I am a Labour voter, a Labour supporter and I do not regret my vote.

[CurlewKate]

However, I think that Starmer has been incredibly stupid and/or very badly advised over this expenses issue. He has done nothing wrong, but his behaviour is not what he led us to believe he would do, and I am incredibly exasperated and disappointed.

In my opinion, he should admit that he made a massive misjudgement, and agree to take no more freebies from now on.

Apart from anything else anything which allows people to say "They are all as bad as each other" (they aren't) is a distraction from the real issues the country faces. He should be laser focussed on repairing the damage caused by 14 years of Tory misrule. Not scrambling around dealing with peripheral stuff.
Starmer-say sorry. Don't do it again. And get back to work.

Kemi is hardly the brains of Britain.

Never let the facts get in the way of tired rhetoric

It’s amazing, isn’t it? Rayner’s dreadful because she left school with no qualifications. Lammy’s a moron (I thought that appalling word had died a death), despite being a barrister with a Masters in Law from Harvard and Starmer’s not sharp despite his Masters from Oxford and being a highly successful DPP. I’d love to know the educational attainment of their detractors.

Lammy and Obama are good friends

I very much doubt you’ve never attacked a Tory for being dense and untalented.

If you think David Lammy isn’t widely regarded as very stupid we’ll just have to agree to differ.

My point about Lammy, in defence of Rayner, is that a fistful of qualifications doesn’t guarantee an able mind.

Obama is also friends with Tiger Woods, Alec Baldwin and Bono.

I very much doubt you’ve never attacked a Tory for being dense and untalented.

Then you’d be wrong. Oh, except for Raab who didn’t know where Dover is but he’s outstandingly special.

I thought we weren't allowed whataboutery about Truss and Johnson?

Hard acts to folow

i posted earlier that DPW had only said they would pull out of the summit, & that the investment was never under threat.

So no "grovelling" required, what a sad remark.

Its a shame that you so hate Labour that you wish the investment had been pulled.

Have ever met Lammy? or Rayner?

So what are you basing your comments on? oh i see, the tory supporting right wing media.

Boris Johnson, who the Tories thought fit to be PM, says he planned a military raid into Holland.

Remarkable.

I hope you’ll forgive me for not believing you.

I don’t want any investment to be pulled. I would like all the businesses invited to come. I didn’t write (or defend) the press release.

This can’t be true can it? I don’t agree with VAT applied to private school fees but if theyre going to do it, why allow schools to reclaim over the past 10 years?

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/oct/12/eton-among-elite-private-schools-set-to-cash-in-on-windfall-from-new-vat-rules

Tell me that Labour costed this in their modelling?
Whats that? They didn’t?

Dear oh dear, what a horlicks.

Of course it’s true. Claiming input VAT is a basic VAT principle. It’s why the VAT policy will have a bigger impact on the smaller, less prestigious private schools because they don’t have the big capital projects that the larger schools have.

For capital projects, during the previous 10 years.

There is certainly more than a little glee when Labour appear to mess up.

I think thats sad.

Anyway, they are coming and if Labour can help drum up business, thats good for UK Plc, which will eventually be good for all of us, including tory supporters.

Many of the private schools the Guardian’s most prominent staff and writers went to will be quids in!

This was known a while back I think, posted about on here

Thing is - they’re bloody good at screwing up - because they’re driven by ideology and they lack competence. Get used to it.

The bond markets are already showing warning signs - I can say with some confidence that next week will be a fuck up. Let’s reconvene please.

I don’t give a stuff whether you believe me or not. Why would I?

10yr gilt is similar to last November, considerably lower than last August 2023.

Who was in power then?

Yield now is almost identical to july 24.

30yr gilt yield is similar to that of most of last year.

Any v small increases are more to do with increasing yields in the USA.

He's perfectly entitled to go to see Taylor Swift with his teen. Millionaire Starmer should pay for their tickets. All MP's should pay their own way. Even Sunak sat in the stand when he went to see Southampton football team play. He didn't need a VIP box.

Very true.

Sunak did not sit in the stands. He and his security team sat in the director's box.