To think no one can SERIOUSLY want Starmer to go now, it’s media created instability designed to damage the UK.

[partmermaidpartplant]

trump, wars, Israel invading Lebanon, US mid terms…….

it would mental for Starmer to go and it’s a trap.

yabu - of course Starmer has to go, despite what is happening in the world right now.

yanbu - time to move on and deal with trump and the blatant manipulation of the media by Russia, right wing billionaire interests.

Tony Blair had access to all the information and went in regardless, in order to suck up to Bush.

Badenoch was all for deploying our armed forces until it became clear just how unpopular the move would be.

How has Starmer made the country ‘shitter’

actual examples please.

the PP who mention that Starmer is bringing the UK back to the EU probably has it right.

look at Trump. A Tory PM would have been behind him 100% and joining in the insider trading.

Starmer used to be a human rights lawyer in his spare time. I don’t want him to be my friend, I want him to bring positive change to the uk and I think he is doing this.

Also still no one has come up with a list of reasons that he is been so bad except ‘read other threads’

But why not? It’s not like people are holding back, you sound interested enough to want to know, it’s in so many places.

So?

Just because Blair did does not mean every other PM will.

I also remember the IMF fiasco. Too many labour voters don't look back through their party records.

I loathe people who fail to understand how miraculously lucky they are in global terms to have been born in the UK. It's the most tone deaf privileged position to call the UK a "shit country". Try living in DRC, or Afghanistan, or North Korea or one of the countries where infant mortality is 70 times our rate, or where there's no functioning education system, or where there is war.

This is not "a shit country". You have no freaking idea.

Badenoch was all in favour of UK involvement. And remained so until it became obvious just how unpopular that would be.

Maybe, maybe not.

You don’t know that, despite your Blair whataboutery.

I am glad that Starmer didn't commit us to Trump's idiotic escapade against Iran. Internationally I think he is doing well. But his Chancellor and his back benches, and there are lots of them, most with threadbare support which is why they are cacking themselves ahead of May 7.... I have no time for them at all.

It is all very lovely to say you want the best for everyone. Given that 60% or thereabouts of the population work for small businesses, surely it is a no brainer that you make life a little easier for small companies with a bit of compliance easing on H&S or compliance regulations. Otherwise, the person who does the work all day on the tools gets in, eats, and then starts completing government paperwork. Reasonable to expect this of a decent sized company that can afford to pay an admin pro but to demand the same level of detail from a company that employs five or 10 people and the occasional subbie is overkill.

A little lighter on the cost of employing people would boost the economy quickly. RR's first budget was an absolute hammer blow to SMEs and to part time jobs.

Small businesses make quick decisions. They don't affect government policy or influence it. If there is work they can do profitably, they take it; if there's a decent amount, they consider taking on extra hands, possibly, or they pay overtime. But this Government is terrifying the living daylights out of small businesses.

To bore on, my DH has a tiny engineering company. We clean, repair, service and remanufacture heat transfer equipment, mostly in the marine industry. We don't have a production line. There isn't a product in a box on a shelf waiting for a customer to buy it. Our customers find us, and bring their problem item to us. What we offer is 35 years of experience and knowledge, and the skills and tooling to fix their problems, quickly. So their brewing becomes more efficient, or their bio-power gen plant works at 100% again. But we are all getting old, and the skills and knowledge will be lost unless there's some political commitment to saving little businesses.

Our sub-contractors, like the welders and the specialist machinists we depend on - because we can't afford to have them all on our payroll - are also ageing out of employment. The loss of technical skill should be scaring politicians into sleepless nights. I edited this post to add the second paragraph.

She didn’t exactly keep quiet about it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce3gd22x3xgo?app-referrer=deep-link

@Papyrophile

Our sub-contractors, like the welders and the specialist machinists we depend on - because we can't afford to have them all on our payroll - are also ageing out of employment. The loss of technical skill should be scaring politicians into sleepless nights

I have several clients who are in a similar position. Some doing niche/unique work who are wanting to retire but there is no one able to take over or sell their business to. I agree that politicians should be having sleepless nights about this. But, of course, they don't care about small business and self employed. Neither the Tories nor Labour care about small businesses even though they employ a huge proportion of the country's workforce. Politicians just prefer to "offshore" everything to the Far East and hope that the shit won't hit the fan on their watch when the supply chains are ruined by wars, shipping blockages, pipeline cuts, etc.

What starter has done is far worse than Boris party gate. Yet all Labour supporters now don’t like to enforce their own rules in their leader and expect the press to give an easy time ! The media give Labour much less pressure than tories ! Mainstream media is left wing biased so they’ve given him nothing like what they do more right wing parties

yet another example of the total shambles of two tier treatment this country has

Agree that the press are creating problems . What I like about Starmer is he is being firm on not joining Israel’s war. Remember Reform are all for it .

