Thread 35 Starmer: Old and smelling of roses

[DuncinToffee]

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Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5418471-thread-34-starmer-conference-swanwiches-and-a-deputy-leader-contest?page=40

Very sorry to hear your news @Piggywaspushed

Beautiful photo, @msjinks !

Not quite so beautiful:

Austerity in a chart

So sorry @Piggywaspushed - what a rubbish time for you. Look after yourself - and if that includes swearing at those who probably well deserve it then so be it.

Awesome - I would never expect to like a photo of DT but I have read DT didn’t like it either, but I’d not thought of this fuller analysis - particularly not the ear (doubt orange man did either or he’d be even madder!)

I think she's relying on the strategy that it doesn't matter if what you say can be disproven,.so long as you get your narrative out on social media. Similar to the way Vance gets through by sheer bare faced cheek -never apologise, never condemn your own side no matter what they do, always double down even when it's ridiculous. The idea is you wound your opponent and by the time the truth catches up it's to late. I don't think it will benefit her. But it can also hurt Starmer just by adding to the noise/flooding the zone. Which leaves other political parties the beneficiary. Noone likes Vance but he's very helpful to Trump.

Love the description of his neck 😂

His neck looks like a squeezed scrotum.

🤣

https://x.com/FraserNelson/status/1978355351083769856

Murders in London at an all time record low. The blame for this is Sadiq Khan.

So sorry for your loss @Piggywaspushed
Losing your mum is unsettling in any case. Her being thousands of miles away must be impossible. Swear away.

So sorry for your loss @piggywaspushed , it's such a difficult thing to deal with and this distance must be even harder. Echoing itsgettingweird to make sure you take time for yourself in everything that's going on, and whoever (sorry too early) said that losing your mum changes everything.....

https://skywriter.blue/pages/did:plc:migxim34fyw7yvdbzw5maym5/post/3m3c6yaslox2q

IFS Green Budget's findings on the UK's economic outlook and fiscal situation:

So sorry to hear about your loss @Piggywaspushed

That needs to be plotted against he actual value of council tax going up, up, up.

I saw this on X which is nightmare stuff. But note the caveat at the bottom. I wonder why the Mail added that? Tactical voting against whom? Reform? Labour?

eta, to answer my own question: "But tactical voting could block Mr Farage's path to victory, with more than a third of Labour voters saying they would back the Tories to stop Reform".

I wonder why the Mail chose to highlight that?

I was listening to John Harris’s Anywhere But Westminster: on housing in Liverpool. It is heartbreaking to see it and the impact on people. There are some tough messages here for Labour. I hope they address them because lack of housing is a becoming a source not just of poverty but a lack of faith in politics to address this most basic need.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2025/oct/15/the-city-that-reveals-britains-biggest-problem-theres-nowhere-to-live-video

I caught a usually reliable commentator suggesting that the Reform bid to be all things to all men (yes, men) was starting to alienate Tories who had switched to Reform and now find Reform are going too Tory and too Labour at the same time.

I think we may be seeing Reform entering a whack-a-mole phase of existence where they can win new support, but at the expense of existing supporters.

Also Brexit looks to be the UKs answer to the Epstein files. It really rattles Reform to have it in the debate. Their best strategic position is to agree with it's critics that "[Tory] Brexit" is done and dusted so we can all move on. Except that will really piss off the BeLeavers who are probably hoping Reform would go back and give the EU another good kicking like the last one the UK did.

Just as the EU travel system starts to bite, and all those school trips to Provence take a day less because of border checks.

Thank you for posting this. I wanted to slap Steve Reed in his stupid cap, tbh. It trivialises the terrible situation. As you said, absolutely heartbreaking. Labour absolutely has to get a grip on this.

The right leaning don’t want them to which is indicative of how crucial it is. Despite only 9% of UK land being developed there’s a spate of cries about “concreting the whole country”. Obviously that would take millennia. 🙄

You mean me? At least have the decency to provide the context ie I gave alternate solutions.
You can't have Net Zero policies which include removing large swathes of productive farmland + woodland and building large data centres which require billions of gallons of water at a time when we are experiencing periods of severe water shortages. Complete lack of joined up thinking.
That was the context.

Mil lives on Merseyside and a lot of new housing estates are being build where she lives. Still plenty of green and farm land to enjoy as well, except for the smell at times.

Yet Milliband is selling off prime farmland in Lincs for solar farm. Other enlightened countries use car parks and industrial warehouse rooves but no, Labour sell off productive farmland instead. Once farmland has gone, it's gone and that's batshit thing for an island to do.

Are you not concerned about climate change/extreme weather?