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.

What is Hobbs? Who goes to 'Hobbs like the rest of us'? I don't go to Hobbs. Is it Hobbes? Morrisons have got some nice long cardis. I expect they were made by 3-year-old slaves and would pill up after 3 minutes' wear.

The parrot says he got a bit weary of the cliches:

time for a change,
fourteen years of Tory chaos,
he denies any wrong-doing,

and from about three days ago he's been strutting around saying,"Greedy fuckers, greedy fuckers."

No, Sunak went quite often to see his team Southampton play. He was picked out by TV cameras on several occasions when matches were televised.

Yes, well Farage said at NEC conference he pays for his own clothes and glasses.

I doubt high-end clothes and specs are any more ethical.

Your parrot is a great political observer though. I imagine it’s mastered “slum landlord”, “hypocrites!”, “crony appointments”, “dodgy pass to no.10” and “Oh no! It’s Lammy and Reynolds spinning for Starmer again” over the last few weeks too.

I was ready to give him a chance and thought let's see how he does. Let’s lay off him while he lays the foundation stones of his government.

And foundations he has laid. We had two tier policing, the winter fuel allowance (just months after scaremongering over the Tories doing the same thing), Miliband’s insane energy policy (already increasing prices and reducing supply) whinging about a fiscal ‘black hole’ that they created themselves by sending £11bn abroad and making train drivers the best paid in the world, stuffing the civil service with cronies, freeing convicted criminals, Lammy humiliating us with his support of Hamas and now, we have all this “free gear” nonsense.

t wouldn’t be so bad if Starmer hadn’t spent the past 5 years acting like a disappointed headmaster moralising over the Tories, and then immediately doing the same thing and worse.

“Give him a chance” the left wing wail. Well he’s had his chance. And he’s blown it with a speed matched in living memory only by Liz Truss.

If only we had known upfront they intended to blow everything on their mates, kill our natural resources, punish old people for not voting for them, send the tax base scurrying for the exit and indulge every student-union ideological fantasy they’ve been nursing and brooding over for the past years. Would the tactical voters have been so eager?

Amidst the relentless moralising against the opposition, he and his party have no ideas about how to improve things for the average British citizen.

And do you agree with your parrot?

Exactly this.

It's not like there is a definitive definition of what being working class entails and even if there was, the fact that Starmer's parents may have been working class doesn't mean that he is. I struggle to believe that someone who defacto attended private school (whether his family paid the fees or not) is in anyway working class. Education and peer group play such a huge role in class that at the very least he is middle class. Just listening to him and observing him makes it painfully obvious that he is no less middle class than many of his Tory counterparts.

Anyway, my point is that it's all irrelevant anyway. If he has great ideas and policies and could move the country forward then I and most other people wouldn't care if he is part of the aristocracy or a pauper. Sadly they don't seem to have a shred of inventiveness, optimism or integrity.

I didn't vote labour but wish I had now. I don't care about the expenses thing at all, it's a waste of news time. And definitely in favour of winter fuel being cut for pensioners and getting rid of the stupid Rwanda scheme. The only thing I didn't like was that he apparently goes to football games with Piers Morgan and I hate him.

😂

@Zuma76 😂😂😂😂😂

TBH no PM should be mixing it with with the public at a football match.

We've had 2 MPs murdered, internationally, Swedens leader was killed, so was the Japanese leader, Trump 2 attempts.

Do you want a 3rd MP killed?

I would imagine Sunak was surrounded by security at these games and at great expense.

Its unbelievable that Labour have walked into this, there is so mush wrong with the UK, pollution in seas and rivers, NHS reform, Dentists, roads, social care.

But do we thread after thread about or newspaper media headlines on?

For a pensioner on under £12k freezing over winter, highest debt since 1960s and no chance of dealing with gangs they think they can 'smash'

Encouraging

@caringcarer "My husband simply said what kind of a man encourages another man to buy his own wife clothes?"

Um-what is your husband suggesting??🤔

Lol

Why is a pensioner on 12k? just over 1/2 the min wage, you lot had 14 years to increase pensions and to insulate housing and you did neither, in fact you scrapped the insulation of the worst homes in the UK, often used by the poor, inc pensioners.
Anyone relying on the WFA will be cold during the winter as its not even one months worth of bills.

Tories caused debt to rise, not Labour, a rather neat trick because you borrowed 100% of GDP, from 68% in 2010, yet wrecked public services.

Yet now, 2.5 months in, make out this was all caused by Labour.....

Probably the free loading, shameless sort with too much greed to have principles.

Well I rather think we don't know what the truth is and why the clothes were bought. We can assume Lord Alli was buying Number 10 access (useful for him) but we don't know that for sure. I would suggest that's one of the major dangers in accepting such personal gifts of cash and why the Starmers would be very wise to resist in future.

@iwishihadknownmore lol back at you.

Your lot are woeful

Enjoy

@Houseplanter "
Probably the free loading, shameless sort with too much greed to have principles."

Possibly. But @Nordione1's choice of language suggests something even more unsavory. Which I think is pretty grim, frankly.

I didn't read it as you appear to have

The problem with accepting over £100,000 from someone else is that there's no such thing as a free lunch. Lord Alli will have received or will receive something in return. I have no idea what that could be and neither do you @CurlewKate . I don't know what you mean by "unsavoury" though? What are you suggesting?

I don't like the lack of transparency- I feel that the Labour were very keen to promote the image of trust and transparency yet very quickly they have lost this. They have been honest in the political actions and the clothes issue shows remarkable hypocrisy.

It doesn't matter what flavour of political party you vote for they're always a disappointment. I don't know why anyone expects otherwise.

They all take advantage of their position eventually.

I voted Labour and I don't regret it so far. I'm glad Starmer is brave enough to make unpopular choices and I can't get worked up about the football stand.

My vote was purely to get the SNP out so I wasn't one who had high hopes for Labour, it was very much a vote holding my nose.

They could have least have given her the correct size 🙈

This.

He is accused of lying by omission - not revealing that he benefitted from a private school bursary for sixth-form (consequently the Sutton Trust are still claiming that his place was 'state funded throughout his secondary education' when it was not - most pupils in his year group were required to pay fees in the sixth-form). It is also suggested that he deliberately omitted his school from his original 2009 Who's Who entry.