Glorianny
Elegran
He is a lawyer, one with a social conscience that he has displayed in his pre-political career. He wouldn't play silly buggers with our legislation. He might even oversee the drafting of the written constitution that some people are demanding.
But someone who apparently thinks it is OK to make promises and then break them.
Either he didn't mean them when he made them or he is so easily swayed he is persuaded even to break his word. Not good qualities.
I don't think it is remotely reasonable to hold someone to pledges they made before a war, before a pandemic, and before the country had been led into a place of rampant inflation and looming poverty for millions, when the pledger has had no control over any of those things.
Johnson has lied repeatedly, and yes, he had no control over the war (although History will tell how much his buddying with oligarchs enabled it) but he did have control during the pandemic, and he claims to have 'got Brexit done', and had control over the deal that was struck, so can and should be held accountable to his promises. If (!) he has fallen short of them is his responsibility, whereas Keir has not been in a position to carry out his pledges, so if he feels that they are no longer possible or desirable because circumstances have changed, I don't think it is fair to castigate him for that.
Burnham and Lynch are excellent communicators, and both have a media presence that is compelling. I absolutely agree that this shouldn't be important when deciding on a political leader, but it is in today's world, and that can't be changed. I also agree with Galaxy that it looks as though Keir has had media training, and that this is a good thing, but his general demeanour is not one that plays to the gallery.
I realise that this is anecdotal, but my daughter and her friends (politically aware late 20s) are very supportive of both. They don't remember unions as being powerful and see them as liberating. Mr Dog and I are both strong unionists, so my children were brought up with protest songs and dinner table polemic from us (the lucky things ?), but I think Lynch is the first leader my daughter has seen speaking to the public as a whole as well as a more limited membership of his own union. She is always sending me TikTok videos of him demolishing right wing arguments, and is quite a fan, as are her friends, who also share the videos.
I'm not sure that we can assume any longer that most young people won't vote, or that fear of Unions is present in anyone under 60 - and even amongst older people there are many who remain supportive of them. The political landscape has changed beyond recognition since then, and continues to change. We don't know yet how a genuine and widespread fear of the future, coupled with an almost universal understanding that we have been lied to and treated with contempt by politicians will play out, but I don't think that clinging to old ways of analysing probable behaviour will be useful in the current climate.
We are in what the Chinese call 'interesting times'.