I don’t necessarily mean the free buses thing. But things that make a material impact are infinitely preferable to milquetoast speeches about growth, and vapid answers about flags.
I don’t necessarily mean the free buses thing. But things that make a material impact are infinitely preferable to milquetoast speeches about growth, and vapid answers about flags.
One million times this. People are desperate for some hope. The language of ‘delivery and growth’ needs to be replaced with a more active one, and with Day 1 impact on people’s lives. If that’s making buses free, so be it.
Jesus wept.
A prospectus?
Agree. The polling on Brexit/EU tells you all you need to know; the public are well ahead of the politics and understand the trade offs. There is a big prize for the person/party that can break the omertà.
And a phrase like “driving forward change across government” is, in fact, a wail of political despair.
The absence of a response is the problem. The silence is f-ing deafening.
This is really good.
This has happened to me recently too.
To put it simply, if he has no friends over there, and no friends here, where are his friends?
I’m too many Mythos in…
A Tory leader who could legitimately explain the immigration issue (by way of Dublin) and have a genuine plan of fast growth (by way of the Single Market). Last throw of the dice stuff, but that gets you 30%?
And, maybe, the best thing those on here who seek that outcome is to become card carrying Tories. (I’ve spent the day in the sun and maybe not thinking entirely clearly, but my sunbed thought is that this is the best approach).
The real centre-right project would be joining the Single Market.
He has to go.
Sunset in Mykonos
Paucity of ideas, framework, ideology, conviction, or semblance of a personality.
So tired of pretending that this is a viable alternative.
He’ll rue the day, specifically the one when Corbyn is polling in the mid teens and Starmer is <20.
They deserve everything heading their way.
Honest truth, your analysis is bang on and is very helpful making me realise I am not going crazy.
Give this man a job at HQ
This was 100% predictable. Give in to extortion once, and you will be trapped forever.
Is Norse any good? There were a lot of very upset Americans at Athens who had arrived on Norse, and their bags were nowhere to be seen after 90 minutes.
🇷🇺
He’d surely have a credible asylum (from US) case with another country?
I’ll just leave this here (her Reddit)
Max Dowman is 15. Do not do the math to see what year he was born, it made me sad. You've been warned.
National Socialism you say? Never would have thought it.
Then it gives a valid opening for someone to challenge him. That’s coming sooner rather than later IMO.
Made me think of this
Not even 9 months in.
I think it’ll happen regardless. Starmer/Reeves are in a hole that is impossible to get out of.
In this 145th long-read on my blog, I offer a harsh assessment of DC meetings, and question the misleading rhetoric surrounding a sham peace deal, territorial issues, and security guarantees that are nothing of the sort, as war looms on the horizon. 1/2 tenzerstrategics.substack.com/p/washington...
It’ll be Corbyn
Every time I have an exec ask why we aren’t using AI chatbots for X function, I spend five minutes showing them what it produces, and then watch as it slowly dawns on them that there is no there there.
Perfectly said.
Finally, I am recognised!
My Instagram algorithm freaks me out a little sometimes. Not sure if it’s Baader Meinhof, but definitely unnerving.
Because they are utterly bereft of ideas.
“We essentially forced data to become the central character in a story we needed to tell ourselves about the world – and before long there was too much investment, too many jobs, and far too many reputations staked on continuing that narrative.” Nailed it.
It’s like 2014-15 all over again.
What I find completely inexplicable is every post is followed by almost entirely negative responses. Who do they think they are speaking to or convincing?
So we’re talking about Andy Burnham here, right?
This is fair.
I am not saying that I feel this 100% about Starmer. He’s in an invidious position. But as I see it, there’s a big chunk of middle England that won’t vote for him, and I think their issues with him aren’t fixable.
I’d argue they are fundamental flaws that the public has with him, probably can’t be fixed, and mean he’ll struggle at the next election. So is it not better to change early?
Agree, that’s politics. But it explains, in part, his 13% approval rating and why only 1 in 5 voters plan to vote Labour.
The problem Starmer has is that it is just one example of him espousing views that most people don’t believe he actually has (see also Brexit, immigration, trans rights). And that feeds into a sense that he is weak/inauthentic/driving a DLR train.
Something like Teach First for MP’s would be no bad thing
I think it’s so serious that many don’t want to say it out aloud, as doing so would probably scare the daylights out of everyone. But what you are alluding to is exactly why everything seems so listless (also a little vacant?)
