Half the country seems to be anti Starmer, anti Rayner, anti Labour, so…

[Lenelovich]

If they’re so bad, who’d genuinely do a better job and why has the honeymoon been so short ?
Most of the Tory leadership candidates are guilty of much worse plus the UK is in an absolute state unless you live in Tunbridge Wells or Guildford so logically they really should not be having another turn.
Farage hasn’t got a clue and most of his plans, although popular, in reality are economically unviable and would bankrupt the country.
Leaves Ed Davey and the Lib Dems who like Labour are on the whole untried and untested but relatively untainted.
Any ideas ? Or is this criticism just a SM thing and most folk are willing to give them a chance ?

Yes to all of this and echo the plea to drop the nonsensical “adults being back in the room”.

The press is Tory owned, so never has anything good to say about Labour, and people believe everything they read in the papers, just like they did in lockdown.

Having worked for the DWP for 15 years.. the two child benefit cap is one of the most evil things in modern times and Starmer has shown us who he is when he suspended MPs for even daring to suggest it was abolished. The juxtaposition of him supporting child poverty while grubbing about for every freebie he can get his hands on is horrifying. I honestly don't know how people can defend him.

Poor old Labour. The press kept clear of partygate, didn’t stir re Sunak’s partner, and no vast profits from stories on the last gov

The press were with Labour pre GE, they’ve stuffed up by themselves

Since the alternative to a privately owned press is the rather chilling thought of a state owned press, I think the current situation is the lesser of two evils. Do we think a state owned press would have championed the cause of the postmasters claim agains the state...?

I always thought that the Mirror and Guardian were left wing. The Sun tends to change with whoever they think is going to win the election. I think they supported Conservatives under Thatcher, then switched to support Labour under Blair. In this election they switched back from Conservative to Labour. Daily Mail has always been right wing.

Well here lies the argument that why should there be a "press propaganda" industry anyway.

The press don't give you information, they never have. They give you spin.

The Tories were vile, it is beyond words how disgusting they have been. But they got in because people had had enough of the benefits system being abused (which was not just media spin, they had created an astonishing benefits culture, the like of which has never been seen before or since anywhere in the world, and there were plenty who had a VERY flush lifestyle on it. The legend of it alone still draws millions to the country), also Brown and selling of the gold reserves, and we won't even go into the war criminal that is Blair. Labour deserved to be thrown out, they'd bankrupted the country.
The Tories then proceeded to spend the next decade and a half behaving essentially like Vikings, openly robbing and asset stripping the country, in surely the biggest wealth transfer and asset grab since the Norman's (whose descendants today still hold much of the wealth and land.)
Now Starmer has come in and immediately shows us how undeniably inadequate and self-serving he is. Shamelessly so.
The travesty in this country is we are trapped in a system and culture which means there is just endless cycling between two simila and equally terrible parties.

It's not just the Daily Mail, it's also the Express, the Times (though they are less rabid) and the Telegraph. If you look at it by circulation, the right wing press dominate. And if you look at who owns the right wing press, it's worrying. I would vehemently oppose any move towards a state owned media. I would just like to see more balance.

Oh am not sure shutting down the press is the answer... Better education in crtical thinking skills might help however! But, then how do you prevent bias in the teaching profession and state indoctrination...

The press goes for anyone

The DM got loads of clicks from partygate and the rest, anyone who thinks otherwise really must have avoided headlines

I would love Starmer to have said he’d been offered gifts of clothes for his family, but declined. He could absolutely have capitalised on the opportunity to take the higher moral ground. Hypocrisy and poor judgment butter no parsnips (even if within the so called rules).

The issue is far deeper than just the UK and certainly bigger than just Labour and Starmer. All countries are sticking plasters on the gaping wounds inflicted by end-stage capitalism. More and more money being sucked into global corporations which have become more powerful than many nations.
But within the context of Labour, it is certainly hypocritical that they're getting battered by the right wing press when the Tories were the highest taxing government that there has ever been. Obviously they were cleverer about it than 70s Labour because they didn't concentrate solely on income tax, but it's going to be difficult for Labour to keep people happy when they're following on from that. Unless they want to genuinely become left wing and start taxing the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft etc etc. Which of course will never happen.

Unless they want to genuinely become left wing and start taxing the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft etc etc. Which of course will never happen.

