Same reason people moan why the economy won't grow, take all their news from someone on Twitter who once read a book.

 

The scariest thing about this issue is how dominant misinformation is right now. You have newspapers and Twitter posters up and down the country swearing blind that Starmer said that anyone concerned about the grooming gangs were far-right - all he said, correctly, was that a far-right bandwagon had amplified misinformation around this issue. And then they go on to prove him right by twisting his words further.

Interestingly enough while some of the stuff in here is a bit unnecasary to me the person here makes clear they requested an inquiry because that’s what survivors want. https://labourlist.org/2025/01/grooming-gan...er-jay-burnham/

 

Yeah, this is the correct approach. Local inquiries where it won't impact the pursuance of justice elsewhere, not party political and most importantly not halting other protections for children being enshrined into law at the same time.

What gets me about this grooming gang story is it feels like the media is bending over backwards to not mention the fact that the cases in question are HISTORIC CASES FROM THE 80S AND 90S.

 

All of this "why is nobody DOING anything" energy is as if people were complaining in 2025 that nothing was being done to investigate the killings of James Bulger or Holly & Jessica. (Note: to those unaware do NOT Google these cases, they are nightmare fuel)

Who do you think is more credible on this issue. Maggie Oliver someone who resigned from her job as she felt they were not doing enough to help these girls. Who has since dedicated her life to helping these girls. Who is universally respected on this specific issue. Or Keir Starmer a careerist who kind of slithered his way to the top and has constantly shown severe moral failings. Serious question?

 

It’s not difficult answer here.

 

Now one of them the credible one specifically said that Keir Starmer bungled a Rochdale grooming case in where a man got away with raping a 13 yr old girl. That is being implicated for sure and it’s not an isolated case either. There were numerous failings and he was part of them. The 2022 inquiry was more broadly about child abuse not specifically grooming gangs and I don’t believe it mentioned Rochdale or even investigated various of these cases.

 

Interestingly enough while some of the stuff in here is a bit unnecasary to me the person here makes clear they requested an inquiry because that’s what survivors want. https://labourlist.org/2025/01/grooming-gan...er-jay-burnham/

 

I get some people are biased and a bit stuck in their fantasy world of Tories being the root of all evil but the reality is this issue is not new. The victims are now adults. Starmer is not liked. His errors are well known. You can’t stumble upon an issue you may not have the full details on and claim your guy is great and did all these great things. Politics is full of charlatans and spin merchants. Maggie Oliver isn’t one of them. She genuinely cares. Keir Starmer does not.

 

The question is simple do victims deserve an inquiry? 76% of the UK say yes. Andy Burnham says yes. Keir Starmer (someone who may look very bad if one is properly conducted) says no.

 

A little problematic I would say

So why did the enquiry, commissioned by the Tories who set the terms of reference, praise Starmer? If they had evidence that he was compromised in any way, don't you think they would have made sure that the enquiry report said so?

No policies for 18 months/2 years :lol: They're in a full crisis mode at the moment, going to get wiped out by Reform. The move for them is to move back to the Centre ground with a right-wing edge, but they won't take it. Surely Badenoch is gone by the end of 2025, she is useless.

Keep her for life!

@1890867021522284904

 

Also strong rumours of Boris wanting to return.

A much better performance from Badenoch at PMQs today. She used most of her questions to raise genuine concerns about Ukraine without trying to score political points.

41 minutes ago, Suedehead2 said:

A much better performance from Badenoch at PMQs today. She used most of her questions to raise genuine concerns about Ukraine without trying to score political points.

Probably seen how much Starmer's approval ratings have shot up and Farage's have gone down recently :lol: There's definite criticism domestically to be handled at Starmer and rightly so, but on the international stage so far he's shown immense leadership while walking a diplomatic line with Europe and the US.

10 minutes ago, Rooney said:

Probably seen how much Starmer's approval ratings have shot up and Farage's have gone down recently :lol: There's definite criticism domestically to be handled at Starmer and rightly so, but on the international stage so far he's shown immense leadership while walking a diplomatic line with Europe and the US.

True, but she (and her advisers) have generally shown very poor judgement about what topic to pursue. Her inability to adjust her script in the light of Starmer's answers has compounded her failings. For most of today's session, she picked the right subject and performed well. She's still mostly rubbish though.

I enjoyed Starmer's well-timed 'And we were doing so well' when she pivoted on to a more standard attack line for the last question - laughs on both sides of the chamber. But easily her best PMQs, even if the bar was on the floor.

I get the feeling Badenoch's having to tread really carefully right now, it might be she's been made aware that she's potentially quite vulnerable to a leadership challenge in the near future.

7 hours ago, Iz 🌟 said:

I enjoyed Starmer's well-timed 'And we were doing so well' when she pivoted on to a more standard attack line for the last question - laughs on both sides of the chamber. But easily her best PMQs, even if the bar was on the floor.

I get the feeling Badenoch's having to tread really carefully right now, it might be she's been made aware that she's potentially quite vulnerable to a leadership challenge in the near future.

That put-down showed how much better remarks like that are when said spontaneously rather than reading from a script. Starmer can seem quite wooden when delivering a scripted barb, but this demonstrated that he can also do spontaneity.

She wasn’t even that great just found the right subject and tone, she still embarrassed even me that she has to read every like from her script and can’t look up at all.

Badenoch saying it's right of Israel to deny entry to two Labour MPs. Her comments have been met with disdain across parties including from within the Tory party. I feel it's only a matter of time until she undergoes a leadership challenge.

Israel probably 'has the right', but it's different from should they be doing that if they want to maintain the appearance of being a law-abiding state. Definitely can't have a resurgent Tory party subservient to a foreign state, we aren't America and they aren't going to reassert power like that.

Incidentally Yuan Yang, one of the two MPs, was briefly my MP for a few months, and though there's some bias as I've been more aware of what she's doing, she's one of the MPs from the 2024 intake I've been most impressed by so far, with doing local constituency work to save Reading FC AND it turns out investigating problematic issues abroad.