The UK Thread, innit.

[pErvinalia]

[pErvinalia]

[pErvinalia]

Starmer dead in the water?

[pErvinalia]

Why is he so unpopular?

[Brian Peacock]

Why is he so unpopular?

There's a few reasons I think. First is that he's a bit of a personality vacuum in the age of showbiz politics. You've got to have a bit of zip, pzazz, spark, and he's just very dull - the perfect technocratic centrist, but dull. Dull, dull, dull. He's dull. Dull.

Second reason. Everyone knows the economy isn't working, that wages haven't grown since 2008, that jobs are more insecure than ever, that house prices and rents are far too high and rising, that school building are crumbling, that the NHS is being de-staffed, and even simple things aren't being done that everyone notices -- that the bins don't get emptied as often as they used to, that the pavements are a mess, the potholes in the roads never get fixed, the water is full of shit, etc. Before the election we all knew this was a result of George Osborne's austerity drive of the 2010 - which set the paradigm for govt taxation and spending policy through Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, and Sunak. Starmer promised change and a new way of doing things that focus on ordinary working people in contrast to the Tories basic policy perspective, which is to make sure the rich pay less tax and always end the week richer than they started it.

But literally the first thing he said to the nation after the election was that things were bad (yeah, right) and that they had to get worse before they could get better, and then straightaway he tried to balance the books by cutting the winter fuel payment to pensioners and change the rules and cut the money going to out-of-work disabled people. So rather than a message of hope and a vision of progress towards a better future he arrived in office with a story of despair and then said he'd freeze pensioners and starve the disabled. This just marked him out as an unethical, unscrupulous so-called 'pragmatist' - which is political speak for liar.

Also pivoting the party towards Farage's Racism UK party hasn't done him any favours with the grassroots. And then when people inside &/or associated with the party started challenging his essentially Tory approach he told them if they didn't like they knew where the door was - or as his spokesman put it, the mass exodus from the membership was just them, "Shaking off the fleas."

Basically. his govt doesn't have a coherent or discernable vision or policy perspective and he keeps brazenly promising stuff and then not just go back on it, but doing the exact opposite, and so nobody trusts him or believes anything that comes out of his mouth.

[Brian Peacock]

He'll be off soon - and then we'll be treated to a parade of chinless wonders seeking to replace him, to be decided on by the right-wing media of course.

[pErvinalia]

Am I right in thinking that the membership have to be involved in picking a Labour leader?

[Brian Peacock]

Am I right in thinking that the membership have to be involved in picking a Labour leader?

No. The Parliamentary party (MPs) decide who the candidates will be, then the membership vote on it. Starmer changed the rules that Comrade Corbyn brought in to democratise the party. Now the party leadership, through the national executive committee which they control, hand-pick &/or approve parliamentary candidates. This means that most local party branches have no say in who their candidate would be. Members who challenged or objected to this process were suspended or ejected from the party - often on very flimsy grounds.

[pErvinalia]

Well they were antisemites.

[Svartalf]

you say it like it were a bad thing... when you see how the state of israel retroactively justified every antisemitic move prior to its creation, it becomes hard to not become one too.

[Brian Peacock]

Well they were antisemites.

Aye. Ironically, around a third of suspended or banned members since Starmer took over in 2020 have been Jewish - usually on the ground of being 'antisemitic' for criticising Israel/supporting Palestine. Members of Jewish Voice for Labour (lefties) appear to have been targeted - with some seemingly being banned for retweets or liking social media posts from 15 years ago.

[L'Emmerdeur]

you say it like it were a bad thing... when you see how the state of israel retroactively justified every antisemitic move prior to its creation, it becomes hard to not become one too.

You say that like Israel = Jews. Pretty sure you can see the problem there.

[Svartalf]

you say it like it were a bad thing... when you see how the state of israel retroactively justified every antisemitic move prior to its creation, it becomes hard to not become one too.

You say that like Israel = Jews. Pretty sure you can see the problem there.

actually, i do... I tend to forget that the neighbours don't necessarily approve of what israel does, or of the fact it does act as if it had any right to do it in their names.