Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Doesn't matter who's in power, they all spend money we haven't got on shite we don't need.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

We won't get a general election, we'll be very lucky if we get a new PM. Remember, it took two years to get rid of Theresa Maybe after her disastrous election campaign.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

It's now understood that Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is set to deliver a press conference at 2.30pm today, in which he will call for Sir Keir to resign as Prime Minister.


https://www.express.co.uk/news/polit...sis-pms-future

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Can't help but get the feeling that this is what Labour MPs have been secretly waiting for. Get somebody elected for a short while, then overthrow the PM.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

No, no more of the same as the conservatives passing the baton around call a general election

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Do you think, possibly, if we continually ignore them, they'll all go away?

Lets face it, politicians have very little power, that's all in the hands of the unions and privately owned utility companies :D

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Parliament act prevents this...

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

SCOTTISH Labour Leader Anas Sarwar has broken ranks and told Sir Keir Starmer to RESIGN in the latest blow for the despairing PM.

Mr Sarwar blasted “chaos” at the heart of Downing Street in an attempt to sure up his future ahead of Holyrood elections in May.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Apparently in some other life I agreed to it.

Who is this Anas Sarwar

.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

He's the man who just stabbed Starmer in the back ;)



meanwhile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0seXyQIV44c

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Everythings happening at the back. One at the back :LOL:

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

The only senior Labour politician facing a general election this year - one in which Labour is in danger of being squeezed out of by Reform, if the polls in Scotland are anywhere near accurate.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Rhetorical question. The guys a nobody. Good luck in your polls & election.

.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Things can only get better.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

I'd like that in writing, in triplicate, signed by 3 completely impartial (human) witnesses, and hand delivered by a funny bloke named Pat that drives a red van :D

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

He needs to fall on his sword. Labour are starting to fall apart and i will be shocked if we make it to the next set time for the next General Election. Once the public see that there goverment is a clownfest that government is finished.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

I think there's a few in the Party regretting that their move to keep Andy Burnham out of Parliament was successful. I think they scuttled Labour's only hope when they did that.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

I suspect a lot more are quite happy with the move - do you really want him as PM ?

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

I don't know his policies but Andy Burnham strikes me as a good communicator, wasn't mates with Mandelson, and his tax affairs are in order to the best of my knowledge.

I would have preferred him over others including Starmer on this basis, but I think we're now left with a bit of a lame duck PM.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Andy Burnham is the man who bothered to listen to real people in Liverpool instead of civil servants and pushed for - and got - a proper inquiry into Hillsborough, which eventually led to the deaths being re-recorded as unlawful killing.

He’s thoughtful, principled and can soak up pressure. He is at least as qualified as anyone else who’s held the job in recent years and I suspect better than most of them. After the stitch-up the other week, however, he might yet turn out to be the best leader Labour never had.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Then again....

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Non-paywall version

https://archive.ph/yOehA

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Labour have a big majority, they'll just get another leader after the local elections.

He is as qualified as the rest of them, but his politics are pretty hard to pin down. He has always tended to position himself in whichever the dominant faction within the Labour Party has been at any given time, with two previous failed bids to become leader. He is more left-wing now than ever before, even railing against the government being subject to the Bond Markets. I think a drift from New Labour to this over 20 years is credible, but I am still unsure about him.

When he left Parliament, he was seen as a generic careerist MP whose parliamentary career had stalled. The perception of his talent in politics has increased the longer he has been out of Westminster, but it might just be wishful thinking. It reminds me how fans' views of a football player's ability tend to improve the longer they're injured, until they've convinced themselves their return will solve everything.

So I think he might be a big disappointment if he becomes PM. I don't think he has said anything that proves he is any different from Starmer in having no clear idea of what they want to do. Saying things should improve, that we shouldn't be held hostage by the markets and that we need to listen isn't a plan.

