To be sick to death of Andy Burnham already

[Viviennemary]

I'm sick to death already of seeing Andy Burnham and hearing his voice. And he isnt even PM yet. Come back Keir Starmer. All is forgiven. I dont know how I'm going to suffer 3 or four more years of him in charge. Playing the part of the working class hero who is going to save the country. Give me strength.

I do agree with you, and LakieLady. There’s no cause for a GE on change of PM. Not under Blair-Brown, or the Tories or now. (I’m sure I recall demands from Labour for a GE when the Tories installed new PMs, but no matter.)

But what all parties do have to face when swapping PMs mid-stream is the distrust and cynicism that inevitably goes with it.

Burnham’s in a particularly difficult position in that way. A stranger riding his waggon into town and setting up shop might work. But if people begin to think he’s a travelling snake oil salesman it will go bad quickly.

Quite. Likewise Rayner and Simons. Private Eye Paul Foot award 2026 has gone to the journalists who exposed Josh Simons (of Makerfield fame) and led to his resignation from a government post:

The Paul Foot Award | Private Eye

Oh come off it. Anyway MN have deleted the post, so will leave it there. Have a lovely Sunday 🌞

I was trying to find something to like and hope for.

I know it would be ruinous to do it, but I think it’s wrong for a state not to have control of its own infrastructure. I am a capitalist, but I don’t think that letting our national sovereignty or whole sectors of the economy be owned and gouged out by PE, pension funds, tax avoiding multinationals, etc. is a good thing.

Really?

This was post that was deleted?

Zero fucks given from me, as usual.

It’s all ‘they’ have, really.

They have nothing else left, literally nothing.

I find TemperatureWest’s post goady, I wonder what I can do about it.

It is not about who was right or wrong, It is about what is right for the country. I am glad there is no drawn out leadership contest, especially with Trump's war in Iran escalating. That doesn't mean I agree with the way Burnham orchestrated it.

If you didn't see any Labour posters agree with he'd be gone, you haven't been reading many posts or threads. And I know that is not the case.

You got what you wanted, Starmer is gone. Are you going to give Burnham as chance now?

Pathetic isn’t it.

Any categoric statements from the same posters should be read in the same way. They were wrong about Starmer.

Ik the replies on here on any suggestion of Starmer’s unpopularity from the usual Labour names, they couldn’t see what was about to happen and fought against it.

Anyway he’s out. Good stuff.

What don’t you understand about the danger of using rhetoric that implies violence in a week when an ex MP was murdered?
The world has changed, I’ve done my share of abusing tories in the past, I’ve joined in jokes about never kissing a Tory in the past. In the last 10 years 2 sitting MPs have been murdered, female MPs in particular are regularly threatened with extreme violence. We saw political violence on Jan 6th. The Russians are using SM to stir up hatred and push us to populist violence. In the US ICE kill citizens on street.

The political landscape has changed. We all need to police our own language. Discuss, argue, debate absolutely but violent language and calls about something being the end of democracy are actively dangerous. Literally dangerous - it’s not a joke anymore. How many deaths are needed before we realise we need to start taking the rise of political violence seriously?

I had it at the start of the thread where I was accused of lying about a mistake I made. I heard Starmer talking about spending time with his wife and kids when talking in the Commons. In my head I thought he said my boys. How innocent mistakes are siezed upon.

What makes you think I read the bloody Guardian?

Bloody? Thats a bit evocative isn’t it ;

😆 🤣 that tickled me! sorry if I offended you. My mistake.

I was not the only one to seize upon your innocent mistake...Happy to give you the benefit of the doubt though. I apologise.

You did try to shame me but I appreciate your apology. I know who the other poster was.

Dismiss my points about the rise of violence if you want. I said it’s important we engage in robust debate, make fun of people - me if you like - knock yourself out. Can we avoid violent rhetoric, and I know this sounds over the top, because the Russians are trying hard to impact our democracy by raising the temperature of UK political discourse.

Not all posters then as you made out.

Some posters are indeed very loyal and that applies to all political leanings.

Glad you are giving Burnham a chance.

I like him, I don’t like how Starmer was pushed out and now few appreciated the good Starmer did for the Labour Party and for politics and our standing internationally.

I don’t think it was a great speech by Burnham but the levelling out is needed in our society to move forward to a fairer society and if that means Labour are going to be upsetting the middle and upper classes then so be it

The gist of what you say is right. But it’s the language of aggressive hatred that does damage, not quotidian use of non-violent allusion.

You’re being painfully literal and ignoring how language and meaning works. Tip: the Flintstones was not a documentary about the Stone Age.

You do know that austerity came about following the Blair/ Brown years of Spend Spend Spend / putting everyone in the country on benefits, don't you?

Brexit would never have happened had Tony Blair not opened the doors to the entirety of Eastern Europe as soon as they joined the EU, while all the other EU countries said they could wait.

Cause and effect.

What do you think is going to happen after this shit-show?

Well take a step back and why were so many on benefits

why had so little money been invested into communities

while Labour were not always forward thinking enough with their plans what they did was increase the standard of living for millions of people and that needs to continue. Real investment in communities not just service industries is what’s needed

Labour are in a good position to really look at our tax system and shake it up, get rid of so many tax incentives, to lessen the private sector influencing the way on public spending

It’s a long haul job but it needs to start or we shall just have continued growing wealth gap

That would be ludicrous and I really do hope this culture dominated by media flux and fleeting attention spans of the public comes to an end.