To think we don’t know how lucky we are under Starmer.

[SevenYellowHammers]

Russia have a mad despot who is responsible for the deaths of Russians and Ukrainians and has caused untold damage on the world’s environment and economy. But he’s still in power.

The USA have a mad despot who’s causing deaths worldwide and has started a war he can’t win causing untold damage to the world’s economy and environment. But he’s still in power.

Israel have a mad despot who is committing genocide and putting Jewish people at risk across the world. But he’s still in power.

In the UK, we have a dull bloke who’s doing his best to stand up to the mad despots while not leading us into war. And we’re all trying to get rid of him.

In the UK, we have a dull bloke who’s doing his best to stand up to the mad despots while not leading us into war. And we’re all trying to get rid of him.
I'm not.

Why has there been no media scrutiny of the Conservative leader?

Yep, although we didn’t know it at the time.

Kemi’s parents seemed to have purposefully had her born in UK to get citizenship. Not that I care but it’s something of a double standard that the right wing press don’t mention it. Didn’t she also admit to hacking websites? Imagine if someone on left did that. I think the Tories are increasingly irrelevant though?

YANBU, OP.

I used to really respect John Major - another charisma vacuum.

Starmer is also a bit bland, but I'll go with that over charisma (Johnson) or a fraud who's only there to line his own pockets ( Farage). Anyone who has to deal with the tight budgets for all the necessary spending would be finding it difficult. I do NOT want the Tories back in or Reform and I can't think of anyone in Labour that I'd rather trust as PM. I really hope Starmer sticks it out for now.

The voters who voted Reform have been sold a pup. Reform won't be able to do any better than Labour, unless they start doing stuff that those of us who like living in a free country don't want.

In picking Sir Keir all those years ago, the Labour Party seemed to be going for the opposite of Corbyn. But in one way the two leaders were very similar - neither has much skill at politics. Corbyn generally preached to the converted and didn't bother to try to win over opponents, he stuck with his own tribe. Sir Keir is not really a politician, arriving late in the game - the Ming vase analogy made sense in Opposition, but to carry on like that in Govt is problematic, and he's made errors a better politician would have foreseen.

Didn't both leaders get safe seats? So no real need to campaign, and maybe no empathy for MPs who may see their jobs gone at the next election?

That said, isn't Wes in a now marginal seat? He referenced that in one of the texts or emails he made public in response to something or other.

Because
a) The current PM is always going to undergo more scrutiny than anyone else
b) A general election isn’t in the immediate offing and the Tories hardly did well in the local elections.

Don’t worry as soon as a GE looms there will be plenty of criticism of a black woman hoping to be PM .

I’m just dreading another leadership contest which will detract from real business of government. And no, I can’t think of a successor. Burnham is most personable and comes across as decent but he’s not a MP and being good at being mayor of Manchester is hardly comparable to being PM. Maybe Lammy?

Sounds like the economy is imploding with Starmer refusing to go.

What a mess.

You could argue it's not in the media's interest to offer scrutiny of Farage or Badenoch.

They went to build a narrative so either two get elected and there's a new story. Plus, then they can unearth fresh dirt on the new leaders, it's a story in the waiting.

How is it imploding?

My understanding was that the bond markets are reacting positively to news that he is resolute and staying. Any sign of instability or a lurch to the left with unfunded spending would likely raise interest rates and borrowing costs for house buyers, businesses and the government - that would be bad.

i may be out of date on this as I’ve not seen the news today!

Imploding? Really?

I think people need to be really critical of British media.

How can he carry on when most are not on his side!

Actually that will be as a result of the frenzy today. The stability has been threatened. Therefore he needs to stay on and see out his democratic term.

Most of who ?

“Most” who? Labour PLP members? A significant proportion but still less than a quarter. The voters? we won’t know until the next GE. He won a landslide and has a 5 year term.

Agreed, he needs to stand firm. Seen the news now and uk gilt yields are up (which is bad) because of the shinannigans today

All the data is now worse than it was under Liz Truss.

This is untenable chaos

Sorry, what now? Is that a threat of some sort? Explain away about The Guardian funding - bizarre that you’d think I’d object. Being informed about funding behind politics and media is never ‘silly’ - such a weird and condescending post.

Yeah, Wes has something like a 500 vote majority, which is absolutely nothing. Very high chance of him losing his seat next time.

Apparently Ofcom gave the Guardian £50,000 for its ‘Untold Stories’ series recently, as this was perceived to be in the public interest. I don’t know whether it was part of a series of donations from Ofcom, or a one-off.

The usual suspects, led by Nigel Farage, have called this biased and objected.

Oh god, not Lammy.

Thank you!

Ah Nigel Farage, MP and Party Leader, who has his own TV show (for which he earns just shy of £100k a month from) on the populist-right GB News, funded by the millionaire media baron Paul Marshall who helped to fund the Brexit campaign and a Dubai-based investment company? Yep, I know the one.

You’re in an echo chamber.

I’m sorry that I’ve come across as rude, but I’m frustrated, exasperated, and worried that we’re about to head into another (this time unnecessary) leadership contest leaving the uk in limbo whilst self serving politicians fight it out.

Having said that, in this post ^^ it seemed to me that you were saying that Starmer must go or that he was going entirely because he appointed Mandelson eg To have Mandelson anywhere close to a ruling government and to give him any post, that cannot be justified hence my reply.

Yet, you later say, labour, Tory and reform, (and we can add SNP, Greens, etc) leaders are all the same. Fine, it appears we’re in agreement largely. But this then begs the question, if ALL leaders have dodgy links, why are you singling out Starmer for his bad political judgement on that one appointment?

When surely Starmer - as a person - is the least dodgy of all the leaders (with the exception possibly of Ed Davey)! We know why Mandy was appointed, because he was seen as the Trump whisperer and Labour wanted a trade deal with Trump to improve the British economy in light of Trump’s hissy tariff fits. At that point, the Epstein files had not been released. Yes, they knew about the connection but possibly not the depth of it.

What the UK needs is some stability and for voters to stop expecting miracles. For Labour MPs to get behind Starmer and all work towards doing what is possible under impossible global conditions. For all those reasons, I’m going to be absolutely furious if Labour MPs push him out.

Totally agree, it's all so stupid. We finally have a grown up government after 10 (well 8 as Labour were elected in 2024) and all the media want to do is undermine it.