[kreuzberger]

I'm tempted to say Keir is properly fucked.

Could someone persuade him that he has a window of opportunity? One whereby he still has the narrowing measure of bandwidth to resign after the Christmas break and hand over to a successor, giving them the maximum opportunity to successfully take the party in to 2029.

He doesn't strike me as a stubborn, vainglorious man who would refuse to see reason.

For the record, I really do feel sorry for him on both a professional and personal level. I really thought that he was the Beaufort 10 of change, but there were worries from the earliest days of the campaign, such as when he was left floundering by the otherwise wholly unremarkable Beth Rigby.

It was like those moments when you see a car engine warning light briefly coming on and think that you can safely ignore it.

[Oboogie]

Simon Jenkins in “getting it right” shock .

Merry Christmas, Keir Starmer: despite everything, you’re still the best man for the job


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... 1766144039

I'm tempted to say Keir is properly fucked.

I couldn't disagree more, in the absence of a successor with a magic wand, Labour (and therefore the country) may well be fucked. Keir certainly isn't.

[mattomac]

I'm tempted to say Keir is properly fucked.

Could someone persuade him that he has a window of opportunity? One whereby he still has the narrowing measure of bandwidth to resign after the Christmas break and hand over to a successor, giving them the maximum opportunity to successfully take the party in to 2029.

He doesn't strike me as a stubborn, vainglorious man who would refuse to see reason.

For the record, I really do feel sorry for him on both a professional and personal level. I really thought that he was the Beaufort 10 of change, but there were worries from the earliest days of the campaign, such as when he was left floundering by the otherwise wholly unremarkable Beth Rigby.

It was like those moments when you see a car engine warning light briefly coming on and think that you can safely ignore it.

I think it’s way too early, you’d be looking at 2027 at the earliest to make such a move.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I couldn't disagree more, in the absence of a successor with a magic wand, Labour (and therefore the country) may well be fucked. Keir certainly isn't.

I agree. Pure sarcasm on my part. If Simon Jenkins supports him, he’s fucked, that sort of thing.

[Oboogie]

I couldn't disagree more, in the absence of a successor with a magic wand, Labour (and therefore the country) may well be fucked. Keir certainly isn't.

I agree. Pure sarcasm on my part. If Simon Jenkins supports him, he’s fucked, that sort of thing.

Apologies, went straight over my head.
There are so many people (on Bluesky mostly), demanding Starmer must go, often without naming a successor and, even if they do name someone, they provide no details of what they would do differently or evidence that they would be electorally more popular.

[Tubby Isaacs]

No need to apologise, I wasn’t at all clear.

[The Weeping Angel]

Whatever you think of Starmer, this was a decent thing to do.

[davidjay]

Why do they bother with X/Twitter? Just let the whole thing wallow in its own filth until it rots.

[The Weeping Angel]

Another fun day on Bluesky. When we get Jonn Elledge, amongst others,s saying Labour keeps punching social liberals in the face.

[Boiler]

Didn't the Corbynistas used to tell people to fuck off to the Tories?

[Oboogie]

Didn't the Corbynistas used to tell people to fuck off to the Tories?

Habitually, like they suffered some form of tourettes.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Perhaps some of these commentators might reflect on their own role. If all you do is tell people that the government is sat there all day upsetting liberals, it might have an effect on liberal support. Certainly it's reactionary on immigration but it's doing other stuff which liberals like.

I think few of them have any conception of the challenges of accommodating the population increases they call for. Easy to say "just build the homes FFS", but that upsets lots of people too. I hope the Government follows through (and to be fair to Elledge, he gives it credit for trying) but that'll be another stick to beat them with. Note how the Lib Dems (from the late 2010s and probably earlier) noted that this was a good way of taking down Tories, first in local government, then in lots of Westminster seats. Doubtless the reaction from these pundits will be "well the electorate are idiots", and we may or may not agree. So why are they so sure the government could have just put up income tax or whatever and not got killed?

[Abernathy]

All this endless speculation that Starmer is all but certain to be deposed as Prime Minister by his own MPs is frankly, beginning to get right on my tits. It’s being treated as a dead cert by far too many media outlets and is in real danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If it were so, I think it would be a drastic mistake.

For one thing, where is the evidence that Starmer as leader is the source of Labour’s unpopularity? Where is the evidence that were Wes Streeting, or Shabana Mahmood, or Angie Rayner, or anybody else at all, Prime Minister instead, Labour would be topping every opinion poll and cruising effortlessly towards another landslide victory in 2028 ?

There is none. Yes, Starmer’s personal approval ratings are on the floor, but that isn’t that unusual for a Labour leader governing in a relentlessly and grotesquely hostile news media climate. It’s clear to me that many opinion poll respondents are taking their cue from that exceptionally hostile media and commentary environment.

And Labour doesn’t really do ditching its leaders . The Tories seemed to do it every six months, and it did them no good whatsoever. There’s surely a lesson to be learned there. The only precedents I can think of are Jim Callaghan taking over from Harold Wilson when Wilson stood down because of a dementia diagnosis, and Gordon Brown succeeding Tony Blair as part of a long-standing arrangment/promise between the two men. In neither case did the change of leader result in an improvement in Labour’s poll ratings, or the party’s results in the subsequent elections.

The way forward is to keep on delivering the change people want. Keep re-building the NHS. Build houses. Invest in green energy and new nuclear generation. Build economic growth that will deliver improved public services in justice, public transport, and a properly functioning asylum and immigration system. Continuing reversal of the worst effects of Brexit.

Get that stuff right, and it won’t matterif Starmer is as personally popular as Fred West. But he won’t be, any more, if the government really delivers, and communicates that to voters in a way that neutralises the media hostility.

[Boiler]

<insert standing ovation gif here>

Meanwhile, Specky Twat* lives: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8e98ykyywro


*A character from the comic known as Viz, m'lud.

[Tubby Isaacs]

In fairness, Callaghan did a very good job after taking over Wilson. Last full year he was Prime Minister, GDP rose by 4.2%. He beat Thatcher on personal ratings.