Keir Starmer's time is up

[two sheds]

yeh would probably have taken me as much time to get out the Semaphore Encyclopedia but I been filling cracks in the house and weeding and planting on and taking dog for walk and err other things so I'll transliterate later on

 

[two sheds]

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took me longer than it should have done

 

[two sheds]

I think this is something we can all get behind

 

[steveseagull]

has the twat seen the state of the country?

 

[steveseagull]

i have seen this meme on social media more than the actual article today which is what happens when you hide behind a Tory paywall

 

[killer b]

I read the article, and he doesn't say its your patriotic duty to celebrate the platinum jubilee fwiw.

 

[killer b]

It is terrible crawly filth though

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Always amuses me to see photos of politicians gurning, grimacing, inadvertently pulling silly faces in news articles.

A production journalist who uploads articles to a website (not necessarily the author of the article), will generally have access to an in-house library of photos and also external stock photo libraries, like Getty and Alamy.

The production journalist will likely have any number of photos they could use where the subject doesn't look weird, so it's usually a conscious choice to use one like that. Of course, sometimes a photo of someone at a particular event, press conference, or whatever, is required, and then your choices are more limited.

But when I see a photo like that illustrating a news article I think 'Ooh, that production journalist doesn't like [whoever it is].

 

[two sheds]

I did read (Skwawkbox ) that Starmer is quite safe saying he'll resign if fined because he knows Durham plods don't fine people retrospectively who've broken lockdown rules.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I did read (Skwawkbox ) that Starmer is quite safe saying he'll resign if fined because he knows Durham plods don't fine people retrospectively who've broken lockdown rules.

Oh yes they do, from The Times -

Durham police carried out a retrospective investigation into a coronavirus breach and issued a fine within weeks of Sir Keir Starmer being filmed drinking a beer, it has emerged.

The force has refused to say whether it will fine the Labour leader even if it finds him guilty of breaking lockdown rules for drinking and eating a takeaway meal in an MP’s office last April. Some of Starmer’s supporters have assumed that detectives would not issue a fixed-penalty notice because they decided not to take retrospective action against Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s former adviser.

However, the force’s approach appeared to harden later in the pandemic and it issued a £10,000 fine to a woman who organised a balloon release in memory of her father-in-law, who died of Covid.

A court report by The Northern Echo revealed that Hutchinson, in her mid-thirties, had urged friends and family to wear masks and stay socially distanced at the balloon release. It said that police did not attend the gathering of about 30 people and there was no disorder.

However, it appears that there was a retrospective investigation after a complaint. Durham police analysed a livestream video of the event before issuing the fine, the report said.

The approach to Hutchinson’s case raises fresh questions about how the Durham force might handle the case of Starmer, who has denied wrongdoing.

archive.ph

 

[two sheds]

We can always hope then

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

I know quite a lot of lefties who joined the party in the Corbyn era, who became active in their local CLPs, who did a lot of canvassing and campaigning. And since Corbyn was ousted, most of them have not only disengaged from being actively involved in their CLP, but have left the party. Some relatively recently.

Some of those 'Corbynistas' still clung on, hoping to help maintain a foothold for the left in a party increasingly veering rightwards, towards and even beyond the centre. I think for them, their political engagement wasn't about personality politics, they didn't so much get on board with the cult of Corbyn as it's (mis)represented, although arguably many younger folk did.

Most of the ones I knew who hopped on the Corbyn bandwagon were in their thirties and above, already politically engaged, albeit through campaigning over any number of single issue campaigns: housing, anti-arms trade/militarism, environment and climate change, workers rights and trade unionism, etc.

It wasn't so much that they believed in Corbyn like the cultish figure he's made out to be, like some political Piper of Hamlyn, leading the party and everyone in it to a far-left political wilderness. He wasn't leading them left, they were already in and of the left. It was more that he mirrored and capitalised on their existing beliefs and activities. He represented lefties like them. And it had been a long time since they'd felt they had that kind of representation in parliament and the constituency Labour Parties, and in terms of the public and wider society.

Corbyn was both popular and populist (the latter in the original/broader sense, rather than the right-wing rabble-rouser sense).

But now many of those Corbynistas, who didn't so much believe in Corbyn like the quasi-religious figurehead of a movement, but more saw him as representative of their existing beliefs and political identity and principles, have drifted away.

It seems the party thought expelling - or the political equivalent of constructive dismissal, forcing out - lots of Corbynistas meant they would regain control of their party and lots of centrists who'd been turned off by Corbyn and the left would come flocking back to the party. But that hasn't happened.

In any event, Labour has always taken working class people and people on the left for granted. And that didn't matter so much. But the working class and those on the broader left still mostly saw the Labour Party as their party when it came to voting in elections. It was a bit like football colours, they were red, just because they were red.

But now many of those from the Corbyn era are now declaring themselves politically homeless, and saying they can't vote for Labour because it doesn't represent them, and because the way Corbyn was treated was shameful - but that's tokenism, in the sense that being critical of how the parliamentary party and the executive treated Corbyn is, by extension, a criticism of how they, the people who joined and got actively involved and expended so much time and energy in attending meetings and canvassing and campaigning etc were also treated so shamefully.

It's hard to come back from that. It's one thing for Labour to take for granted the votes of the working class and those more vaguely on the left without party political affiliations, and it's another for Labour to take for granted the votes of those who in recent memory were stabbed in the back by the very same party that now wants to rely on/take for granted its votes. Many are declaring themselves politically homeless and while some might hold their nose and vote for Labour, there will be many who abstain or protest vote for smaller leftist parties or Green or whatever.

