A year of Starmer What do you think?

I agree, he was very impressive yesterday.

He made Johnson totally incriminate himself. What we need at the moment is an opposition leader that knows the law inside and out and he, imo is perfect.

He showed his sharpness of mind in Parliament yesterday and boy did he rattle Johnson’s cage as he questioned him about the payment for the refurbishment of his flat. Also the questions about a statement he may or not made about “bodies piled high”. Johnson was left unable to answer anything other than to adopt his usual bluster and change of subject to something that showed him in a better light.

That is an interesting poll Casdon.

I would have rated Gordon Brown top and Boris Johnson bottom, but I do realise that people have different opinions.

It depends which poll you look at varian. This is one from two days ago, before yesterday’s debacle at PMQ.
www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/boris-johnson-seen-less-trustworthy-keir-starmer-david-cameron-receives-lowest-ratings-all

GrannyGravy13

@BMGResearch 22-26 April (+/- since 16-19 March)

Preferred Prime Minister polling :-

Boris Johnson 40%(+5%)
Keir Starmer 20%(-4%)

Nowt as strange as folks!!!

Is this disturbing or merely puzzling?

Has the control of our media by foreign billionaires and tax exiles already turned us into a one party state?

Looking at wallpaper ???

I think it's called trolling...

twitter.com/Chris_Furlong/status/1387779456329306117

I quite like the current photo opportunity Starmer is doing in John Lewis

@BMGResearch 22-26 April (+/- since 16-19 March)

Preferred Prime Minister polling :-

Boris Johnson 40%(+5%)
Keir Starmer 20%(-4%)

Nowt as strange as folks!!!

Apologies for the above. It is taken from Polly Toynbee's article in the Guardian in which she is quoting Ian Curtice, the well known pollster.

I tried to delete everything below Polly's name and managed to send instead. I don't know how I managed that.

I think that it's food for thought - the fact that the most disadvantaged people don't vote and that the majority of the LP supporters were/are remain supporters.

After these elections, Labour will be forced into a serious confrontation with the elemental shape-shift in British politics, a gradual evolution that suddenly exploded into Brexit. There is no going back to the old certainties of left and right or geography, warns Curtice.

Johnson’s tanks are parked on acres of Labour’s old lawns, with his “levelling up” and “left behind” talk and his shameless towns fund bribes to newly won northern seats. The danger is that all that’s left for Labour is to defend poor and disadvantaged people, who don’t vote much anyway: Labour’s high score for caring doesn’t earn many votes. The party founded to represent the working class reels in shock at losing seats in places long considered working-class heartlands. Labour may wish Brexit would vanish down a memory hole, but Curtice warns it remains the key electoral divide – and Johnson plans to make extolling Brexit benefits a centrepiece in the next election. As “80% of Labour’s vote now comes from remain supporters, the only realistic choice open to the party is to craft an appeal that will maintain and enhance its support among remain voters, be they working class or not,” writes Curtice.

A majority in the 2019 election, 52%, voted for parties backing a second referendum: Labour must come to terms with its new nature as the party backed by the urban and suburban, young, skilled, graduates and ethnic minorities. It needs to win seats like London’s Bromley and Chislehurst, which Curtice tells me would take Labour into a majority – and that’s not impossible, as young, well-educated people spread out to old Tory suburbs. Can Labour cope with such an identity change?

It will be more at ease contemplating the Johnson government’s likely fall from grace by next spring. As last month’s budget made cuts in virtually every department, Britain will be deep in a new austerity, for all Johnson’s promises. The NHS has nothing like the money or staff to cope with unprecedented waiting lists, nor have schools a fraction of what it takes to help children catch up. Youth unemployment will be worse and local councils poleaxed again. The Tory party will be riven between fiscal old-timers demanding cuts to the deficit, and Johnson’s desire to splash out on eye-catchers.

