Two Years of Keir Starmer. What do we think?

Grany

Starmer and Reeves blocked an activist on twitter for pointing out that a third of their followers were fake that's hundreds of thousands fake followers.

The activists will have to do better than that, Grany. People aren't yet judged by the number of their twitter followers. And I'm prepared to bet that every prominent political figure has thousands of fake followers. Heard of 'troll farms'?

I think they do actually believe that monitoring Twitter is activism. There is a lot of it about.

Grany

36 Tory MPs have received £3.6 million from persons named in the Pandora Papers

You know this already of course because Keir Starmer has done such an amazing job for the opposition holding the Tories to account for it. Not.

2.3ml people who receive Universal Credit (over 40%) are in work. They have lost £20 a week; are being subjected to a National Insurance tax rise; and face a massive increase in winter fuel costs.

Currently they have no political voice. It has to change.

The government is planning to do even worse. A consultation has just closed which proposes more draconian cuts to disability benefits, which will further marginalise some of the most vulnerable in society - also people with no political voice. Proposing to merge Personal Independence Payment with Universal Credit. PIP is currently not means tested as it’s intended as an extra cost benefit to cope with the cost of living with a disability - if the proposals pass into law it means millions of people will lose the vital support which PIP gives them unless they qualify for means tested UC. There will be a knock on effect for Motability as these people will lose the vehicles which in many cases allow them to travel to work - and so a knock on effect for the economy. If Rishi Sunak becomes PM it’ll be even worse because he’s supposedly passionate about ‘small state’, so expect benefits cut to the bone, means testing cut to bread line levels and decimated public services.

Floriel

MaizieD

Floriel

Several people are praising his integrity but I understand that as head of the CPS a decade or so ago Starmer did little to prosecute the wicked gangs who groomed young working-class girls.

You understand quite wrongly then.

medium.com/@lucynevitt/starmers-shambolic-cps-affabd38bb6d

www.just-debate.co.uk/post/inside-keir-starmer-s-time-at-the-cps

Over 10,000 unfollowed Starmer and exactly the same amount was immediately added

In the 18-hour period mentioned above, according to the analysis platform, Starmer losts 10,421 genuine followers – and gained… 10,421 fake

Twitter’s rules on the use of fake followers are clear:

It’s transparently just another failed attempt at a smear from the left of the party Grany, nobody with a brain is taking any notice. Fake instagram and other social media account followers aren’t new news, remember the last election?

Casdon

It’s transparently just another failed attempt at a smear from the left of the party Grany, nobody with a brain is taking any notice. Fake instagram and other social media account followers aren’t new news, remember the last election?

Well someone is obviously taking notice Casdon otherwise why would anyone bother if a large number of followers disappeared and go to the effort of creating the same number of fake accounts?

Some one has described Starmer as creating stability. He hasn't. The LP is almost bankrupt it has lost members and Starmer has expelled people. Let's not forget that this man promised to unite the party instead it is in fragments. If there was an election tomorrow it probably couldn't afford to fight it, many of its most active supporters wouldn't or couldn't be involved and the man who is leading the LP is probably best known to the British public as "Who?"

The Labour Party is in transition trisher. It has to change, as you know and I know, we just view the rationale for the change differently. We also both know it won’t be bankrupt.
As for the fake accounts on social media, do you imagine for one minute that Keir Starmer is personally sitting creating fake accounts, or that he’s told one of his immediate team to do it on his behalf. No.

Who?

As for the fake accounts on social media, do you imagine for one minute that Keir Starmer is personally sitting creating fake accounts, or that he’s told one of his immediate team to do it on his behalf. No.

Well can you believe it? Apparently party leaders aren't responsible for what goes on in their party. Where was this attitude when Corbyn was being criticised for allowing antisemitism?
Let's put it like this if Starmer isn't responsible he needs to find out who is.

As for the funding it is seriously down. Now about the same as 2014. skwawkbox.org/2021/12/26/labour-finances-about-to-fall-off-even-bigger-cliff-new-analysis-shows/

I don’t believe anything I read in some media. The Skwawkbox is a left-wing news site. The Skwawkbox states that its aim is to "present information and analysis that will rarely make it into the mainstream media." Founder Steve Walker has said: "The people we're trying to reach are what we call the outer parts of the Venn diagram.
On the outer parts of the Venn diagram he refers to are you and grany, trisher and a few others, but, not most Labour Party supporters. Steve Walker is a Corbynite who has left the party now, so his reporting is not by any stretch unbiased or moderate.

The misinformation about Starmer’s time at the CPS is spread by the left who want to ensure Labour never win an election and the right who share the same aim.

Well I supposed you are entitled to believe whatever you wish Casdon although it would seem faily obvious to me that any organisation which lost substantial amounts of financial support (like that of the unions), at the same time had a huge reduction in membership and the fees paid, whilst simultaneously paying out millions in legal costs, was on a downward economic spiral. When the money runs out it doesn't matter who is the leader.

So what was the truth about it? I never knew anything about it till it was raised on GN. Was KS involved? Did he apologise for anything he did it didn’t do in relation to the matter?

Mollygo

So what was the truth about it? I never knew anything about it till it was raised on GN. Was KS involved? Did he apologise for anything he did it didn’t do in relation to the matter?

