January 30Jan 30 funny how people that claim to have no political affiliation are bending over backwards to emphasise what a terrible job Starmer is doing but didn't bother to do so for Sunak etc. lol it seems silly to make these grandiose claims that Labour are making a 'bigger mess' of the country than the Tories after ~6 months. two years down the line and still no progress in the right direction? fine. but give Britain a chance to bounce back from the cabinet of bumbling idiots who drove the country into the ground for 14 years ffs lol (and this is coming from someone who has never, and probably will never vote Labour in my life. nowhere near left enough to represent my views)
January 30Jan 30 I should note for fairness that this government is also probably around where I sit in terms of political affiliation and I would say is significantly LESS authoritarian than my tastes tend to run - before anyone comes along with the critique that I must just be a lefty Labour lover or whatever. I'm commenting, as I often do on news stories, as someone who is against things being framed in a way that is misleading and/or is presenting a political agenda (in this case, 'that Labour is just as bad on every metric as Sunak's government') as if it were an established fact rather than just one person's opinion or the opinions of a group of people who were asked a survey with leading questions. The fact is Starmer's Labour since they got in has had a hell of a lot of bad press BUT if you cut through that to what they've actually done and view it with an open mind really it's not actually that bad no matter what your views are, I would say. They HAVENT been particularly extreme in, as I say, ways that I would love to be if I was in their shoes. They haven't even been vengeful or cronyist in a way that the Johnson, Truss and Sunak governments - and the Trump administration in America - did their damnedest to normalise.
January 30Jan 30 Liam I respect your views, but there's so much hatred consumed by social media - I get it. I totally understand why people are angry, but populism is rarely the answer. The sheer mention of cronyism and Starmer and then Reform in the same sentence just makes me laugh. This idea that Farage likes people like yourself is so warped. He doesn't give a toss. Yeah he might give you an extra £100 in your take home pay a month, but he'll give his mates an extra £10,000 and privatise absolutely everything. This is the man which helped SHRINK our economy let's not forget and meant nobody invested in us for years, took away all our EU beenfits and the guy still holds an EU passport. Just like all these dumb idiots in the US voting for Federal defunding, then realising it takes away their benefits. Problem is social media is rife with absolute shite from chancers. Governing a country is hard. Personally I find the polling all over the place at the moment, you've got Reform claiming they're going to win the next election, then you've got overwhelming polling asking for us to re-join the EU. Make it make sense :lol:
January 31Jan 31 Funny I remember the tories were still blaming Labour for ‘wrecking the economy’ in 2008 (a total lie) right up to 2016 - 6 years after earning power yet they are annoyed when the same thing happens to them after 6 months!
February 4Feb 4 Liam I respect your views, but there's so much hatred consumed by social media - I get it. I totally understand why people are angry, but populism is rarely the answer. The sheer mention of cronyism and Starmer and then Reform in the same sentence just makes me laugh. This idea that Farage likes people like yourself is so warped. He doesn't give a toss. Yeah he might give you an extra £100 in your take home pay a month, but he'll give his mates an extra £10,000 and privatise absolutely everything. This is the man which helped SHRINK our economy let's not forget and meant nobody invested in us for years, took away all our EU beenfits and the guy still holds an EU passport. Just like all these dumb idiots in the US voting for Federal defunding, then realising it takes away their benefits. Problem is social media is rife with absolute shite from chancers. Governing a country is hard. Personally I find the polling all over the place at the moment, you've got Reform claiming they're going to win the next election, then you've got overwhelming polling asking for us to re-join the EU. Make it make sense :lol: You’re far too patient with somebody who is clearly not up to the job.  The polling for who people will vote for is a bit over the place but Labour and Starmer approval is consistently horrific.  The EU situation as I see it a lot of people have realised being in or out of the EU is almost irrelevant Britain is in a mess either way. Then of course there is a big pro EU contingent who are still obsessed with that issue.  Starmer has nothing about him, you have to see through people like that. I read something the other day about how he came to power and even his friends don’t know what he believes in, I don’t think he does either. It’s a new book coming in which his own chief of staff calls him an HR manager not a leader and says Starmer might think he’s driving the train but he has no idea. https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=ht...ircle-mq2kbg39x Why would anyone want a guy who’s not even really in charge or who believes in anything? I don’t get it. And it’s been obvious for awhile.  His latest venture is too cede sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius then give them 18 billion to lease it back. It’s just pure insanity. @1886773307443388559 I don’t care about Farage as a person he’s like a fox hunter and very much about his own self preservation but in comparison to a Starmer it’s one of them things where he becomes a better choice. In fact I’d say to anyone who really despises Farage his only route to power is Starmer hanging around. The latest yougov poll had Reform in front for the first time.  @1886528207949553871  The UK has lost 12000 millionaires since Starmer came to power. If you have savings especially in £ currency you can trust this guy? Labour stand for nothing right now. Nobody knows who they represent. The membership is collapsing. His few remaining supporters think Trump giving him a pat on the head is something to cling onto. How long do people have patience with somebody out of his depth? Hopefully not too much longer.
