Thread 33 Starmer - Gerst Monath

[DuncinToffee]

Pull up a chair for some friendly chit chat about politics and beyond

Taxes optional but greatly appreciated.

Previous thread

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5405579-thread-32-starmer-corn-moon?page=40&reply=147167011

GMB backs Bridget Phillipson for deputy leader, first of the big unions to formally endorse

There was a person who said that most unions will back Phillipson but I've heard nothing from Unison, another person there agreed.

It's down to member votes inevitably.

UK and EU reportedly negotiating British return to Erasmus programme
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/uk-students-study-europe-erasmus-deal-3936197

Just in from Jessica Elgot

Understand that Unison has also just voted to back Phillipson - two v big endorsements

Curious how quiet Farright (yes, I will persist) is when these announcements are made. It's almost like he's abandoning Brexit.

What is also curious is how these stories never seem to prompt the BBC to ask Farright about how his Brexit legacy is being squandered.

Wasn't there a sketch from the 70s about a union meeting deciding who wanted tea or coffee ?

"So that's 2 million votes for tea, and one and a half million for coffee ...."

(I can remember watching the Rover workers voting in car parks ....)

Farright declined the opportunity to explain his paracetamol and swans claims on Newsnight yesterday

It's a moot exercise because at least 2 members will be voting for Powell.

Since when did interviewees set the agenda ?

This will come as a shock but he wasn't the interviewee, he declined the invitation to appear on the program.

Clearly he knows his weaknesses.

However he has no control over Trump, which is hilarious. As long as Trump is seizing the headlines, Farright has to be very very careful about where he goes and what he says to who. Which is crushingly ironic as we know he could promise to introduce sharia law and halal food for all and the Reform droolers would bang on about Reform.

It's the non-Reformers he still needs to reach. And they will be scared by a paracetamol-toting anti-vaxxing party.

He refused a BBC interview? He must be ill.

I dont think Newsnight viewers are his intended audience.
Has he ever been interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire?

My CLP has voted to back Phillipson. I didn't watch the debate/vote as I was away so don't know the reasons/numbers but we are in a "leafy SW London" constituency so not a large membership here...

I'm going to vote for Lucy Powell - for much the same reasons that @Evenstar and @placemats have listed.

My MP is behind Lucy Powell. I do prefer her over Phillipson.

I was at a function today where County Councillors were invited. The two Reform councillors sat on the opposite side of the room to the Cons Councillor and the youngest one had a face like a smacked arse all the way through. Without going into details that might be outing, the subject of politics came up and one of the Reformers got up and left. Now, he might have had a prior meeting, but it wasn’t the longest function ever and he’d barely been there 45 minutes. So he heard a non specific comment that we all knew could perhaps refer to Farage and Reform and flounced, like a child. 🙄. So, graceless and childish, on top of all their other deficits.

Well this will put the cat among the pigeons…
Starmer to announce plans for digital ID scheme https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g54g6vgpdo

I hope it’s Powell based on this.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/25/labour-reform-uk-deputy-labour-leader-nigel-farage

That'll be digital ID for us all then.

I don’t really get the general angst about digital ID. Most of Europe has it dont they? It won’t ‘control’ anyone or find out more about them than everybody already does via mobiles and internet use.

I actually think the Reform voters will probably be more upset by it than anyone, cue rants about being a free man of the land and they won’t like being forced to declare and pay tax on the cash in hand jobs many of them do.

Neither do I

I have never had an official ID card but plenty of other cards proving my ID.

It's not the ID. It's the massive joined-up database they wanted to put behind it so that a policeman stopping you can access your DWP records and NHS records, and local authority records and criminal records and anything else the state holds on you.

That was the problem last time.

Also remember that the UK is incapable of any large project (Universal Credit, anyone) and when things go wrong, it's nobodies fault.

Remember, I work in IT. And admittedly you'd have to kill me before I worked in local government, however living in Brum and having this happen in slow motion before my eyes has been psychically painful as I know I wouldn't even get an interview.

www.theregister.com/2025/09/24/uk_mega_council_delays_fix/

Right now I wouldn't trust any government to introduce a simple essentials only ID card. The last Labour government massively overreached and the idea is now toxic. There would have to be so many safeguards that it was going to be tightly limited in its scope that the idea would be dead in the water before it got off the ground (mixed metaphors fully deliberate).

It's a shame, because the concept in itself is something I'm fine with. I grew up always carrying some form of ID because it was the norm. And because it was just that - ID, not my entire life.

Yes when I live in Spain I had a residency card (NIE) that had my fingerprint on it.

I also couldn’t claim CB unless I was working and paying taxes in Spain too.

The issue is that this can now be done. Previously it was all but impossible. Yes it will cut against cash in hand, engage benefits and public services.

Its this old chestnut from Yes Minister;