[Boiler]

And with that, usher in a Tory/Reform coalition?

Did I read somewhere that Beff Rigby is already gunning for Burnham?

[mattomac]

I can hear her monotone voice shouting “General Election” already.

[Boiler]

Who is Paul Holden and why should I read his book, "The Fraud"?

[Oboogie]

For whatever it might be worth, Alastair Campbell also thinks Streeting is going to be offered Chancellor.

[Boiler]

[Abernathy]

Watching Keir Starmer delivering his notice of resignation out side the front door of number ten, I felt disgusted, saddened, and angry at the grotesque unfairness of what has been done to a fine leader and the best PM the UK has had in twenty years. It just seems so wrong - apart from anything else, the Labour Party just doesn’t do this sort of thing . Fuck knows, we tried to do it when the party was led by an incompetent charlatan who was taking the party to the brink of electoral extinction , and it didn’t bloody work then. The Tories used to do it every six months, and look where it got them. Why on earth are we doing it now to a deeply principled leader of immense integrity and decency who, unlike JC, at least has the pragmatic nous actually to pay attention to the concerns of his parliamentary party ? Have we learned nothing ?

Finding it very hard to accept, but I dare say that’s Realpolitik.

For probably only the second time in forty years, I’m considering ending my membership of the party.

[davidjay]

To which I can only echo what I said earlier - if the good people leave, the duplicitous bastards are left. I'd say I hope we get what we deserve but many of us don't deserve this.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It's one of the negative results of a landslide - the B and C teams get elected, but not given wisdom, intelligence or character.

[Spoonman]

Stolen from Reddit...

[satnav]

When I went home for lunch today my wife was was watching 'Loose Women' who were discussing Starmer. When the host read out some of Starmer's achievements two of the panelists started pulling faces and questioning the achievements even though the figures being quoted were 100% correct. This seems to have been a major problem for Starmer because people are clearly not prepared to give him credit for what he has actually achieved.

I pretty sure that if somebody spent the time doing any research they would probably find that Starmer achieved more in 2 years than Johnson,Truss and Sunak managed in 5 years.

[Andy McDandy]

The demographic with the least representation in the media is perhaps the largest. With a few exceptions, the average TV panellist has little or no familiarity or empathy with normal people.

[davidjay]

A lot of 'normal' people have been conditioned into believing that a lot of his achievements, even ones that benefit them, are bad.

Employment protection - causes job losses
Ending strikes - giving in to the unions
Breakfast clubs - my taxes pay for your children
Tenants rights - it's not worth being a landlord
Renewable energy - Net Zero is a WEF conspiracy
Closer ties with the EU - betraying the Will of the People
Domestic violence - whatabout the grooming gangs
Childcare investment - don't have them if you can't afford to look after them

And so on.

[AOB]

Labour's problem is they have nobody with statesman like gravitas, there was only Starmer himself. He had, but should've had, people with clout going in to bat for him when the going got tough. Look at Thatcher. Her Cabinet were household names, even kids like me in the 80s could've rattled their names off, Keir had a Cabinet of Pointless answers, with maybe the exception of Reeves and Streeting. Lammy is very low profile for example.

Labour PMs aren't meant to be popular with the right wing, otherwise they aren't going to be popular with Labour voters, it seems to be like far too many Labour MPs have been swayed by the media, and the relentless click bait Starmer disparaging thumbnails. They lack backbone and critical, independent thinking. As Malc alluded to in another post, the problem with a landslide is you get a lot of the b and c team getting elected as MPs, the chaff rather than the wheat.

[Youngian]

Or maybe Keir wasn't playing on the doorstep and leaders hardly ever turn that level of unpopularity around. According to history long into the analogue age before social media or Elon Musk existed. As most ex Labour leaders already know.
Sorry for Keir but he's not the first competent, intelligent decent player that things haven't worked out for. That's politics, no one dies.

[AOB]

That's politics, no one dies.

Media rhetoric aided and abetted Jo Cox's killer. The NHS struggle now, people moan, they want to wait til Reform get in, they'll be paying for cancer treatment if they are lucky enough to afford it.

[Watchman]

A lot of 'normal' people have been conditioned into believing that a lot of his achievements, even ones that benefit them, are bad.

Employment protection - causes job losses
Ending strikes - giving in to the unions
Breakfast clubs - my taxes pay for your children
Tenants rights - it's not worth being a landlord
Renewable energy - Net Zero is a WEF conspiracy
Closer ties with the EU - betraying the Will of the People
Domestic violence - whatabout the grooming gangs
Childcare investment - don't have them if you can't afford to look after them

And so on.

and this is exactly the path the Heil has taken

[Andy McDandy]

It's an odd thing. Do all of those things and they'll sneer "Is that it?". But talk about maybe indulging in a bit of performative cruelty (that may well be impossible to actually carry out) and they'll love you.

[AOB]

Human default setting generally seems to be to sneer or find fault these days. I notice this repeatedly on football forums. Take your pick of any club. A match thread following a defeat will accelerate rapidly. Win though, and within a few hours it will slip down the thread page. That's just one example. People like to moan but it's as if praising something is a weakness to be mocked. Unless the praising involves negativity such as promises to persecute minorities. How many Reform voters have ever been heard to say that a Reform government will benefit them personally in terms of prospects, health and life in general?

[Bones McCoy]

Human default setting generally seems to be to sneer or find fault these days. I notice this repeatedly on football forums. Take your pick of any club. A match thread following a defeat will accelerate rapidly. Win though, and within a few hours it will slip down the thread page. That's just one example. People like to moan but it's as if praising something is a weakness to be mocked. Unless the praising involves negativity such as promises to persecute minorities. How many Reform voters have ever been heard to say that a Reform government will benefit them personally in terms of prospects, health and life in general?

I'm not sure about humans, but certainly social media.

It's predecessors, newspaper letters pages and radio phone ins were notorious for attracting the odd, the obsessed, the extreme and the unhinged.
Tow they've found community and instant approval.

[Watchman]

I'm not sure about humans, but certainly social media.

We're almost in a bit of a "chicken and egg" scenario here; humans* (Musk. Thiel et al,) feed via social media and also MSM to other humans*, who then regurgitate what they've been fed, and it becomes a constant loop

* I use the word humans in its very widest sense here)