Starmer’s a decent bloke!

What has any of this to do with Starmer?

DiamondLily

I have never found Sunak to be a decent person, even when he was a Chancellor. He’s always come across, to me, as a snake oil salesman.

But, we all view people differently. 🙂

I am not British however, I love your commentary about Sunak.

He is a snake ! A poisonous one !

Casdon

By 1960 only one in five households didn’t have access to a telephone Plunger, it certainly wasn’t a luxury. That comes from the Census.

These attempts to discredit Starmer are now entering into the world of fiction, Gransnet could launch its own conspiracy theory company at this rate. At the end of it, it boils down to the fact, unpalatable though it is for some, that he was a very gifted boy from an ordinary family, who made good.

Access to a telephone does not equate to a home telephone. There were red phone boxes everywhere which were the only access the majority had. People would actually call the box and ask for someone to fetch whoever from their home. Did it many times.
.

I think both Sunak and Starmer are probably decent, hard working chaps but Sunak seems unable to identify with the man in the street and Starmer bores me to tears. Neither of them are, imo, leaders. The country and the world are in dire straits and we need a strong leader with a real moral compass and I don't see either of the main parties having one.
Someone does not have to be likeable to make a good leader.

Wyllow3

He's not presenting a "sob" story. People legitimately want to know how someone got to be where they are.

Or why they actually care about the NHS. Have the past few PM’s ever tried to explain why they went into politics? And, if they were to what would they say?

Callistemon21

^Was my childhood in 1960 really so deprived that we were wildly out of step with the norm?^

Did you have the toes cut out of the ends of your sandals at the end of the summer? It saved buying new shoes until the start of the school term?
😁

No I just scrunched up my toes and never told my parents they were hurting, I knew money was tight

I've googled! Casdon I think you'll find the census you're referring to is the USA one from this link www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/dec/coh-phone.html#:~:text=In%201960%2C%20about%201%2Din,single%20digits%2C%20at%207%20percent.

It pays to check your sources.

If you check out UK statistics via this link www.statista.com/statistics/289158/telephone-presence-in-households-in-the-uk/
you'll see in 1970 only 35% of UK homes had a telephone. 80% was only achieved in 1985!

Tories like to accuse Starmer of changing his mind but they have lied to the voters for the past fourteen years. What is it with Sunak and previous incumbents and their pledges which haven’t been fulfilled. Recent ones have been ridiculous. Starmer will make a great Prime Minister.

He's not presenting a "sob" story. People legitimately want to know how someone got to be where they are.

Was my childhood in 1960 really so deprived that we were wildly out of step with the norm?

Did you have the toes cut out of the ends of your sandals at the end of the summer? It saved buying new shoes until the start of the school term?
😁

Plunger

Can Starmer cut the sob story about his poor background! My brother was a toolmaker and my sister a nurse. They were all around the same age as his parents and neither were on the breadline. Lived in the SE of England. Sister was a divorced single parent. Anyone who could afford a home telephone in the 50s or 60s was not hard up. They were considered a luxury. Even I didn't have one until the middle 70s.

We didn't have a telephone or a car either.

In fact, I don't remember any of my friends' parents having a telephone except for the posh ones and those whose fathers were commercial travellers.

We got a telephone put in for my parents in about 1970 after we'd all left home.

Whatever Starmer's minor faults he's a whole lot better than Call me Dave, the Buffoon and Truss and a number of other Tories.

Casdon

By 1960 only one in five households didn’t have access to a telephone Plunger, it certainly wasn’t a luxury. That comes from the Census.

These attempts to discredit Starmer are now entering into the world of fiction, Gransnet could launch its own conspiracy theory company at this rate. At the end of it, it boils down to the fact, unpalatable though it is for some, that he was a very gifted boy from an ordinary family, who made good.

Are you sure about those figures? I only knew three families that had private telephones in 1960, two were friends the other was a relative and it was really a business line that they could make private paid for calls from. Mostly we used public phone boxes and were fortunate to have one a two minute walk away. By the end of the 60s I knew a lot more people with a private telephone. Was my childhood in 1960 really so deprived that we were wildly out of step with the norm?

By 1960 only one in five households didn’t have access to a telephone Plunger, it certainly wasn’t a luxury. That comes from the Census.

These attempts to discredit Starmer are now entering into the world of fiction, Gransnet could launch its own conspiracy theory company at this rate. At the end of it, it boils down to the fact, unpalatable though it is for some, that he was a very gifted boy from an ordinary family, who made good.

Can Starmer cut the sob story about his poor background! My brother was a toolmaker and my sister a nurse. They were all around the same age as his parents and neither were on the breadline. Lived in the SE of England. Sister was a divorced single parent. Anyone who could afford a home telephone in the 50s or 60s was not hard up. They were considered a luxury. Even I didn't have one until the middle 70s.

He is head and shoulders above the self seeking Tories.He is a definite improvement on the present government.He will inherit an unholy mess and will be castigated by the Right wing media whatever he does.He has more integrity in his little finger than the corrupt government have in their whole body.I wish his government well.

What puts me off Starmer to some extent, is that he looks permanently worried. As well he might be, though, to be fair, given the daunting task that’s evidently ahead of him.

I dare say it’s preferable to the air of cheerful confidence that Boris was so good at, though - at least before he was landed with COVID.

I campaigned for all Labour leaders since 1963, except for Corbyn.

Urmstongran

I voted for Blair first time round GG13 and when he visited the hospital where I worked (first NHS one in the country which is why he called in during those early heady days) I was in the queue to shake his hand. He was charming and charismatic! 😱

Charming & charismatic is how I would describe Nigel Farage when he used to visit our local pub.

Listening to him being interviewed this morning, he has morphed into another person.

I voted for Blair first time round GG13 and when he visited the hospital where I worked (first NHS one in the country which is why he called in during those early heady days) I was in the queue to shake his hand. He was charming and charismatic! 😱

I got very close to voting Labour when Tony Blair was elected first time.
Thank goodness I came to my senses in the polling booth.

Sir Starmer might be a decent bloke but is he and Labour fit to run the Country, I am not sure?

MrsSquirrel

I never understood this idea "the establishment" sabotaged Jeremy Corbyn. As if Parliament itself is not one part of "the establishment". He has been an MP for over 40 years. He was Her Majesty's Leader of the Opposition for 4 years. You can't get more "establishment" than that.

And he was a dreadful party leader. He got grumpy and irritable with journalists he was out of his depth.

The idea that some kind of establishment plot to get rid of him is ridiculous.

Canvassing at the last election in this red wall seat, the constant comments on the phones and door steps were anti Corbyn. ‘I’ll never vote Labour with yon man in charge. He wasn’t trusted on finance, defence and the way new untested policies appeared daily drove activists as well as the public up the pole.

His name is still being mentioned in the current campaign as a reason to mistrust Labour and left activists.

I never understood this idea "the establishment" sabotaged Jeremy Corbyn. As if Parliament itself is not one part of "the establishment". He has been an MP for over 40 years. He was Her Majesty's Leader of the Opposition for 4 years. You can't get more "establishment" than that.

So not him.

I would have thought the term "Most popular Laboud leader" would indicate someone who had won an election or whose name lives on as someone impressive.

eg
Keir Hardie
Ramsay MacDonald
Harold Wilson
Hugh Gaitskill
Tony Blair

2019 general election with Corbyn was worse defeat since 1935