Although that doesn't really make him any different from anyone else, from any party, that could become PM. Everyone's politics at the moment is that we should make public services better without raising taxes, unless you're the Greens in which case you think we should also bring 'hope' back. Whatever that means.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

The issues with the UK are that:
- Voters want high levels of healthcare, benefits, adult social care but don't want to pay the high taxes that these need. Hence populist politicians who talk of purging excessive spending but can't deliver.
- The UK is a mid-power which punches above its weight diplomatically but can't win trade battles against super powers like China and the USA. The UK's colonial days are well gone and being British counts for less than it did 100 years ago. It's a logical change but one which some have difficulty in understanding.
- The UK suffers from historical poor productivity and Brexit has only made this worse.

It's a tough situation which no politician can easily solve, but will need the British people to reset their expectations first.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

"Voters want high levels of healthcare, benefits, adult social care but don't want to pay the high taxes that these need. Hence populist politicians who talk of purging excessive spending but can't deliver.”

Sometimes referred to as ‘we want Scandinavian levels of service while paying American levels of tax’ - simply won’t; indeed can’t happen.

Purging excessive spending, ie, eliminating waste is a general go-to for populists, and yes, I’m absolutely sure that you could find ‘waste’ in every public body. The question though is how much would you save by eliminating said waste, and how much will it cost?

Which does sound odd, but hypothetically, you identify a group of people that you think could be let go, because they, apparently deal with some ‘woke’ initiative - say ‘black, one legged, lesbians, in theatre’. Fine - you now need to pay them off; but is that only what they did, or did they do other tasks which now aren't being done?

I used to frequent a similar forum where a particular poster was outraged by the cost of Parliament’s subsidised bar - and used to post that if this and ‘MP’s parties’ were stopped, then it would solve the NHS funding issues! It was absolutely impossible to convince him otherwise. Presumably the difference between a thousand and a million and a billion completely eluded him. Shame really.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

I dunno, Ed Davey (of all people) clearly got right under his skin, asking him what it says about his judgment that he hired two paedo-sympathisers :disturbd:

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

The country needs a person that's willing to be unpopular for a while :LOL: Starmer is doing that backwards :rofl:

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Shouldn’t that link read ”one of Monaco’s richest immigrants”, considering he moved there to avoid paying UK tax?

Pity they didn’t ask him about all the immigrants who pull a red shirt on for his football team.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

h/t @ianhepburn

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

He needs to get a PR manager who would tell him to shut up about politics especially with such views. It beggars belief a tax exile club owner whose leadership and players depend on immigration would say such a thing. It's hardly going to encourage the players to go the extra mile!

Will be interesting to see what his stadium adviser Gary Neville has to say about it, as I believe he condemned BoJo for a far weaker statement.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

His main point seemed to be about blaming immigrants for Brits claiming benefits and not working.

His chemicals business empire is struggling, his pet project Ineos Automotive has never turned a profit and Manchester United is struggling albeit with great stadium ambitions. But overall his interview comes across as a cry for help.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

As I see it, the biggest 'growth' is in automation . .

no tax or NI paid by machines, more benefits paid to those now unemployed

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

So the man who fired 450 people from Man U and shed several hundred jobs from Ineos Automotive last year wonders why so many people are on benefits?

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

How many of those 9.2 million are actually in work but getting benefits because they are on low incomes, and how many are economically inactive?

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

So he's apologised now. Why? Strong words deserve a strong backbone.

Rachel from Halifax has weighed into this bs now :LOL:

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

So 64% are claiming 1 or less benefits and I tell you something, if I get made redundant in the next year or two, I'll be one of them for at least a year maybe more, possibly but unlikely for the rest of my life.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

And in that time I'll be an unpaid career for elderly relatives (not my own) not taking a penny but living of my money, it'd be a lot more unsustainable if me and millions like me weren't doing the same but you carry on carping in about how billionaires are right and know the problems of everyday folk

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Anyone could have said that immigrants are a butden on the UK and be similarly factually incorrect. But to do so when:
- You've emigrated yourself
- Own a large stake in an organisation that depends on immigrants to be up there in the Premier League

is plain stupid!

If you want to look at a business person who can comment on under-employment and hit the right note, head to Tesco.