February 4Feb 4 Ceding control of the Chagos Islands is not Starmer's "latest venture". Most of the negotiations happened under the last government. Don't pretend the outcome would have been any different if those numpties were still in charge. Why do you continue to believe the relentlessly negative rubbish coming from the Daily Wail, Gammon News or wherever? This government inherited an almighty mess. Fixing it is going to take time.
February 4Feb 4 He's far down the right wing rabbit hole. There's no reaching him. He supported Trump as well!!!
February 4Feb 4 Author I really can't quite believe how much mileage the right wing press is making out of Diego Garcia/Chagos Islands, islands the ICJ instructed us to give back in 2019 (specifically remember it after that election as an example of how the incoming Johnson gov was flouting international law again), and a process that was started under the last Tory government, due to complete about this time anyway.  Really. Article after article about Britain in decline on the world stage and handwringing that the Falklands might be next. For a couple of strips of land with no native populations about as in the middle of nowhere as you can get that we were due to give back anyway, and in any case we're maintaining the lease on the military base. It's pathetic. Returning to what I said back at the time now this ridiculous story is surfacing again, note that the original 'Britain is declining' hysterical headlines were focused on us losing territory and not the military base deal this time. Whatever stupid figure we are paying to lease the military base on it (NOT to hand over our own territory, besides, it's territory we don't have a right to anymore) the right-wing press is bandying about is deliberately misleading, and I know this, because Liam wouldn't have mentioned it in his post if he had looked into literally anything to do with that figure. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/f...-chagos-islands Under the plan, the UK would lease the military base for 99 years at an annual rate initially estimated to cost about £9bn over the course of the arrangement. There's no confirmation on the figure double that, that's just rumours along with rumours of a shortened deal and frontloaded payments that seem to be strong-arming by Mauritian diplomats(?), but either way, this cost is spread over a century. In fact, I'll wait for the deal to complete before judging it, this all has to have America's approval, they own the military base. Long-term we just have no business keeping it. As far as his actions go in office, Starmer is proving to be a fairly capable diplomat in the international sense, a bit uninspiring on the domestic side, but all his detractors amplify his faults so much and downplay his successes (which he has plenty of, this govenrment is doing some great stuff behind the scenes and I've always been happy to see them show evidence of long-term thinking) that it's hard to take their critiques seriously, because he is undoubtedly more up to the task of governing than the last 3 Tory PMs. Right now I'm noting the opinion polls with some concern, but not seeing them as an indictment of the government yet, as most of the policies are yet to bear fruit.
February 4Feb 4 Reform's vote was consistently over-represented by the polls leading up to GE2024, I'm not trying to downplay their obvious (and depressing) surge in recent months but I don't think they are anywhere close to consistently leading the vote share, nor will that be close to being realised at an actual General Election. I've criticised Starmer, I hated the machiavellian way that he and his team went about achieving the leadership in 2020 and the timid way he approached fighting the Tories on policy in 2020-24, but Farage is far far worse. Farage is more than happy to appease Kleptocrat's like Putin and become the 'Billionaire Oligarchs Useful Idiot', a la Trump. We are much better off with someone mediocre like Starmer, at least we've had 7 months off from a Government tirelessly trolling its population, enriching its own supporters and doing absolutely nothing to tackle the huge permacrisis that blights our country and world today. Starmer and the Labour government have actually started to fix the mess that they were left with and yes they are going to make a lot of mistakes and annoy a lot of people, and it will take a long time too - but look at the list of PMs we've had since 2016. It's a LOW BAR, quite frankly. Boris Johnson, I'm still tormented by the fact that he was ever allowed anywhere near Goverment let alone became the Prime Minister during the worst public health crisis for over 50 years.
February 4Feb 4 Reform's vote was consistently over-represented by the polls leading up to GE2024, I'm not trying to downplay their obvious (and depressing) surge in recent months but I don't think they are anywhere close to consistently leading the vote share, nor will that be close to being realised at an actual General Election. I've criticised Starmer, I hated the machiavellian way that he and his team went about achieving the leadership in 2020 and the timid way he approached fighting the Tories on policy in 2020-24, but Farage is far far worse. Farage is more than happy to appease Kleptocrat's like Putin and become the 'Billionaire Oligarchs Useful Idiot', a la Trump. We are much better off with someone mediocre like Starmer, at least we've had 7 months off from a Government tirelessly trolling its population, enriching its own supporters and doing absolutely nothing to tackle the huge permacrisis that blights our country and world today. Starmer and the Labour government have actually started to fix the mess that they were left with and yes they are going to make a lot of mistakes and annoy a lot of people, and it will take a long time too - but look at the list of PMs we've had since 2016. It's a LOW BAR, quite frankly. Boris Johnson, I'm still tormented by the fact that he was ever allowed anywhere near Goverment let alone became the Prime Minister during the worst public health crisis for over 50 years. Reform will do well at the next election. Populism is easy and I can see why it's appealing - they tell you what they want to hear, will take all your money and its always someone else's fault. And of course they won't make anything better. Part of the issue in the UK is everyone looks for short term fixes and wants everything now. But unless something drastic happens, I just struggle to see how they can obtain a working majority with our electoral system. Plus as is shown when Farage ever gets challenge - he can't handle it.  Not an easy task. Labour have done OK, I think they have messed up a few bits and ofc with general bills going up in April across the board it is not good (apart from everyone ignoring they go up every year :D).
