Im no fan of Starmer but …

[BettyWhittaker]

I am very anti - Labour government, have never voted Labour in my life and never would and I hope an early GE is called …

BUT - AIBU to think he really couldn’t have handled Trump any better than he had? Christ the man is completely unhinged, his behaviour is getting worse and worse - AIBU to think Starmer really couldn’t have done more to handle this?

I thought his statement yesterday was pretty good. Let’s just hope the mad man gets taken out of office before he kicks off another bloody war

Starmer has played the long game. He realised he needed to get us back on good terms with EU leaders and they are at least talking to him and coordinating statements with him and we aren’t totally on our own. Which given how bad the relationships were under Johnson/Truss and would be with Farage is a massive success.
I’m sure the media would castigate Starmer if he stood up to Trump and Trump’s response was to retaliate by cutting off weapons to Ukraine.

Trump may or may do that, but as it stands, he's done a business deal with Ukraine and Europe to pay for them hasn't he? Those weapons are not free. Trump does like a deal.

It also wouldn't be Starmers fault. The blame needs to lay with the shit leader in the world - Trump himself.

I agree.

im not a natural labour only voter. Have voted LB, LD and (one nation) Tory in the past.

Wouldn’t vote Tory again after the last 14 years so voted Labour. I was actually a bigger Starmer fan than Labour as a party iyswim?

He’s doing so well on the world stage and taking charge and showing the UK as a diplomatic and controlled country.

Would be nice if he could do the same domestically however I fear the RW media (most of it is RW controlled) make it harder because he had dome
some good things domestically too.

I don’t want an early GE. I want Starmer to remain and to be given a good chance because I think longer term he will do so much more good.

The EU is more strident towards Trump, we will see how it plays out but it was good to hear the House Speaker Mike Johnson, in his speech to Parliament, being far more conciliatory.

Pity some in opposition & a few posters on here, cannot read the room as well.

I this the appeasement of Trump is the right strategy and is Starmer's strength. I think he needs to be upping the rate of getting us to be more self supporting for Defence, the time of relying on the US to protect us does seem to be over.

I can't figure out why they sent Johnson here. The man has literally zero power or influence.

And to the initial post, yes, I think Starmer's doing as good a job as possible. I've been very frustrated/disappointed in him domestically, although I concede he's been handed a terribly stacked deck, following on covid and tory incompetence and austerity. I wish he would display this kind of leadership more often.

He is a Republican, so he has influence on his party, they voted him in after all.

He'll be representing moderate/normal views, not those of Trump and doubtless be feeding back how Trumps ideas are causing.

I quite like him. I am disappointed in some of Labour's policies since getting in (especially trying to appease the Reformers who are never going to vote Labour anyway). The area I think he does excel is diplomatic skills. It feels like we have a respectable adult representing us in the world stage.

He is one hundred percent a Trump stooge and is only in that job as grace and favour. He's hated by most of the Republicans, barely squeaked into that position by two votes and that only because the Republicans were falling apart over ousting Kevin McCarthy. Trump controls him, not the other way around.

And despite being soft-spoken, he's anything but moderate.

There will be no change.

Exactly. He’s the most credible and sound PM we’ve had in the last decade or two who can be trusted to represent us well to allies, and “allies”. Must be a relief to NATO considering the alternatives.

starting? he's been mad as a box of frogs for months, if not years.

One of his disposed advisors from the 1st term said he was mentally ill during Trumps first term... but he had more normal people around him.

I voted Labour and haven’t been too impressed to date however I don’t think Starmer can focus on domestic issues much when he has to deal with this US president every day. I don’t think any PM has had to deal with this scenario before. Here’s hoping things will improve although I think it will require UK & EU to stand up to Trump at some point otherwise where does it stop…?

You said “You don’t think getting the death penalty removed in several countries requires diplomacy? Ok…”. So he got the death penalty removed, according to you. ‘Singlehandedly’ seems fair enough to me.

Anyway, this is all irrelevant. He isn’t any more skilful or persuasive than any senior barrister who appears day in day out in the Crown Court or in judicial reviews. He argued in court as any even half-decent barrister would.

Whether I’ve done the same, or any poster’s done the same, is neither here nor there. No-one’s barred from finding Starmer a talentless peevish arse of a politician. If you’re measuring ability by a politician’s legal career, there have been countless Tory QCs/KCs, including Michael Howard. I imagine you must have been a big fan of his (whether you were or not, Howard was a far, far cleverer man and better speaker than Starmer is).

👍

My thoughts exactly

I think Kier did all he could in the situation and thank god we don’t have a leader with the same attitude as Trump or lord knows where we would end up. I said to my daughter that people can slate Kier all they like but he is a calm collected man who won’t over react. He knows that we need to keep the crazy man onside as much as possible.

He has handled it well. But one good thing doesn't cancel out all the other crap hes resided over.

managing to help keep ww3 from happening because of an insane megalomaniac being handed the presidency is absolutely worth cancelling out some of it.

Didn't mean to post!

I have been wondering what on earth the landscape would look like today if Boris was in office 😂😂it makes me very relieved that we have Starmers ‘dad’ vibes

@EasternStandard - that’s your opinion because you can’t possibly know that!
I and many of my friends/family would agree with @ttcat37

I think he’s been dealing with it the best he possibly can
though with the latest developments I’d be personally delighted if he told him to fuck off and cozied up with Macron and friends instead. I also know that’s probably not the best idea.

It is easy to know it from personal ratings. Have a look from the GE to now. It’s all tracked in a graph.