Unbelievable how you can be an MP for 20 years when you're prone to doing stupid shit like this in recorded chats.

 

If only he'd been not from Starmer's faction, he'd have been suspended long before he got anywhere near government.

Is he from the right?

Minor Corbyn-era cabinet member; endorsed Owen Smith, found his way back into Starmer's inner circle remarkably quickly, no real outspoken associations with the left of the party. Probably just a Labourite first and foremost, therefore not a threat to Starmer and McSweeney, until now.

Yeh thought as much, kinda thought he was a leftist as he was around in the Corbyn era but as you say, a Labourite so serves under any leader. A bit like Barry Gardiner!

God, what a vile pleb.

 

I'd somehow never heard of him before all this. Also not particularly helpful for trying to dispel the narrative that Labour holds lots of deeply anti-semitic people in its ranks.

 

Wonder what that pensioner has to say in relation to what he said about her, jeeezus that's bad!

The only defence I would give him (and I am clutching at straws here majorly) is that being a public rep is hard, your constantly having people yapping at you about everything in their lives 24 hours a day sometimes and it grates and he stupidly let his hair down on a private group forum where someone on there let it go public. Everyone bitches like that when they aren’t face to face, it’s human nature in a way.

 

One of my mates is an mp and comes out with stuff like that all the time on our friends group. He’s not being serious just letting off steam about how ridiculous some people are in terms of expectation levels and entitlement.

Today, the Home Office take us back into harsh immigration rhetoric - banning anyone who has ever taken an illegal immigration route from ever gaining citizenship.

 

Whole world of things potentially wrong with this sort of blanket policy, accompanied today by a depressing episode of PMQs as Badenoch and Starmer argued over who was more outraged that a Gazan family had been granted asylum here.

It is odd with the huge net numbers that the UK have coming every year that one Gazan family(a war the UK provided weapons for) has provoked such a backlash. Ukrainians and Gazans would have a more legitimate claim than most but the top people in the major parties seem to view Gazans with contempt almost.

I’d say they are playing politics against the like of Farage than caring about the nationality of asylums seekers which shows how awful this bunch are!

Whole world of things potentially wrong with this sort of blanket policy, accompanied today by a depressing episode of PMQs as Badenoch and Starmer argued over who was more outraged that a Gazan family had been granted asylum here.

 

Following up on this, and I did read into the case at this time to check it wasn't an egregious usage of immigration policy and surprise surprise, the family did have extenuating circumstances like being anti-Hamas and having a relative here willing to look after them, but a judge has criticised that exchange at PMQs for misrepresenting the situation: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgp47mpxgno

 

Which I broadly agree with, once we have political figures questioning the motives of judges you start to get this situation where one side of the aisle loses trust in insitutional figures who are upholding the law and that's generally pretty dangerous. Umberto Eco #13 (yes I AM going to start quoting Ur-Fascism like bible verses) ties into this, the whipping up of outrage and populism (against 'lefty lawyers/judges', say) is used to delegitimise and sow distrust in these institutions.

 

~

 

on a more positive note, very pleased to see that the NHS waiting lists have come down and the Labour government can trumpet 'promise kept'. Sure it was probably helped a bit by the outgoing Tory government, but Streeting's being far less annoying and more competent than I expected him to be over at Health.

Following up on this, and I did read into the case at this time to check it wasn't an egregious usage of immigration policy and surprise surprise, the family did have extenuating circumstances like being anti-Hamas and having a relative here willing to look after them, but a judge has criticised that exchange at PMQs for misrepresenting the situation: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgp47mpxgno

 

Which I broadly agree with, once we have political figures questioning the motives of judges you start to get this situation where one side of the aisle loses trust in insitutional figures who are upholding the law and that's generally pretty dangerous. Umberto Eco #13 (yes I AM going to start quoting Ur-Fascism like bible verses) ties into this, the whipping up of outrage and populism (against 'lefty lawyers/judges', say) is used to delegitimise and sow distrust in these institutions.

 

~

 

on a more positive note, very pleased to see that the NHS waiting lists have come down and the Labour government can trumpet 'promise kept'. Sure it was probably helped a bit by the outgoing Tory government, but Streeting's being far less annoying and more competent than I expected him to be over at Health.

