Porn
Westminster Politics
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Watching Sunak giving his belated announcement on cost of living crisis.
But next to him is Boris nodding like the imbicile he is and pointing at the opposition like a demented school boy
Never in my long life have I seen a more embarrassing and incompetent PM.
And the real problem is that he thinks he is so clever. Which he is most certainly not.
But next to him is Boris nodding like the imbicile he is and pointing at the opposition like a demented school boy
Never in my long life have I seen a more embarrassing and incompetent PM.
And the real problem is that he thinks he is so clever. Which he is most certainly not.
The whole of Scotland (minus a few Rangers fans/Unionists) wants to join you
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Wait for the press to praise this original and brave policy proposal.
Quite.
I liked the shadow chancellor statement. Labour leads. The government follows.
But of course, that will not be the headline.
People will be drooling over Sunak again.
Those words. Radical.
Hard-left. Don't make me laugh.
I guess to the Torygraph and its readers, anything other than the conservatives qualify as that.
We need a leftie newspaper that can grab the Daily Mail market. None of this Guardian "Ten Top Ways to Eat Your Kale and Saffron toast slices" pish. We need a proper paper that bashes the Tories but it's interspersed with articles about women's norks and plumber jokes.
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No way of proving it, but it sounds accurate.
Yeah it's definitely their tactic, they don't want to do anything for people unless they (or their donors) can get some benefit.
Worst still, they offered more than what Labour proposed - just a shit show all around.
That's what the Mirror's supposed to be.
Edit: Also, the Guardian's status as being in anyway meaningfully left wing anyway, irrespective of the smug middle class conscience laundering lifestyle aspiration nonsense, is dubious and has been for a considerable time.
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Because they have been for Centuries, the only exception perhaps Churchill's "fight them in the streets, on the beaches... etc speech", when he set out how bad it could possible get to be, but even then there was a lot hidden and not just for security reasons, which is the usual ploy.
Its all a matter of whose truth do you believe... more often than not the British public choose to believe the government of the day.... because in reality who else is it worth believing in.... people who cannot even get themselves elected against the present bunch... oh yes they are great ones to believe in!!
Just another blatant and sloppy effort to tinker with the Overton window. It's generally working though so why would they be more subtle.
It has happened and the chancellor has not only stolen Labour's clothes he has had them dry-cleaned ... i.e. cost of aid for the poorest was expected to be £10B, the Chancellors raised it to £15B., very sneaky!!
Labour has got some credit but its no good until the GE, they have to keep coming up with ideas, proper well thought out ideas, hopefully the Tories will jump on the bandwagon, but once they have done this a few times, the Tories will start to look shabby, and to have run out of gas. That is when they will ditch Boris........ his writ will have run out in the echelons of the Tory Grandees and they will look for a smart-a**e, well dressed candidate, who doesn't speak down to people, who has some idea of what they are doing and they will install them as PM and hope for the best.
Labour have (at last) managed to land one shell on Boris's quarter deck, now come the close quarter fighting... are Labour up for it?
I've often wondered how well Labour could do if the leader was someone like Dennis Skinner who vociferously despises the tories for their policies but has an element of wit and humour too. I do believe a sizeable segment of the public make their minds up on a PM based on "vibes". Pretty much every Labour leader in my lifetime has been a bit of a dullard. Maybe Blair was a bit different. I would never say Blair was charismatic but a lot of people did say he had some personable charm and I do think the one thing he had going for him was in his younger days he was a sharp speaker but more than that seemed to enjoy it.
Starmer is so shite this measly announcement from the Tories still blows anything the Starmer Party ever proposed out of the water.
I don't get this criticism. The windfall tax was pushed by Starmer. They put forward it in a motion and have the vast majority of tory mps on the record for voting against it. Yesterday he predicted there would be a u-turn after the Sue Gray report came out so why is it his problem. He is the leader of the opposition. And in this case he has done precisely what his job entails which forces the government into a u-turn.
Thank goodness they didn't go with the even more paltry amount the Starmer Party proposed.
Aim low, vote Starmer Party.
Except Starmer can take credit for this. Labour have been touting the windfall tax ever since the issue came up and Tories pushed and pushed against it. He can sell this as a win for the people that was created by Labour.
