Keir starmer is dead in the water

[Bertiebiscuit]

The UK cannot have a prime minister who gave a plum job to a man when all the time he knew that Mandelson was still close friends with an ex-con who was convicted for trafficking children for sexual abuse. Starmer is destroying the reputation of the UK, he is an embarrassment and shoukd resign, if not the Labour party should demand his resignation.

Are you Farage supporter?
im sure UK can’t vote for someone who took money from Epstein, right?
rights??

There are currently no vacancies in the Commons, never mind vacancies in seats Labour have reasonable prospect of winning.

Somebody offered to resign so he could stand in their place. The last time that was tried it didn't work - see Patrick Gordon-Walker.

A mayoral by-election in Manchester caused by the incumbent's rush to the greasy pole would be an open goal for Reform UK.

And I'm not convinced the NEC couldn't still put a spoke in Burnham's wheel if they were motivated to do so.

Except they have been disappointingly quiet on the TRA's and women's rights.

I think that KS was planned to be the "bounceback leader" after Corbyn. family man, jewish wife, "establishment" enough not to frighten the voters, staid enough to contrast well with Boris and controllable by old Labour. Once Labour had established a continually electable image then out goes bounceback and in comes.....who? Unfortunately whoever was supposed to be doing the managing didn't do a particularlly good job did they?

Well , yes and he did give his security the slip so he could go to a ' bunga bunga party'. Sent a Russian oligarch to the Lords etc. He does tend to get a free pass.
Whereas Starmer got a honeymoon period of around 48 hours.

But that's the way the UK media rolls. Fact is he isn't very good at politics day to day , including media. Why cling on like Boris? He should set up an inquiry , with real teeth , into Corruption. Then resign and call a leadership election. Might get a proper Labour government.

Absolutely this. Private Eye doing pretty much all the journalistic heavy lifting on corruption in parliament and locally. Doing God's work in investigative journalism too. Ian Hislop is a bloody hero.

No surprise that Labour's stasi-like approach to thoughtcrime now means you can get arrested for waving a copy about, even if you're a pensioner.

OT but they are asking all the right questions about the Letby case too.

Apparently he did

Me too.
I can't understand why anyone thinks that KS has any control over anything. The unions are in charge and always have been. With all the misogyny and self serving agendas that go with that.
Everyone knew what Mandy was like back in the Blair days.
It will be interesting to see what/ who comes out of the woodwork and the extent of the cover ups.

Yes call for a BAME or all women shortlist if the mayoral cost excuse has gone. But I think it’s past that now as Starmer is facing threats earlier than Burnham can make a move.

I have had enough of chopping and changing PMs all the time, and would like to see him stay.

Yes he made a mistake, Mandelson was chummy with Trump, and Starmer thought this would be good for UK PLC. He overlooked Mandelson's past and Epstein links. I don't think he should be brought down by it though.

the thing with Boris is no one expected better. Its like junk food, we KNOW its not a healthy option. Imagine the howling if the healthy homecooked version turned out to be bad for us!

Well this was a journey to read this morning.

It’s very muddled. I am not going to dissect the entirety of this madness but I think one day when you are calm you should read back and realise how contradictory it is.

Angry because we let people in (ref. To not everyone speaking English), angry because we dont let people in (ref. To being an inbred isle), angry to pay NHS surcharge, and angry that the system doesn’t have enough money and you had to wait. Angry that we have a welfare state and lots of non contributors, yet also angry when we ask economic immigrants to actually be contributors.

Honestly it’s all over the place. The reason its not rational is because this is emotion - it’s anger and hatred.

You have left, be happy then. Carrying this hatred with you can’t be healthy - maybe get therapy?

WTF are you talking about - the Greeks being descended from the Romans??

In all fairness Starmer did not ruin the uk's reputation. That happened between May 2010 and 2024, getting progressively worse. July 2019 it started becoming a joke. By 6 Sept 2022 it wasnt even funny. It was a tragedy. Starmer had the chance to change things but he just turned it from tragedy to meh. An improvement of sorts if you are an aggressive optimist.

🤣 Yeah you’re right!

See that’s how little I cared which population/ country was descended from our colonisers. It’s not even embedded as a fact let alone a perpetual hatred.

Bet you made less fuss about Boris and his shenanigans.

If they were going to kick him out on that basis alone, then they would have done it ages ago. The fact that PM maintained a friendship with JE after his conviction has been in the public domain for ages. It isn't news, and we have known for a while that this fact was known to KS at the time the appointment was made.

Rightly or wrongly, KS remained in post despite all of that, having argued that he had not realised the depth or extent of PM's friendship with JE.

What will hopefully emerge from the documentation when it's published is a much greater degree of clarity about what exactly KS did actually know and what he didn't know; the extent to which any warnings may or may not have been given and whether or not these were acted upon or ignored; and indeed the extent to which it might be deemed that any "due diligence" that was done was sufficient and appropriate for the seniority and risk profile associated with the Ambassador role.

I think Starmer's survival as PM, at least in the short term, is probably dependent on the detail that emerges from those documents. If it turns out that he ignored clear warnings and/or that he knew much more than he has previously indicated, then he will have to go. If the evidence largely backs up his account to date and PM was given clearance after the vetting process, then he might cling on at least until the May elections or perhaps even longer.

Regardless of how things pan out for KS, I think this whole sorry saga highlights serious issues with how our systems are operating. If KS didn't know more about PM's previous behaviour, then it sounds like the vetting process is sorely inadequate - surely our intelligence services should have been able to find out enough to have been able to warn KS that PM was a significant risk? And if KS did know more details, was warned against appointing PM and then chose to appoint him anyway, why on earth are we allowing one individual to exercise so much power without having any proper checks and balances in place? Either way, the systems and processes don't appear to be serving us well.

According to who? Because if it's true then that's career ending for him too. Do you have a source?

Did you make more?

God I'm so tired of people thinking we should change PMs every two minutes or have a general election whenever something happens someone doesn't like.

No idea, any clues?

I'm guessing not, because like Trump, BoJo acting like a fool lets a right wing government get away with a lot.

His survival depends on his party and going by Karl Turner this morning there’s calls for McSweeney to go.

Given Starmer’s gushing about him getting him into power it’s a difficult decision. Wield the political knife to save his own skin or not. He answered that McSweeney question as he did because it’s the bit of truth he knows, he is there due to him.

Even if he does as wanted and gets rid of him he will look worse for turning and will be exposed and weakened that he may be out anyway.

So hostile and angry. No, our reputation is not great of course. But it can always get worse. Like when we cut our aid budgets for instance.

You should have seen mn at the time. The same posters asking for this PM to stay were happy to see that one go. They were happy for the media to do that and now facing the same for Starmer. Live by the sword and all that.