Starmer the non charmer

[Bogginsthe3rd]

Now is the time to set out his vision for the UK, to inspire the UK towards harmony and productivity with a huge majority, which he will never have again. Instead there is a speech , presumably delayed by the riots, which continues to heap blame on the Tories. It was dour, depressing and offered no motivation to the public. There may be huge holes in the public finances and tough tax rises may be necessary, but he also needs to set out a grander plan for economic and societal prosperity. Why can he not do more ?

Thing is, if it were valid criticism then it wouldn't be an issue. But most of the time it isn't. It's either:

• catastrophising about policies that haven't been announced and weren't in the manifesto
• baseless accusations ('two tier Keir', abolishing freedom of speech)
• criticism of shallow things like appearance, charisma, tone of voice

I suspect if you had worded your thread title differently, this thread would have gone very differently because you do make some valid points. However, with that title, it just comes across as more shallow Labour baiting.

As it happens, I do think Labour are getting some things wrong, chiefly in their absolute unwillingness to do anything radical about the UK's relationship with the EU. It's cowardly and weak. I'd like a serious adjustment to the WFA plans too, though not a full reinstatement of universality.

But amid all the shallow sneering about appearance, voice and other stuff, I'm not terribly inclined to engage.

That will be rather " problematic" for me, but, yet same as with smoking, if the government is going to regulate food and drinks that are bad for our health, including the ingredients used in UPF, then I will not complaint. Also, the pollutants that are released to the environment...
I will suffer, but it will be on my own interest and my children, in the long run.
They will need to make fresh ingredients and energy to cook nice food affordable and available to everyone though. That will be challenging indeed.

Oh, from your list, I disagree with burger and chips, curry, barbecues and pizza are also good food, again, if cooked with good ingredients, they are good. If full of preservaties, bad fats and other rubbish, then yeah, heart issues and obesity in the making.

sticking it to the shitty social club type of whom Rayner is so fond

Nowt wrong with social clubs.
Makes you sound like a total snob.

I didn't say he was, I just thought he had a deal like DHs which I understand is unusual, his state pension takes up most of his tax allowance and then his other pension he doesn't have to pay tax on. My pension is smaller and I pay tax so I am jealous.

Ah must be right then. Did you ever travel further than the Watford gap ?

@Buddenbruchs - I'm from the South Wales Valleys, the mining community I come from has still not recovered. But Blair didn't come straight after Thatcher & it remains a fact that the situation facing the Starmer government is far worse than the one Blair faced.

What a disgusting thing to say.

Do you not want a change from the self serving weasels who stole billions from us over Covid? Lining their pockets as they glided down the fur lined corridors of power? I know- -lets pretend nothing is wrong and everything is ok
Nothing is ok. How do you fix a country that has been left to rot like the Tories have done?
I have no problem in paying taxes to fix the country and help us back on track

Yeah, some of these comments are a bit unhinged lol

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gvdz28pelo
A similar bbc article to my post. Was this one from Tory HQ also?

I take it you wasn’t one of the millions of people who had relied on furlough to hellp them through the nightmare that was Covid….

If only they could spell his name properly…

You do realise the Tories didn't do that out of the goodness of their hearts, don't you? It was and is simply a part of standard pandemic planning which had been in place for decades, and there were similar systems in other countries. And if you talk to self-employed people, you will discover the Tories still mucked things up for them royally.

How do you feel about, for instance, the way fuel costs whacked up under the Tories? Still grateful to them?

I saw this! Thought they’d been consulting Mumsnet

Labour has started the process of modifying the House of Lords by removing the hereditary peers, what do we think of that?
Because I think it is what they should do indeed. The members of yhe House of Lords should be there by sheer knowledge of the constitution and law, not by birth.

the psychology of people never ceases to amaze me.

The amount of people here that support tax increases when implemented by their party of choice.
The believing the need for tax increases is due to Tory blunders.

There is no need for either party to make these increases, they need to spend the pot on our shores more.

Perhaps question why we have higher taxes, less benefits to the people of the land, yet we have a high population than those you could make the comparison with.

Why is everyone so quick to follow what the media feeds them rather than seeking facts?

I’m sure people will continue to be blindly led than admit they may have got it wrong supporting their party and the narrative fed to them.
Ego is costly.

If only there was an option to scroll past 🖕

If only.

Enough already about charismatic 'characters', namely Johnson. Sticky up hair, a colourful love life and more costume changes than Mr Benn is not a character.
Starmer can jog on aswell, £30 K handout for clothes etc while some pensioners are scared to put heating on. Enough said.

FreeGearKeir and his Clowns are a disgrace and traitors to the country.
They have done nothing but damage so far, constantly devising and rolling out ways to make people colder, poorer, less safe, voiceless, die earlier, retire later.

Your post is so full of hyperbole, it cannot be taken seriously.

I didn't hear the speech, just picked up the essence of it later. I think I was hoping for something much more imaginative-such as revolutionising housing somehow to make it impossible for people to have property standing empty for years. Using currently empty properties (64 000 in London the last time I looked it up) for social housing instead of allowing greenfield building. I'm much more bothered about the environment than putting VAT on private schools.
Taking back utilities into public ownership kind of thing. I don't believe personally that anyone should be able to profit from power, water or transport. They are public services and regarded as such in other countries.
I'm not hopeful.

Agree, posts like that just get an eye roll
The ridiculous names are getting boring too 😁