To not get the visceral levels of hatred people have for Keir Starmer

[LastChristmasigaveyousomesocks]

I’m not suggesting he’s the greatest prime minister ever. I’m not even suggesting he’s good at all. But some people really, really passionately hate him.

He is a bit insipid and doesn’t have much charisma but overall he seems like a decent enough bloke who perhaps lacks the political skill and acumen he needs. He’s out of his depth basically.

But that’s not a reason to actually despise someone is it?

When did we get to a point where we can’t just disagree without painting the other person as the devil incarnate?

It’s not the press. People will feel what they do about Starmer when he delivers his own speeches and policies.

I quote - "A socialist is an individual who advocates for an economic and political system based on public or collective ownership of the means of production, rather than private ownership. Socialists aim to reduce economic inequality by prioritizing the needs of society over profit, often supporting state intervention, redistribution of wealth, and social services."

Labour/Socialist are one and the same thing!

Starmer supports genocide and apartheid. He increased relative taxation for the lowest paid. He's removing trial by jury and the right to protest. I hate him, he's a racist

Sunak as chancellor was rock solid. As PM he inherited a sinking ship and did the best he could. But when he left inflation was back at target and we were growing.

You can make the arguement that austerity was needed after the financial crisis to restore the public finances and to live within our means. No-one wanted a repeat of 1976 bailout. Brexit was what the country voted for. Not just on economics, but to free ourselves from hindering EU regulations and to make our own free trade deals with other nations. Civil service really hindered the government.

Tories did amazing things on renewables and decarbonisation and did a lot on climate change. Air quality improved as well and we some species return to the UK as well.

With workers there was the automatic pensions enrollment and the national living wage introduced.

There was also the sugar levy (healthy improvement) and that 5p bag charge as well.

During COVID there was furlough and our fantastic vaccine rollout. Beer Korma was scared of unlocking and wanted continued restrictions.

UC was a mixed bag but evidence shows on average work incentives improved.

On government services the online ones improved drastically and become so much easier to use. Broadband coverage massively expanded. Some health metrics even improved. Early years childcare expanded as well.

Not everything was perfect, mistakes were made. This government will do some good things and some bad things. Overall my personal beliefs align with conservatism.

Labour is slowly creeping back up in the polls, so maybe the hostility is on the wane a little bit? But if Labour do as badly as expected in May the knives will be out for Starmer.

I feel sorry for Starmer, tbh. The filth that is thrown at him goes way beyond criticising him politically. The deleted post -I can take a shrewd guess what that was. There are a few on MN who like to dig around in that particular pile of manure.

What has he said/done that is racist?

I am a bit disappointed in him, but he was never going to be able to quickly turn around the shit show that he inherited.
There is a massive right wing self interested brigade against him.
More concerned about Reform and the irreversible damage they could do.
Starmer doesn’t blow his own trumpet about the good he is doing.

He calls himself a socialist and acts like one. Off the top of my head: nationalising the railways, raising taxes, anti private and small business, underfunded state provided 'free' breakfast for all children. All good socialist stuff.

Where did he ever advocate for collective ownership rather than private???

nationalising the railways

Oh. Were we all socialists prior to the Railways Act 1993?

I try to follow politics reasonably closely. But I must admit I wasn’t aware of this curious development.

Having googled it, and seen that it’s quite true, what a rank hypocrite Rayner is! Par for the course for this government I suppose.

I vehemently disagree on many policies but I don't think he's inherently an evil man or what others say about "he should be in the Hague"

I agree. He’s bad, very bad, as PM. And he’s got few if any redeeming qualities. But he’s not evil or a criminal.

This thread!
One KS hater spends hours challenging people to counter argue their post, failing to realise that it was deleted so that kind of eliminates the idea they have a rational argument
Others repeat the word cervix on loop. I happen to agree with their viewpoint but there is more than one issue in the world!
Thanks to those actually providing rational balanced viewpoints to analyse the question raised!

Same reason I accept that labour supporters disagree with Sunak on matters of policy but I always found Sunak to be a decent man

By that logic we all became capitalists post the Railways Act 1993, so probably not.

It says 'public' OR 'collective ownership. Re-nationalising the railways is ongoing, is it not? No doubt there will be more to come.

And the Tories weren't being hypocritical with their lockdown parties and PPE contracts and goodness knows what else?

The parties seemed to me to be very stupid but frankly very minor. Johnson’s sin was lying about them.

There isn’t a shred of evidence for government corruption in covid contracts. That was a giant lie. Sadly swallowed eagerly by many on the left though.

I don't think they were minor at all! They told the rest of us to stay at home, fined people for sitting on benches, wouldn't let us have proper funerals, closed schools, left people to live and die alone... and didn't even think it was necessary! I think that's not just stupid, it's evil.

No hatred here, but don’t expect me to like/support someone who is a barefaced liar and hypocrite, and has implemented policies which have negatively impacted many of us.

The sooner he has gone, the better (hopefully in May, if not sooner).

Possibly the worst post-war PM the UK has had.

Funny isn’t it. I’ve been working so missed any now deleted response, I guess it was rude. No surprise there!

But yes - issues with keir Starmer being misogynistic and sexist affect 51% of the uk population. So why Labour lovers always seem to want to direct people discussing this issue to the fwr section of MN is Uhm.. questionable.

.. a cartoon from the guardian I think. When the left wing biased rag doesn’t care for the Labour pm, we know there’s trouble at mill.

When I was out walking during lockdown I once came across a big barbecue being held. I know a lot of people who ignored or consciously broke distancing. Lockdown was not observed scrupulously by all.

I agree that it matters that a government obeys the rules. That’s why I said it was very stupid. It should not have happened. But it wasn’t behaviour that a lot of people didn’t do. And it wasn’t any sort of corruption.

Why is it questionable? MN set up a section dedicated to it because a lot of its users were sick to death of it dominating the main boards. Surely you can read the room?