Starmer's resigned

[Sadcafe]

So the admittedly boring but truly decent PM has announced his resignation and the egotistical, pompous Burnham will doubtless become PM. God help the country

No. If a PM stands down for poor health, the expectation is that the person who takes over will be following the same agenda of the previous incumbent and the Party. He will rule on the same ticket.

In this case, if AB is successful then he has come into parliament for the sole reason of changing the agenda that the Party and the Pm were elected on. He is dissatisfied with both and intends, as he has loudly said, to change the PM and the agenda.

He is a new PM with a declared intent to change the agenda that won Labour its victory.

In that case, a GE is needed and if AB was certain he would win, he would do it in a heartbeat, so that he could declare that he and his policies have a mandate.

The difficulty with that is that victory is not assured and so AB prefers to enter the back way, untested. That is not a moral man, a proper man, a statesman-that is a wide boy.

🤞 While I dislike the revolving door of leaders and am exasperated at how Labour have handled this, the only thing worse would now be an election. I don't know that Reform would win but I don't want to take the chance. Labour have already squandered much of the benefit of their landslide majority. They can't throw it all away. I'm doubtful of what Burnham can do but I hope he pleasantly surprises me.

Because, as the push to get Starmer out and Burnham in shows, people demand change, even where the evidence is that things are changing for the better, albeit slowly. How will Burnham come in and change policies such that everything improves faster, or better, or for more people? He can't! So the fickle electorate will ditch him (and therefore the labour party) at the earliest opportunity. My view (and it is just my view) is that the very best outcome for labour will be a hugely slashed majority, which coud definitely leave them open to some coalition. So, who are the clowns? the voters, I fear.

PS Starmer for Foreign Secretary!

Controversial, but I am a bit sad to see Starmer go.

There are numerous posts from pretty much every high profile Labour MP demanding a GE whenever the conservatives changed leader. You're not suggesting they'd be hypocrites and stay silent on this change of leader, are you?

Not sure why anyone thinks constantly resigning of PMs is ever good, it’s not a job that sees immediate results and also does not give anyone confidence when the party are fighting among themselves.

Don’t forget they all sod off for the summer holidays irrespective of what’s going on in the UK.

I agree that raising tax on business was a massively foolish own goal, at a time when businesses desperately needed a boost, for wider economic stimulation.

By far their worst mis-step to date, IMO.

I'm concerned Burnham may be even worse, though. So far his utterances about economics have not been encouraging (not being 'in hock to the bond markets' being a standout wtf moment...). However, I can only hope he was playing to the gallery of the Labour backbenchers/left wing supporters, who are utterly clueless about macro economics and don't understand how you grow an economy. And that once in power, he will be more sensible. We can only hope.

And now Tories are calling for a GE on that basis when they didn’t have one themselves…it’s what the opposition does.

He managed that orange fool in Washington remarkably well.

Yes GE is the only way forward.

Yes he is. Tell me another decent PM in recent years? Working with such large team is not easy. Which decent person is now going to take the office now and run the country?

Many people don't agree that things are changing for the better though. Labour made some catastrophic errors during Starmer's extremely short time as Prime Minister.

Are you not keen on Burnham?

I have never voted Labour and have been voting since 1979. However, Starmer was and always will be a safer pair of hands than Burnham. I am not entirely clear what Burnham achieved in Manchester. He carries no glory vis a vis the groomong gangs.

We have had a successful City Mayor before. Look how that panned out and the past is the best predictor of the future.

If Britain's broken, it will be totally smashed beyond repair in the next 12 to 18 months.

Going to town later and will nip into William Hill to put £50 on a 2027 election.

I have lost hope for UK now. The political system is broken. They didn’t allow Starmer ti finish his term when he came at such difficult time and with so much baggage left for him to sort by previous PMs.
Lets see who will be this magical person who would sort all problems of the country without upsetting anyone.

@Sadcafe Decent and not la-di-da 😃

These posters want reform.

Manchester doesnt represent the opinion of the entire UK. The man's a tool. He's similar to Raynor - both just wing it with no idea of what they're doing. But lets see how it pans out...imo, Burnham will bring us to our knees, but i might be proved wrong.

So Wes was bullshitting us all over the last few weeks when he was adamant that he had the numbers to run in a leadership election and moreover, he felt it was important to have one so that good ideas could be discussed in public? He seemed quite set on that. What’s changed?

It's the last thing we need.
Bit of stability would be good, instead of all this circus.
Whether you like it or not, Labour were voted in.
That's how democracy works. You can't just demand another one as you don't like the result.🙄
People wanted Starmer out, so they've got their wish - now for Andy Burnham or whoever to take over and stick it out until the next election due in 2029. It's what people wanted, right? A new leader to take over? Or, as it seems going by all these comments, just a way to destabilise and cause more chaos and because they don't want Labour in at all? Nothing to do with not liking Starmer, it seems and everything to do with throwing a tantrum as Labour's in power and not the Cons or Reform.

Just seen your post after sending mine - exactly this.
It's nothing about Labour, it seems. Just upset as their party isn't in power and can't handle it.

Yes, he lost a Labour leadership vote to Ed Miliband, who IMO has been a disaster for this country, If he hadn’t aligned himself with the Labour Left, if we’d had the much more electable David M as Labour leader instead, IMO we probably wouldn’t have had Cameron, and very likely no Brexit either.

And his Net Zero energy stance - when we’re still having to import oil and gas! - has handed that Aberdeen seat to the Tories.

I fervently hope Andy Burnham will sack the egocentric waste of space asap.

His mistake was trying to appeal to right wingers who are never happy anyway and he’s alienated the left in doing so. I do feel sorry for him: decency, following rules and dedication aren’t valued anymore. I am scared we’ll have Reform by Christmas and I do wonder if there’s been USA interference. Dark days ahead.