Continuation of AR housing thread

[TheNuthatch]

Continuation of the Angela from housing thread. For those who want to moan about the government and share thoughts and articles.

I commented on the wrong thread, I'm no starmer fan but I've just seen the press conference and starmer has a very hard tightrope to walk and he did it well

I think he's practising and been briefed very well.
Played trumps line but also seemed to push zelensky and trump praised zelensky etc.

So far so good and maybe even a great trade deal??

Thank you for the updates everyone 💐

Sounds like Starmer did OK then? I can't see anything about a security backstop being agreed though?

Trade deal might be good but no move on back stop

Jd vance pushed the free speech and starmer said proud of free speech and vance said we will talk more at lunch.

So
How will starmer defend himself??

Eastern I think this mineral deal is the back stop.

If trump gets this rare earth thing, putin wouldn't dare go for Ukraine.. Nato is USA we know that now more clearly than ever and without going head to head with putin, it's a good way of getting a foothold into Ukraine to defend getting so called money back.... And discreetly providing that guarantee...

So far I fhj think he's done extremely well and really bigged up Charles thing and he's swollowing bees here 😂😂.

His vocabulary mirrored Trump’s.

He used expressions like “tremendous” which he doesn’t usually.

He was prepared.

I'm not generally very keen on Starmer but I think he did do well today. I think the letter from Charles was a master stroke in view of how much Trump is in awe of the Royals.

Yes I noticed that too Chardonnay.

He also said 'working people' BINGO 😂

Just watching it back.
The fireside chat looked awkward with the russia question, and JD Vance!

@PuttingouttheFirewithGasoline yes it's so interesting

The US workers to be left alone by Putin, one hopes

And that's a kind of security

Although I'm pretty sure I heard a few times peacekeepers would not be sent under the NATO umbrella so we're really doing it as U.K. and France

US are right to feel more secure anyway

I’ll watch the whole thing later.
But Starmer did well, and I’m glad. The stakes are very high.

Agreed, he did well.
Fingers crossed things go as well for Zelenskyy tomorrow.

@ChardonnaysBeastlyCat yes definitely and the touching 🤣🤣.

He's prepared or been uploaded correctly

Hopefully Ukraine deal will go ahead well

Chagos will cost us billions, it's madness. We don't even have to do it.

That could go to other defence spending instead.

Yes, I have my fingers crossed that there's a road out of this war and that Tump and Zelensky have a decent meeting today.

Like you, I just can't understand why we are doing the Chagos deal. It's such, such an expensive way to achieve fuck all. That shit bag Russell Moyle <spits on ground> was suggesting it's a priority only because the political class feel so embarrassed about it - I hope there's no truth to that.

@Upstartled ik it's really so bad

I think Starmer / Lammy and co are so bound up in 'winning' on this they will go with it despite costing us huge amounts for no reason

They were cock a hoop and the media were too over Trump saying yes to it.

Of course he will be fine with a lease, we're paying!

So bad for us taxpayers and petty politics

The details of the UK/US FTA will be interesting. It seems to have failed previously due to protecting the NHS, and us not wanting chlorinated chicken etc.

I'm disappointed re chagos too. Agree with ES that they just want to win, whatever the cost.

Let's see what comes out in the wash. Trump was on his best behaviour yesterday, holding his party invitation from the king. He may change tack yet.

Like you, I just can't understand why we are doing the Chagos deal.

I agree. Could it be to do with sucking up to the Chinese Communist Party?

It seems certain posters are upset that most of us approve of Starmer's performance.
There's no pleasing some folk!

Funny that!

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

It must be hard to see that the criticisms that we might have about how Starmer and Labour behaves cannot be reduced to mere petty tribalism and actually reflects genuine disappointment and apprehension resulting from poor policy decisions.

Anneliese Dodds has resigned as International Development minister due to cuts in foreign aid.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/28/anneliese-dodds-resigns-keir-starmer-cut-aid-budget

Just reading about that.

Her letter is good and spells out the problems well.

Someone horse whisper Chagos to Starmer and Lammy...

Another one bites the dust.

At least she is sticking to her principles, unlike Starmer who changes them weekly. I admire that.

Sky are reporting that the leaders of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (remember Starmer's photo shoot with troops in Estonia) have all been excluded from this weekend's summit of European leaders.
All big supporters of Nato and Ukraine, and guardians of Europe's eastern flank.

Why would they deliberately exclude the baltics?