To feel slightly sad for Labour and Keir?

[Wellwhatnowbellaboo]

Aibu to feel sad for Labour's results so far ? I've not historically been a Labour voter but I think Keir has done a good job on some things but on others he was never going to be popular...and no one would be ! I like that he's the first leader recently to appear to have a moral backbone and consistency (if he truly wasn't informed about Mandelson I might add).
How do you feel about the state of play particularly if you've been lifelong labour and did you swing to a different vote this time round ?

Agreed.

The Gazan issue is fake empathy, and performative nonsense, designed purely to attack the RW.

Ask any one of these people to actually do something to help the Gazan’s, and you are met with silence or excuses.

It’s all bullshit.

I also think that the electorate need to get a bit of a grip. Just because you don't like a leader, does not mean you replace them willy nilly. The crazy merry-go-round of the Conservatives was not the norm and not good for the country.

Yes KS is a bit unpopular right now but I'm fed up with our country being led by the nose on popularism and really wish his back benchers would STFU.

Sometimes the biggest opposition to Labour is actually Labour. It's infuriating. Read the comments on The Guardian website if you ever want to see how the grass roots are constantly fighting like cats in a sack.

Are you honestly joking? Keir would throw you under a bus for an extra vote.

Oh not like the Conservatives who NEVER tell porkies ( have we learned nothing from the past few years 🙄)
Honestly yes I feel sad , I felt like we were being run by grown ups for once making tough but steady decisions which unfortunately is not popular with the what do we want? everything! when do we want it NOW! brigade.

I feel like I would get on well with Starmer if I met him in a pub, but he is weirdly incompetent as a politician. He can’t sell anything, and he doesn’t seem to have any strong views on policies. He’d be a decent foreign secretary. All that said, I have no idea who’d be better (I quite like Wes, just because he’s so adept at talking to the public, but his position as a challenger is pretty hopeless for several reasons).

So yeah I do feel quite sad about it, because it’s a weird giant mess that didn’t need to happen. Although I agree whoever won in 2024 was going to have a massive struggle given the fiscal situation and the ageing population.

I wonder if we’ll end up with Ed Miliband as the Millwall PM (‘everyone already hates me, I don’t care’). He’s an ex-Treasury Brownite so might not freak the bond markets, and at least he knows what he wants. Would be weird if that ended up being the solution (the electorate would FREAK OUT)

I’m always able to feel sorry for people who get what they want and find it’s possibly not what they wanted after all. A bit like Prince Charles.

What many of you are pointing out is the backbenchers ... why on earth do we run this ludicrous old system if a government in charge effectively cannot govern as they will always be blocked on unpopular decisions ? Its bloody ludicrous and needs to change ... no leader will be effective with this system

Anyone who thinks Starmer has moral backbone and consistency must have been living on the moon since the last election. Come on! All his sleaze and lies, surely you haven't missed it. He's far worse than even the most fevered fantasies of what Johnson got up to.

Anyway, don't feel sorry for him because he certainly wouldn't feel sorry for you. He's just another grubby, useless politician with his hands in the trough.

Agree, chopping and changing isn’t the answer.

The calibre of politicians today, in general, is much lower than it was in the past.

Agree Labour is its own worst enemy in many ways. The left tends to fracture into purity spirals.

We don’t live in a vacuum.
World issues matter to ALL of us.

I do agree with you OP and with eyeballer and Lemonthyme comments.

The current issues we face are not easy to fix by any party, including:

• Aging population, elderly social care, pensions bill
• Cost of living increases, exacerbated by global wars, COVID, Brexit
• SEN education funding
• Small boats

Labour / Starmer aren't perfect but no other party or leader is going to easily fix these issues either - certainly not Reform.

I agree with those who said it's not good to swap leader every 5 minutes. Also that Labour are hounded by the press far more than the Tories or Farage. We should let Labour and Starmer get on with the job for a while.

They deserve everything they get.

What do you think Keir can do about it?

