Thread 41 Starmer : "Alban Arthan" the returning of the light

[DuncinToffee]

Previous thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5461238-thread-40-starmer-prettig-kerstfeest-nollaig-shona-hyvaa-joulua-nadolig-llawen-god-jul-feliz-navidad-bouan-noue-nollaig-chridheil?page=40

Welcome to 2026 for political discussion, general chat and taxes in kind.

Good point. Blond grass-raked over?

It’ll make up its mind soon! Interesting that it suggests the MN policy on trans issues has driven the site rightwards. That hadn’t occurred to me but it makes total sense in explaining the change we’ve all noticed.

Hopefully this works.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/5f5450e22882a4d3

It was in this very thread it was noted that the Telegraph is the Last Tory Standing and so Reformphobic.

And yes - Nigels new year narrative about needing an election does betray that time is Reforms enemy. Even the shiniest steel will rust when exposed to enough oxygen.

Love the side swipe at female public sector workers.
Fuckers working for the police, health, education, DVLA, passport office, armed forces, councils etc etc. Totally unnconnected to the actual real world. They dont pay tax. Or shop. Or live in communities. blah blah blah.

Women being rather fond of rights and protections, colour me surprised.

and yet Brexit happened.

Gosh, those silly women 🙄

Of course it's normal to look at the demographics of voters .
But I'm always a bit nervous when papers/media sites start focussing really heavily on the Differences between men and women voters. Yes, young men and young women growing apart in their political preferences is significant and a story. But the way some media outlets go on its like they want to make it a self fulfilling prophecy. Because a lot of young men in particular don't want to be like women, so being told men mostly do X, women mostly do Y is going to push them one way. "Masculine Alpha males vote to the right, young females with their messy empathy and cushy government jobs vote left" is a message designed to make young men more attracted to the right. It doesn't work quite the same way the other way round because for all there has been a lot of focus on "toxic masculinity" I don't think women are as likely to be embarrassed doing things that feel stereotypically male. If anything sometimes still the opposite.

But my prediction is expect more subtle denigrating of left wing female voters from right wing media. It was a big feature of the last American elections (Tucker Carlson and his gross daddy's home rant).

Yes, I think that's spot on. Women's voting patterns are often derided and , it would seem, especially younger women.

Not just Mumsnets policy but the policy of other forums in banning posts/posters about it.
Even sites like piston heads which is usually way more conservative and less PC wouldn't allow much discussion. It means lots of people came to Mumsnet as "digital refugees" (not real refugees obviously) from often more right leaning sites. And not just women but also lots of men (which is fine because Mumsnet isn't just for women.) But it is notable how much it changed the tone of the FWR forum especially and then they all leak into other chats. And because people coming to Mumsnet to specifically talk about trans issues are by nature more politically engaged than most of course that's going to skew surveys.

Just out of interest did any of you see the survey? We must be one of the most politically aware groups on MN and I don’t remember seeing it.

I haven’t seen an actual survey, but I get a quick opinion poll on politics at the bottom of the page on the website from time to time.

I didn't. I have checked out Mumsnet Voices since and really don't want to be asked to do surveys constantly about baby food, pushchairs and various parenting products. It felt like a faff. With attached marketing.

It skews everything on here now. Everything. Black Mumsnetters get lectured constantly by people who aren't Black, chats about pottery and dancing shows turn into FWR type debates etc etc. It's tiring. I can set my clock by it.

I agree @Piggywaspushed .
I was following a lovely thread about destressing your life etc
when up pops a poster lambasting Labour's planning changes, was affecting their move to the country and Labour really, really hates them. And so forth.
It was called out for derailing but the sense of being "played" is ever present on mumsnet now.
I really appreciate these threads, sure I would get along so well with most posters on here even if quite different opinions at times but i am concentrating on MN happy threads as best I can for 2026.
My reserves are low.

Just laughed out loud at a PMQs clip. Starmer, at the end of an answer to something about U turns, highlighted the number of PM and cabinet changes in the last Tory government - finished up by saying ‘in 14 years they had more positions than the Kama Sutra. No wonder they are knackered and left the country screwed’.
I’m going to hell for being so puerile aren’t I?

Yeah he was v witty with that one!!

Not that it will get much coverage.

There is a hackneyed tactic of making the most tenuous posts just to crowbar "Starmer" into the thread and thus click up more "data" for the algorithms.

I heard a joke many years ago.

During the Plains Wars, a U.S. Army captain worried about having enough fuel for winter sent his sergeant to ask the local friendly tribe for a forecast; the shaman listened to the ground and said the winter would be mild, so the captain ordered some firewood just in case. A week later the shaman said the winter might be harder, so more firewood was ordered; another week and the shaman warned it could be very hard, prompting even more firewood. Finally the shaman declared it would be the hardest winter ever, so the captain rode out himself and asked how he could be so certain — the shaman put his ear to the ground and said, “If you look under the fort gates, the white man is stacking more and more firewood, so it must be a very hard winter.”

No I didn't see this poll or any of the previous ones it's being compared to - maybe it was in one of those 'Promoted by Mumsnet' ads that I never look at

It's never even crossed my mind to join Mumsnet Voices - not my thing

Jane

The Left, mostly with capital L, is another term that seems to get crowbarred everywhere now.

I haven't seen any surveys either.

I did get a request by pm the other day to fill out a survey as a I have a few longstanding threads. I didn't look into it.

I’d be extremely happy if MN ran a proper, professionally conducted survey on voting intention. I wonder what it would reveal without a self selected sample.

Here's some people who moved to Russia for a better life

Wouldn't a proper poll/survey cost money? Whereas the half-arsed self-selected sample is completely free!