To wonder what could Starmer do, to turn things around?

[B0xes]

He was elected on fewer votes than Corbyn with very lukewarm support, the Tories lost that election, Labour did not sweep in on a tide of public approval, they just benefitted from peoples anger at the Conservatives. Since then, Starmers approval rating has tanked. He seems to have gone from one ill judged move to the next and seems totally tone deaf in speeches. Can he turn it around? What would he need to do?

Their manifesto - which has conveniently disappeared from their website - also promised to remove all front line NHS staff earning less than £50k from income tax liability altogether. God alone knows what that would cost.

it shows either a) total lack of knowledge on how many of the front line NHS staff fit under that bracket (a hell of a lot) or b) not caring because they know they can't do it and needed to whack something in to try and appeal to voters who are moderate but maybe don't realise how high a percentage of the NHS that would be...

did reform have any plans for education besides removing woke from schools? Shame the manifesto has gone!

I know. I wish I’d screenshot it now.

Resign

He should go shopping and then he will understand what he has done

It is actually still there. You click on "our policies" to download it. I feel dirty now.

What? What has he done? Did you not notice the CoL crisis before now?

Yeah scrap all that

I would never vote Reform.

thanks for doing the dirty work!

so on education, mostly cut the woke. tax relief for independent schools and scrapping interest on uni fees.

again, not budgeted for.

also:

A Patriotic Curriculum in Primary and Secondary Schools Any teaching about a period or example of British or European imperialism or slavery must be paired with the teaching of a non-European occurrence of the same to ensure balance. History and social science curriculum to be reviewed and audited regularly to ensure balance. Our children must be taught about their heritage.

lol, basically whataboutism? I don't think people think we are the only nation who have committed historic atrocities... but they'd be hard pressed to find many examples outside of Europe who have colonised quite like we did.

What rock were you living under where your shopping has only gone up in the last 7 months?

Actually be given time. Anyone with half a brain cell should know change takes time. Can he do it…I have no idea but it can’t be any worse than where we were before. He didn’t really win the election, the other side just lost it.

That was very public spirited. Thank you for your sacrifice. 😉

There are loads of things Labour could do, but won't because anything they do will be unpopular with a huge number of voters. This is true of all parties and governments of course, but Starmer's claim to be better than the previous Tory government will come back to haunt him. It already is. The Labour honeymoon was over very quickly and they were the architects of their own undoing, for example the freebies scandal early on, the disastrous budget which unless U-turned will cause problems for the rest of their term in office, the dishonest chancellor claiming to have been things she wasn't or the corrupt anti-corruption minister.

Things they could do:

• actually cut tax for working people
• tax unearned income heavily
• confiscate UK assets held by overseas people and businesses
• only engage with other countries in a way that is beneficial to the UK
• stop illegal immigration by forcibly removing illegal immigrants and patrolling the English Channel to prevent boats landing, Australia-style
• supporting genuine refugees by moving them to overseas territories like the Falklands
• drastically cutting benefits and accepting that some people will die as a result
• cutting education and healthcare to the bare minimum - free education should be limited to basic reading, writing, maths and the ability to function as a productive work unit during adulthood
• boosting the armed forces
• have a vote on removing Scotland from the UK (a vote for Welsh, English and Northern Irish citizens, not Scottish ones)
• solve the prison crisis by bringing back public executions for moderate/serious offences and for and repeat offenders of lower-level offences
• Scrap the TV Licence
• Reintroduce a £2 bus fare cap and a similar scheme for other forms of public transport
• Tax users of services like Facebook, X, TikTok and levy 100% tax on profits made by bullshit "careers" like being an influencer
• Bring in a form of national service for 16-25 year olds, with the option of military service or a similarly disciplined but non-military service for undertaking work for the public good like repairing potholes or removing graffitti
• Ban charities from raising and distributing UK money to help those abroad (and make chugging a criminal offence)
• Accept climate change is going to happen and we should only try to delay it by taking measures that don't cost us in the short or medium term.

These are all things they could do, things which would have a huge and perhaps shocking impact on the country. Undoubtedly millions of people would disagree with any of them.

But that's the problem with our political system, and democracy generally. Improving one thing means making something else worse. Helping one person means hindering another. Your life means someone else's death. There is no solution whereby everyone has a happy and fulfilling life. Politicians are only here for the short term and therefore only care about the next election and how they can feather their own nest.

Over £40 million pounds in 2023-34 alone.

Wow you’ve got a crystal ball!

The Tories crashed and burned the country, Labour are trying to put out the fire with a watering can. Of course it’s not going well.

There were a few points of yours that stuck out for me.

• Bring in a form of national service for 16-25 year olds, with the option of military service or a similarly disciplined but non-military service for undertaking work for the public good like repairing potholes or removing graffitti

what about those who are in education? or are training for future roles? should we get our future nurses, doctors, engineers and such repairing potholes instead of their studies?

Also considering the 16-20 workforce is a large amount of retail and hospitality industries.

And to your point on influencers, tax 100%? They are still spending their money in our economy. You may not like what they do as a whole but there are many who spotlight SMB and UK owned brands and give them much needed exposure to a wide audience of likely potential buyers.

But that's the problem with our political system, and democracy generally. Improving one thing means making something else worse. Helping one person means hindering another. Your life means someone else's death. There is no solution whereby everyone has a happy and fulfilling life. Politicians are only here for the short term and therefore only care about the next election and how they can feather their own nest.

agreed in the most part, it doesn't always have to be the extremes though. But people can shout "cut tax for working people" then be angry at decimated public essentials services that tax contributes towards.

Hilarious. Most of these are lunacy.

I think Labour need to do the hard, unpopular stuff now.

They've got a long time until the next election, so they do not need to care about it yet.

It's the time for the difficult decisions to be made and then they need to cover their ears at the screeching from the media/opponents.

We are in economic decline. We all need to get used to that - we cannot continue to use the level of services that we have got used to.

2023-24

I disagree with some of these on ethical grounds, but this one would be economically disastrous in the long-term:

• cutting education and healthcare to the bare minimum - free education should be limited to basic reading, writing, maths and the ability to function as a productive work unit during adulthood

The countries who continued to invest heavily in education would keep innovating and moving forwards, whereas we would find ourselves left behind, unable to compete.

I've always wanted to meet a Tory or a Slaver from the 19th century.

I agree with much of that, but they should care a little bit about the now or the local elections will be carnage for Labour… Oh no, hang on, they’ve ’fixed’ that with the plans to postpone them. After all, the key lesson from brexit is that if you’re not going to like the answer, don’t ask the question 😂