Indistinguishable
European leaders have 3 main goals in DC today 1/ to pin down more details on poss US security guarantees; 2/ work on preparations for the poss trilateral Putin, Zelensky & Trump meeting, and 3/ push back forcefully on the idea of “land swaps” 1/4
The answer is surely proportional representation?
Open Left?
This has already been done in the US, and it’s absolutely awful.
If they are being told this by three of the four main parties, it’s not really surprising that so many people think this.
SFO is a gem though. Genuinely good food, well organised, and lots of space to work/fast WiFi.
It’s an older series, but I listened on a long drive last year.
Throw the new party in there and Starmer has a real problem.
In other news, a new study shows selling red meat to vegetarians is usually unsuccessful.
The second PM this decade to win a landslide, only to not face the electorate again.
I just had a weird brain moment and I genuinely read that as ‘voices of potatoes’.
I think it hasn’t ended because they have nothing else. Can’t talk about growth (there is none) or reform (they can’t be felt yet/legislation hasn’t passed).
If he is gone within 12 months (which I agree, he is), who else is there that could conceivably run and win?
If you want to understand what sort of regime consolidation Trump is attempting you can look at Bukele’s El Salvador. Where the brutal and rapid and repeated smashing of norms, corruption, disappearing people, deals with cartels, and endless propaganda made him ever more popular.
Every time I have the opportunity to take it, I’m blown away by how great it is.
With polls/approval numbers where they are, I wonder if the leadership election comes sooner rather than later.
My sneaking suspicion is the next Labour leader will run on something like this. I don’t think Starmer has the political depth to pull it off.
MP claims Surrey Care home is a “hot bed of terrorist activity” filled with Palestine Action supporters.
Why are you ashamed?! It’s the music that reminds me of my 20’s the most.
I think it’s because in order to do that you’d have to address the Brexit question, and nobody is quite ready (although I think they are getting much closer).
I had never thought this, and now realise this explains most of his personality.
Especially given, if memory serves, that university funding was on Sue Gray’s shit list of things about to blow up.
It’s barely 6 months out of 48
You can also just add the Ile de France pass to your phone wallet (free) and add passes to that
Which councillor is this?
‼️NEW: Wandsworth Tory councillor defects to Nigel Farage’s Reform. Wandsworth Tories and Reform are the same thing: right wing, angry and extreme. They are out of touch with modern London and want to divide us. It’s now clear: a vote for the Wandsworth Tories is a vote for Reform.
Two things can be true at the same time; Whitehall is systemically not doing what it should/needs to be doing, whilst the absence of political leadership probably created and certainly exacerbates this.
My 70yo dad couldn’t figure out the microwave the other day. He used ChatGPT and it gave him step by step instructions to fix/reset. He’s obsessed.
I grew up with fewer than 100 photos of me before 21; today’s kids take that many weekly. Constant photos, sharing, and likes will profoundly shape their minds.
Of course this could be a subversive way of proving that ‘mainlining AI into government’ is going to be incredibly counterproductive.
This has to happen
This is all fair. I still don’t see who in the Labour party is prepared to have this conversation (i.e we have a serious problem with the principal).
The problem nobody wants to engage with is that Starmer is a leader who appears to be disliked in a pretty visceral and irrational way. I’m not sure there is anything he can do, save writing households a cheque or mandating a three day weekend.
It’s final days of Truss or May type of numbers.
Or throw someone overboard..
This ain’t sustainable for 3 months, much less 3 years.
The best shade I’ve seen in months.
Constitutional reform is coming whether anyone likes it or not. These kind of results are unsustainable, as you say. So is there not an argument that Starmer should get ahead of it now, with the benefit being he can set the terms?
A very good point
The knot is perhaps the most offensive.
Politics abhors a vacuum, which we have right now on the left, and that’s why I wonder if this might have legs. Equally, it may implode in a fission of egos. But my gut tells me there is something to it.
You want to license ME!?
Paging @columnist.bsky.social
Temperance!
The gap in the market is being a voice for rejoining the EU. It provides a vehicle for solving some, although admittedly not all, of the problems we’re facing.
I know trade, diplomacy etc. But man, this is a bad look.
That’s where SWR got the idea from!
