Keir Starmer's popularity ratings now higher than Boris Johnson's

[effingterrified]

Shame we don't have an election for ages.

But great to finally have some opposition to this government again, particularly as UK deaths overtake every other country in the world apart from the Us, that has a population 5 times as big.

So I’m not so sure. Only time will tell if he is the man people are hoping for. If he is - I’ll rejoin

You know this has been proven to be a lie, don't you

I really hoped Keir would draw us back in but then seen/heard about his involvement with the child sex abuse prosecutors being written off.

Sorry, quoted the wrong bit. Should have been this ^^

Used to be the case you only got invaded by the trolls coming up to an election. Now it's all the time.

Tiresome.

@spillinteas This has been proven to be bollocks. Have a look into it.

The point is mud sticks, and they know it. We have seen it here. People are still posting this lie even when the full video is up for them to see.

People today will still tell you to your face that Michael Foot wore a donkey jacket to the Cenotaph. (Odd that the BBC 'lost' the tape of Johnson staggering around hungover on Remembrance Day.)

It's the Zinoviev Letter. It works.

@MockersxxxxxxxSocialDistancing You're absolutely right, of course. And the Zinoviev letter was published by the Daily Mail, as I recall. Spreading bullshit for 100 years.

Flogging I’ve seen the video it was an article on Keir and how Jimmy saville managed to go un punished for so long when there were already so much evidence against him. I’m struggling to believe he didn’t turn a blind eye or bowed to pressure to not charge him. JS was extremely high profile with royal friends and SK would have been personally notified.

And that makes me question his integrity.

We do however need some one to stand up and pick holes in the opposition which we havnt had in a long time. Devils in the detail.

@Spillinteas I don't disagree with the fact that Savile was protected by people high up in the system. In the case of the CPS/Starmer I think the problem was organisational failures, not necessarily the person running that organisation.

One of the major issues in the case early on, as I understand it, was that Sussex Police/CPS didn't notify complainants that there were other accusations on record. This was something Starmer commented on during the review a few years later.

This might be naivety on my part, I'm prepared to accept that; but I also wonder how involved in the general running of cases Starmer would've been as head of the CPS. Perhaps somebody as high-profile as Savile would've been brought to his attention but if none of the early accusers were prepared to go on record (quite understandably, no victim blaming here!) it's hard to know how the CPS could've built a case early on.

Saville could have been prosecuted many many years before KS. Allegations against him go back to the 60's, ignored but with friends like Thatcher he was bullet proof.

This is a just another smear tactic, if Starmer was innocence personified, the right wing media would have a go at his eating habits/dress sense or look into his wife's past, failing all of that, they'd just make stuff up, which they did against Sturgeon & Corbyn

I wonder what Keir will do with these facts:

Bit of a smoking gun here re care homes

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8321741/Ministers-warned-sustained-coronavirus-transmission-Britain.html

Ministers 'were warned of sustained coronavirus transmission in Britain two weeks BEFORE they told care homes it was "very unlikely" residents would be infected'

SPI-M found on February 10 there was a 'sustained transmission' of virus in UK
Yet PHE told care home sector on Feb. 25 there was 'currently no transmission'
Boris Johnson is facing massive pressure over the coronavirus care home crisis
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer confronted Mr Johnson over guidance at PMQs

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/882713/17-spi-m-o-consensus-statement-10022020.pdf

This article has a good summary of the Savile/DPP issue

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/04/keir-starmer-labour-leader-record-prosecutions-DPP

It surprises me how some people are happy to vilify Starmer whilst simultaneously supporting someone who is a proven liar and morally very questionable.

@jasjas1973 Exactly. And people will lap it up. Hugely frustrating.

Interesting article here comparing Johnson to Reagan

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/15/boris-johnson-votewinning-optimism-reality-ronald-reagan-half-truths

Saville could have been prosecuted many many years before KS yet KS was head of CPS he also has culpability.

