Starmer’s Speech today.

Of course we could all wait to hear what in the King's Speech on Wednesday.

researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-10585/CBP-10585.pdf

Smoking was indeed a deathknell.

The biggest thing was smoking! Why go & sit in a pub that you can’t smoke in; when you could get cheap drink at the super market & smoke in the comfort off your own living room.
That was the biggest deathknell!
Plus now people prefer to watch Netflix, YouTube & catch up tv with a bottle of plonk & takeaway.

I think the Labour Party would be bonkers to announce now that they are going to change leaders in September. It would dominate the whole summer and generate in-fighting just when it should be rallying itself. That is exactly what its opponents hope it will do.

I don’t vote Labour and don’t much admire Keir Starmer but I do think that his MPs still owe him their support.

It’s Rachel from Accounts who has been responsible for so much of the unemployment we are experiencing now which then increases welfare payments. She has made it difficult or near impossible for employers to afford the employment of staff. Have not been able to understand why Starmer still supports her.

Another deathknell was banning smoking. I saw a change from 2008, onwards.
I personally was glad, but most of my friends smoked so it was boring for me stood on my own whilst they kept going out for a cigarette.

MT62

Casdon

It’s also that pubs are closing because people go to the pub less often. If your argument was correct Cardamon they would transfer their custom to another pub that was still open, and increase its profits.

People don’t go to the pub often as a price of a pint/short is astronomical.
The young ones get sloshed, or take a few drugs before they go out do they don’t have buy so much booze once out.
Worse thing the government did was to allow 24 hr drinking. That’s another factor why the pubs are dead.

I think the nation’s habits have changed. Pubs got a lot of their money from men who stopped off for a drink on their way home from work. Factories have closed, childcare is shared, and women work now, so that is just not what most men do these days. It is partially down to people having less money than they did currently, but it’s a long term decline, because the way we live has changed so much. That’s why pubs which only offered drinks, but not food, closed first, too.

LemonJam

Catherine West, the stalking horse, stepping down after Starmer's speech because:
1) she was persuaded by Starmer's speech that he was the right person to remain as leader temporarily, until a timely step down later in the year?
2) and/or was persuaded by Andy Burnham's allies to hold off for a leadership bid at a later stage giving him time to secure a hoped for MP role?
3) or was not close enough to securing her 80 letters of support?

She hasn’t backed off though.

She is continuing to gather names/signatures to nudge the PM to stand down no later than September 2026.

This gives Andy Burnham time to be elected as an MP when a safe seat holder volunteers to resign…

The plan by some seems to be to get Burnham back as an MP and turn him into a PM. They want Starmer there till September.
I'm disappointed about all of it because we have had the Tories playing musical chairs with prime ministers I don't want to see this again.

Casdon

It’s also that pubs are closing because people go to the pub less often. If your argument was correct Cardamon they would transfer their custom to another pub that was still open, and increase its profits.

People don’t go to the pub often as a price of a pint/short is astronomical.
The young ones get sloshed, or take a few drugs before they go out do they don’t have buy so much booze once out.
Worse thing the government did was to allow 24 hr drinking. That’s another factor why the pubs are dead.

LemonJam

Catherine West, the stalking horse, stepping down after Starmer's speech because:
1) she was persuaded by Starmer's speech that he was the right person to remain as leader temporarily, until a timely step down later in the year?
2) and/or was persuaded by Andy Burnham's allies to hold off for a leadership bid at a later stage giving him time to secure a hoped for MP role?
3) or was not close enough to securing her 80 letters of support?

I think it must be c), Sky News are reporting now that 40 MPs are calling for Starmer to go. It must have been a maverick action on her part before she sounded out her colleagues.

I was answering your specific point about pubs Cardamon. I don’t doubt that other small businesses are struggling, as are many people who don’t own small businesses. However, easing the financial burden on pubs will still not stop them closing if people don’t use them.

