Keir Starmer Six Milestones speech and paper

FriedGreenTomatoes2

They are, indeed much needed. I think all of us can agree on that.

Maybe Starmer should have stuck to just three - Make people poorer, make them colder, boss them around more. That would have been honest and crisp, totally in synch with what he’s done so far, and he’d have been able to achieve them all.

Love it 🤣🤣🤣

Oreo

I must say I’m getting worried about this government that I voted for, since they came into power they’ve done some strange and un Labour like things. Now it seems they have instigated a tax payer funded review into something every two and a half days, over 60 in fact! They keep saying every day just about, all the aspirational things they’re going to do almost as if saying them is actually doing them.
I shall be surprised if they manage any of these grand plans.

Apparently they keep holding reviews😱

Has he lied to the monarch or illegally prorogued parliament yet? I

OldFrill

Has he lied to the monarch or illegally prorogued parliament yet? I

No. Which is why the news media keep trying to find petty things to throw at him. They were desperate to dig up something before the election but the nearest they could get to that was his mum’s donkey field. It’s ok for a PM to wax lyrical about Peppa Pig and have numerous wives, mistresses and children but Starmer seems to have got under their skin.

Starmer is so bland when he speaks.

Also, when you have businesses writing, including the Bank of England, saying that the budget is bad news for growth and business in general then he's obviously doing something wrong.

Too many civil servant heads and not enough business brains.

As for whataboutery, I thought that was frowned upon on this forum

That's quite a mixed bag.
I'd rather he went all out in one area, like Tony Blair's "Education, Education, Education", so we could at least see he clearly means business.
(Not to say other issues wouldn't be dealt with.)

But Boris had personality and did things that really got people het up. How we all enjoyed really hating him.

But Starmer? spends all his time waffling and promising us milestones and all he does is dicontinue the winter fuel payment, produce a budget that impoverishes everyone, while is government decide that crumpets and porridge are junk food.

Next thing Christmas will be proscribed and all Christmas trees will have labels warning us of the dangers of eatng too much and drinking too much over the Christmas festivities.

MayBee70

OldFrill

Has he lied to the monarch or illegally prorogued parliament yet? I

No. Which is why the news media keep trying to find petty things to throw at him. They were desperate to dig up something before the election but the nearest they could get to that was his mum’s donkey field. It’s ok for a PM to wax lyrical about Peppa Pig and have numerous wives, mistresses and children but Starmer seems to have got under their skin.

Because he's leading this country into disaster. We'll all get poorer, job losses, no growth predicted, inflation guaranteed, CBE.money splashed on net zero, for a target he'll never reach.
An utter calamity for our country.
Oh and he's a robot.
That is why the Media and business are against him, these things are definitely not petty.

I was willing to give him a chance.

So far he has done zero, zilch, nada for SME’s , in fact he is killing growth which is the opposite of all of his pledges, milestones, pillars etc.

TakeThat7

He just talked about change and reform coming as far as I understood without examples of how Maybe I missed that Why did he mention his family were working class he's as far from working class as he could be What working class Dad pays out for a luxury place for his son to study After his speech I just thought he didn't say anything really just words

Starmer’s school only became fee paying AFTER he joined, around A levels I believe.

Also his Mum was a nurse, his Dad a toolmaker, later becoming self employed and running a small business.

Pretty much average I’d say?

The only thing that has disappointed me is that this government hasn't brought in NI for those over pension age so this government can drive through a modern locally based care system.

What insurance company would say "yes we know the data shows that an 85-year-old man costs the NHS about seven times more on average than a man in his late 30s. That health spending per person steeply increases after the age of 50, with people aged 85 and over cost the NHS an average of £7,000 a year" and then say that they were going to stop charging people over state pension age at all, letting the younger, often less wealthy, working population bear the weight of this?

I agree that age shouldn’t be the driver for stopping payments (or starting benefits for that matter), PoliticsNerd. But why is it those who work who have to pay for everyone else? NI is only paid by workers, and most of it comes from those on PAYE. I’d like to see a fairer system of funding for all the things we take for granted.

Some comedian thought Pinewood Studios was the best venue for Starmer's speech yesterday. Given the surroundings, he couldn't resist a 'joke' about him becoming the next James Bond. However, Pinewood Studios can also lay claim to a whole host of productions, particularly the Carry On films. Starmer would make a better Kenneth Williams than a James Bond.

