Can you name one current political figure you admire?

[MockBatter]

Preferably in this country (UK) but could be international. One person who seems inspiring, hard working, well intentioned, pioneering or any other characteristic you admire.

Jess Phillips, I listen to the ‘electoral dysfunction’ podcast she co hosted until she became a minister and she seemed like a principled lady (until I’m corrected). I’m a bit disappointed with Angela Raynor as I always thought she was over criticised by the media as she was a working class self made woman so she should have known to watch her back and be squeaky clean.

Yeah love Jess Philips.

Jeremy Corbyn

I quite admire Keir Starmer.

He is really hard working and does seem to be more focused on delivery than show. And, apart from a bit of initial silliness (free flashy glasses), he does seem to want to work for the electorate more than himself.

But, so far, he lacks charisma and any genuinely interesting new ideas.

It’s not “happening” (as far as I’m aware) but did happen. It’s a historic tweets story. He did tweet at someone “I’ll break your legs” and said something about pushing a journalist under a train after he disagrees with some comments - I think he thought they were homophobic, but I don’t know what the comments were.

This was 2009/2010.

Rosie Duffield

Totally agree. Some people are truly delusional.

well maybe let’s wait and see; I don’t think anyone who is fair minded and has any intelligence would want those chimps from Reform in charge. Nobody is saying labour is perfect - but oh my god how much better than the last few years under those self enriching hypocritical tories who left us unprepared for covid, messed up our NHS and sold us down the swanee with Brexit.

Sadly I can’t, what a shocking state of affairs😢

Of course they will massively fuck up. Look at the state of the country and it's only been a year! IMF bail out will do it re an election.

“The electorate is ultimately in charge”,do you really believe that?

We may have a vote every five years, but no matter who is installed in No 10 the outcome is broadly the same, and barely any attempt is made to stick to the manifesto of the winning side. I used to believe the above quote, but now believe the opposite to be true, we are only given a vote to give us the illusion of it.

Absolute nonsense.

And, extraordinarily, this year has been so much worse.

Spot on. So depressing.

Harriet Baldwin!

Jeremy Corbyn

Jess Phillips.
whilst I don’t agree with all her views. The absolute abuse that woman gets for standing up for her women in abusive situations. I watched her election night and it was absolutely vile the abuse she got.
yet she keeps going.
even Elon musk riled up abuse of her.

caroline nokes is another one, I have respect for despite not necessarily agreeing with all her views. She’s another who has stood up for abused women.

Jonny Reynolds - genuinely lovely person who’s really good at building consensus.

Douglas Alexander - true intellectual heavy weight and has a great moral compass.

Sadly I can’t. Some are defo worse than others (looking at you Labour Front Bench - all cretins, and most are absolute hypocrites in various ways). At a push, there are some decent women in Scottish politics, but most are or have stood down - probably due to abuse, and realising politics is a fucking cesspit.
I subscribe to Billy Connelly’s view that wanting to be a politician should in itself mean you aren’t eligible, lol.

Third this. Farage blatantly lied under oath.

Also admire the governor, I think it was, who refused to find the 11,000 extra votes needed by Trump when he lost to Biden. With all that was going on at the time, that took guts.

what magic wand (with no money) did you want them to have?
There’s more nhs appointments
more breakfast clubs
more free childcare
more people returned who shouldn’t be here
nationalised power company
nationalised railway
trade deals with the EU, India and US

in a year set against global issues

Fourth this.

And there are numerous backbench MPs who have a good attitude and quietly get on with representing their constituents.

Mary Robinson. One of the Elders now, was a UN High Commissioner and former President of Ireland and senator in Ireland. Before that she was a human rights lawyer and did amazing work.

She's tough, forthright and really believes in what she's doing. Love her.

I admire Angela Rayner too- a working class teenage mother who has risen through her own efforts - and the MSM have always loathed her for it. There is an article in the Guardian today about Farage's tax arrangements and he won't be scrutinised by the BBC/Sky or any others on anywhere near the same scale.

Nigel Farage uses private company to pay less tax on GB News earnings | Nigel Farage | The Guardian

Jamie Raskin for calling Farage out in a way that none of the UK media would.
Wes Streeting
Caroline Lucas
Jess Phillips for raising women's issues.
I always thought Dominic Grieve spoke sense on many issues - particularly Brexit and Boris Johnson.
I think that Keir Starmer has good intentions but the right wing UK media are determined to replace him with Farage.
Ken Livingstone was also a very good constituency MP.

Totally agree with this.