Yup this!

 

It’s worse in the States, I watch the situation room every night with wolf blitzer and am sympathetic to their liberal views but the way the presenters can literally have their own segment to say what they like to the camera really unsettles me, that doesn’t really happen in the uk.

 

Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain would be the UK equivalent?

 

Anyway in the US if you watched both CNN and Fox News for an equal amount of time would you get a balanced perspective? :unsure:

Ha true!

 

Yeh Morgan would be the closest thoigh I hate it and never watch it it’s so Americanised!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2...rrection-labour

 

If Starmer were to depart as leader tomorrow, he would not leave a trace of a meaningful political project in his wake.

 

Oooft.

So Starmer has made two new policy proposals from yesterfays speech:

 

a British recovery bond (message: we like this country, we want to find ways of funding our recovery)

and funding for start-up loans to create 100,000 new businesses (message: we are unashamedly pro-business).

 

Unfortunately the communication is still lacking as most newspapers have went with it today.

@1363420553407848449

 

Absolutely useless — although I’m sure one of you will say Starmer is pulling an absolute blinder here, rather than feeding the apathy people have towards the government breaking the law and making catastrophic mistakes.

What is it with Labour leaders and never having the killer instinct that the Conservatives would always absolutely use against them if the roles were reversed?

 

Rhetoric-wise he's far too reactionary for a leader of the left and it's not even the right reactions a lot of the time. In this instance, once there's actual evidence of a court ruling against Hancock why would a leader of the opposition NOT call for a resignation?

My favourite tweet on the subject.

 

@1363416590625112064

 

Starmer is less than useless. This is an open goal. There are so many resignations the public have wanted to see this past year. In any other job, breaking the law would cause you to lose that job.

My favourite tweet on the subject.

 

@1363416590625112064

 

Starmer is less than useless. This is an open goal. There are so many resignations the public have wanted to see this past year. In any other job, breaking the law would cause you to lose that job.

 

I will agree Starmer has missed an open goal here but I think this narrative that people want to see resignations is a bit false. I think the electorate want to get out of the pandemic and I guess the Labour Leadership has weighed that it hurts their chances to go after the Government calling for resignations of the Health Secretary at this particular moment in time. No-one from this current Government is resigning no matter any of the pressure lets be honest, I think the Cummings debacle has taught a lot of people just to ride the wave.

So because no one has resigned from the government in the past year for obvious mistakes your opinion is we should just accept that? Correct me if I’m wrong but that just proves the arrogance of the current Tory government.

 

Yes Starmer useless probably been told by an opinion poll it wouldn’t go down well.

Hancock should be fired immediately. Preferably into the sun but I’ll accept from his job as an interim step

 

 

@1363420553407848449

 

Absolutely useless — although I’m sure one of you will say Starmer is pulling an absolute blinder here, rather than feeding the apathy people have towards the government breaking the law and making catastrophic mistakes.

 

Well you didn’t have to wait long....

I will agree Starmer has missed an open goal here but I think this narrative that people want to see resignations is a bit false. I think the electorate want to get out of the pandemic and I guess the Labour Leadership has weighed that it hurts their chances to go after the Government calling for resignations of the Health Secretary at this particular moment in time. No-one from this current Government is resigning no matter any of the pressure lets be honest, I think the Cummings debacle has taught a lot of people just to ride the wave.

 

Not really Silas. I said I personally think he should have called Hancock out for what it is, but I like all of us in this thread are not the average electorate members. I think the bigger issue is do we want Labour to be a protest party or a party of government? Cos there is no way Hancock is resigning unless he is forced to.

 

We all want him to come out firing shots at the Government which is good politics, but quite frankly I don't think the public want him to call for Hancock's resignation. This isn't about the performance of Hancock as SoS though, this is about the law. I guess the Labour strategy is by 2024 people will have forgotten about it and the public won't look too kindly at it or in reality he is all a bit too passive? I still think people forget that just over a year ago Labour couldn't even be trusted to run a bath, nevermind the national government.