I can only manage one thing at a time Doodledog, otherwise research takes over

I do basically agree with you though - what would be your first suggestions? I'd just have to see what a "a fairer system" means. For an ultra capitalist would mean something different to what it means an ultra progressive and an authoritarian would see "fairness" differently to a libertarian but we should be able to take the best ideas from each.

Oh dear.

M0nica

There is nothing in this list of milestones that has not been said and promised time and time again.

What I wantto know is how they are going to achieve them.

New start housing in 2024 is going to be the lowest number for 8 years. Why? because this year the housing market has been flat, with sellers far outnumbering buyes and house builders with completed unsold houses on their developments, which are not selling despite price cuts have justed stopped building. What else can they do?

How will this government stimulate the housing market?

These kinds of questions can e asked of every 'milestone'. But unfortunately, to use an old phrase 'fine words butter no parsnips'

Well Starmer has spent months running down Britain, telling us it is broken, and the rest of the world took this on board.

Reeves spent the leadup to the Budget telling us it was going to be painful.

We have had it drummed into us that our situation is bad! I posted on GN that I was fed up with being made to feel anxious and intimidated by the Labour Party's prognosis. There was no optimism .... and there still isn't

Consequently, ordinary people have not felt confident - who wants to buy a house when they have no idea what's ahead?

Like M0nica I want to know how any one of these "milestones" is going to be achieved.

M0nica
How will this government stimulate the housing market?
Well his idea of helping with stamp duty won’t help my DGD to buy a house down south where she lives.

This from a newspaper intended to appeal to Conservatives but now in debt (we are told) and about to be sold FriedGreenTomatoes2. The obviously really gave their finger on the pulse of the nation.

Reading the list carefully again, these are very ambitious milestones to commit to in the current situation and we really need to try and achieve them. Yes there are other issues needing addressing, it makes that clear in the long document.

As for the press, my memory of the summer (reflected in GN) as a whole series of speculation about what Starmer would do (cut single person relief on council tax, stop bus passes, change free prescriptions) that people worried fretting and criticised that never came to be. The right wing media has been against him from day 1 whatever the realities were, whatever he achieved (prompt action in the riots, workers bill, more money for care and so one).

So I'm waiting to see what actually happens as opposed to more similar speculation of the same sort. After the budget, it did seem a good idea to state commitments.
And yes, the budget has hit some pockets, some better off might be "poorer" how else to pay for the commitments above.

Wyllow3 many 1,000’s of small businesses have been hit hard by the NI rise, they won’t be expanding or taking on any extra employees any time soon.

I am looking for positives but so far haven’t seen any.

The PM since his election has only sent out negatives, about time he started talking up the U.K., no outside investor is going to be wooed by negativity (unless it’s Bill Gates hoovering up farmland in order for his plan of world domination of food supply to continue 🤣)

The PM said in his interview yesterday that 1,000’s of pensioners will suffer this winter…

Sparklefizz I think Starmer did the right thing telling people it would be tough, but as far as I'm concerned, the doom and gloom brigade come from the barrage of attacks by the press all summer telling us all manner of speculative scenarios and constant direct attacks backed up by interventions from the likes of Musk and other SMedia actors.

Can't count the number of times we've had an O/P on gransnet based on social media speculation (source not given) that has turned out to be entirely fabricated, or an O/P started by a half quote that when checked shows a twisted narrative.

BTW on one point GG13 yes Starmer needs to address the concerns of SME's moving forward.

It was so boring. He is an appalling speaker and an even worse PM.

It makes absolutely no difference how boring people think he is, or what people think of him as PM though, at this stage in a five year term. What matters is whether the milestones are delivered or not, because that’s the manifesto Labour were elected on. It would be far more relevant if we debated the plans rather than moaning about how disliked he is.

Nonnato2

It was so boring. He is an appalling speaker and an even worse PM.

That’s a bit unkind.
He does try, and he took advice (and financial help) about his glasses, which he never, according to pre-pm photos, used to wear in public meetings, to try to make him look, wiser, more prime ministerial.

“From whom am I to take my marching orders? From men who fancy they are 'Admirable Crichtons', but have not got sufficient brains and ability to run a whelk stall.”
John Burns, Labour MP 1894