Cassandra-like doom warnings won’t get Labour elected – but there will be an urgent yearning for it to paint a picture of a far better country, with Joe Biden’s boldness and borrowing suggesting the way ahead. The current euphoria will fade as people tire of Johnson’s sleazy salesmanship. There will be no Tory levelling up, as his tanks on Labour lawns will be exposed as cardboard disintegrating in the austerity rain.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

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The other things that can’t be entirely divorced from government won’t go away either. All those contracts for mates who had no skill or experience. Lockdowns too late. Schools back, for one day.
It’s natural for the public to want to support its governments at times of crisis. There is public sympathy for Johnson in particular. It can’t be endless though surely

That’s okay then lemongrove, I’m pleased that the Labour Government in Wales are top of the tree in the UK on vaccine delivery rates and COVID infection rates at the moment - it bodes well.

Which cannot be divorced entirely from government Iam64
However anyone may wish that to be true.

Suziewoosie apologies if my tongue in cheek comment sounded like praise of Johnson or his corrupt government. The success of the programme is down to local health workers, local authorities and volunteers.

Yes Owen Jones is left wing, nothing wrong with that, a former supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, he has a video channel on YouTube as well.

Owen interviewed Robert Lindsey who says he has become more left wing as he has gotten older, of Citizen Smith fame.

Power to the people Could do with a bit more of that

People have to organise join groups unions to get voices heard rise up against this corrupt government.

Iam64

lemongrove

Anyone can ( and is) criticised trisher...all the time, it seems to be a national sport.

We don’t need to go all Pollyanna but a bit of positive thinking may help improve the national mood ??

I’m feeling very positive about the way the nhs and volunteers have endured the vaccine roll out is successful.
(Sits on hands to stop criticism of government contracts for unqualified friends being doled out )

But no one has criticised the vaccine roll out and all those who contribute to and play a role in it. Far from it. None of that detracts from the issues around the probity of the current administration. In fact that lack of probity only serves to make the vaccine success all the more remarkable - at the same time as the procurement of vaccines was being carried out so successfully, we had the fiasco PPE procurement and the paying for the redecoration of the flat.

Whilst the latter is really as simple as the importance of being transparent ( although it was happening at a time when BJ was setting his face against FSM in the holidays so the optics weren’t good) ) the former was about protecting staff and patients and saving lives. The setting up of schemes to benefit Tory donors, supporters, family and friends was neither adequate nor appropriate in the circumstances.

So justified and continued criticism is essential - as we emerge from the pandemic there are multiple needs to be met and multiple opportunities for money to be made by the well-connected. We could be better than we are and we should want to be.

One the evening if the 97 election, we drove a retired miner in his late 80’s to vote. He said this would be his last chance to see a Labour government. We are a constituency that predicts the government. We had a Labour MP that time. He lost his seat at the recent election, a Tory who has no connections to the area and lives 200 miles away represents us now.
I’m beginning to feel like the miner in 97, will I ever see a Labour government again.
I despair that people like Owen Jones would rather see governments like we’ve had in the past decade, conservatives, than support Keir Starmer

I suppose my worry is that Owen Jones may be seen as the face of the left, he is everywhere, if the general public see him as representative of the labour party we will never be in power again.

lemongrove

Anyone can ( and is) criticised trisher...all the time, it seems to be a national sport.

We don’t need to go all Pollyanna but a bit of positive thinking may help improve the national mood ??

I’m feeling very positive about the way the nhs and volunteers have endured the vaccine roll out is successful.
(Sits on hands to stop criticism of government contracts for unqualified friends being doled out )

Anyone can ( and is) criticised trisher...all the time, it seems to be a national sport.

There are very few varian and in no way can they be considered anything but fair and justified criticism. I assume even Starmer can be criticised?

Just one example trisher-

Is one person writing one article now to be regarded as "being constantly undermined by people"?

trisher

I have spoken out about him in the past Varian but my political affiliations are my concern so you have no right to assume I am a member of the LP or to take my comment about him as undermining him. I'll ask again (and let's spread the net a bit wider that GN) who in the LP has undermined Starmer?

I would regard Owen Jones as an influential member of the Labour Party. He was a strong supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and is now one of those undermining the credibility of Keir Starmer.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/12/keir-starmer-labour-leader-crucial-byelection