Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2026 3:03 pm I’ll respect Burnham if he doesn’t bring any of those back.

Same

McSweeney shouldn’t be blamed for everything, but it’s a bit rich to see him there stroking his chin about preparation for governing. What they were most unprepared for was the reaction, not least from their side to everything they did. Theresa May seriously considered reining in pensioner benefits. Had she done so, it wouldn’t have been very popular but the narrative would have been “brave PM shows the markets she’s serious”.

The rancid scrapings from the political scrotum that was Magic Grandad have not gone away.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ling-model

More advice for the Government, apparently confident that the majority of the public supports the Guardian position on asylum. I didn't notice their pal Andy Burnham running on the Guardian's position in Makerfield, or indeed Jez running on it in 2017.

Agree or don't agree with the Government's policy, think it's good or bad politics, but the idea that it's within the Government's gift to stop the other parties talking about asylum and immigration all the time just isn't true. Powell (who the Guardian absurdly have tried to compare Starmer to) was stopped because Ted Heath put him back in his box. If you've got a Tory Party led by Kemi Badenoch instead of Ted Heath, then it's all a lot harder.

One of the rate good CIF posters here, on the supposed NHS deaths caused by "Starmer".

donalbain
5 hours ago

The NHS spends about £200Bn a year in England. And £20Bn on drugs.

So even if the drugs bill doubled, it's still less than the extra £30Bn Starmer has given the NHS. So assuming NICE are allocating resources properly, you should count 400,000 lives saved against that 250,000. Which means Starmer's parting gift is 150,000 net lives saved.

The drug bill isn't being doubled, more like 20% extra. So "Starmer's parting gift" is actually over 300,000 lives saved. But the rules are anything good that happens because of government action doesn't count, and anything bad that happens because of events, dear boy is definitely the government's fault.