anyone seen starmer?

[Offwiththecircus]

From what I can see, after his entirely unconvincing "position" on gaza he has essentially disappeared from view. Blair notoriously used to do this a lot when he wanted to avoid legitimate questions, leaving brown nosing slaves to face questions from the proles.
So over to the mnet net, which I know has wise tentacles everwhere
Has the famous SIR dropped into your church fete/tombola recently? Selfies welcome.

This is a lie. Labour have dropped that commitment. Rightly so.

No they haven’t. Whereas currently …

http://digitaleditions.telegraph.co.uk/data/1569/reader/reader.html?social#!preferred/0/package/1569/pub/1569/page/7/article/NaN

After 13 years of the Tories, we have 100s of men being issued with GRCs, more GRC clinics, men allowed into womens prisons, men allowed in female sport and GRC priced at £5 a go.
Current approval is 96% with the remaining 4% refused due to admin errors, it may take 2 years to get but its pretty much self ID.

All by the party that apparently knows "what a woman is"

Its all a big fat Tory lie, say one thing do another.

am fine thanks - all my marbles.
"Conflict of interest" is of course not a private matter, it's a legitimate matter of public concern about corruption.
I repeat I have no interest in a politician's private life as long as inside the law. Applies to anyone of whatever party or none. The alternative is a pathetically prurient public, poor education about civics, a malfunctioning democracy, rule by the News of the World of old.

The alternative is a pathetically prurient public, poor education about civics, a malfunctioning democracy, rule by the News of the World of old.

An excellent description of where we are after 14 years of Conservative rule.

Just returned for Starmer's new year greetings.
Someone upthread (apologies don't have name to hand) asked about a link I posted which they couldn't see.
This should show it I think - from FT.
https://archive.ph/lg88Y

I did over the break take up the invitation to google for sightings of Starmer's brave new world, but didn't find much, but did find this.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/04/the-guardian-view-on-sir-keir-starmer-his-party-remains-a-mystery-to-voters

which implies that rather a lot of umble joe public have also been wondering.

The article is of course from some time ago last year - but since I think it fair to say that the Torys have sunk further and Starmer's prospects of government have risen still further.

er yes.
perfectly serious.
Or are you saying that all those folks who marched against Blair's adventure should have just gone "oh hum, nice Mr Howard would do the same" ?

Or are you saying that all those folks who marched against Blair's adventure should have just gone "oh hum, nice Mr Howard would do the same" ?

Of course not. But it is hypocritical to say that you are voting Tory because Tony Blair supported the Iraq war, given that the Tories wholeheartedly did the same as the sitting opposition of the time. In fact, opposition within the House of Commons to the Iraq war came from Labour rebellions and the Lib Dems.

Apologies if a repeat, but under Labour post-1997 there were strikes at the BBC, Royal Mail (twice), teachers, and at oil refineries.

I take your point though. A Labour government is much more likely to reward the public sector. Its employees’ unions bankroll it.

That’s not a better or worse thing - there are plenty of dubious donations to all parties - but it is an obvious explanation.

link posted just above - should be accessible by all.
As I understand it from what was reported some time ago they have "pushed back" what folk thought was a commitment. I believe Starmer also made several pledges (10? - emulating Moses?) on winning the leadership but many of those have fallen by the wayside I think.

I am starting to be seriously concerned for you - you appear to live in a very Bi/zero sum world.
Or do you think people are frogmarched to the polling station in this country and have to vote for someone/anyone on an approved government list?
Where on earth did I say I was going to vote Tory?

Well, I asked you three times how you plan to vote, and am none the wiser.

Teachers unions are non political, for the record. In fact the donations from any unions to Labour are usually vastly overstated.

Labour have rather dozy in policy terms. Take the Government's anti-smoking policy (New Zealand model). When asked about the N.Z. experiment, Wes Streeting, could only say it was er....'interesting' (got the impression he'd barely heard of it). A week later, Conservatives had nabbed - what should be a natural Labour policy - as their own. And Labour could only meekly comply.

To be credible with voters they have to set out their ideas in advance of a General Election ie. now. In 2019 major policies were pulled like 'rabbits out of a hat' during the campaign, eg. free wi-fi, 'Waspie' pensions - which made them seem like desperate bribes, and the voters were not convinced.

@Offwiththecircus you don't need to be concerned for me at all. I was just pointing out that the Iraq war is still being used as an argument for not voting Labour, and that it is nonsensical given the backing it had at the time from both sides of the house. I'm fully aware that people vote for a party based on a wide range of different reasons from the local to the national to the personal - I've done so myself, having voted Independent in my last two local elections because our local independents have been very good at actually getting things done for the place where I live.

If you think I suffer from black/white or zero sum thinking, you haven't been reading my posts properly; all I've been doing is pointing out the lack of logic in those who do think in that way.

I don't understand how that policy is HRA compliant as it explicitly discriminates on age.

It's a very bad policy, IMO.

Haven't decided.

https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html

Just thought I'd leave this here.

Other reasons for voting Tory that make at least as much sense:

But Jeremy Corbyn
Keir had a beer
They know what a woman is.

Shall I go on?

You mean the 5 missions published on their website?

I have voted Tory several times.
The Tories I voted for bear no resemblance to the current government.
In fact I would go as far to suggest like you the current government are not Tories.

I had to say I assumed the pp was refering to Sunak's 5 pledges from this time last year.
I wonder if we are going to have new pledges for 2024, perhaps some that are achievable, here's one for starters.

I, Sunak pledge to spectacularly lose an election.

I think that this government are exactly Tories. They're just not bothering to dress it up as competence this time.

But they are not Tories that could have the likes of Kenneth Clarke or Rory Stewart in the party, so not the same as they used to be.

But Ken Clarke or Rory Stewart were never in charge were they? The architects of austerity and the hostile environment were making the decisions. Rory Stewart can seem as reasonable as he likes but he still supported it all.