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.

The impact assessment was for 4000, and that was if WFA was removed from all pensioners. That’s not happening. I imagine those 4000 will be amongst those who will still get it, ergo they won’t die as a result of losing it.

The Tories literally just put out an attack ad on the Labour WFA policy which was a bunch of extremely wealthy-looking pensioners in massive houses moaning about how worried they are about coping without it.

The ad has to be seen to be believed. This is who the Tories chose to gain sympathy for pensioners.

https://x.com/conservatives/status/1842167118990823595?s=61&t=U9XrcF693-JpMxeIueYG7g

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.

So what "bold plans" and magic wins do you imagine any PM and Chancellor can produce given the big black hole they inherited? Don't you think if it was that easy it would have been mentioned by now? It's terribly noticeable that, in several posts, you haven't come remotely near suggesting what these might be.

As for leadership - Starmer has already performed miracles in leading the notoriously difficult-to-lead Labour Party and getting it to where it is now. Who do you imagine would do better?

The country was (is) totally screwed by the Tories for years, and you think a few months should have turned this around? It will take YEARS AND YEARS to repair the damage.

By Labour's own admission they have said that if the WFA was scrapped then something like 4,000 pensioners would die from cold. I cannot think why they thought that pension credit being the cut off point was a good idea. Age Concern UK have said that over 2 million pensioners will be affected by this low cut off point.

A new PM would only be fair tbh, as the constraints of the role obviously limit the time available for buying clothes and going to the races. Perhaps Rachel Reeves could resign, to be his personal shopper?

But last time I looked there was not a single viable replacement, so the give-them-a-chance crew will be chanting for a while to come, I think.

It shows just how little they care for those pensioners just above PC who will be hurt by this.

I still hope Labour might have a rethink on the WFA.

Tory HQ infiltrating again? They've only been in government five minutes I'm happy to let them bed in before I judge.

Were we watching the same advert, because there's nothing on that advert which would indicate any of those pensioners were in massive houses, they could have been living in one bedroom flats.

That advert is hilarious. My heart breaks for the gentleman with the Rolex watch and new laptop who is apparently worried about his fuel bills, let alone the lady with the vast kitchen and tennis club membership. Mind you, you can see why her career as a teacher didn't last, as she apparently thinks the rise in fuel prices had nothing whatsoever to do with the Tories who only did their best to try to help pensioners.

I hoped the new government would bring a sense of change. A bit like the wave of enthusiasm that came with the new Blair Government. I remember all the cheering, flag waving and good will that came with it. We wanted his government to succeed, we wanted a government to be proud of. I felt he had the vision, charisma and intellect to get the country back on its feet. For all those saying it's only 3 months do you really see Reeves, Lammy and Starmer in the same league? It's sad Labour don't have the likes of Jack Straw or David Miliband, I feel they really need people with some experience of being in government.

Yes, agreed. People really are expecting instant gratification.

I just want competence

I sat through that Tory advert and couldn't see that the houses were massive, one had one of those cheap coffee machines that you buy on Black Friday for about £30

So you don't have a view of who should captain the team?

🙄 Feel better after that stream of consciousness?

I know perfectly well who Blossomtoes is; I’m the same age but change my user name. Should it now be WindUpMerchant as I have succeeded on this thread? “It’s good to chat” might be recalled by some in our age group.
No, I didn’t vote for the Robin Hood Party. We all like to think others are in their sights until it comes to us. Let’s wait for the budget, eh?

Honestly, the shamble of the last few Tory govts has given people the idea we “swap them out” every 5 mins?

What a chaotic and ridiculous idea that would be - no PM getting a chance to do anything.

You must have bloody good eyesight if you could see from that advert the brand of watch someone was wearing!

Fucking hell they've only been in power 3 months. 2 of which were recess and conference season!

Oops - lost the quote - to sesma:

Exactly the point. The people in those adverts were not the people who will be hugely impacted by the loss of WFP. If £200 in a year is the different between heating and eating for you, even a "cheap £30 coffee machine" would be too much.

The Tories have just shown exactly how out of touch they are. Unless of course, the point of the advert was to stoke outrage by showing "people like us" to Conservative voters who otherwise aren't that fussed about the payment being cut.

Ah yes, poor people in tiny houses always have pianos in their dining rooms.

They did say before being elected they’d have to find the money from somewhere but obviously people expected a magic wand 🙄

Fourteen years of utter incompetence and we expect an instant turn around?

Yes. Maybe Theresa was telling the truth when she said "there is no magic money tree"

They utterly shat on the chance to have any kind of honeymoon period and generate some goodwill that is often what happens when you get a new government after 14 years

That just isn't how government works. When you inherit a total mess, you don't make the mess bigger by populist giveaways only to find yourself in a worse mess as you approach the next election: you get the nasty stuff out of the way quickly in order to try to build a firm base to get rid of the mess. Everyone predicting on the basis of a few unpopular decisions that the government is about to collapse is in fantasyland.