labour wish to strengthen union powers and those running the water companies if nationalised will he public sector workers, will they have the right to strike?

They would have for sure at the last GE given number of votes. It’s hard to say for the next one. They’re not small anymore, comparatively.

All smaller parties with deep pockets of support like Reform would benefit massively from PR. They lose out under fptp. That's always been the case.

When you are in hospital it is temporary it is not your home and you will hopefully go home at some point or into care. But if you are permanently in residential care that is your home. It is fair enough to pay for accommodation costs and food in that case.

Eta: NHS continuing healthcare is obviously different. And very hard to secure.

No. When you are in hospital you still have to pay your mortgage or rent. It's not your home.

If that’s the majority of the bill, it won’t feel like a national care service that’s on a par with the national health service. Surely paying for accommodation and food in hospital is reasonable by your argument?

Yes there was.

It is not really about the speech for me. He is simply clearly far smarter than the rest (especially Farage, and also smarter than Badenoch) - so for that alone, I would trust him more. If he needs to make certain speeches to make Milliband cry to get some of Labour onside so be it. I am simply interested in someone competent who can sort the mess out and it really is an almighty mess at this point.

Nothing on immigration or defence ?? !!!

I completely agree with it being a low bar - in fact, the main reason I personally liked it is - having found myself feeling completely disillusioned with politics for many years - it was the first speech I’ve heard in a long time by any politician, from any party, that made me really sit up and listen.

(I don’t think I’ve said it was the best speech ever, by the way - more that I was very pleasantly surprised and impressed by it, and also that I’ve seen it highly praised in the media including from some fairly unexpected quarters)

Yes. It would be nice if it was run on a not for profit basis. But that might be asking too much.

Glad to hear it. Paying for accommodation and food is reasonable

Some people said they liked having a prime minister that was an adult rather than wittering on about Peppa pig like Boris johnson. So his speech was praised, but it was in comparison to a very low bar. Nobody said it was the best speech ever.

I think it will also pay for personal care in care homes, but the accommodation element will still need to be paid for. Similar to Scotland.

Billionaires have a lot to do with it @Pineneedlesincarpet. They own our utility companies now. Most of them are foreign so they’ve never lived here or paid tax on the profits they extort from us
A lot of water/electricity shares are owned by foreign government pension schemes ( for example the Toronto government I think has or used to own a lot and I think the French) They weren't stupid enough to privatise their own utilities and they have made a lot of money for their own public servants out of successive UK government short termism, incompetence, laziness and greed. It's not the 'billionnaires' who have caused the problem. It's that they have been completely unregulated for decades. They ran a monopoly and basically shovelled money into directors and shareholders pockets for decades while OFWAT ( a government regulator) sat around doing nothing.

Nobody ever described a Starmer speech as the best political speech of their lifetime. Several commentators said that about Burnham’s yesterday. Even Andrew Marr who isn’t easily impressed.

That’s interesting - I wasn’t on mumsnet when Starmer did his first party conference speech, so, I don’t know what the reception on here was like, but I don’t remember the media in general being as glowing about it as they are about Burnham’s, were they? Speaking personally, I definitely don’t think Starmer ever gave a speech in anything near the same league as yesterday’s, and I don’t think we’ve had a leading politician with as much rhetorical skill since maybe David Cameron.

I do know what you mean about the stuff on dementia care feeling very raw and personal, but I think social care has been a mission of Andy Burnham’s for a long time, I certainly remember him talking about it a lot as health secretary.

It felt such a relief to hear a PM with a vision.

Mostly in violent agreement with everything (and I personally benefit from the triple lock and have saved to pay for my own care).

Some reality checks

• funding. Where is money going to come from to pay for things? watering down the triple lock is not going to pay for a national care service, or buying the water companies back. Where is growth going to come from?
• what's the actual promise on care? I hope the focus will start with proper funding for current services rather than trying to fund free care for everyone so their children can inherit

I agree with all of that except the runways point. Water really must be sorted out. Thames Water should just be declared bankrupt and taken back with no compensation. The shareholders have had their fill of our money.

The debt for water companies is very high. It could be transferred to tax payers but it will cost.

On Brexit if he runs on it and it’s a no thanks, at least it’s settled for a while.

Water companies do need sorting out - they have a monopoly and there is zero competition unlike in other utilities. It is the lack of competition and the fact that water is going to be an increasingly scarce resource. So I don’t think he needs to be selling this as some sort of massive leftie renationalisation thing, it makes sense anyway. Same with social care, it saves the NHS and saves money in the long run, if properly staffed and planned.
The thing I did not like though is the whole chat around the Manchester run way vs Heathrow. We might need both. We need lots of infrastructure projects. However, unless we learn from other countries on how they do these far better, far cheaper and far quicker - that is the real thing we need to get to the bottom of first.