A year of Starmer What do you think?

Casdon The only people who have even suggested that Corbyn return are those who support Starmer. The argument seems to be that if you don't support Starmer you must necessarily want Corbyn back, but I have yet to see anyone who has actually asked for that. It is though a mark of how ineffective Starmer is that the only argument in support of him seems to be "He's better than Corbyn".
Those of us on the left simply want a leader who will unite the party (as Starmer promised to do), who will stand up for human rights (as Starmer has failed to do), and who can present themself as memorable to the voting public (which Starmer has failed to do).

Maybee70 I'm thinking of a younger woman- Lisa Nandy perhaps and coming up Zarah Sultana- but she's relatively new.

I’m not getting into an argument on this again trisher, but what the left of the party want is to pursue all the policies that Corbyn eschewed, with a leader who is preferably cut from the same cloth. That will not make the party electable.

Apart from "He's good in PMQs", (which is a bit like a teacher telling a parent their child has such a nice nature they shouldn't expect him to be academic) what exactly has Starmer done that peple approve of since he became leader?

So which of the LP policies will you change Casdon? These were not "Corbyn" policies they are voted on by party members.

If the Labour Party was serious about becoming a future government they should have two priorities -

Firstly, to apologise to the majority of their voters, their members and their MPs and former MPs who overwhelmingly voted Remain in the fraudulent referendum of 2016, for their kowtowing to the brexit press barons and acquiescing in the most damaging change ever to have been inflicted on our country in our lifetimes.

Secondly, to acknowledge that the UK is not currently a democracy - if it was we would not have an appalling right wing government with an 80 seat majority in the House of Commons inflicted on us by a minority of those who voted in the last general election. If this country is ever to progress we need a Constitutional Commission. We must make serious changes to the nonsense of the House of Lords, we must root out corruption and most important of all we must become a democracy by introducing a new voting system so that no government supported by less than 50% of the voters can dictate to us for five years. All governments should be elected in future by proportional representation so that no single party can rule without the support of a majority of voters.-

trisher We’ve been here before, I’m not doing it again and boring the whole of Gransnet. We disagree on the future, and we disagree on the prioritisation of the policies, as I said above.

But people keep saying he doesn’t stand up to Johnson. And I see him make Johnson look an absolute idiot every week at PMQT. Someone with an astute legal mind is what’s needed to do that. Another argument against Starmer is he no longer opposes brexit. Well sadly, imo that bird has well and truly flown. Johnson’s election campaign was based purely on getting brexit done and that is what the voting public overwhelmingly voted for. So how can Starmer commit the Labour Party to rejoining the EU? Lisa Nandy said right from the start that the result of the referendum had to be upheld so how will her leadership unite the party? All this talk of things that Starmer has or hasn’t done within the party is irrelevant to most voters. All they see is a Conservative Party that shows a united front and a Labour Party that is constantly bickering. I didn’t like Corbyn but I still supported and voted for him because I want to see a Labour government in my lifetime and I can’t see that happening.

varian good luck with that with Starmer in charge. He'll have to have focus groups for every one of those suggestions. Come back in 2050 he might have made a decision by then.

Maybe70 no one I know who voted Labour is even discussing Brexit now. It's a done deal. PMQ'sis a side show no one bothers with. Boris knows that. He does photo opportunities and people see them.

So it’s irrelevant that Starmer makes Johnson look like an idiot at OMQT because ‘no one watches it’. Johnson does lots of photo shoots and it makes him popular. Starmer does them and it’s wrong. Is there anything that Starmer is doing right? How are Labour going to win an election? The policies that Corbyn stood for were rejected by the very people they were meant to help. Where do the Labour Party go from here? Maybe if Starmer had punched that pub landlord today he would have made himself memorable to the public. Or should he have numerous affairs and bestow public money in his mistress. Do Glastonbury but then refuse to go on any of the people's vote marches. Refuse to call out the Russians for poisoning people in this country. Sultana is great, but she’s far too inexperienced.

Some good posts maybe

MayBee70

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

I have said this before, but I think Andy Burnham would be a good leader. Whether I think he should replace Sir Keir, and how I think they (the PLP) should move ahead, I honestly have no idea. I am not a political strategist, just a voter who believes in a fairer and kinder society.

I sincerely hope that Casdon is right, and that the differences between Johnson and Sir Keir became obvious to the electorate in time for the GE, but right now I can't help thinking that there is so much corruption, so many media lies and so much manipulation of events (eg Johnson taking credit for the success of the vaccination programme, blaming a lot of the impact of Brexit on Covid) that it wouldn't matter who was leading the opposition. It is such a mountain to climb that it is almost impossible. I am verging on despair.

Strangely enough, Andy Burnham voted for Keir Starmer as leader saying about him ‘Keir is a brilliant man. The fact that he was a former DPP and came to work in my shadow Home Office team with no airs and graces says a lot about him’.

Andy Burnham is good as our Mayor. He can’t be leader as he isn’t an MP. It’s obvious good people like Andy will support KS
John MacDonald was interviewed yesterday. He stated clearly, of course KS is a socialist - he should know, he worked alongside him for years.
Thanks for your posts MayBee

How can Starmer be judged on his first year as leader ? Boris on
tv every week, PMQ just a few dozen involved,

I am involved with telephone canvassing for the May elections,
people are no interested, their concerns is the virus, lockdown etc.

It was always a mountain to climb, to claim back any credibility, it was never going to happen in a year.

Agree Galaxy

It isn't any use trying to allege that those who find fault with Starmer are somehow saying he isn't socialist. The point is that no one can be really certain what he is by looking at his actions since he became leader.
As for the rant about photo shoots and the actions he should take. The photo shoots seem to matter and much as I dislike him Boris comes across as a posh bloke prepared to muck in and to not mind making a 'show' of himself. Starmer on the other hand looks stiff and unyielding. I agree it is sad that we base voting on such stuff but it seems to be the way the worlld is going.

John MacDonald was interviewed yesterday. He stated clearly, of course KS is a socialist - he should know, he worked alongside him for years.

Who is 'John MacDonald', please?

Boris comes across as a posh bloke prepared to muck in and to not mind making a 'show' of himself.

I still think it's a very sad country that approves of having a corrupt clown for PM.

I quite like the Tory sleaze angle he is using at the moment. I think that could be quite effective if sustained.

We have a totally corrupt government at the moment. What we need is an opposition leader with an astute legal mind and this is what we have. He also knows which fights to fight and which ones to ignore. The main priority at the moment is to control the pandemic. Everything else pales into insignificance. It’s a sorry state of affairs when the electorate base their judgement on how funny someone is on HIGNFY: a programme that the government would probably like to get rid of now. Even then didn’t they say Johnson was awful on it but came across as funny because of his blustering? We can’t have a situation where party leaders are removed as quickly as football managers! In a years time I might decide that Keir isn’t a good leader but, at this moment in time I’m going to support both him and the Labour Party because they’re the only hope we’ve got.

MaizieD

^John MacDonald was interviewed yesterday. He stated clearly, of course KS is a socialist - he should know, he worked alongside him for years.^

Who is 'John MacDonald', please?

Anybody?

John McDonnell I think.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McDonnell

Starmer was thrown out of a pub in Bath by the landlord www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56805144
Perhaps he's learning about phto shoots after all