To think Starmer will be gone by the end of Friday? Or will it be Monday evening?

[SingleSexSpacesInSchools]

Whoever you are voting for today, it's probably not Labour - they might loose 2,000 seats.

How long exactly will it be before he resigns?

I voted for the bloke who helped sort out an issue with our local railway station. They decided to build a giant bike shed and made access for those with mobility problems really difficult. Emailed the MP not expecting her to do much but one of her team waded in, went and spoke to the station and then kept me up to date on the progress. It was all sorted but it wouldn’t have been without his help. I noticed his name and he was standing as a councillor. I would just rather have people who were interested in local affairs!

I said he couldn"t control external events. GB allowed the banks to lend 125% mortgages and dish out BTL loans like smarties, and also for Northern Rock to use their offshore entity "Granite" I think it was called to sell UK sub-prime debt held by borrowers who might even have been on benefits for all I know to gullible U.S investors packaged as Prime UK Mortgage debt. They were all involved in blowing the biggest property bubble in history, if Labour have to own the crash that will be sweet TV viewing.

Given the atrocious mess they were left to clean up I'm not surprised. We've had slower growth than most EU countries and the US over the last 16 years. This is an inherited problem. Did you think it would be resolved overnight?

Starmer has three (main) things against him staying and one in favour.

Against:

• he’s shit and very unlikeable
• because he’s shit and very unlikeable, Labour is on the floor electorally and bleeding out votes
• there’s a lot more embarrassment to come from the Mandelson papers

For:

• Labour MPs can’t agree on a replacement

Labour ministers, MPs councillors and members know all this. They’re in despair.

I think Starmer will be forced out, but not for 18 months or more.

The 2024 manifesto? In full. Their policy statements? Also yes. Do I agree with it all? No. But it aligns much more closely with my view on things than most other parties. I want a focus on the environment. I want improvements to social care. I need a change in approach to education and not in the direction reform or the conservatives would go.

I'm influenced by the fact they don't have a chance of being the lead party in government. I want them to influence a Labour or Liberal Democrats led government so it's centre left, with a recognition of the climate crisis and our global responsibilities rather than drifting right and talking about islands of strangers.

I think there are cases for policies being considered like the legalisation and regulation of controlled drugs so I have no objection to them being explored. However I don't see them being in a position to implement policies on defense. I have also read it enough to understand that open borders is a global dream not any kind of planned policy.

Yeh this sounds close.

125% mortgages were commonplace in the 80s/early 90s under the Thatcher government who forced liberalisation of lending. They contributed substantially to the negative equity problems of the 90s.

BTL was most heavily promoted under Cameron/Osborne but was also encouraged under John Major.

Sub prime debt was a model created in the US. It was explicitly the size of the FannieMae subprime exposure which was a major trigger.

Ah such naievety!

Yes, God forbid we should gey some respite from the endless parade of greedy, self-centered right wingers for more than a handful of years every now and then.

Greedy and self-centred? Not Starmer and
his cabinet?

You are having a laugh.

Not really, no.

When thousands of wards don't trust a party with the running of local politics then this inevitably affects the trust in the party on national level.

Do you have any idea how much a GE costs? And with everything going on in the world the last thing we need is weeks spent not governing but on the campaign trail. This changing of PMs every 5 minutes is making us look ridiculous. We need stability. This government has a huge majority.

He won't resign. He will just claim that his government is working on reducing the cost of living but it will take time, blah, blah, blah...

However I think he will face a leadership challenge soon.

So Labour under Brown/Blair and this incarnation of Labour have played no part in trying to sustain a massive property bubble based on cheap debt and gimmicks like HTB etc.?

Doesn't work like that. Governments regularly get trounced in local elections,

Really? He is absolutely desperate to cling on. I wonder who he will blame this time.

Anything to say about 5 million in crypto from someone who doesn't even live in the UK?

The UK pays more on their borrowing than most of their G7 peers, so while I agree that external events are certainly having an impact, that is not the full story.

I can't stand the hypocrisy of politicians. Rachel Reeves has been caught out on Twitter calling for people to resign when the cost of borrowing was lower than it is now. Maybe she should follow her own advice?

There has been no smear campaign. The fact is he's weak, incompetent and an appalling leader. The British public is sick of the endless Labour psychodramas and instability.

With Starmer if the feedback on the doorstep and generally is to do with him, which has come up as the reason, then it puts extra pressure on the party to think someone else could get them over the line at a GE.

Ridiculous.

News papers have just enjoyed this rapid turnover of PMs because it sells copy. Others have even darker motives for wanting to talk down a decent Labour PM.

He’s not the most charismatic man of all time, but it’s quietly doing a reasonably good job in unusually difficult circumstances.

Yes, that what I mean.

Local sounds insignificant, but multiply that by thousands of wards wards things look different then.

He's doing an appalling job.

I read on another thread that Zack Polanski is the victim of a media smear campaign. It's always a smear campaign when it's someone whose politics you like, isn't it?

I think it is fairly easy for Burnham to become an MP.

A sitting MP can stand down (one already has offered I believe).

If the party leadership refuses to endorse Burnham as a candidate, he can threaten to resign and stand as an independent instead.

I suspect he has not had quite the backing/momentum to do this in the past, but maybe forthcoming events will change things.

I doubt though it would ever get that far publicly though. It would all be sorted out behind the scenes under threat of action.