@Namechangeforadhd
Im sure they would if they could and there must be a good reason why they can’t.
However, I wonder what would happen if they did. Would these companies then shut down operations in UK?

I’d love to see the differences in policy.

Labour have lied and royally fucked up the honeymoon period when people are meant to be grateful for a breath of fresh air and a new direction yet it’s more of the same.

A breathtaking 32k worth of freebies for Starmer at last count and it’s all lies, greed, sleaze.

It’s possible that Starmer’s playing a long game, and his strategy is not to bother with the honeymoon period; instead he’s going for let people get angry with him, get all the unpopular stuff done now, let the media dig up whatever dirt they find: let the scandals run and die out now, rather than later. Note that he’s not theatrically denying them, unlike Johnson, who would have said at every opportunity “I swear to you, hand on heart, that I did not take any freebies”. If labour actually do manage to turn things around in due course, and people start to feel better, much of the gloom now will be forgotten later. He’s making a point of promising nothing now, unlike the Johnson and Blair, who promised miracles early on.

It is a very, very big “if”, though. Also, although Starmer is new to being in government himself, he’s had plenty of time to observe what has happened to previous governments.

@Barbadossunset
I know. It would certainly take a brave/revolutionary (some might say, mad) government to stand up to these global powers. Any govt that tried would end up a pariah I'm sure.

I think you could be on to something.
And if Labour don’t improve th8ngs, this bad press will be irrelevant anyway. It’s really a load of fuss about nothing. Wise to ignore and just keep in doing what he thinks is right. Time will tell if it is or isn’t - but judging it before it even starts is madness.

He’s making a point of promising nothing now

Well that’s not really true. He promised loads pre GE and I’m guessing people have noticed as Liar is coming back in polling

it would certainly take a brave/revolutionary (some might say, mad) government to stand up to these global powers.

Namechange - I looked it up and found the following;
We cannot accept any orders for delivery to the following countries:

• Cuba
• Iran
• North Korea
• Sudan
• Syria

There was also a long list ‘of locations also restrict certain items due to their content’ including China, Japan and Saudi Arabia, but I don’t know what items are restricted where - presumably alcohol to some countries in the Middle East.

So I suppose all the countries who do allow Amazon would have to agree to a global tax.

If that was true, he wouldn’t have capitulated on the clothing donations, he wouldn’t be being so hardline on his own MPs and he’d actually be doing what he said he would do.

I don’t think they do have a coherent plan, and are surprised that just saying nothing, which works when you are in opposition up against a government on the ropes, doesn’t work when you are the government.

What do you mean by ‘capitulated on the clothing donations’?
Well just have to disagree about the plan. Stuff they’ve done already (and no, I don’t agree with everything) shows there clearly is a plan, more of whoch will become clear in the budget I imagine. To say ‘there’s no plan’ after only weeks of a parliamentary session and before the budget shows you are just saying what you would like to be true.

An OAP on a pound per week above pension credit threshold ISN'T a "benefit scrounger" and WILL be worse off by the removal of their WFA!

Few people have a problem with the WFA being removed from "richer" pensioners, but Labour have set the threshold at a stupidly low level.

If they'd have set it at the same £60k threshold they use for child benefit clawback, they'll have had a lot more support and relatively few OAPs would have been badly affected.

Their foul up re WFA shows how incompetent they are as they clearly didn't think it through!

Capitulating by saying he and his top team won’t accept any more donations of clothes :)

If there is a plan, why commit to the 100 days and then say nothing?
Why have the budget, a key event in any plan, after the period of the 100 day plan you’ve announced?
Why let the vacuum be filled with a month of noise on cronyism, donations, freebies instead of inspiring the country, business and the world with some clear leadership.

I’d love them to show some leadership and competence, as that’s what people, businesses and our global neighbours want. But we see already that his bold announcements are just words, with little substance.

Look at the statement about resetting relationships with Europe; his intentions have already been not so subtly rebuffed. Yes, they are happy to talk, and work together. But have made it clear they are not changing anything that’s been negotiated. Then there are bold claims about settling the doctors and rail disputes…except both have said they’ll be back on strike again next year. And so on and so on.

They are squandering so much opportunity.

Again, your post is your assumptions about what will happen (apart from the donations - and that was a bit odd all round as it wasn’t either against the rules or unusual). Let’s wait for the budget. And not assume that ongoing dialogue with anyone is pointless - do you know how diplomacy and negotiation works?