The Starmer Years - Can The New Broom Sweep Clean?

[rallyboy]

He's got his future in a British steal.

[AlexLaw76]

The sacrificial lamb being made ready

 

[hypochondriac]

20 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

The sacrificial lamb being made ready

 

Weirdly I'm in the odd position where I feel a tiny bit sorry for Reeves. Clearly out of her depth but she's tried to do the right thing here and the rest of the labour party has prevented her from doing it. This is clearly going to lead to reasonable tax rises and she will probably get booted out. A depressing state of affairs tbh. 

[iansums]

20 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

The sacrificial lamb being made ready

 

I get no pleasure from watching that, you have to feel for her. Sadly she, like most of the government are out of their depth. Even with a massive majority it's all unravelling pretty damn quickly.

[tdmickey3]

TBH honest, this country is virtually ungovernable.

I feel sorry for anyone who takes it on but its their choice and the payoffs are good I suppose.

It would be interesting if all parties said they were going to exactly what is needed irrespective of what that looked like and stuck to it but that is impossible as the opposition parties cannot bear to agree with another, not because they believe its wrong but because they cannot bee seen to agree with their opposites.... all a bit sad really

 

[whelk]

26 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Weirdly I'm in the odd position where I feel a tiny bit sorry for Reeves. Clearly out of her depth but she's tried to do the right thing here and the rest of the labour party has prevented her from doing it. This is clearly going to lead to reasonable tax rises and she will probably get booted out. A depressing state of affairs tbh. 

Personally I don’t think she is out of her depth - she is actually quite right wing in her thinking regarding finances and seems to love the ‘fiscal rules’ - her voice doesn’t help her credibility. She shouldn’t expect any loyalty from Starmer though who has shown himself to be a chameleon.

Problem now is every member of the public thinks they know everything or listen to people constantly offering opinions on social media and 24/7 news. Politics just seems horrible and thankless these days with derision for everyone.

 

[Turkish]

34 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Weirdly I'm in the odd position where I feel a tiny bit sorry for Reeves. Clearly out of her depth but she's tried to do the right thing here and the rest of the labour party has prevented her from doing it. This is clearly going to lead to reasonable tax rises and she will probably get booted out. A depressing state of affairs tbh. 

My too, she looks dreadful, big bags under her eyes, pale, crying. Clearly stress is too much, she should quit for her own sanity. Horrible seeing someone like that. 

[hypochondriac]

20 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

TBH honest, this country is virtually ungovernable.

I feel sorry for anyone who takes it on but its their choice and the payoffs are good I suppose.

It would be interesting if all parties said they were going to exactly what is needed irrespective of what that looked like and stuck to it but that is impossible as the opposition parties cannot bear to agree with another, not because they believe its wrong but because they cannot bee seen to agree with their opposites.... all a bit sad really

 

Add in the civil servants who seem to just ignore their duty to carry our policy if it's something they don't like, the OBR who seem to dictate what can and can't be done more than the actual government and backbenchers who can just derail government agenda and you're not too wrong. A lame duck government totally incapable of doing anything meaningfully transformative and essentially rearranging the deckchairs on the titanic. 

[whelk]

Don’t be silly calling it a lame duck govt with majority it has. Also part of the trouble these days is hyperbole and need to dramatise for all those with v short attention spans.

Obviously they are not all on message and some things been handled dreadfully and Starmer needs to sort it. But one fucking year in and look at all the excitable predictions - are we meant to take them seriously?

 

[whelk]

11 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Add in the civil servants who seem to just ignore their duty to carry our policy if it's something they don't like

Evidence? I’d just something you are happy to believe? Do you know anyone senior in the Civil Service? I do

[hypochondriac]

7 minutes ago, whelk said:

Evidence? I’d just something you are happy to believe? Do you know anyone senior in the Civil Service? I do

Fair amount of anecdotal evidence from past MPs that this goes on. I used to know a civil servant (I had to be interviewed as part of his security clearance to get the job.) He said it wasn't really a thing in his department but there were a couple of activists types in more recent times as things got more heated. 