The reduction in waiting lists, and the increase in GP appointments, is partly a result of fewer strikes. It's good news, but let's not get carried away.

Following up on this, and I did read into the case at this time to check it wasn't an egregious usage of immigration policy and surprise surprise, the family did have extenuating circumstances like being anti-Hamas and having a relative here willing to look after them, but a judge has criticised that exchange at PMQs for misrepresenting the situation: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgp47mpxgno

 

Which I broadly agree with, once we have political figures questioning the motives of judges you start to get this situation where one side of the aisle loses trust in insitutional figures who are upholding the law and that's generally pretty dangerous. Umberto Eco #13 (yes I AM going to start quoting Ur-Fascism like bible verses) ties into this, the whipping up of outrage and populism (against 'lefty lawyers/judges', say) is used to delegitimise and sow distrust in these institutions.

 

~

 

on a more positive note, very pleased to see that the NHS waiting lists have come down and the Labour government can trumpet 'promise kept'. Sure it was probably helped a bit by the outgoing Tory government, but Streeting's being far less annoying and more competent than I expected him to be over at Health.

 

I think the main issue Starmer had tbf to him was that it was a loophole that was used and could be used again. The law was for the Ukranian scheme and so many more families could use the extenuating circumstances situation.

 

 

 

Looks like the US visit went quite well for Starmer. Clearly the Foreign Office have been lobbying hard and done a great job. Trump changes his mind daily (see the dictator comments) but it looks like we played to stroke his ego and drive a fair deal judging by his comments. Not sure Starmer managed to get any further on the Ukraine defence though..

Interested to see how this goes down in the wider context now. Looks like even the major alt-right critics of Starmer were struggling. Have seen a few bits about the Vance comments on free speech, which are absolutely daft.

Bad faith losers will find some way to criticise him over this (most likely by taking the same route as Vance and pretending that they're not living in the real world) but I agree, mostly very good week for Starmer disarming any serious critics from the right with his defence spending rise too, though I'll still absolutely criticise him from the left for rinsing foreign aid to pay for it, because as much as the defence budget needs it, cutting foreign aid is shortsighted in a world that needs it and could do with UK soft power and funds for nation-building. Possibly not many other good things to cut but I do think it should be more of a priority.

US visit is great, he's handling Trump well, probably helps that Trump is both an Anglophile and knows that Starmer is likely to be in office for the remainder of his term, so useful to play nice to him - showing more diplomatic skill than some in the US cabinet. But also Starmer is clearly a pretty canny operator in foreign policy, he's handled the last few weeks with Ukraine at the top of the news in a mostly assertive and tactful manner, which is all we want really.

Another win for Starmer tbh.

Honestly besides not doing enough to challenge the trans rights rollbacks (which feels in keeping with much of the world until that Cass report can get properly and resoundingly debunked) I really have zero issues with how this government has gone. The only other thing I would've changed is been more authoritative on crime and punishment/closing loopholes left by the last administration, but I understand they feel they have to walk a fine line there.

The amount of ridiculous criticism they've had in the press AND from within Labour itself is just laughable in my book.

@Liam sota do we have a problem here?

30 minutes ago, J00prstar said:

@Liam sota do we have a problem here?

? Just reacting.

So a minister has resigned over the foreign aid cut. That’s two in the last few weeks.

Personally agree with that decision, of all the options to cut that was the better option but it upset a lot of people too.

BBC News

International Development minister Anneliese Dodds quits...

Earlier this week, the prime minister said he would be cutting the budget to fund a boost in defence spending.

Good on Dodds for sticking by her principles, I agree he should have spread the costs more - and she then represents a number of Labour MPs who are committed to the issue to hopefully restore foreign aid funding at some future date.

Wins all round really, a minor resignation won't hurt Starmer too much in the long run and defence spending going up is needed right now.

and also look at these front pages, I'm fairly certain they haven't been this positive on the government since the election and given the partisan lean of the media it's a real achievement.

Those are some great headlines!!

This, plus him changing the ridiculous NHS 8am phone call flurry, plus the eaely NHS targets being met already, and rhe givernment id racking up some much needed wins.

I was very surprised at how positive today's front pages were. I was expecting several of the tabloids to lead on the Gene hackman story as a way of keeping a good-news story about the government off the front page.