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?

I'll read the whole thing later, but it seems to have been written by a Labour PR person...

Take the first one - resolved long running labour disputes. Events have overtaken this claim and there are train strikes again, with doctors, nurses, teachers and public sector workers uniions all talking about or threatening new strikes. So I don't think that can be claimed as 'done' at all.

On the second, which focusses on minimum wage increase and the triple lock, the previous government also raised the minimum / living wage by way above inflation, and stuck to the triple lock. So, if doing the same as before equals doing something then great, but I think the expectation was they'd do something different. Meanwhile, the initial key pledge of growth is nowhere to be seen, and indeed hs gone backwards... As will most people disposable incomes when the effect of the government raising the energy price cap by £300 and higher than inlation council tax bills take effect...

I generally agree with this. I think Labour are making an absolute hash of things, but I don't think it comes from malice, just inexperience and naivety.
I do wish people would stop banging on about right-wing press, headlines against Labour etc though. Labour are getting a pasting because they are making a mess of things, the same as the Tories did when they made a mess of things. Is there any reason why Labour should get a free pass?
I do find it incredibly frustrating when posters will not deviate from Everything Labour Does Is Brilliant line without stopping to think how they would react if the Tories had eg removed WFP and if they would be fine with it if that were the case. I strongly suspect not.
I do think Starmer is the drip that never dropped, but the two I would remove would be Rachel Reeves (who lied about her past experience, but that's fine evidently because, Labour) and I think is every bit as dangerous as Liz Truss was the economy with a side helping of arrogance thrown in, and Bridget Phillipson, who seems incapable of answering any question without it turning it into a rant about the Tories. Not a good look for a minister.

Same and I agree on the press, and many do actually dislike Starmer they don’t need the media to help with that

Thanks for the link @maxplanck but it's not a source that gets any traction in the SW. And as a PP points out, it's highly partial and out of date regarding transport disputes.

As any fair-minded person should concede, government is much harder than opposition.

@Katypp no one is saying everything Labour does is brilliant. Far from it. The press has been vicious about literally everything they’ve done. Take the deportation of foreign criminals. Have you seen a positive headline about it from the Daily Mail or
Telegraph ? I’m pretty certain Ian Hislop has written about it and he is no labour loyalist.

Seeing as KS is disliked so much, how’s Kemi doing ? For a bit of balance 😂

@Papyrophile

"They should have increased the basic rate of income tax across the board."

Which like all tax rises would have just cut economic growth further.

Kemi has yet to say anything substantial.

True - other than the Conservatives got a bashing at the last election, we've listened and will change- but without giving us any proposals on what that change actually is.

Even more silence from Ed Davey and the LibDems who are the third largest party with 72 MPs yet I don't think I've heard a peep out of them.

1% online shopping tax, excluding groceries. That'd raise money and give the high streets a chance.

5p takeaway tax and then spend it on cleaning up the roads. The litter is getting out of control.

And dear God please reform social care now.

He needs to speed up the reforms. Labour had over a decade in opposition, so they should have some proper ideas about the changes needed. All he's done is set up a huge number of reviews which are going to take 2/3/4 years to come to conclusions about what reforms are needed. Far too late. We need change NOW. Before the election when people were challenging Labour as to what changes they were going to make, their apologists kept saying that they couldn't publicise their changes in case the opposition copied them - now we know they didn't actually have any policy change ideas!

Sack Reeves, his Immediate resignation and call for a general election 🙏

He needs to do a few fluffy things that people can get behind.

Someone suggested he do away with the subsidised food and alcohol at Westminster - simple, easy, wouldn't raise much money but the optics would be great

So those that struggle going to high streets should be penalised for shopping online? Really don't understand that one.

That is absolutely missing the point. Why do posters persist in deflecting any criticism by saying Labour are not as bad as the Tories, Starmer isn't as bad as Kemi etc etc. It's so childish.

I don't think anyone who mostly shops online would switch to traipsing around the high street in order to save £1 in every £100, anyway.

Plus if Reeves announced something like that, she'd be shredded by the press.

Probably less than the parking in the numerous places I would need to go. And the day off a week I would need from work, or close down the kids sports club I run.

Why would either party say anything about their proposals yet? For the Torys under a new leader they probably haven't had time to develop any new policies. And why would they rush anyway? There's probably 4 years before they need to say anything from an election point of view.

We can all recall the mantra of the Labour opposition when challenged under the last government to so say what they'd do differently. They refused, stonewalled and ignored all such lines of questioning. The main repsonse was to wait for the manifesto (which, as it turned out was anothe lie...!) Politcians will be politicans - in opposition there is nothing to be gained from showing your hand this early in a term.

That's your opinion, there are many of us with realistic expectations who weren't expecting more in the last 7 months than we've had.

We want actual change don't we? I do. Not quick jobs that only last 5 minutes and cause more problems down the line. 7 months is not much at all, let alone in comparison to the last 10-14 years.

Truth is, half the ideas people have put on here have been in complete opposition to the other half. There will never be universal support because no matter what, someone will want more.

All the young people would leave probably!

@Tryingtokeepgoing

"Why would either party say anything about their proposals yet? For the Torys under a new leader they probably haven't had time to develop any new policies. And why would they rush anyway? There's probably 4 years before they need to say anything from an election point of view."

Because even though the election is not until 2029 both Kemi Badenoch and Ed Davey need to at least say /do something if they are going to keep their jobs as leaders of their respective parties.

Plus there are local elections coming up in May and if Reform do well then they could credibly argue that they are the true opposition party and it will be harder for the Conservatives to play catch up.

In a functioning the leader of the opposition needs to do a bit more than " yeah we screwed up last time but things are going to be different next time (without any vague indication of what might be different),"

It's a Reform policy, except their proposal is 4% tax for online shopping.

@Alwaystired94

"Truth is, half the ideas people have put on here have been in complete opposition to the other half. There will never be universal support because no matter what, someone will want more."

I don't disagree but what we are left with in the meantime is slow managed economic decline.

Whoever talked about targeting Amazon for tax contributions. I don't understand economics well enough but to me going after the large organisations like this seems sensible to.

Im sure they would if they could - there must be a good reason why they can’t.
Also, with the cost of living being so high I think there would be an outcry if shopping became even more expensive - which it would as Amazon would pass on the extra costs to the customers.

but again, no matter what someone will be unhappy with a decision that is impacting their wallet. People can want all these things but without funding them, they can't be done and most aren't willing to see any effect on their own finances it seems.

There are too many factors at play to say any 1 person can completely overhaul economic decline that is global and is caused by so many different things. If it was as easy a fix as that, any of the previous Governments would also have chosen to do that.