 

 

No they could t be trusted on brexit and hence the public gave Johnson a big mandate

In cases like this it shouldn’t be about what the public want to see, it should be about what’s right. Starmer is risking supporters he already has in order to try and poach Johnson die hards. If Labour won’t oppose, what is the point of opposition? The tories are getting away with everything right now because they know they can because the opposition is too weak to hold them to account. I don’t know about the rest of the electorate but I’d like to see some guts and the will to do what is right. It’d also be nice to see them focusing on what’s going on now instead of anticipating what’s going to go down in 2024 because at this rate I can’t see Starmer being there.

I'm kinda torn on this - although it's a very low bar (literally rock bottom) Matt Hancock has actually been one of the more sane voices in the cabinet through this pandemic and has always argued against the head bangers who have always wanted to ease restrictions too soon or refused to close schools resulting in the NHS becoming overwhelmed before Christmas.. he'd likely be replaced by someone even worse were he to resign. However, as opposition leader to not only NOT take the opportunity to stick the knife in but use the reason that 'a focus group told me the gammons in the red wall wouldn't like this'. This isn't an isolated case (see the excellent Kibasi article I posted above), selling yourself by attempting to tell people what you think they want to hear is not leadership. It's woeful.

In cases like this it shouldn’t be about what the public want to see, it should be about what’s right. Starmer is risking supporters he already has in order to try and poach Johnson die hards. If Labour won’t oppose, what is the point of opposition? The tories are getting away with everything right now because they know they can because the opposition is too weak to hold them to account. I don’t know about the rest of the electorate but I’d like to see some guts and the will to do what is right. It’d also be nice to see them focusing on what’s going on now instead of anticipating what’s going to go down in 2024 because at this rate I can’t see Starmer being there.

 

Not saying it is right or wrong, but the public don't care and what is Starmer going to achieve by calling for Hancock to resign? Because he won't resign and won't get sacked. The public care more about a 99 year old man spending time in hospital or whatever Megan and Harry have decided to eat for dinner today. From a moral point of view yes it is completely wrong, but people just want to get jabbed and get out of lockdown, not about a politican calling for another politican to resign even though he has completely screwed up and with public money too. For whatever reason, Starmer has chosen this strategy. It will either work or bite him on the arse.

 

Labour have a whole load of problems for sure and part of them are still in their own party that refuse to acknowledge any good that the previous Labour Government did. Let's also not forget that it was Labour voters who gave this current Government an 80+ seat majority. I don't think even the biggest optimist thinks Labour are going to win a majority in 2024.

People should care though and perhaps if the mainstream media outlets actually covered this story more thoroughly instead of hiding it behind the lowest common denominator fluff like the royals, people would care more. Starmer should be going out of his way to make sure people care not having his actions dictated by a focus group.

 

Twitter has been full of people calling for Hancock’s resignation today. Everyone knows he won’t resign but to see the leader of the opposition barely hold him to account is stupid.

Starmer should've very vocally called for Matt's resignation. If it was the other way round, the tories would be screaming at the tops of their lungs for him to resign. Instead Starmer is feeding into the apathy that so many are feeling regarding the current government/politics - something that the leader of the opposition should not be doing if he wishes to genuinely challenge the tories in the next election. And sure, if he did resign he would likely be replaced by someone worse. But if a member of parliament has acted unlawfully they should not retain their position and be fired/resign. It's about doing the right thing.

 

 

Basically like most centrists he’s far too cautious and playing by their rules

Leanne Wood sticking it to Keir Starmer - you love to see it.

 

@1363466707839447043

Blair frequently called for people to resign, blamed the government, and weaponised current events against them — but whatever. I'm glad the party is being focus-grouped to death and steered by people that will just vote for the Tories anyway.

 

Starmer should've very vocally called for Matt's resignation. If it was the other way round, the tories would be screaming at the tops of their lungs for him to resign. Instead Starmer is feeding into the apathy that so many are feeling regarding the current government/politics - something that the leader of the opposition should not be doing if he wishes to genuinely challenge the tories in the next election. And sure, if he did resign he would likely be replaced by someone worse. But if a member of parliament has acted unlawfully they should not retain their position and be fired/resign. It's about doing the right thing.

 

Nothing matters anymore, and the window for what is considered acceptable will just continue to grow. This iteration of Labour will just do the same when they're in power — look at Liverpool today.

 

@1364204680214151170