Think I probably get £800 in various one off payments. Lot better than nowt but would certainly have preferred a monthly increase.
The same Sunak who said a computer issue was stopping them from increasing the UC to keep in line with inflation...
If he told me it was raining outside I'd change in to pair of shorts before going out.
It might feel like that, but you won't. It seems to be designed to play sleight-of-hand where you will just be getting money off increased costs, so you end up little to no better off than without this policy.
Not sure if you think I'm talking about the energy bill thing? It's the one off payments to benefit recipients I'm on about.
Starmer's first proposal on windfall tax was in January in response to prices rising at that point and to get ahead of a greater cost of living crisis forecast further down the line. Johnson rejected it. Sunak rejected it. A Tory cabinet minister said that the companies were suffering too. At the start of February 192 Labour MPs voted in favour of a motion to put in place a windfall tax while Tory MPs abstained since it was not what the government intended to do. In March Starmer called for the windfall tax again and Johnson said no in response arguing the companies would just raise their prices and lead to higher bills. In April when the forecasts of huge increases in energy prices came true once again Starmer called for windfall tax as well as other measures and once again it was rejected. For someone who gets called "captain hindsight" by the PM the fact is Starmer was ahead on this issue. If the tories actually cared about this issue or wanted to outflank labour they could have done so from the very start instead of letting almost six months of rising bills and a cost of living crisis to occur under their watch with no intervention. They could have done something to mitigate the bottom falling out regarding the energy cap which was forecast by experts to happen in April but for which they did not do anything to do. They had the same access to the forecasts and economic data. Sunak probably has more access given he is the chancellor. Starmer would not have left it to the end of May to implement this measure and not two weeks after allowing the majority of the party vote it down in parliament.
Trouble in paradise?
Sue Gray report: More Tory MPs join calls for PM to quit over Partygate
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61592728
Sue Gray report: More Tory MPs join calls for PM to quit over Partygate
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61592728
Doesn't really matter what you or I think - the majority of the country's sentiment runs in tandem with the Daily Mail comment section, hence why Starrmer continues to struggle to form a lead in opinion polls.
That's pretty simple politics and quite easy to wriggle out of, all Johnson/Sunak will say is the details within Starmer's proposals in Jan/Feb/March/April were not in line with the current proposals hence why they couldn't agree to it, knowing that the average Joe isn't going to trawl through pages of Parliamentary proposals in order to find differences between what Starmer said 5 months ago, versus what Sunak is putting forward now.
You are spot on here!
The people Labour have to appeal to are those members of 'Joe public' who never have discussions about politics in the pub, or even at work break times, the only time they listen is when someone is shouting the odds (like Skinner), possible current candidate Angela Rayner (in 'bother-boots' and mini skirt!!); or Harold Wilson, who although looking serious, pipe-smoking and wearing a Macintosh, had his deliver and comic timing off to a tee. My favourite Harold joke was when he said "I was awakened very early on cup final day by Liverpool fans outside no 10, shouting "ei-a-ddio, e-i-addio , Harold's still in bed". Blair also knew how to work a crowd, who were not his natural supporters, and he didn't frighten the horse's in the Shires!
Sound bytes were invented for this sort of audience, but now you need a lot more, for instagram, twitter, etc.Boris has much of this 'working the crowd charm' off pat... actually being caught out is one of his best "Oh my God' bits,...followed by Joe public's..."did you hear what he just" said.
With Labour, when the very staid, never smile, type politicians get caught off balance, as Brown did with the 'bigot' quote, it goes down like a lead balloon. Also when leading Labour politicians get the 'windbags' reputation 'joe public' shuts off, remember Neil Kinnock 1992, all he had to do was keep his mouth shut... but! And least said about Jeremy the better!
Labour need an exceptional front man/woman as well as sound policies... oh well back to the drawing board!
You only have to go back to last week's PMQs to hear Starmer asking Johnson about implementing a windfall tax and the response being Starmer has a 'lust to raise taxes'. You have 5 months worth of statements of Tories from Johnson and Sunak down responding to Labour's idea for a windfall tax as not something they support. Not the particulars of the proposals but the idea itself.