Tesco boss warns Starmer UK is ‘sleepwalking’ into joblessness epidemic and condemns rising cost of employment

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

And....


as regular as clockwork, here comes the "Great Replacement Theory"...

Tell you what we haven't seen reported much in the Press - the fact the Net Migration was 204k in 2025, down from 944k under the Tories...

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

You were and so was he when you lumped 64% of 9.2 million claiming one or fewer benefits in together, just assuming we are all work shy scroungers and how unsustainable it is

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Not helped by those living in Monaco…

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Of course you forget to mention that the reduction was largely down to new Conservative rules on visas. And that the previous figures were inflated by Ukrainians and those from Hong Kong. So nothing to with Labour.
Those that come into this country tend to bring nothing in the way of money or assets. One exception is footballers. The UK citizens that leave tend to take their money with them. They also don't expect the destination country to house them etc.


Look at the change in demographics in various UK towns and cities.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

And in your eagerness to rebut, you missed the point I was making - the fact that Net Migration was down to 200k last year isn’t being reported…

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

BBC, The Guardian, The Times, etc.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

I really don't see the point of saying 'net migration' was down to 200k last year as a positive, when the damage has probably already been done by the couple of million in the previous 5 years.

And before anyone has a pop, I don't care what colour, race, or religion they are, we just don't (and probably never will) have the means to accommodate them all . . and their offspring.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

64% or close to 6 million are claiming one or fewer benefits, possibly some took their pensions at 55, some are full time unpaid carers, some are students, some are ill possibly with long covid, in other words they're not claiming benefits, that's why I'm posting like I do

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

I subscribe to the Times, and read the BBC news site most days, and I can guarantee you that the drop in Net Migration was not reported with the prominence that rises were (front page/website landing page).

Felel free to show otherwise…

Amusingly, one of the major reasons for net migration rising was Brexit…

https://www.thetimes.com/article/501...d5a011efde7b3b

Another interesting point

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

An uncomfortable truth as "We knew what we voted for!" ;)

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Ah, but its politicians fault, never the voters.....

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Lol, you still cling onto the lipstick-on-a-pig belief.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

We're weakened as a country due to all three:
- Politicians because they make promises they know they can't keep and can't do the basics competently
- Brexit because it reduces our productivity and GDP thereby puts more of a squeeze on the public finances v tax dilemma. And reduces our global influence.
- Public in wanting Nordic-level social benefits and Dubai-level taxes and falling for grifters who say this can easily be achieved.

If you can't accept that, then I suspect there's an element of deniability going on. But I certainly wouldn't call it head in the sand.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

No one's going to disagree with that. But at a time of low growth, you can't have Nordic-level benefits and Dubai-level taxes.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

What job opportunities?

Most manufacturing jobs have been off-shored, big businesses are trying to implement AI to reduce headcount/costs, and automation reduces the need for employees.

At the moment, according to the ONS

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentand...highpayuk/2025

These are the jobs that AI are intended to replace - if you read the news, most of the Wealth Management companies share prices have dropped, as a US company has brought out a AI Wealth Management system.

So, I ask, in all seriousness, what job opportunities will U.K. businesses create to enable growth?

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

How would the Government (of whatever ilk) "grow the economy"?

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Maybe by removing friction with its largest market? ;)

---------- Post added at 11:27 ---------- Previous post was at 11:26 ----------

I think your brain knows the answer but your heart prevents your saying it. ;)

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Brexit really hammered your performance bonus didn't it Andrew. :D

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Yes, but we need industries that want to invest in the country and their employees, not just the bottom profit line, and they appear to be rare.

---------- Post added at 11:40 ---------- Previous post was at 11:38 ----------


Well, preferably one that didn't reduce



https://www.nber.org/papers/w34459

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

or....


If you put lipstick on a pig, no government can make it any more attractive than it being a pig with lipstick...

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Fair description of the EU, I like it :D

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

More bad news for the government in general.

The ban on Palestine Action has been ruled as unlawful.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3wleezq73no

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

5%. Everything is a trade-off but the public are told by politicians and populist media that you can have your cake and eat it.