Catherine West, the stalking horse, stepping down after Starmer's speech because:
1) she was persuaded by Starmer's speech that he was the right person to remain as leader temporarily, until a timely step down later in the year?
2) and/or was persuaded by Andy Burnham's allies to hold off for a leadership bid at a later stage giving him time to secure a hoped for MP role?
3) or was not close enough to securing her 80 letters of support?

It's not just pubs Casdon; it's all small businesses who are struggling to survive. We all know that the drinking culture in Britain has changed but, and this may be a surprise to you, they aren't the only small businesses in our towns and cities! Interestingly though, Rachel in Accounts is on your wavelength and has offered eligible pubs in England a 15% business rates relief (up to £110,000 cap) and a freeze on bills through 2029. Pity she's forgotten about the small independent shops, cleaning companies, cafes and coffee shops that aren't multi national tax evaders; they'll just have to sack off their staff and add to the benefits pile.

I'm disappointed with KS. I'm disappointed with Labour. I'm disappointed with people I suppose.

The country is not doing well, many people are in a bad way.
Why do some on here almost appear to relish this? Do they genuinely believe anybody else is any better?

It’s also that pubs are closing because people go to the pub less often. If your argument was correct Cardamon they would transfer their custom to another pub that was still open, and increase its profits.

I'd also propose that it's the UK population itself that has accelerated the decline of High Streets even if it's politicians who have no vision of how they could be transformed.

Only partially correct. UK pubs are closing at a rate of nearly one to two per day, driven by a combination of rising costs and inflation: Pubs face severe financial pressure from rising utility bills, increased business rates, higher VAT, and higher supply chain costs. Added to that, employers face a significant increase in employment taxes, with the main rate of NICs rising from 13.8% to 15%. Additionally, the threshold at which employers start paying NICs on employee earnings is dropping from £9,100 to £5,000 per year, significantly increasing costs for businesses, especially those with part-time staff. Result? More people out of the work place and claiming benefits.

Rachel in Accounts has no clue of the consequences of her lack of knowledge or experience.

Iam not sure that leeches cling to blankets.

When will the message get through that there is not going to be an election. If you were the party in power with a three year term still to go, and were unpopular, knowing you wouldn’t be elected again what would you do? Would you take a kamikaze action, or would you try to hang on to power whilst trying to improve your ratings? Come on now, be sensible.

If the labour party cannot another half decent leader, the answer is simple: call an election.

And the alternatives are even worse than what we have now. Try the Tories again after their 14 years of inept corruption and destruction? Or Farage and his utter corruption and dishonesty; he couldn't lead a dog on a piece of string, let alone lead a government. Or Polanski the tit whisperer? We could watch silently as he dismantles national interests and security whilst promoting pro Palestine and open borders. Oh God, I hate to even think it but it looks like Starmer is the best we've got.

Once a communist always a communist, or rather, once almost a communist always almost a communist.

Are you suggesting that Starmer is/was a communist? That is delusional, MOnica

I listened to 2/3 of his speech on Utube but I couldn’t listen to the end because it just made me sick. He is delusional.

Cardamom

I'd have more confidence in Starmer if he ditched Rachel in Accounts; get someone in as Treasurer who knows what they're doing instead of repeatedly hiking taxes on small businesses who are then forced to make redundancies or close down. She's accelerated the high street decline single handedly. Time she was out.

never a truer word spoken, whenever she opens her mouth the first word that comes out is tax...with that ...look at what I can do ...smile on her face..she needs to go..

Once a communist always a communist, or rather, once almost a communist always almost a communist.

You plot and plan to be the leader when the people's vote sweeps you into power. When they want you out, you cling like a leech to a blanket, refusing to go.

As to who succeeds him. That is irrelevant. The facts if the matter was that local elections were hijacked to be a vote on the government. This vote told in no uncertain terms that they were failures, had let the country down and that they should go. Labours leader, true to his nearly communist past refuses to go. Now we are seeing the autocratic real Starmer.

If the labour party cannot another half decent leader, the answer is simple: call an election.

I'd also propose that it's the UK population itself that has accelerated the decline of High Streets even if it's politicians who have no vision of how they could be transformed.