To think incompetent hypocrite Starmer has lost the respect of the people and his own party in record time?

[TealTraybake]

An excoriating letter from Rosie Duffield who resigned today..

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rosie-duffield-resignation-letter-starmer-labour-b2620603.html#comments-area

Been bad enough for her to resign, I wonder what will happen next. Does she know something we don’t?

Thatcher’s portrait is still on the stairs along with all the other former PMs. Why should you have art on the walls of your home that you don’t like? The country owns tens of thousands works of art to which senior politicians have access on loan and there’s no reason why Starmer shouldn’t choose something else. If I were PM the place would be crammed with Kandinskys and Maggie would be donated to the National Portrait Gallery.

Didn't he say he was going to turn the country's economy around in 4 months??
Still waiting....

I completely agree. Love her or loathe her, Mrs Thatcher deserves her place in history. Its quite pathetic really. I believe the portrait was commissioned by Gordon Brown, so not all Labour leaders are as petulant as Starmer.

Because in an important way, it’s not your house. You’re not buying it and whether you get to keep it is the choice of the public or your party. And its occupants have other homes. Some have not lived there at all.

I understand making it to your taste to a degree although bojo and wife were also roasted over that. But as with other things to do with Keir, it’s the optics. That was a news story early on in his leadership. Someone who doesn’t think about how arrogant and childish that makes him look is making himself look very clueless.

we can only hope.....

To be fair, I'd rather he changed the pictures than redecorate ;)

Who would be up instead though from his party?

They’re all as bad or worse

Starmer has showed that he is not good at the politics - the politicking that keeps the show on the road.
These are not huge mistakes but it has opened the door to most of us now wondering what is behind any of his actions.
Today I see that Reeves-the-perfect-prefect has now been drawn into a (fabricated?) dispute over links with lobbyists for Shein and their listing in London.
The links if there are tenuous but it will take up much time explaining it all.
Get a grip guys this is the start of a 4 year competition!!
ed for typos.

I think he said that we would see real progress and clear plans in 100 days, through the 'Mission Boards', not actual growth. That woudl be a tall order, other than what is already happening.

But that was before he realised that there were 118 days before the budget on October 30th (it's all in the planning...) and that therefore other than a few gestures he wouldn't be able to tell us anything about how he was going to do that in 100 days and therefore set himself up to fail. Surprise surprise, absent any substance to talk about they are now under the microsope for completely avoidable foot shooting and infighting. Reinforcing many peoples view that Labour had a plan to win (which really meant saying and doing nothing, as the conservatives were always going to lose) but not a plan to govern. And they have struggled with the transition becuase there is no plan. Aspirations, yes. Soundbites, yes. Gesture politics, yes. But an actual plan...?

Well the nurses unions have already rejected the pay offer and are now demanding a far higher pay rise in view of the 22% for junior doctors. So it remains to be seen.

They means tested the WFA at a far lower threshold than was necessary and which will leave many pensioners struggling this winter. Yes, people can apply for pension credit and other benefits tied to the allowance, but many won’t qualify and will be just above the thresholds, losing out on much needed assistance.

There were two women subsequently released from prison after it became clear that they were not the source of the information they reposted. I don’t have any problem with jailing people for incitement but I do think the way the investigations into FB and other posts were handled in such a rushed manner is a cause for concern.

Pubs and other areas of hospitality suffered badly during the pandemic. Banning smoking in outdoor venues isn’t exactly going to help them recover.

No plan, no policies. God knows they had long enough to think about it.

There were two women subsequently released from prison after it became clear that they were not the source of the information they reposted.

I do wonder how they're ascertaining who has actually posted something. They rushed I think to scare people into pleading guilty as this obviously avoids delays, but anyone can post anything under anyone's name online really.

I agree with you on the WFA threshold. The “rushed manner” of dealing with inciters to violence was exactly why the riots were so short lived, it’s a prime example of government being seen to be wrong whatever it does. Banning smoking in outdoor areas of pubs is, I agree, total madness, particularly when smokers are the only people in those areas for most of the year.

I can happily agree about the riots. There is no criticism to be made of this government about the riots. And if there were errors in cases brought against social media posts, they can be put right. Virtually all the posts prosecuted were inciting violence.

It is a bit depressing that Tories would criticise a government for coming down hard on outrageous disorder and thuggery. No self-respecting Tory should oppose that.

As a postscript to the riots, I do think Starmer showed a rather silly, Blairite spin, soundbite side to him when he talked about a ‘standing army’. But otherwise I’ve no criticism to make, as I’ve said.

Have you seen the alternatives OP? They're on show at the Tory Conference this week and each sounds even more deranged than the one who spoke before them. And if any of them are your preference then you might want to reflect on your choices.

It's scary how when there's a riot or looting, it becomes very normalised very quickly and lots of people drop everything to rush and join in. I can see why governments have to crack down extremely fast and hard to make people think twice because it is only a few short steps from there to societal breakdown. We don't actually have enough police or armed forces to keep everyone in line - society depends on most people sticking to reasonable behaviour most of the time, and riots are very good at dismantling that contract. I don't like it, at all and I'm not happy about freeing lots of dangerous people from prison either but I can see why they do it.

However there are also various social forces underlying the dissatisfaction that fuels riots. No government can magically fix things like rows over immigration, corrupt policing and online misinformation overnight. But they can try to manage their messaging and be a lot more upfront, honest and fair than Labour have been so far, and at least try to look like they're listening to people's concerns. Good PR and optics isn't just about spin and cheesy photo ops, it's about communicating to people that you care about them and understand what they're pissed off about and are on their side.

Yes, I'm wondering who these posters who are complaining about Labour would like to be in Government - the Tories? Reform?

A really, really depressing and ignorant thread, this. As for Rosie Duffield, this is not the time for an attention-seeking flounce. I think she's a bigot.

I don't think Starmer told the unions that the WFA allowance would be cancelled in advance.

Smashing immigrants gangs. Stopping the RNLI from wombling around in the English channel on the French side would be a deterrent.

As for Starmer and co resigning. I'm reminded of Teflon Tony who survived and thrived despite the weapons of mass destruction bullshit.

People can be critical even if it's the best of a bad bunch, just because there's no better option doesn't mean people should fully support all of their terrible decisions.

This thread goes beyond 'critical'. And so does the toxic media onslaught.

Does it? It what way? The media is largely toxic, what a shocker.

Did the media concern you for the previous gov?

Or threads on here for that matter

I know that was not addressed at me, EasternStandard, but the media were awful about the previous government who were, admittedly, a right shower. The media are generally awful and love creating rumour and scandal, as well as instilling fear into the public.

I'm careful about what I read.

To the last few posters: is this really the time for vitriolic attacks from all sides to cause chaos when what we desperately need now is some positive change and rebuilding? The previous Govt richly deserved all the criticism it got after 14 bloated years of poor governance, mismanagement of just about everything and scandal after scandal.

I don't know what all the howling critics are trying to achieve? I doubt it's anything good.

By all means let's have a general conversation about MPs' freebies and donations to parties but this isn't specific to Labour who are not anywhere near the worst 'offenders'. And the smear campaign against Keir Starmer about this is really badly aimed and timed.