Not sure what other options we have. We can't be a low tax Singapore on Thames as we have a generous health and welfare state and we're not large enough to be as protectionist as China or India.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

a 5% increase you say Andrew :erm:

I wonder which 'exceedingly accurate' economic expert you've been chasing on twitter?

actually no, I don't want to know which of your heroes guessed at 5% :D

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Who wants economic growth, that went out of fashion years ago! ;)

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Reform humiliates Keir Starmer as Labour U-turns on plans to delay 30 local elections
The Government has announced it will abandon efforts to delay local elections for millions of Britons this year.


https://www.express.co.uk/news/polit...starmer-labour



Nigel Farage has secured a stunning legal victory against the Labour government, as he forced Keir Starmer into a humiliating u-turn over plans to delay local elections for millions of Britons. Ministers announced that Local Government Secretary Steve Reed had decided to withdraw his decision to postpone 30 council elections this May, "in the light of recent legal advice".

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

He better start looking at removal companies now then. He's toast.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Burnt toast :rofl:

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Anyone still keeping count of the U turns :D

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

I'm pretty good at maths but not that good:D

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

The U turn list is getting longer Mr Starmer

Here is a list of the 15 U-turns since 4 July 2024:

July 2024 - Change to fiscal rules Labour campaigned on;
September 2024 - Decided not to compensate Waspi women, despite campaigning in opposition;
October 2024 - Raised employers' national insurance despite election pledge;
April 2025 - Change in position on legal definition of a woman after Supreme Court ruling;
June 2025 - U-turn on the cut to the winter fuel allowance;
June 2025 - U-turn on planned cuts to disability benefits after backbench rebellion;
June 2025 - Announced national inquiry into grooming gangs after saying one wasn't needed;
November 2025 - Increased income tax, despite election pledge not to;
November 2025 - Scrapped the two-child benefit cap, having previously said there was not enough money to;
November 2025 - Changed qualifying period for protection from unfair dismissal to six months, despite manifesto pledge of it being from day one;
December 2025 - U-turned on most of the changes to inheritance tax for farmers;
January 2026 - Announced business rates relief for pubs after budget changes led to huge tax increases;
January 2026 - U-turn on plans to make digital ID mandatory;
February 2026 - Labour backbenchers forced the government to hand sensitive Mandelson documents to a parliamentary committee;
February 2026 - U-turn on plans to delay 30 local elections set for May.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

15 in 19 months, thats something like one every 5 weeks. :rofl:

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

At this rate he will be the U turn King of all time :)

He is just like a lighthouse in the desert very bright but completely useless

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

I think Starmer would prefer people to focus on his latest u-turn rather than on this.
https://www.itv.com/news/2026-02-16/...on-journalists

---------- Post added at 20:32 ---------- Previous post was at 20:31 ----------

I've run out of fingers and toes! :D

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Yet more bad news for our glorious leader this morning. :LOL:

https://news.sky.com/story/unemploym...years-13508415

It's down to his policy's so it's his problem.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

The country needs to raise more taxes due to increasing MoD, NHS spend, etc. But instead of putting an honest penny on income tax, the government has raised the costs of employing people by increasing NI. This makes the country less competitive and dampens growth.

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Someone (a reporter for the Times) once explained to me and a group of colleagues that the way to make a graph look more dramatic in a story was to only show a small section of of the overall chart (the bit that backs up your story), and don’t start the y axis at 0 (as a change from 4% to 5% looks starker/more negative that way…

For instance, in the Sky story

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...7&d=1771319815

From the ONS website

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...8&d=1771319815

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentand...eries/mgsx/lms

Don’t get me wrong, unemployment increasing by 20% since Labour came to office isn’t good, but this level of unemployment in not unusual for any Government…

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

The Ring of U turns

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1233412921698738

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

Still got a long, long, way to go to catch up with Boris Johnson. He managed over 40 u-turns.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/b...s-b992056.html

Re: Starmer’s chronicles
 

A lot of them seem to be covid related, which was a rapidly changing situation.
Not as if there was years in opposition to plan and actually think about policies.