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.

I doubt that it was Mandy who told the three men where Starmer's constituency address was, nor what car he used to drive. It wouldn't be difficult stuff for a random journalist to work out, let alone the GRU. Let's face it, the GRU managed to track down the Skripals and Litvinenko despite them not being in the public eye.

Oh for fuck’s sake. The case against the men accused of arson on Starmer’s property gives no reason to suppose anything else.

I fucking hate the obnoxious hypocrite Starmer. But at let’s at least stop this nonsense about his private life.

Oh ok then.

he has increased unemployment
Unemployment is at 4.9%. That's really not very high if you look back at historical data.

He has also reduced economic growth
Actually GDP was looking up before the Tangerine Toddler decided to start throwing his toys out of his pram again:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/16/uk-economy-in-surprise-05-growth-jump-before-iran-war

And 2025's GDP growth was stronger than 2023's.

and increased the national debt
So has every PM since Ted Heath.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/19/uk-reports-record-breaking-surplus-rachel-reeves

He's also increased train drivers pay while reducing the punctuality of trains.
Train drivers have had a real terms pay cut. Punctuality is little changed but cancellations have reduced significantly since the Tories were in.

As someone who no longer lives in the UK...
So we can disregard everything you wrote before that sentence then, as it must be based on secondhand information.

I can also safely say that he has significantly worsened the rest of the world's perception of UK Government
Really? Care to elaborate? If I was to ask my friends in Germany, the US, Italy etc. I doubt that they give the UK much thought on a day-to-day basis, but I suspect that their perceptions of our government were much poorer under May/Johnson/Truss.

5.2% unemployment isn't shocking at all. Unemployment rates in this country have been in double digits a few times in the past. When Thatcher took over, unemployment was 5.3%, by 1984 it was 11.9%. When Cameron took over in 2010 it was 7.9% and promptly grew to 8.5% in 2011. Youth unemployment peaked at 22.5% in 2011 by the way.

Who are you canvassing for, out of interest?

I don't have many positive things to say about the current government.

Still more positive things than I had to say about Sunak's government.

What are the other parties offering that is going to turn things around?

You do have many things to say for this Gov. You’re still Labour going by your posts.

Would you believe that I've never actually voted for Labour in any election in my adult life?

I still regard them as the best of a bad bunch at the moment. The last years of the Tories were dire. Reform want a union flag edition of MAGA. The Greens need to clean their house up.

No idea about the Lib Dems or Plaid, I need to look carefully at what they and Labour are offering - and whether it's realistic - before I make my decision about voting in the Senedd election next month.

No, frankly, I don’t believe that you’ve never voted Labour.

You know, I know, the world knows, that the economic conditions inherited in 2010 and caused by the pandemic were unprecedented.

Labour has no economic argument against the Tories. It’s all bullshit. As is the Tory corruption meme, put about by Labour.

It’s genuinely funny, if grim, to see Starmer misleading Parliament about matters personal to him: his choices, his preferences, his ego.

Starmer really is a disgrace.

You can disbelieve all you like, but it's true.

If the Tories can blame the conditions they inherited in 2010 for the fact that things got worse in 2011 then Labour can blame the conditions they inherited in 2024 for any worsening during 2025.

What would really help would be if the Republicans stopped fucking up the global economy every time they are in power. Three quarters of the recessions in the last century were started under Republican presidents. Usually involving wars, tariffs and tax cuts for the wealthy.

Frankly, I am really not interested in political machinations. I am deeply concerned by the state of the business environment for small companies. I want to see quite a free running SME sector, where people with ideas can start a business in a shed or garage and grow, without being choked by regulation.

It's anecdata, but illustrative of my point: I used to buy the most wonderful taramasalata from my local fish counter. It was made for him by a retired restauranteur (michelin starred) at home -- about 4 kg per week. The authorities came down on him like a ton of bricks when they saw it was home kitchen made. Trading Standards insisted he moved into an industrial kitchen or quit; he was already old and retired, so he quit. Skills lost. Recipe not passed down. Loss of income for everyone.

Who got anything at all out of such a stupid blunt instrument? Using a cosh to bludgeon a one man band out of business is a ridiculous abuse of state powers of enforcement. Yes I know it's a trivial example, but we can all probably think of similar situations.

I agree @Papyrophile

i can’t expand my business because I don’t want to be an employer.

My husband is the same. If he wanted to expand his window cleaning business he would need to have double the amount of work in a round (potentially doable). He would have to supply all equipment/buy a new van. He couldn’t do it as a self employed contractor cos of ir35 cos if he’s giving the work/under his brand name/ he owns the insurance etc it’s employment. Which means a salary, pension, annual leave, all those costs - not to mention huge liability. So it’s easier to turn work down and stick with what he can manage himself for the next 10-15 years.

what every government fails to realise is it is the small employers that mae up a huge majority of the UK, and because restrictions are so heavily in favour of big businesses it’s choking everyone.

even things like public sector contracts. For copywriting/PR I would need to have certain requirements in place to meet the eligibility for tenders (even things like social value responsibilities) which make it impossible to complete. So only big businesses can afford to do them which costs four times the amount and is no better there than what I can deliver.

I am starting to think that Reform, which most here seem to dislike as deeply as I do, would lose most of its momentum if there were a political party that looked at doing the best deal for SMEs. Call it something like Get Started or Small Capital Business, and make rules that encourage small legitimate businesses. Could be a game change.

I know that no one can make small businesses have good ideas, but it would be great to think that good ideas could prosper faster. To my mind, this should be inclusive, from a new nursery business and a young joiner married to a beautician. These people should be making decent money and a reliable family-supporting income. People without degrees but with practical skills and a work ethic should be able to make money cleaning the windows of old ladies who aren't able to clean them anymore, but who still want to see the bird table.

Oh dear, I think I have reimagined the conservatives.

The bigger issue though @Papyrophile is that even organisations like local chambers of commerce only care about medium - big businesses. One of the reasons I cancelled my membership with my local one was because they didn’t give a damn about self employed, one man bands, independent contractors - just the bigger businesses with multiple regional offices and bigger employers

I agree. No one is interested in the smallest of businesses, self employed etc. Whether government, HMRC, local councils, chambers of commerce, not even suppliers of goods and services. Yet, the small businesses employ the vast majority of the workforce. It's really damaging the economy. Meanwhile, the shopping streets are full of illegal money laundering shops and lots of "tradesmen" are untrained and/or con men due to lack of regulation. Yet, the "legitimate" businesses are being ground down by regulation because HMRC, councils etc always go after the easy targets and not the illegals nor con men.

I regularly turn away work because I no longer want to employ staff due to the costs and regulations and bureaucracy. When I started the business, I grew it and employed people, but it became too much in terms of costs, hassle, etc. My business could easily be 2 or 3 times bigger if taking on staff wasn't so onerous. But I always maintain that it's a mugs game to take on 1 or 2 staff as the costs, regulations etc mean it's simply not worth the admin/management. The "sweet spot" seems to be around 5 employees where you can get economies of scale of having the paperwork drawn up, policies and procedures put in place and the staff can work with each other to resolve problems/queries etc.

I can only imagine that the "big" businesses have politicians in their pockets as nearly every new piece of legislation makes life harder for the smallest and independent businesses.

I think a lot of small businesses realised governments hated them during covid when Sunak excluded 3 million sole traders, freelancers etc from the covid support schemes - that's a whopping 10% of the workforce randomly excluded. Just showed he either didn't care about independents or simply too thick to bother understanding why his exclusions affected so many people!