And I think Labour haven't woken up to that, I think they still think those people who they've been so vindictive towards and ousted or driven out of the party somehow still owe Labour their vote, because who else are they going to vote for, right? Erm, no one.

And as well as the lefties who were part of the Corbyn surge in party membership and political engagement and activity whose votes can no longer be taken for granted...


...there are also the gender critical feminists. I know a fair few. Again, talking about being politically homeless. And these are women who haven't been and aren't bigots. Some have been involved in radical feminist politics for years. They're raging lefties to their core. Yet they now feel that Labour doesn't necessarily represent or safeguard the interests of women, ie women who were born women/assigned female at birth.

Again, there are many people whose votes Labour could previously have taken for granted, who are now saying that they don't feel any mainstream political party represents them or their concerns, and there's lots of talk of abstentions.

I suspect that Labour is underestimating and not properly taking account of how significant and issue this is to many women. I have friends around the country, who don't know each other but either speak out publicly or privately about the erosion of protections for women. It's not just the odd one or two people, there's a fair few, from different job sectors, different parts of the country, but all lefty types, more or less politically engaged, some having been activists and campaigners relating to different humanitarian issues, and some who are more vaguely lefty but not previously politically active but who are speaking out.

I think Labour might be in for a shock as to how so many of the voters whose votes they'd previously taken for granted will now be abstaining or spoiling their vote or voting for other candidates.

I think these two reasons are partly why Labour has been doing so badly in the polls, plus Starmer has all the charisma of a damp squib.

 

[ska invita]

I think Labour might be in for a shock as to how so many of the voters whose votes they'd previously taken for granted will now be abstaining or spoiling their vote or voting for other candidates.

didnt really happen in the May local elections though - there was some movement but it wasnt seismic

 

[two sheds]

I liked Corbyn as a person but his policies were why I supported him.

 

[steveseagull]

If he panders to the 'gender criticals', especially those who (not all) spend all their lives loudly questioning on Twitter whether Trans people should be allowed to exist, he will piss off the majority of women who have no issues with trans people, plus he will be taking the party into Britain First territory.

 

[PR1Berske]

didnt really happen in the May local elections though - there was some movement but it wasnt seismic

It seemed to be a North/South split which is the last thing Starmer would want to tackle.

 

[gosub]

i have seen this meme on social media more than the actual article today which is what happens when you hide behind a Tory paywall

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Thank fuck for Keith. Telling Telegraph readers how it is. Shameless hotbed of communist Republicans that they are

 

[Puddy_Tat]

hmm

the 'marginally less shit than the tories' strategy seems to be working...

 

[two sheds]

Keir Starmer says today’s result shows the country faces a choice between “divided Tories” and a “united Labour party”.

 

[8ball]

Keith laying down the law there…

 

[magneze]

Isnt he resigning soon?

 

[Ax^]

will someone iron his bloody shirt properly before letting him on telly

 

[gosub]

Got til Wednesday to up his game

 

[8ball]

Got til Wednesday to up his game

Soz, what happens Wednesday?

 

[killer b]

nothing

 

[gosub]

PMqs

If he's playing the room Wedmesday

If he's playing the gallery, he's a carismaless fuck

 

[gosub]

Oops wet phone

 

[Calamity1971]

Got til Wednesday to up his game

He'll never up his game, the wet wipe.

 

[elbows]

Oh they have noticed that he is shit an they havent got any policies that might motivate people to give a shit about the prospect of their party coming to power.

Conversations with shadow cabinet members, party aides and other senior Labour figures this week revealed deep disquiet about whether Starmer and his team are ready to capitalise on the Tories’ weakness.

Some also raised concerns about the televised statement Starmer made on Monday evening in response to the Tory confidence vote, in which he repeatedly said the public were “fed up”. “He looked like he’d come in from the pub,” complained one usually loyal supporter.

Colleagues say Claire Ainsley, Labour’s head of policy, who is in charge of manifesto development, is detached from the political side of the operation. One senior aide said: “There’s no sense of where we can make political hay against our opponents, areas we can be exploiting to draw a clear dividing line between ourselves and the Tories.”

“Fundamentally, I don’t think Keir thinks it’s his job to come up with ideas,” one MP said. Another shadow minister said: “The way he works is, he likes to commission a paper from his staff who come to him and say ‘here are some options on policy x, what do you think?’”

That means that while Starmer may be writing a book on his political philosophy, some of his closest colleagues still struggle to understand what their leader stands for. “What is his project?” asked one shadow minister.

Eughhh...

Starmer’s allies say people should not underestimate the challenges he has faced since become leader: mending shattered party morale, fixing the antisemitism problem, and struggling to get Labour’s message across during the pandemic.

“I think he doesn’t get enough credit for segueing out of Corbynism without being pulled into a betrayal narrative,” said one senior party figure. “The membership know what he’s trying to do. He’s taken them on a journey and they’re now his members and they’re his people.”

Starmers People sounds like the sort of tv series that gets cancelled after the first episode, after ending up with more production staff than viewers.

Not full of confidence: Labour frets over Starmer’s response to Tory chaos

Many in the opposition fear their leader is not sufficiently punishing the government’s weakness

www.theguardian.com

 

[two sheds]

I think he doesn’t get enough credit for segueing out of Corbynism without being pulled into a betrayal narrative,” said one senior party figure.