I have to laugh at any posters still bravely and against all odds trying to insist Starmer is a decent man who has integrity. There's a ship that's long since sailed! It's like they haven't seen any news since the election. But then, to be fair, much as I knew Starmer would be a disaster, if anyone had told me then what he'd be like I'd have called them a liar. Turns out he's far worse than Johnson et al could ever be. Who would have thought the middle name of 'Mr Rules' would be 'Breaks The'?
There's also his bizarre total lack of vision for the country. Before Starmer, I'd have said Cameron was the worst PM I'd known but even with him there was an overarching plan whether I liked it or not. The same with Blair, Brown, May, Truss, Sunak and even Johnson. Maybe not a clue, but still a unifying idea.
Mandelson was a very odd appointment. Karen Pierce was an excellent ambassador and Trump had a lot of respect for her. Furthermore, Trump was openly extremely unhappy with Mandelson replacing her due to Mandelson's links with China and was considering blocking him. So the speculation upthread that there might have been genuine belief Mandelson would work well simply can't be true. Why then? I'd very much like that to be revealed but we'll never find out.
I'm going to have to address the silly claims that Starmer was immediately attacked by the press. When he became PM, we were told about the grown-ups in the room and how nice the quiet was. Who could forget Andrew Marr's eulogy on Question Time? Not so with Johnson who was greeted with violent protests by thugs who couldn't deal with their 'team' losing, thugs like the delightful student doctor shrieking to telly news about how she wanted Johnson to die in agony. I'd be so happy if she was my doctor. Or not. Starmer was given an easy ride all.through his various careers and now we're facing the consequences. They can't make him stand down though, he never went over all his other immediate-resignation catastrophes.