Thread 24 Starmer -Casting the net wider

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5329855-thread-23-starmer-reflux-remedy?page=40&reply=144419737

If Angela Rayner achieved a tenth of what Barbara Castle achieved, it would still be a great success.

Maybe they can stop the practice of developers buying up plots and then trickling out the housing to keep the supply low and therefore the price high.

I have said it many times. The UK doesn't have a housing shortage. It has an accommodation shortage. However hard to spell things aren't very campaign friendly.

Without the stupid WFA and even more avoidable 'expenses stuff, Labour would be doing better... but we are where we are....

Starmer is the issue here, he seems to be widely disliked...... he appears to lack vision and comms skills, whether thats down to advisors, his personality or the very negative press he gets, i don't know but unless this changes, then Labour are heading for a huge defeat in 2029 and we'll get a Reform Govt.

He needs to get a grip on policies that affects peoples lives day to day... 2 child cap, dental care, state of roads, energy costs, water... i mean who the fuck thought it was a great idea to scrap the £50 rebate customers of SWW got?

We got this because our bills are so much higher than anywhere else... madness!! Very unpopular... and save the Govt a pittance, yet gives the impression Starmer is little better than the Tories, well actually the view i get is he is worse.

I think he will have to resign and within 12months if things don't improve.

Eek! My how the mighty have fallen. 🤣

What do you mean? i have never supported Starmer..

Not sure on the resignation. And fantastic unpopularity doesn’t mean you don’t win elections because given our current state of affairs whatever party wins, they will be a minority vote.

However, the domestic agenda is… where? We are a year in nearly, and 18 months in successful governments are buzzing with work and delivering. Obviously we are not there yet, but why do people vote Labour? They do it to patch up and improve the country post Tory neglect. That’s why Starmer got his famous victory, it wasn’t because he’s charismatic! Reeves and her milk monitor attitude to the economy has been a disappointment to me. I did not like the sexism against her at first. But if she cannot deliver then out she goes.

Starmer made Labour electable again, but he was never going to be shiny charismatic Prime Minister material. He's shown that he's good internationally, and it's a shame that it would never have been possible for him to be the Foreign Secretary and for someone else to be the PM.

Saw this raised on another thread and felt I had to share it...
www.telegraph.co.uk/money/earn-345k-soaring-private-school-fees/

I'm not buying the "Labour are in trouble" line quite as easily as some. Mainly because I know what cui bono? means.

Lets see what the narrative is in 2028, when the run up to the next election starts.

Just out of curiosity, has any government been glad handed in their first year ? Of course not.

I’m deeply disappointed in him. Why couldn’t he have been a dull and efficient PM. Instead he turned out to be a serial liar and grifter. But Id rather have him than Angela Rayner.

No, you can’t write them off. But as much as I like Starmer’s performance overseas, it doesn’t reassure in one way. Most UK PMs drift into foreign affairs as a distraction from domestic difficulties and I want Labour to really get front and centre on the UK itself. I am serious about 18 months in. If this government isn’t absolutely running at full chat by then I would be concerned. Politics is not just about fixing problems but communication and constantly shaping the agenda. You have to do both.

Reform would not be doing half as well as they without this cheese paring perception Reeves has generated. This “pub” is emblematic of what they need to deal with.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/reform-uk-pub-the-talbot-blackpool-review-farage-b2752198.html

God help us all.

I am seriously down about things. I knew it would very tough for Labour, but I didn't imagine it would be this bad. 😕 Some of it is of their own making, too.

In Wales we don't have the luxury of hoping things turn round by 2028. Much as Welsh Labour try to distance themselves from Westminster Labour, it is still tainted as the polls show.

Starmer has never really been popular.

No. He’s been given a pass given the mess the Tories made. That’s it.

Rory Stewart made two good observations about Labour and their victory; firstly it wasn’t a validation of Starmer and that his collation of voters looked fragile (and so it has turned out to be) and second, that Reeves would struggle given her party’s position on tax which was too tight. He’s been right on both. The cure is the economy growing which is… not so amazing

I've never really understood why there is some sort of naive belief that there has to be a Scottish and Welsh version of Labour and Conservative. Moreover why voters in the other countries in the UK seem to think that a party derived from English politics has anything whatsoever to offer them. It can seem at time that the only thing they have in common is the name.

(I'll be the first to admit that the constitutional settlement of the UK is definitely the product of history, and unsustainable in it's current form. But that's best saved for another day 😀)

Events in the US show that a growing economy and prosperity are no longer the inoculation against extremist nutters that it was previously thought to be. It's a mark of genius to the fascists that they managed to convince enough people that they are poor to pull it off.

But then, as Brexit showed, even if everyone is having champagne piped in through gold plated taps, a partisan press and tireless grifter can persuade them that they are in poverty because they aren't getting half-century scotch being piped in through platinum pipes.

How is he a serial liar and grifter ? I mean that seems to be a trope Corbynites bandy about and I didn’t think you were a socialist. The suit and glasses thing was massively over exaggerated by a press that ignored the Johnson £900k redecoration scandal.
I’m disappointed in the comms, the optics have just been so naive and fumbling. They surely must have anticipated the onslaught the right wing media would have started right from day one and decided on a plan to deal with it. Surely….
I’m in favour of lots of the legislation, the upcoming employment act and I believe there’s some wide ranging tax avoidance stuff in the pipeline, rise in the NMW etc but I just think so many are actually unaware of it. A caller rang James O’Brien the other day, ex labour voter, wasn’t aware of the imminent privatisation of one of the railway companies or the employment/make work pay legislation.
I am seeing some softening of attitudes towards him, especially on Reddit and not left leaning sub Reddits at all and I’m not sure how much people are being influenced by the constant din of disappointment and frothing in the media without actually informing themselves.

There are ways to fight Reform - and that's to do things that are good for workers but Reform will oppose

Ensure people are aware of their employment rights
Get rid of unfair employer practices
Ensure things like annual leave rights, maternity leave etc are fully embedded in UK law - maybe a new Worker's Rights Law. Call it a Worker's rights law.

Promote it - and get Reform to say they would oppose it. Or repeal it.

So much potential - do the things that workers value and the things that Reform will oppose.

They have a massive majority - time to be BOLD.

And - hopefully - growth will come with closer ties to the EU.

Use this growth revenue. Use it wisely and make sure that people know how its being used.

Use it for benefit reform, 2 child benefit cap, child poverty

All that said, I did hear that on his way to the top at the usual challenge sessions for wannabe Labour leaders that Charlie Falconer collared Keir and asked him what he believed in. History has not recorded an answer…

The man is a technocrat. I don’t mind this, I do think he might rethink Reeves altogether. I was so unimpressed with her Oxford Cambridge corridor (surely the oldest policy proposal in HMT) combined with a tone deaf series of cuts. You do need to give people a sense of optimism!

This is interesting

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/25/uk-child-poverty-taskforce-set-to-recommend-return-of-sure-start-scheme

Get some flagship schemes going.

Education, education, education.

See I saw an interview Starmer did when he defended the Mclibel case and I was impressed by how he came across. Certainly doesn’t appear to be a technocrat in this..

It’s said in person he is far more charming than his public persona.

I mean on one level it’s the inverse of what you usually get which is some over charming PM who has a personality transplant when the cameras are off.

I have seen this before and I honestly find it difficult to reconcile the man in this bit of film with the Starmer of today, tbh.