Burnham has won. More turmoil?

[KatiePricesKnickers]

Now Burnham has won, it will trigger a leadership contest, and if he wins, a new chancellor of the exchequer.

Surely this cannot be good for the country, or its finances?

YABU - Burnham is a true leader who will improve the UK for everyone and be a competent and respected leader.

YANBU - FFS, here we go again.

I know it's disgusting

I think that can be at least partly attributed to our severely outdated voting system. Labour ostensibly won a landslide but the majority was shallow. They didn't enjoy any depth of goodwill or support right from the start. Then perceived corruption set in, along with the abandonment of many genuinely left wing policies and commitments - the racist speech was inexcusable. We really do need a different electoral system if disillusionment and lack of representation in political power is to be reversed.

Yes I agree. Plus I believe a lot of it was tactical voting just to get the tories out as well.

The Lib Dem’s campaigned for a different voting system in 2012 though and we had a referendum yet FPTP won. I wonder what the results would be if we were to have the same referendum again.

And yet the tories left us with a bigger debt than Labour ever did, together with a messed up, broken country with nothing working and high unemployment and benefits bill. Ah, but yeah, all Labours fault eh?

The timing is clever. Most of any contest will be over the summer, when voters are least likely to be thinking about politics, and then they could have a new leader by conference. Burnham to win it, all the rest are bidding for jobs in Cabinet.

Starmer has been a poor leader with a very bad deck of cards given to him. Still he made some serious mistakes upfront on welfare and spending. He probably regrets not being more impassioned now, but no one voted for a chief lawyer. They vote for hope.

How is racism and sexism defined then?

Mahmood is possible...the others well you are deluded.

It's almost as if they saw the Tories do it and want a go too.
It's a rare PM that's great.
Starmer is as good as most, and we need stability.

Indeed...and don't forget "smash the gangs"..... oh no wait....

YABU, but simply because defeating the far right (yay!) outweighs just about everything!

Well done Makerfield!

You know he's previously held several major shadow cabinet positions including education and health? He's not new to this.

Oh I forgot that one haha!

A lot of that is the press trumping it up. They are never going to play defence for Labour. In real life no one I know thinks Starmer is bad. After the revolving door chaos of Tory PMs I think some have become accustomed to the drama and tear the office like a the bloody England football manager. Not the press though - chaos sells.

2 years beginning of july

So has Starmer!

Right- but there were 2 big inflection points in the national debt - sharp increase immediately after GFC until 2010, when Labour were still in power and had been for the previous decade (increase slowed after 2010) and covid - I mean they could have just let it rip or not paid anyone furlough but I dont think Labour would have done that either.

He’s speaking now.

What shambles?

Do you have a list?

But this could be a case of "win the battle but lose the war". If Burnham now becomes leader and takes Labour further left, as seems likely, then this could give Reform a greater advantage at the next election. One more reform MP at the moment= no real impact. Lose majority at next election = disaster.

All this comes down to Labour being too broad a church. I suspect St Andy will have exactly the same problems as KS in terms of getting anything done because one side of the party will rebel against him.

Yes it's Reform, who have never been in powers fault, not Labour who have been in with a massive landslide for 2 years. Definitely Reform.

YABU. The UK has been in constant turmoil for 15 years, as in the economy and public services are falling apart. A bit more disruption isn’t necessarily bad in that context and given that Farage’s Tory Misfits government is looming on the horizon.

Yesterday was arguably the most hopeful day in British politics in decades.

Hopefully we wouldn't have the same referendum again. Firstly because it was for a system of AV rather than PR, which was fairly incomprehensible, even if you have an interest in the technicalities of the voting system. Secondly because a referendum is totally unnecessary - no need for governments to hold them on everything. Just make the necessary change on the basis of your mandate as an elected government!

A clever speech Burnham is giving on nationalisation and work placements for young people. People’s bills and employment for the young. That is legitimately something the state can do.

This man doesn’t look like he will be chasing Reform’s agenda. They will have to chase him, I think.

The HMO Britain part surprised me. Labour are mad if they don’t switch to him. He has better policies so far. I like the focus on youth employment and work placements.

It's systemic. What you describe is prejudice - and it's a shaky argument to say that pointing out white male bias in power is prejudicial.