February 5Feb 5 You’re far too patient with somebody who is clearly not up to the job.  The polling for who people will vote for is a bit over the place but Labour and Starmer approval is consistently horrific.  The EU situation as I see it a lot of people have realised being in or out of the EU is almost irrelevant Britain is in a mess either way. Then of course there is a big pro EU contingent who are still obsessed with that issue.  Starmer has nothing about him, you have to see through people like that. I read something the other day about how he came to power and even his friends don’t know what he believes in, I don’t think he does either. It’s a new book coming in which his own chief of staff calls him an HR manager not a leader and says Starmer might think he’s driving the train but he has no idea. https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=ht...ircle-mq2kbg39x Why would anyone want a guy who’s not even really in charge or who believes in anything? I don’t get it. And it’s been obvious for awhile.  His latest venture is too cede sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius then give them 18 billion to lease it back. It’s just pure insanity. @1886773307443388559 I don’t care about Farage as a person he’s like a fox hunter and very much about his own self preservation but in comparison to a Starmer it’s one of them things where he becomes a better choice. In fact I’d say to anyone who really despises Farage his only route to power is Starmer hanging around. The latest yougov poll had Reform in front for the first time.  @1886528207949553871  The UK has lost 12000 millionaires since Starmer came to power. If you have savings especially in £ currency you can trust this guy? Labour stand for nothing right now. Nobody knows who they represent. The membership is collapsing. His few remaining supporters think Trump giving him a pat on the head is something to cling onto. How long do people have patience with somebody out of his depth? Hopefully not too much longer. Oh come on, I’m no Starmer fan but that’s nonsense, you seem to think the best PM is a business man when it takes a lot more than that to be a good leader. Some of the best PMs in history have no business experience.  The polling is quite normal at this time, there’s no GE for four and a half years and if that one poll (and the margin of error would suggest it’s likely even Stevens anyway) came true on GE night 2029 then the results would be as follows: Labour 130-200 Tory 110-170 Reform 50-60 Liberal 40-70 Remember the SDP-Liberal alliance polled as high as 50% in 1982 and still only won 23 seats in the 1983 election. Edited February 5Feb 5 by Steve201
February 5Feb 5 Returning to what I said back at the time now this ridiculous story is surfacing again, note that the original 'Britain is declining' hysterical headlines were focused on us losing territory and not the military base deal this time. Whatever stupid figure we are paying to lease the military base on it (NOT to hand over our own territory, besides, it's territory we don't have a right to anymore) the right-wing press is bandying about is deliberately misleading, and I know this, because Liam wouldn't have mentioned it in his post if he had looked into literally anything to do with that figure. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/f...-chagos-islands There's no confirmation on the figure double that, that's just rumours along with rumours of a shortened deal and frontloaded payments that seem to be strong-arming by Mauritian diplomats(?), but either way, this cost is spread over a century. In fact, I'll wait for the deal to complete before judging it, this all has to have America's approval, they own the military base. Long-term we just have no business keeping it. As far as his actions go in office, Starmer is proving to be a fairly capable diplomat in the international sense, a bit uninspiring on the domestic side, but all his detractors amplify his faults so much and downplay his successes (which he has plenty of, this govenrment is doing some great stuff behind the scenes and I've always been happy to see them show evidence of long-term thinking) that it's hard to take their critiques seriously, because he is undoubtedly more up to the task of governing than the last 3 Tory PMs. Right now I'm noting the opinion polls with some concern, but not seeing them as an indictment of the government yet, as most of the policies are yet to bear fruit. I cannot believe the depth of that lie of the cost of the Chagos deal! Thanks for the breakdown Iz
February 6Feb 6 Author Further interesting read on why the Chagos Island deal is necessary:  @1887203226044539166 tl;dr: the legal question over it could disrupt the vital functions of the military base, as Starmer hinted at in PMQs yesterday, if anyone brought it to the ICJ again, so yes, turns out we actually do need to pay attention to international law. Also the £18bn figure has, as I predicted, been revealed as total rubbish, the £9bn over 100 years (really not that much for a vital military base!) is correct.
February 7Feb 7 No one watchea that. The press will keep hammering it and just take a quote or two from what she said.
February 8Feb 8 I watch it so you factually incorrect. It did show her up for how terrible she is on the detail compared to a solicitor!
February 8Feb 8 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14...t-messages.html I know MPs are human but how do you make such comments as a minister
February 8Feb 8 He sounds vile. And Starmer kicked out the left wing of the party and scraped the barrel for right wing people like that instead...
February 8Feb 8 "Dear resident, F*** your bins. I'm re-elected and without your vote. Screw you."Â The true nature of another of our dismal politicians, they do not really give a fig about all the ordinary working people of this country we should know this by now. Abysmal rabble.
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