To wish Sir Keir and his wife would not hold hands when working

[BeaQuiet]

They've arrived in Washington DC on official business clutching hands like the Macrons, the Obamas and the Sussexes.

AiBU to find it a bit cringey?

And before anyone asks, yes I do have bigger things to worry about but I fancy a chat.

Been together 35 years and still hold hands. What’s wrong with it?

Like a shaggy sheep caught in the feed bin apparently.

It was in response to her rather nasty reply to another poster. So I am afraid I am not sorry if you think it is mean. The whole calling the holding of hands cringey is a mean girl statement anyway.

He never once looked like a leader. He looked like a naughty schoolboy who would tell ooh matron jokes.

Holding hands with your spouse is possessive? That's quite an odd take TBH.

Presumably you love them enough to have wanted to be together forever. The wedding ring isn't a possessive sign? But wanting to hold hands while you walk along and chat is?

I have friends who are basically glued together down the side. Hands on each others knees when they're sitting down, hand on the lower back when walking around. Can't let go of hands when talking to different people etc. That's what strikes me as possessiveness (as well as the fact I know how insecure these particular people are). But not just a couple holding hands while they walk along. That just shows affection.

I remember once being on the beach with my parents and our dogs (only a few years back, I'd been married a few years myself by this point) and I was chucking the ball for the dogs while they slowly walked down the sea edge together (because of mum's dodgy hip they are always slow). They were holding hands and just quietly watching the waves as they went. I remember thinking if DH and are still want to hold hands while we walk after nearly 40 years together, we'll be doing well. 16 years in we still like to have that contact. But there's no possessiveness.

When you gather your wits a bit, you'll realise it's a publicity and comms activity for the camera.

He must look like a well put together, trustworthy family man.

When in reality, they'll likely have a tough relationship like many others, especially as he's presumably spent the past 6-12 months working his arse off out of the house and preoccupied otherwise. Can't be great on a relationship can it.

Your cynicism is laughable.

@Mimsyduck

This is a rather unpleasant accusation:

I think it’s to make them appear wholesome and innocent when those that have their eyes open and not brainwashed by main stream media know they are anything but.

What do you mean by this? What are you suggesting here?

Oh the bitter taste of defeat. Dear me. One might think that many of you are surprised and resentful that Tory sticky fingers have finally been prised from the open treasure chest of public money. Fourteen years should have been sufficient, surely? And all that's left to you now is to lob personal insults at the Starmers? Such paucity of imagination, you should be embarassed by these childish taunts but no: shame remains an unknown concept. Unsurprising.

Holding hands sometimes is OK. But it's when certain couples can't seem to go anywhere without clutching their partners hand that seems a bit off. I don't necessarily think the Starmers or the Obamas fall into that category, because they don't seem to be doing it all the time. But some really do appear to be doing it to make a statement of sorts.

Hmm. Not sure if you've read the thread but I'd say the same about handholding (whilst at work/ representing the country, not skipping down the beach as a pp's parents do) be it Keir, Sunak or Johnson.

'Lobbing insults' at politicians is par for the course. Truss is a lettuce anyone?

Naughty old Boris skipping along the beach with Carrie holding hands at the G7.... bet you hated that!

(Must go and look up at your comments on that at the time, if I could work out how to search for it!)

Boris always looked confident - actually, over-confident I'd say. But look where that got us? All sound and fury signifying nothing.

The moment someone starts hinting and going on about the 'mainstream media' you know you're into tinfoil hat territory.

https://x.com/AdamBienkov/status/1811662224374555063

Keir Starmer's net favourability ratings rise to +7, post election. For comparison, Boris Johnson, who recently described Starmer's ratings as "shockingly low" had net ratings after the 2019 election of -4.

With his attitude to women expressed repeatedly you will have a lot more to worry about in the future. What do you mean? well Gender Recognition Certificates. I'm a female where is my changeroom, toilet etc. Just wait.

Yawn.

Yes it’s always the male heads of state that hold hands with accompanying wives. I don’t remember May, Thatcher, Merkel holding hands with their spouses on official visits. They wouldn’t have tolerated it. It is cringey. And it enforces the the reality that the women are just there as decorative privileged appendages. It’s work, we didn’t elect a couple, their private life is their business. It’s a PR optic. We will never achieve real equality whilst we put up with it.

Noononoo. That’s my take on it. Definitely a PR optic and reductive one at that.

Tbh the interesting thing will be if it continues to go up. Most leaders in the West are really really unpopular!

The fact that women leaders don't do it (or do it less) because it might make them seem less capable is just another example of conscious and unconscious bias reinforced by patriarchal norms.

Thhhiiiissssss!!!

It would be naive to think it's anything other than a publicity stunt.

Right?? The majority of other people who go on a work trip, are not allowed to take their partners, so why us it ok for leaders of countries!!

It's happened for time immemorial, it's nothing new!

I think it's genuinely embarrassing that you can't see the difference between a major international diplomatic summit, and a regular work trip.

Do you not understand the role of a prime minister, of a government minister? You seem to think it is like me going to the Swindon branch of my company!!

Do you not understand that being in that room, building relationships, meeting people, conversing are all important for our country's future ability to be heard when issues or opportunities happen? And that since time immemorial taking partners has been part of it. The Queen understood all this, played a part too.