A year of Starmer What do you think?

And more from the bmj

blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/04/01/palestine-is-bearing-the-brunt-of-vaccination-inequalities/

If Starmer doesn't want to speak up about Palestine he is quite entitled to do that, but what I find unacceptable is that he should allow Jewish Labour members who do speak up to be subjected to abuse and criticism. Perhaps because he has an Israeli ex-secret service agent working for him?

A centrist Labour think tank just made a fool of itself on Twitter
We're crowd-sourcing ideas for what Labour should do in the next 12 months.
Tell us your ideas for what Keir Starmer and the Labour party should do in the year ahead.
Here is the form from the Fabian society

fabians.org.uk/the-next-year-of-keir/

This is a blog from Rachel Swindon A lot of bad language, but she makes her point

Labour 14 points behind the worst government in history.

rachaelswindon.blogspot.com/2021/04/sir-unelectable-fourteen-points-behind.html?spref=tw

What should Keir Starmer do???-Resign!
Thanks for the Rachael Swindon blog Grany. Can't decide if I'm pleased someone is willing to come out and say it, or depressed because it seems the LP is slowly being run into the ground.

I feel rather the same as you trisher it is very depressing.

Is there a credible person to take over the Labour Party? Or the Conservative party come to that.

Our latest MP is youngish and gets engaged in local food banks, homeless issues and food stations, local canal clearing or woodland preservation but is perhaps a little naive. He was shocked and disgusted when his young family were heckled and jostled by anti Tory protestors.

I think one of the problems is that Starmer for some reason has chosen to ignore all the good things Corbyn brought to politics and instead to attempt to be Tory-lite, in some vain hope I suppose that he will atract more support that way. The trouble is he has none of the charm and dash that Blair had and he simply isn't charismatic. Much as I hate Johnson he can obviously charm people. I wish he would stop using focus groups and instead develop a real socialist agenda which might help to rebuild the country when things get back to normal.

Jeremy Corbyn offered a "real socialist agenda" and arguably had some charisma (his fans seemed to think so) but it did not get the Labour Party elected.

What we are watching in real time is not just the death of Labour but the decline of social democracy in Britain, not just brazen sleaze on an almost unimaginable scale but it being utterly normalised as part of public life, and what we are about to watch is the Royal Family re-brand itself in a sea of Union Jacks and a tsunami of Anglo-British Nationalism.

These 6 party leaders have signed a letter to the Commons Speaker calling for an inquiry into Boris Johnson’s dishonesty:

Ian Blackford
Sir Ed Davey
Liz Saville Roberts
Colum Eastwood
Stephen Farry
Caroline Lucas

These party leaders refused to sign:

Sir Keir Starmer

I keep calling him 'Kier Hardie.....

Grany that's awful. Do you suppose he asked a focus group and they told him not to?

varian but even Corbyn wasn't as low in public opinion as Starmer

Grany that's awful. Do you suppose he asked a focus group and they told him not to?

Yes, trisher it's what he does do, ha

Maybe Keir Starmer didn’t sign due to it being reported that John Healy the Labour Shadow Defence Minister also lobbied Ministers on behalf of Lex Greensill?

This happened in May 2020, when he wrote to the Business Secretary Nadhim Zahawa.

GrannyGravy13

Maybe Keir Starmer didn’t sign due to it being reported that John Healy the Labour Shadow Defence Minister also lobbied Ministers on behalf of Lex Greensill?

This happened in May 2020, when he wrote to the Business Secretary Nadhim Zahawa.

I’m sure you are right.

GrannyGravy13

Maybe Keir Starmer didn’t sign due to it being reported that John Healy the Labour Shadow Defence Minister also lobbied Ministers on behalf of Lex Greensill?

This happened in May 2020, when he wrote to the Business Secretary Nadhim Zahawa.

He had at least the excuse that the steel works is in his constituency. It's common practice to lobby for businesses which employ your constituents. That's a bit different to being dishonest and Starmer must understand the difference ( well I hope he does).

This is how popular Corbyn is.
yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/explore/public_figure/Jeremy_Corbyn
This is how popular Starmer is.
yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/explore/public_figure/Keir_Starmer

I would like Labour Party supporters to suggest how, from their point of view, the prospects of the Labour Party could improve.

I hope no-one suggests "sack Starmer and bring back Corbyn" because the chances of that happening or succeding are zero.

Starmer should resign. He has manifestly failed to keep his promise to unite the party and hasn't actually made any progress in fact he has failed to present a proper opposition to the worse government ever.
The enquiry into what happened in 2017 should be reopened and any guilty parties removed.
They should elect a leader who might at least support human rights.
As regards how popular Corbyn is What the F has that to do with Starmer? He was the leader of the LP when that poll was taken but fewer people had actually heard of him. I suppose that sums him up. In future years when his name is mentioned people will go "Who?"

Grany

These 6 party leaders have signed a letter to the Commons Speaker calling for an inquiry into Boris Johnson’s dishonesty:

Ian Blackford
Sir Ed Davey
Liz Saville Roberts
Colum Eastwood
Stephen Farry
Caroline Lucas

These party leaders refused to sign:

Sir Keir Starmer

Where has this been reported, Grany?

It seems incredible that the leader of the main opposition party would abstain from something like this. (I'm not doubting you - just stating the obvious.)

The excuse given for not signing the letter is that apparently Labour doesn't sign letters that are instigated by another party.
I read about the letter in The Guardian.

varian Perhaps each person should contribute only once to give their response to your question, otherwise it will get into the usual circuitous arguments between party supporters that have been repeated ad nauseum on this thread and others. Fundamentally I think the current differences within the party are insurmountable.

For what it’s worth here’s my thoughts.

1. Starmer should not resign. The Corbyn supporters who do not support the way forward for the party should leave the party, their constant attempts to undermine the leadership are a counterproductive distraction to making the party electable again
2. Starmer and the shadow cabinet need time to rebuild, and given the damage caused to the party’s reputation in recent years it’s not going to be a quick job. It is a concern that the current government will fail before they are fully prepared, but if it does run to the 5 years term they will be more than ready.
3. In terms of personal demeanor and debating ability Starmer runs rings round Boris, and the current improper behaviour investigations will be a gift that I think will build his reputation with the public. The press have already picked up the red wall implications for the Tories.
4. The party needs to listen to what the public values and not over-promise, or get distracted by the minutiae of ‘pc’ issues which the vast majority are not interested in. That’s of course not to say that there shouldn’t be plans to improve and resolve issues, but they shouldn’t be over-sold at the expense of the big issues that will give the public confidence.

I’m now going to retreat as I know what the response will be. It would be great to see a response from gransnetters who don’t normally voice their views.

I’ve asked this before but who do people think should be leader of the Labour Party?

Casdon, I voice my views less than I have in the past. My response is predictable in that I agree with you.
Starmer was challenging Johnson strongly on sleaze during the last pmq’s. The public opinion is sympathetic to Johnson, in addition he’s an 80 majority on the back of Corbyn. Pandemic is a bit like war, the public wants to support its government.

How Starmer can unite a party being torn apart by monentum/militant types ?

I’ve had to leave various Labour Party Facebook pages because all they do is criticise Starmer and not the government. I think we’re just going to have a Conservative government forever. All Labour supporters seem to do is find reasons why they shouldn’t have lost the last few elections and it now seems to be Starmers fault that they lost the last one because he’s a Conservative. I’m actually too old and tired to care any more.