[hypochondriac]

10 minutes ago, whelk said:

Don’t be silly calling it a lame duck govt with majority it has. Also part of the trouble these days is hyperbole and need to dramatise for all those with v short attention spans.

Obviously they are not all on message and some things been handled dreadfully and Starmer needs to sort it. But one fucking year in and look at all the excitable predictions - are we meant to take them seriously?

 

And yet Starmer trumpets a big welfare reform and can't even get it passed in any meaningful form. Hardly a projection of strength or demonstration of his majority. 

[whelk]

6 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

And yet Starmer trumpets a big welfare reform and can't even get it passed in any meaningful form. Hardly a projection of strength or demonstration of his majority. 

Don’t tell me…..got to be the worst government in the history of the Uk?

[hypochondriac]

Just now, whelk said:

Don’t tell me…..got to be the worst government in the history of the Uk?

You see whelk, part of the trouble these days is hyperbole and need to dramatise for all those with v short attention spans. 

[tdmickey3]

33 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Add in the civil servants who seem to just ignore their duty to carry our policy if it's something they don't like, the OBR who seem to dictate what can and can't be done more than the actual government and backbenchers who can just derail government agenda and you're not too wrong. A lame duck government totally incapable of doing anything meaningfully transformative and essentially rearranging the deckchairs on the titanic. 

Civil servants are employees and have to do as instructed, as a civil servant but not in Whitehall i would know.

Labour have made some decent changes which are out there for all to see so don`t ask me to list them, just like to Tories who did some good things too.

They are certainly not lame duck.

TBH its good to see MP`S voting to their beliefs and for there constituents for a change and not be ordered by the whip

[Lord Duckhunter]

1 hour ago, hypochondriac said:

the OBR who seem to dictate what can and can't be done more than the actual government. 

Hoisted with her own petard, springs to mind. It was her who  designed a fiscal lock' law to ensure any government budget decisions can no longer bypass scrutiny by the Office for Budget Responsibility. She constantly criticised Tories who made the very point you’re making. She’s so far out of her depth it’s embarrassing, and to think we’ve got 4 more years of this clown show, god knows where we’ll be by then.
 

Weak, weak, weak. Starmer and her need to be moved on…

[Gloucester Saint]

3 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Hoisted with her own petard, springs to mind. It was her who  designed a fiscal lock' law to ensure any government budget decisions can no longer bypass scrutiny by the Office for Budget Responsibility. She constantly criticised Tories who made the very point you’re making. She’s so far out of her depth it’s embarrassing, and to think we’ve got 4 more years of this clown show, god knows where we’ll be by then.
 

Weak, weak, weak. Starmer and her need to be moved on…

Markets don’t agree, once Starmer backed her the price of borrowing dropped sharply again. Strange situation this afternoon, all is clearly not well. The boss stabbed her in the back arguably but she’s not helped herself. As with Truss, not pleasant to watch someone unravel.

Poor form from Badenoch though, the other parties behaving with some decorum and basic decency, but Kemi has no social skills. She’ll be gone before anybody else at least as leader of the opposition.

Edited 11 hours ago by Gloucester Saint

[egg]

5 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

Weirdly I'm in the odd position where I feel a tiny bit sorry for Reeves. Clearly out of her depth but she's tried to do the right thing here and the rest of the labour party has prevented her from doing it. This is clearly going to lead to reasonable tax rises and she will probably get booted out. A depressing state of affairs tbh. 

I agree that she's out of her depth, but don't agree she's done the right thing. What she tried to do was to make a saving, then tweak the policy after the event to mould to that number, without any thought to the MP's reaction. Completely naive politics.

Welfare needs reform. On that we agree. Figure out the reform, get the party on board, then cost it. 

She went about it arse about face, got it wrong, has lost the party the tiniest bit of authority they had left, got pulled up by the speaker for waffling, no doubt has been told that she's on thin ice (at best), then failed to hold it together in parliament knocking 1% off the £/@$, and pushing up gilt yields.

She's on her way. Thankfully.