Time for a new PM and Chancellor?

[Whenwillitgetwarm]

I wrote this on another thread but feel it should have its own thread.

Although I voted Labour (the current Tory’s are too insane), I think it may be time to swap out Starmer and Reeves. If this is done early, there’s enough parliament time left to bed a new PM and Chancellor in.

They both lack ideas, seem confused, no vision etc. They had 14 years to think up workable plans. Coming in and throwing their hands up saying there’s no money so they can’t do anything is very poor. They want to continue austerity on the sly. They indulge in stupid culture wars like VAT to rob Peter to pay Paul (and Paul won’t see a penny anyway). They have bad advisors and are arrogant. It looks like they are just excited to have the job titles and don’t know what to do.

Get a top two who will come up with a bold plan. We’re in the gutter so there’s opportunities to deliver quick wins. They don’t always need funding, simple policy changes can make big and quick differences. If they gave each department a target to deliver one quick legislative win by Christmas, we’d start 2025 differently.

Unfortunately we’re stuck with two people who can’t believe their luck, and who are afraid of the Daily Mail, Murdoch, some loud Redwall types and bots on X who wish our country economic harm. They are weak.

If Labour were a football team, there would be fans screaming for Starmer to be sacked now.

This is not about getting rid of Labour. I believe there is talent in the wider party, much more than in the Conservatives who hollowed out their party under Johnson. Nevertheless I just don’t think Starmer and Reeves should have their roles.

When you are cooking up a lovely hot meal in a nice warm kitchen in a nice warm house, think about the pensioner with a mobile heater, a kettle, and maybe a microwave to warm the baked beans up. Baked beans are good for them, of course, all that lovely protein, and maybe they will be able to go out and buy some bread and scrape to eat with it, always supposing they can actually move their frozen body out of bed

I do think of all the people who are struggling to eat and heat their homes. And I actually do something about it.

I wonder if they're the same people who scrutinized the Mother's Day photo of Catherine Middleton and her children and sent social media into meltdown.

the government has encouraged people to apply for pension credit. I know from dealing with this that most are not going to qualify so advice organisations and DWP are now overloaded with people who’ve been told they should apply. I’m not sure where the figure of 800,000 will definitely be entitled came from.

I think my new Labour MP has been informed of this so he’s now moved on to advising people to apply for Attendance Allowance.

I never saw a patio with furniture and a garden? I saw part of an umbrella and what looked like trees or bushes. Is this what you're referring to?

Nobody forces parents to feed their children chicken nuggets, pizza, McDonald's, KFC etc.

So not sure what your point is.

What do you do? Actually genuinely interested.

I donate to my local food pantry via a monthly DD.

I also donate food and pet food to the collection points in my supermarket.

I am aware this is not much and I am not exactly saving the world, but if we all did a little it would help a lot.

If anyone is interested in donating to a local food pantry

https://www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk/support-a-pantry/pantry-friends/

What is a pantry?

www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk/what-is-a-pantry/

I am sure you are aware of the relative costs between UPF and fresh healthy food, both in terms if purchasing it and cooking it. I would insert an eyeroll emoji here, only HQ don't like emojis.

Last link didn't work

www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk/what-is-a-pantry/

Didn’t she just! Anyone else reminded of Alf Garnett with “Your precious Starmer”? Or is it just me who’s old enough?

I am only just old enough 😇

What a fucking ridiculous suggestion OP. They have barely been in power three months. The last thing we need is yet more instability.

I'm not exactly impressed by them, but they can't solve entrenched problems that took 14 years to create (some created under Labour too) in three bloody months. Youd have to be mad to think that. I will reassess in a years time and I don't expect things will be great. I don't have much hope, but changing PMs like you would change your bedsheets is going to make things far worse.

Give it a year, then rethink. Given that the middle east is sliding into a massive protracted conflict that everyone is being dragged into, there is a lot on their plate.

I would say the problem is that people don't know how to cook from scratch any more. We were quite a poor family growing up but my mum cooked everything from scratch as it was the way she'd been taught. She made all her own pies, we never had fish and chips from the chippy as it was cheaper to make at home, my mum made her own batter. She also worked as well. It was always pay rent first then buy food, then pay for fuel and what was left over then went on other things.

Some food banks now offer cookery classes.

You are 30p Lee and I claim my £5.

When your choice is heating or eating, it's no longer about not knowing how to cook from scratch.

And of course the narrative is 'oh, the poor elderly' and at the same time it's 'feckless young people'. The hypocrisy is staggering.

I for one like starmer. I would like him to stay. He needs to be given a chance.

Nobody on here is saying that well off pensioners need the WFA, but the ones who are affected by the cut off point do.

I tend to read online Guardian which shall we say isn’t particularly pro Starmer/Labour in the way the Mail or Telegraph are pro Tory. There was a withering article by Marina Hyde yesterday and literally hundreds of btl comments, 90% of which were absolutely damning. A combination of DM and Morning Star reader comments tbh. Almost like a love pact between Corbyn and Tory supporters. Very very weird. Not seen anything like it to be honest, certainly not a few months into a new government.

Were you as incensed by UC being cut after Covid ? Or the draconian rules that claimants need to jump through and end up starving ? Really did not see the mass outrage over that.
The PR on this fiasco was abysmal but something did need doing. I guess that everything they try to cut will now be flagged up by the press as murdering or starving someone vulnerable. Ironic really. Surestarts and libraries shut en masse and not a bloody word of protest.

And very few on here disagree that the cutoff is too low. It needs to be set higher. However, anyone who then dismisses working age poverty by claiming 'they don't know how to cook, they aren't really poor' is going to draw my ire. This constant veneration of the old, who were massively shielded from cuts for 14 years, in tandem with the slating of working age and disabled people, is rank. You either oppose poverty or you don't. If you're fine with some people living in poverty because they deserve no better, you have no morals.

Almost like a love pact between Corbyn and Tory supporters. Very very weird. Not seen anything like it to be honest, certainly not a few months into a new government

@crystalbits I agree. It is bizarre. But I suppose Starmer did purge the party of a lot of the more left left wingers and this is their revenge? I don't really know what the Corbyn supporters (and I supported him) want? Corbyn isn't coming back.

Why are you so rude!

Where did I say that some working age people aren't poor and where have I mentioned disabled people?

Some people could benefit from knowing how to cook from scratch which is why I assume some Food banks are offering cookery classes.

So why did the government take away the WFP so suddenly? Why not wait until spring to announce it will end next year?

It would have given the disabled and elderly the chance to budget for it. Instead, it was done in haste, before the new government had a chance to debate it. It would have made little difference to the money in the Treasury, since it has cost so much to process applications and the cost of employing extra staff is high.

So why?

Because there’s a money issue now. They couldn’t do it earlier because they weren’t in power - though the Tories were in favour of abolishing it completely…

Why can the warm homes scheme not be used to support pensioners who are above the threshold? Energy companies need to ve doing more with their huge profits. They could afford to bung a few hundred pounds into a fund to support poorer pensioners.

I get up at noon, and get to spend the night time talking online to friends across the pond, and people with the same disabilities.

It suits me. The night is quiet and the TV is better, and TWR start reading the Bible at midnight, and go on until 6am, so I get to hear that too. It is continuous. They start with Genesis, through to Revelation and start again.

Make of that what you will.