Westminstenders: The only way forward is up.

[placemats]

A new thread as the other one is getting full. I'm enjoying the post election discussion. Every view is listened to and welcomed.

Brexit is happening, but what kind of Brexit will it be?

New leaderships for both Labour and the LibDems.

Most importantly, will Britain be Great in 2024?

OK, this thread is not the place for that argument tatiana!

OK, this thread is not the place for that argument tatiana!

It was repost of a reply that got lost as my iPad is playing up. I’d appreciate it if you don’t try to tell me how to post.

We need someone who can get heard by people, heard by the media and can inspire people on the ground and be seen in constituencies

This.

This is a really good idea

Alex Sobel MP
@alexsobel
·
10h
Replying to
@annaturley
I want to turn every office of a former Labour MP into an advice and community action centre funded by members, unions and those who can help run them. We know the Tories won’t even stick a plaster on the problems they have created.

All I'm saying is I am not going to continue debating something that isn't really relevant to the thread. Partly my fault for getting sucked in.

Tatiana
University in the early 80's when I was there and Keir was there and Boris was there
is just NOT COMPARABLE to today.
Best not to try

We need a multiple pronged approach - someone in Parliament who can call out Johnson's lies, or whoever he sends to deputise for PMQs. We then need people who can go out and meet people in the country.

It’s a great idea, but it will cost an awful lot of money.

We then need people who can go out and meet people in the country

Labour need to be associated with the local community on the ground making a difference socially.

Tapping into local issues and being at the heart of local change. I know my local MP is very very good at local issues and her vote didn't go down as much as other Labour MPs. I am sure that helped in her vote share.

Another MP near me does very little for the area. He is a Conservative.

There were two different streams to the discussion - 80s and now.

When I was there in ‘90 it wouldn’t have been that different to when Boris was there - he’s only 5 years older than me.

He would have been a twat then, whatever.

Well Johnson was certainly smart enough to employ Cummings to be clever for him!

I think one problem, which I tried to express earlier but drowned in my own unfortunate musings on the intricacies of the English education and class system, is that at least two people are needed in the Labour Party

• one to counter BJ in WM and help influence how MPs vote

• another to lead the Labour Party and win over voters for the next GE

The required skill set is clearly not the same.

tobee Or Cummings was clever enough to get BJ to recruit him...

Labour needs (needed) to ask people what they want. Not tell them.

Of course, the answer right now is Boris Johnson

Dominic Cummings, according to the Telegraph and the Times – will spearhead a radicalist overhaul of the civil service i.e.lots of them will be fired, new hires based on political appointment. Get rid of those committed to the job and hire in those committed to their paymasters. This is coming next. But then Cummings has been quite open about his disdain for the civil service.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/16/whitehall-dominic-cummings-boris-johnson-civil-servants

Auld yes indeed!

Explain to me again, why Labour need a woman leader?

To gain which votes?

Do Labour have

I don’t think it is wise to think of Boris as thick. He is clever enough but lazy. There is a strangle snobbishness about overt intelligence / intellectualism in this country that plays in Boris’s favour certainly against someone like Starmer.

Do Labour have a 'man problem' to Johnson’s 'woman problem'?

Cummings is the villain for the panto season. Obviously not for Cendrillon, Bear, people of the north east etc etc etc before they come on and point out the bleeding obvious. They still will come on of course

I don’t think he’s thick but I’d be interested to see him up against Starmer

strange not strangle

The uk is deeply suspicious of intellectual people.

William Hague, an exceptional debater by all accounts, ran rings around Tony Blair at PMQs for 4 years from 1997-2001.

The 2001 election result was almost identical to 1997.

No it’s not PMQ that wins elections otherwise May would have done better than she did. Johnson is better at getting the tone right over PMQ.