Thread 17: Starmer: Treading softly.

[DuncinToffee]

Lettuce pray

Keep it civil

Cat, dog, flowers tax much appreciated

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5257111-thread-16-starmer-mad-world?page=40

Do you mean better paid jobs for all the current UK workforce @bombastix ?
I think everyone should be paid a decent wage , I also feel strongly about supporting well paid apprenticeships and other training schemes.
Especially for the young but not exclusively so.
People can lose their job at any age so it would be grand if there were more possibilities for retraining in another field and up skilling.
It would also be very good if Journalists could properly question Farage instead of just giving him a platform to sond off. unchallenged.

Sound off , that should say.

I think Labour are making changes to apprenticeships @Elodie09 to enable a wider group to be recruited. Age should not be a limiting factor but the relative public spending on our young people is very low. We need to invest in them. If they do not see good lives or prospects then they will not succeed in the way previous generations did.

They must get into debt, compete globally for jobs thanks to the Conservatives, face stagnant wages and housing costs which are incredibly high. I do not think this is al that visible to older generations in the UK sometimes.

I am all about a triple lock for education and training for the next five years. Not pensions

They mentioned on the news that the minimum maths and English marks are being scrapped for 19 year olds

I thought you meant to type 'sod off' @Elodie09

Mr Brexit is slowly becoming the face of British farming.....

Oh, @DuncinToffee I nearly posted something about that too!
When I saw him yesterday (or was it sunday) on the news all tuckered up in his pseudo farmer's outfit of Barbour jacket, scarf and flat cap I would have laughed, except that he is so utterly shameless jumping from one cause to the next.
People know and remember what he was up to in Brussels as an MEP and still they fawn over him.
So maybe @BIWI sod off was my intention after all!

Farage will grow and grow and grow as long both major parties in the UK do not deal with immigration. This is legal immigration. The figures are not discussed

All Farage will need to do at the next election will be to go on about the migration figures. Labour are toast unless they can show a clear plan about migration figures. Reversing most of what the Conservatives did since 2019 would be a good start

I don't agree @bombastix .

I can't remember if it was YouGov or another polling outfit which produced a poll before the GE on what people in the UK are most concerned about. Immigration was not at the top of the list. That is why, despite everything, Reform only got 5 seats. There is still only a limited cohort in the UK which buys into Farage's rhetoric. Those who don't will never be swayed by his xenophobia.

The only way Reform will secure a significant number of seats is if PR is introduced. Also remember, some of its core voters will have dropped off their perches by 2029. Finally, if there is a real threat from Reform come 2029, I truly believe that the rest of the non-rabidly right wing electorate, including One Nation Tories, will vote tactically to keep Farage in his box.

I hope I am wrong @PandoraSox but I think migration is going up and up in the public narrative. And with some justification- the figures are unsustainable in my view. I accept others feel differently.

Labour need to address it. It would simply be too easy for Reform to leverage migration figures further than they have done already. People will feel they are being lied to. They do already. This isn't about lefties, but the fact that Starmer has a very disparate vote which has all but evaporated in the first seven months of government. Those voters are going in part to Reform.

My eyes really are knackered. I pondered for a moment why Farage would need a cat flap.

To be fair, it is the media that is making Farage look like the spokesman for farmers, people like Liz Webster are definitely anti Farage and anti Brexit.

I know he has farm land so the IHT must worry him greatly.

Maybe Farage can do for the farmers what he did for the fishermen ?

Migration will continue to be the topic des nos jours for as long as whenever you look around and see broken, broken shit. Even I can understand that.

The only way to counter that message is to get shit working. And I really hope the government are aware that if we as a nation had wanted pathetic self serving whining about how it was all the fault of a bigger boy who ran away, them as a nation we would have re-elected the Tories.

Good on Wes Streeting

https://bsky.app/profile/politics-co-uk.bsky.social/post/3lhvy7yid4k2e

“The minister for public health [Ashley Dalton] believes in treating every human being with the dignity and respect they deserve. Even the honourable gentleman”

🔴 Wes Streeting hits back after Lee Anderon questions minister's llama comment

The comment underneath that blue sky thread sums up 30p Lee very succinctly.

This is awful

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/11/uk-home-office-citizenship-refugees-dangerous-journey

UK to refuse citizenship to refugees who have ‘made a dangerous journey’

Home Office accused of shutting out thousands, as new guidance says those applicants will ‘normally be refused’

That's contradictory. It's not illegal to cross the channel, immediately hand yourself over and claim asylum. It's not illegal to cross the channel in a boat (how small is small?).
It could be argued that travelling by plane is dangerous (especially in America or Russia currently) so who and what defines what a dangerous means of transport is?

Getting in a car is dangerous. Riding a horse is dangerous. Walking in the streets after dark is deemed by some on here to be dangerous. Who and what defines a dangerous journey?

That's horrific. If I had a Labour MP, I'd write to them. But I've got Nick Timothy, who is bound to think this is great.

Labour has suspended 11 councillors in Greater Manchester as part of an investigation into a WhatsApp group where offensive messages were shared.

I saw this and thought of y'all

It's to be expected. So glad it's being done. I hope this further extends to other areas in the North West as well.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/11/labour-suspends-12-members-who-joined-offensive-whatsapp-group

I have to add and didn't want to edit, that desks and internet history are probably being deleted now by a few others. What a shame there's over a hundred pages of posts that are incriminating.

That’s horrific. I’ve emailed my (Labour) MP who does good work with local refugees and asylum seekers. See what he says.

Elmo: "First of all, some of the things I say will be incorrect"...

https://bsky.app/profile/acyn.bsky.social/post/3lhwn7y7qc32p

Is he doing a press conference with a child on his shoulder?

Who @PickAChew ?