Agree with this entirely.

I wonder about this too. I still have questions about how a young Ukrainian male model knew the whereabouts of Keir’s address. I don’t recall the media asking that question but I may have missed it.

I also noted that when connections with Epstein were raised, Mandelson was quick to state that he hadn’t abused any girls. I don’t recall the MSM asking whether he had abused any little boys. Why, when it seems the obvious question? I feel a huge amount is hidden that needs to come out now. Unless I missed all that too.

I still have questions about how a young Ukrainian male model knew the whereabouts of Keir’s address.

It’s on every candidate’s election material. Probably on the electoral register too.

To be fair, he has increased unemployment, and youth unemployment in particular. He has also reduced economic growth, and increased the national debt, interest bill and taxes all at the same time. He has increased doctors pay while not resolving their actual dispute, indeed he has annoyed them more than they were before. He's also increased train drivers pay while reducing the punctuality of trains. He has made people worse off in real terms since coming into power. He set out to increase the number of homes built in the UK by 1.5 million, but is currently 2 million homes behind. So, measured against what he set out to achieve he's not done a great job. Now, from memory many of the targets were to be achieved by the end of this parliament - but it seems unlikely that many of the meaningful ones will will be achieved.

As someone who no longer lives in the UK, I can also safely say that he has significantly worsened the rest of the world's perception of UK Government, bar his masterful inaction in participation over the illegal war in Iran. A charitable person would attribute the outcome of his approach as planned, a less charitable (but widely held, here in Europe at least) take is that at last, for him, doing nothing has turned out to be the best cause of action

The most disappointing thing of all though, is that he set his stall out on being better than the alternatives when it came to sleaze, and yet he and his government have portrayed the very worst of cronyism, self interest and protectionism in record time of taking office.

It has not been a requirement for candidates to make their address public since, I think, 2010. I agree though, that even the abbreviated electoral role would have his address. Even without that however, it'd be pretty easy to find out, especially in the case of a high profile person, by just following them!

Conspiracy theories abound about Starmer's links to Mandelson and Doyle and the arsonists that targeted his house. In the case of Mandelson and Doyle it seems to me that it's no more complicated than simple payback. They helped him get elected, in return they got / were promised, a nice cushy overseas posting, all expenses paid, that would let them further their personal networking and income generating opportunities. Good old fashioned cronyism. No more complicated than that.

As for the Romanian arsonists - it seems more likely that someone with a grudge bunged them some money to torch Starmer's house than there being any direct link between their alleged primary income source and Starmer. I am not sure why there's such a cover-up/media blackout in the UK on the subject though...that's a bit odd, unless they are simply treating it as a security matter?

This isn't serious surely?

Particularly this line - "Mainstream media is left wing biased so they’ve given him nothing like what they do more right wing parties"

To be fair, he has increased unemployment, and youth unemployment in particular.

Main headline on the BBC as we speak - "Unemployment fell to 4.9% in the three months to February, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, despite predictions it would remain unchanged at 5.2%"

"Meanwhile, wages rose at an annual pace of 3.6% between December and February, the weakest rate since late 2020. Despite the slowdown, pay is still rising faster than inflation."

Also from the FE published today - "UK unemployment rate for people aged 16 years and over is estimated at 4.9%, a drop from 5.2% in March 2026"

He has also reduced economic growth, and increased the national debt, interest bill and taxes all at the same time.

Five days ago, the BBC reported; "UK economy grew faster than expected in February ahead of Iran war" "The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the economy grew by a faster-than-expected 0.5%, while it revised its estimate for January up to 0.1% after previously saying the start of the year had seen no growth."

He has made people worse off in real terms since coming into power.

Anecdotally, as a freelance copywriter, I'm working at full capacity for the first time since May 2024. I've been able to raise my rates and still attract new clients.

He set out to increase the number of homes built in the UK by 1.5 million, but is currently 2 million homes behind.

I don't know about these numbers, but I personally think more should be done to repurpose empty buildings than build new ones. There was a FOI by my local paper recently, they asked the local council and discovered there were 49k empty homes in our town. With that number of empty properties, surely it makes sense to solve that issue first?

So, measured against what he set out to achieve he's not done a great job.

According to pledge process (https://pledgeprogress.co.uk/) 16% of pledges have been kept, 41.7% in progress, 0.5% compromised and 0.5% broken.

I’d agree that a bite of cake doesn’t even come close to the Peter Mandelson affair. Looks practically quaint.