If you're talking about the CPS, Mollygo, have a look at the link I posted earlier.

There seems to be some weird idea in people's minds that Starmer personally made every single decision on whether or not to prosecute. Of course he didn't. The CPS must deal with hundred, if not thousands, of cases daily.

You suppose correctly trisher, my truths and yours aren’t the same.

Apparently the Labour party’s reserves are now at their lowest level since 2014.

LP funding has been a big problem for a long time. When I was actively involved locally (E. Yorks David Davis) in the 70s the Tories had their own trendy house as a meeting place funded by local wealthy Tories. while we met in members' homes.
Lack of funds also affected cost of electioneering and thus number of votes.
Now membership here has been static in fact the party's policy of too often asking for renewal of membership fees is putting some people off including me and husband.
Always labour at heart though.

The Party finances were quite healthy when Keir Starmer became leader. Mainly due to the increase in membership numbers which is now in reverse.

No, the membership has stabilised at about 400,000 which is still higher than it was in the Blair/Brown era.

And then there’s the disgraceful case of David White. A Labour Party member and campaigner for FIFTY ONE years.

David has been booted out of the Labour Party, with no hearing, no appeal, based on some pro-Palestine tweets from eight years ago.

But compare that to the case of the Blairite Labour councillor, Philip Normal.

Councillor Normal put out some deeply racist and discriminatory comments on social media, comparing Muslim women to “penguins” and talking of “hairy Arabs” and “aggressive Muslim areas”.

Labour didn’t come for Normal, he had to refer himself to the Labour Party for investigation.

Even if the membership has stabilised almost 200.000 members have been lost. If they were paying about £40 a year on average that is a financial loss of £8000000.
Blair and Brown never lost the Union funding.
It's the combination of Union and membership money lost that is going to cause problems.
Then of course there are the high profile members he has lost, people like Ken Loach.
All this from a man who was elected to unite the party. Either he never intended to do so, or he has been influenced by the more right wing. So he is either duplicitous or easily influenced, neither of which are desirable character traits for a PM.

The way I see it at the moment is that Labour don’t have to do anything

The Government are self imploding with the drip drip of scandals, bad news stories coming out

Come the GE it will be a case of people voting for the perceived less worse party ?

KS will have to come up with some good policies that the public want to hear and not just beat the Government up

trisher- then it is time to unite, and bring in new members who truly feel KS is the future of the Party. I can truly see how someone who was born and bred in mining communities, shipyards and steel- would feel that a left of Centre Party is a betrayal of their traditional Labour heritage. Totally. But your bitterness is so so sharp, and so negative and harking for a past that is gone and buried. And I say this with respect.

But the fact is, the world has changed, people's aspirations and ambitions have changed- and the Party and its Leader have to reflect this. A hard Left Party will not be electable again in the UK- that is abundantly clear. Because people want to have a decent safety net, good education for all, and an NHS fit for purpose for all - they do not want this to be achieved by fleecing anyone who has had the courage and the determination and sheer hard work to put their head above the parapet and make a better life for themselves. And be made to feel like 'scum' for doing so.

KS will also work positively for intelligent alliances too- and a more cooperative way of Governing.

Kali2

trisher- then it is time to unite, and bring in new members who truly feel KS is the future of the Party. I can truly see how someone who was born and bred in mining communities, shipyards and steel- would feel that a left of Centre Party is a betrayal of their traditional Labour heritage. Totally. But your bitterness is so so sharp, and so negative and harking for a past that is gone and buried. And I say this with respect.

But the fact is, the world has changed, people's aspirations and ambitions have changed- and the Party and its Leader have to reflect this. A hard Left Party will not be electable again in the UK- that is abundantly clear. Because people want to have a decent safety net, good education for all, and an NHS fit for purpose for all - they do not want this to be achieved by fleecing anyone who has had the courage and the determination and sheer hard work to put their head above the parapet and make a better life for themselves. And be made to feel like 'scum' for doing so.

KS will also work positively for intelligent alliances too- and a more cooperative way of Governing.

Kali2 there is no "hard left". There are people who believe in socialist principles. The same socialist principles that Corbyn almost won the 2017 election standing on.
Even Tony Blair never dumped the left wing because he realised that the Labour party needed its socialist members to remind it of what it really stands for and to run campaigns. They are the people who go out canvassing in elections. They are the unpaid supporters who work because they believe a better society is possible. If you dump them you not only lose their membership fees you lose their ideals and their work.
This idea that Starmer will somehow just persuade Conservative supporters to come over to Labour by saying he isn't a socialist is so insupportable. No matter how bad Boris is he isn't the Conservative party, just one man, and many will continue to support the party. Of those who choose to change most will move to the Lib Dems because the Labour party is a step too far.

No one as far as I know has ever spoken of people who earn money and are succesful as "scum". The people most left wingers want to target are those who make enormous fortunes in this country but choose not to pay their taxes here.

Finally it is nothing to do with traditional Labour heritage. It is about building a proper economic and social system which provides care and support for those who need it. Which is why it advocates non-profit making companies for the supply of energy and water, a proper integrated publicly owned transport system and an end to privatisation of the NHS.
Unfortunately Starmer has failed to support any of these things . Which leaves the question "What exactly does he stand for?"