I went Labour for the first time in my life last GE. I thought - still do - that Keir Starmer is a decent bloke and after the Tory shambles of Truss, Johnson et al, I was ready for that.

However, they have misjudged, misread and mis-stepped at ever turn as a govt. So many unforced errors and U-turns.

I am so disappointed, and actually annoyed with myself for what I think now was a wrong decision to take the plunge and vote Labour. I'd really struggle in a General Election vote at the moment - felling homeless.

I'm a classic floating voter, I generally try and avoid tribalistic voting and approach each election with an open mind. But fucking hell the choices are dire at the moment.

Ha ha ha ha ha I'd like some of whatever you've been smoking - moral backbone and consistency indeed.
No. I don't feel in the least bit sorry for him.

He’s either a Psychopath or a massive Narc.
He and his pal Hermer went after SAS and other veterans and did it FOR FREE, went after brave Men who put their lives on the line for us Daily, who’ve seen and done unimaginable things to keep US safe from Terrorists. He personally defended Terrorists when he was a lawyer, through choice, not because he had to because of ‘cab rank’ rules. He allowed known Terrorists to come here or stay here.

His ‘relationship’ with Lord Ali is deeply suspect.
Those things make him unsuitable to lead our country let alone the rest of his ideology.

Every generation needs a dose a Labour to inocculate the population against socialism.

A political vaccine, if you will.

By now, he needs to be calling out what everyone can see, but no-one is saying. He can’t do it unilaterally though, so needs to form a coalition and go through NATO and the UN.
He should be calling on both these organisations to grow a pair of balls and confront the criminal aggressions taking place in the Middle East.

He’s sitting on his hands right now. Not a good look.

Not at all.hes renaged on everything. U turned countless time.
The whole party are corrupt and selfish. They dont care about anyone.
About time they were ousted

It never started well with him accepting free stuff. He left Diane Abbott hanging for ages. Hes chucked a handy scapegoat under the Mandelson bus. He’s come for pensioners and those on PIP but has removed the two child cap (an active choice as opposed to ageing or becoming disabled). I’m sure there are other things. I voted the man, very disappointed.

Look at this correlation.

The three parties with the biggest gains, the Liberals, the conservatives and Reform are ALL advocating lower welfare and lower government expenditure and the hard left, labour and the greens who want to continue the greatest transfer of wealth from the haves to the have nots, are not really doing very well at all.

What would that do though? Not even Trump has any influence over what Israel does. Meaningless waste of time while the troubles mount at home.

Personally I think KS is worse than Boris. because Boris never once pretended he was anything BUT self-serving. Starmer pretended to be moral, upstanding.... and classic left- if you disagree with him, you are not only wrong you are morally wrong. Look at his shameful treatment of Rosie Duffield.

But I agree with a PP that replacing him could result in someone even worse.

@SisterTeatime true. People forget how deeply unpopular Major and Brown were in their time yet now they're seen as Statesmen and pillars of relative common sense. I'm not sure that's just nostalgia for a different time but actual competence.

I don't necessarily think though that KS is incompetent in his ability to change what needs to be changed. His incompetence is more around his inability to engage with his party and media, and all parties have become more hostile and ungovernable and the media has always been hard to influence but has got more extreme. I used to read the Telegraph (my parent's bought it) as a child and then bought it again a year or two ago and was shocked by how extreme it now seems.

In the 90s, it felt like the centre ground was overpopulated. Now it feels like the Lib Dems and regional parties are the only ones still hanging about there.

I despair at our constant drive for popularism which is being driven by the media then back into the back benchers who seem to have no balls to stand up to it. It's never going to end well. Everyone wants to be told that "if we fix this, stop this" then the world will be better. It won't. And what you lose could be worse. Look at Brexit? I mean really? Even if you supported it has there been any benefit?

This reminds me of Gordon Brown. Once you start having pity for a PM they are done. They should be the leader of the country and be respected, pity is the sign of the end.