Allegations against him go back to the 60's, ignored but with friends like Thatcher he was bullet proof - Well what about Lord Granville Jenner and Cyril Smith? Both Labour.

This isn’t a Tory party thing Jasjas it goes across the board. And it’s hard to have a sensible discussion with Corbyn fanatics about rejoining Labour as it just turns in to a finger pointing competition. Labour tin have made some massive fuck ups and until those are recognised and acknowledged ( and even though KS gave a nod to that but the horse had already bolted) its hard for ex labour supporters who want to come back - to fully trust in the party. For me GC ruined it.

I’ve been impressed with him the past few times In the House of Commons but massive reforms are needed.

Exactly. And people will lap it up. Hugely frustrating

Don't forget Tony Blair after many years of Conservative policies.

Who knows what 4 years will look like?

Thanks for the link to the Guardian piece. This is particularly pertinent for the pp who endlessly tell us about poll ratings and landslide victories.

^But during crises voters can turn on governments suddenly. It’s usually forgotten that for the first two months of the 1978-9 winter of discontent, Britain’s last experience of protracted national disruption, Jim Callaghan’s Labour government continued to lead the Conservatives in some polls. But as the crisis dragged on, and seemed increasingly beyond Callaghan’s control, the government’s ratings collapsed and never fully recovered.

If that happens to Johnson, the disconnect between his popularity and his political abilities will stop being a mystery that columns like this try to solve. His long hold over voters and the media, ever since he won the mayoralty in usually Labour-supporting London 12 years ago, will be seen as a bit of a con – like an enticing but dodgy company that eventually went bust.^

Regarding that link - it’s from the guardian, it knows it’s audience. It’s just one persons views written on paper. It’s like my self jotting down how my grandfather felt about Thatcher ( although you’d never be allowed to print it )

I can’t take guardian seriously, it’s as bad as the daily mail. They have printed at least two openly racist articles regarding Asian politicians but of course guardian readers will never see them as racist as it’s supposedly a far left paper ... they only support ethinic minorities when those ethnic minorities agree with their way of thinking

Spillin Well what about Lord Granville Jenner and Cyril Smith? Both Labour.
You might like to check your alternative facts there.

Can we have links to those racist Guardian articles?

Regarding that link - it’s from the guardian, it knows it’s audience

Of course it does.
Just as other papers know theirs.

Still - we have 4 years. An economy hit by the pandemic. Who knows what Brexit will bring? The Red wall will have been hit.

It's going to be a bumpy 4 years - and for all his gusto and bravado, the Conservatives need Johnson.

And LOL at Guardian being a 'far left' paper - 'supposedly'. But then, given the predominance of the right wing press in this country (Mail, Express, Sun, Telegraph, Times...), anything slightly left of centre might look 'far left' to a particular type of person.

So it was Kier Starmer's fault Jimmy Saville wasn't prosecuted?

..........OK

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/9623780/Edwina-Currie-I-have-nothing-to-hide-over-Jimmy-Savile.html

Spillin

KS was DPP from 2008, Saville died in 2011, any action then was way way too late JS was protected by those high up, predominantly Thatcher, who even long after her death holds tremendous sway over the Tory party, most of whom don't allow her to be criticised.

Janner (lab) was, eventually, charged, Smith was a Liberal, who wasn't.... the screw ups in both these cases were down to Police incompetence.

However, i don't really see that widening the discussion to inc historical sexually abuse in Westminster is productive.
We are, after all, supposed to be talking about Johnson and how he can deal with an opposition leader who is far more effective than Corbyn.

I suggest you cease and desist repeating the false and malicious rumours about Greville Janner spread by the child abuser Frank Beck who he helped to convict.

This is what I mean about not being able to have a sensible discussion about faults with in the Labour Party for those who would possibly come back. The sneering and finger pointing starts.

The guardian articles are very easy to find just type in ‘Guardian Asian Politicians’