[Tubby Isaacs]

Cameron's Tories never received any dodgy donations either. He didn't for instance promise no top down reorganization of the NHS, take loads of private health donations, and do the biggest reorganization for 60 years.

[The Weeping Angel]

It's occured to me that if the scandals that had occured under Starmer occured under Cameron how many would have resulted in resignations?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Rushanara Ali wouldn't have gone- I thought actually she had a defence that she tried to sell the house, but the market deteriorated, so she let it out again, at market rate having (apparently) let it out a long way below that for years. Labour ministers always get pushed much harder to resign. Mandelson of all people had a raw deal when he resigned the second time under Blair.

[mattomac]

Doubt Rayner would to be honest.

Haigh probably wouldn’t have under Johnson to Sunak.

[davidjay]

It's occured to me that if the scandals that had occured under Starmer occured under Cameron how many would have resulted in resignations?

Maybe all of them. From May onwards no chance. Johnson would probably have promoted them.

[The Weeping Angel]

Whilst Starmer has undoubtedly made mistakes in his office it should be remembered he was right about Covid.

[Boiler]

Whilst Starmer has undoubtedly made mistakes in his office it should be remembered he was right about Covid.

And do we all remember the squawking by Sunak about how Labour would have locked us down forever or something?

[Youngian]

Sunak has some questions to answer with his eating out meal subsidy, didn't that spread infection? As if they'd be any other consequence.

[Abernathy]

Thinking about Starmer's apparently piss-poor personal opinion poll ratings - the most unpopular PM since Pitt the Younger, or something - it seems highly likely to me that most - if not all - of the people that respond to these polls take their cue from the overwhelmingly hostile (hostile to Labour, that is) media environment , and just go along with the generalised "Starmer is shit" vibe that is actually created by and maintained by The Daily Mail, the Express, Telegraph, Times, Sun, GB News ,Twitter/X, and so on and so on.

Objectively, Starmer just isn't that bad. He's not great, and doesn't make the pulse race, I will grant you, but as PM, I think he is doing a bloody good job in one of the toughest set of circumstances anybody has ever faced. Labour PMs always face media hostility, it's true. But we shouldn't allow this to run away with us.

[Youngian]

Gordon Brown faced similar absurd disproportionate hostility on a personal as well as on a political level even before he called a bigoted old woman a bigoted old woman.
Stewart Lee once asked his audiences if they'd stopped and thought that Boris Johnson was an actual real mayor not a comedy mascot one while Ken Livingstone does the real work in a crate.
Perhaps that's how you win and hold power faced with the 21st century's increasingly infantilised electorates; put up Coco the Clown for leader while Starmer and Brown do the real work in hiding.

[Oboogie]

Really good non-political interview with Keir which seems to have attracted mostly positive comments.

[RedSparrows]

Really good non-political interview with Keir which seems to have attracted mostly positive comments.

Oh look, it's quite a normal person with generally sensible views and understandable thoughts. A bit unexciting, but that's... most people. Him talking about his brother and father, for example, is thoughtful, interesting and considered. It's touching even: he feels strong emotions, even if he doesn't show it in a grand, vivacious way. He's clearly complex and layered. It's not poetically told, but it feels real. I thought that was what we wanted, from politicians? I thought we were sick of showmen, I thought we were tired of the out-of-touch? He talks of old school friends who clearly mean something, and sound normal. Contrast to Farage being called out as a slimy fucker aged 0. I'm sure Farage has a heart, somewhere, but it's never relevant...

We all know politics is a shitshow, and yet alongside this easy cynicism comes some absolutely inane idealism that is increasingly present, somehow, in both wings of politics.

'Everything's shit they're all shit everything's the fault of the big shits if only we got rid of them i'd swim in cream'.

None of this changes my view on other things: making noises about the ECHR, or not focusing on a more positive story on immigration, and, yes, despite the above, not playing the right comms game. The People are not immovable - there are great challenges, sure, but there are, surely, plenty of very good comms bastards around. Aren't there? The flipside of my own idealism, perhaps.