James Murray is the new Secretary of State for health

[Theeyeballsinthesky]

Replacing Wes Streeting

www.gov.uk/government/news/appointments-14-may-2026

Is this new footage or 5 years back?

It's a good few years ago. The swimmer in question eventually lost his legal battle to compete against elite Women.

Cringe! I hadn't seen this interview with J Murray. What a rambling fool.
Take the heat out of the debate? That old trope?
No- let's definitely keep the heat in. That's what these twits need.

www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/44a4d0d6ba15f5de

• was 2022

I doubt there will be a GE because the current Labour Party doesn't care what the country wants. They don't care if they don't have a mandate. Half of them probably don't understand what a mandate is. It's more a case of: "I hath the crown forsooth, and I shall kill any whoreson who tries to take it from me."
They'll ride this out to the bitter end because they know it's their final rodeo. None of them will ever see power again and they know it.

Now this - this I can very much see as very possible yes.

Blindly hanging on to power regardless of the damage it does to Labour in the long term, never mind the damage to the country

I think many people who dont support Labour wont want a GE soon because of the possibility of Reform winning.

So although Reform and Tories may push for one, there wont be.

Because even if Labour limps along, many people will be hoping that by the time of the next GE Reform will have been shown to not be able to run councils. And so not the country.

Unfortunately that was shafted by the Tories systematically over 14 years.

Who?

@tobee No it wasn’t. All governments have promoted divisions. Mainly because all parties are divided at some point. There are protests down the decades too.

No argument from me.

no need for Labour to continue that but….

Speaking from experience, I can prove that the Greens can’t run a council to save their lives, or even the recycling, which you’d think they would at least get right. So I have very little faith in the “enough rope to hang themselves” approach on that one.

the damage to a labour in the long term by not listening, is high. If they had a revolutionary approach, something to really make a difference maybe people would listen but Labour is a party without an ideology soundly over taken by the Greens and Reform / Restore.

“A change of Health Secretary at this moment is the last thing women, babies and midwives need” says RCM
https://rcm.org.uk/media-releases/2026/05/a-change-of-health-secretary-at-this-moment-is-the-last-thing-women-babies-and-midwives-need-says-rcm/

Councils have so much of their spending decided for them on a statutory basis and often deal with such idiosyncratic local issues that I don’t think voters equate their performance with the Westminster element of each party.

There is absolutely no reason why a leadership election should lead to a GE - as the Tories demonstrated several times.

That's certainly my impression. Starmer doesn't seem to have the smallest clue what the country wants, let alone care about it.

Judging by the council elections, if I was them, the last thing I'd do is ask the people what they want.

I haven't seen a single person say they want to take the heat out, without meaning they'd rather not talk about the messy details, if you don't mind.

Yes, what they're saying is they want the heat taken off them to answer the difficult questions.

I am always bemused when I see politicians defending the TWAW mantra.

I do not think for a moment that most of them actually believe this. I also think that most of them are bright enough to understand the issues this raises in relation to women‘s showers, prisons, refuges, sports etc.

Do they think that this stance wins them more votes?

IME pretty much everyone - male, female, young, old, left of centre, right of centre thinks that the TWAW stance in all areas is problematic. Pretty much everyone thinks most TW should be treated with kindness and that there should be no discrimination - but that spaces in which women are vulnerable (safe spaces, prisons) or clearly weaker (sport) it makes sense to draw a line.

Pretty much everyone also thinks that some predatory men are exploiting this mantra to harass and intimidate and if they get the chance to sexually assault women.

Can there really be a majority in the country who refuse to acknowledge these issues and importantly would shift their vote over this one issue?