The tories did not have a proposal of their own to counter Labour let alone outflank them in Jan, Feb, March, April because they did not believe it was necessary. Despite having the same economic forecasts showing people are going to be crushed with rising prices. Rather than helping out ordinary people struggling by taxing companies making huge profits they increased the burden by raising national insurance. Real outflanking going on there
It will be Wes Streeting. And even Labour members who love Starmer will hate it.
Almost every week I hear about Starmer putting on a 'clinic' in PMQ's, making 'a fool out of Boris', showing why he was such a good lawyer etc. but opinion polls on Starmer always say that the average person doesn't know what he's about, what he stands for, what he's like, what his policies are and on & on & on.You only have to go back to last week's PMQs to hear Starmer asking Johnson about implementing a windfall tax and the response being Starmer has a 'lust to raise taxes'. You have 5 months worth of statements of Tories from Johnson and Sunak down responding to Labour's idea for a windfall tax as not something they support. Not the particulars of the proposals but the idea itself.
The tories did not have a proposal of their own to counter Labour let alone outflank them in Jan, Feb, March, April because they did not believe it was necessary. Despite having the same economic forecasts showing people are going to be crushed with rising prices. Rather than helping out ordinary people struggling by taxing companies making huge profits they increased the burden by raising national insurance. Real outflanking going on there
That isn't the platform to appeal to the average Joe. 12pm on Wednesday most people are thinking about the weekend, and they're certainly not keeping notes of what Starmer said one week vs what Boris said and comparing differences on a week to week basis. Otherwise Boris would face more scrutiny for lying and flip-flopping almost every day.
This is the problem with this centrism take that Labour thinks it can achieve, they're landing a lot of hits but it's not making much damage in the places it needs to.
Starmer's actions will resonate with those who are politically engaged, like a lot of people who post in this thread for example - but it's not representative country-wide, and if him or his Focus Groups fail to see that 2 years in, then the General Election will be a rude awakening.
Are you imagining him having sufficient PLP support to not require a contest or do you think he could win a membership vote?
The tweets you posted (which is what I responded to) are from accounts which clearly aren't like the average joe. I can understand the average joe not being bothered by details and process. Labour need to do better with the wider public. An account called The Filthy Socialist saying the tories are outflanking Labour on windfall and an account parodying Keir Starmer which is taking Rushi Sunak at his word even though it contradicts Sunak's previous words and his party's official on the record stance for almost six months are clearly not the average joe.
The account doesn't need to be reflective of the average Joe to see how it will play out.
When it comes time for political debate at election time, Starmer will say Boris & Sunak didn't do enough to help out the public during the biggest cost of living crisis in generations and millions suffered for it. Boris will retort that the policies they put forward cost more than Labour were willing to commit to, they didn't rush into a policy until they gathered all facts, and left to a Labour Government many more would've suffered blah blah blah - and only a handful of people will remember or care that Labour called for a Windfall tax every month. The truth doesn't matter, that's why they've been outflanked.
Both.
So if Starmer resigns, I imagine a big bloc of the PLP will try to ensure that he will likely be the only candidate, especially as the PM regained the power to call elections on a whim. I cannot see who else would have that support, especially given the dearth of talent in the PLP after the 2019 crushing defeat.
Even if the Socialist Group put together enough signatures for an opponent, the NEC (which Starmer now controls) will ensure that eligibility criteria for a leadership contest will be backdated far enough so that 2015 won't be repeated.
And all the members I know have held their noses and voted for Starmer on the basis that he was more likely to be PM than the others. I suspect they will do the same for Streeting.
Fair enough.
My guess is the PLP would have a big enough 'not West Streeting' camp to compromise on someone to force a contest and that a lot of the people who voted for Starmer voted based on his lies, that Streeting would have a much more difficult job emulating given everyone's very sure what he represents.
I stress guess, though, neither are very firmly held beliefs.
Nadine Dorries rapping is maybe more one for the hypernormalisation thread...
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Streeting has no shot of winning a membership vote, IMO. We've seen across the various CLPs that even with people leaving the party, the broad membership is still left-wing. Even if the PLP try to do a stitch-up and have the vote be between Streeting, Reeves and say, Nandy, I think Nandy would pretty easily win.