Can Sir Keir Starmer revive the Labour Party?
Discussion
RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:
It doesn't help Labour's cause that his policies are generally "whatever the Tories are doing but a bit [more or less (delete as appropriate)]"
Indeed that's the result of listening but not that many people are still listening. OK, fewer and dropping sharply (see DeltaPoll).RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:
I believe Starmer has become so anonymous his Crimewatch picture could be a mannequin carefully liberated from the window of a defunct Topshop and nobody would be any the wiser.
Not far off.In the middle of a pandemic I don't really know what the opportunities are to raise his profile?
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hstewie said:
hstewie said: Not far off.
In the middle of a pandemic I don't really know what the opportunities are to raise his profile?
The movement in the polls tells us he must have a profile, and an opportunity to influence it, as he's managed to grow and shrink in satisfaction rating significantly during the pandemic.In the middle of a pandemic I don't really know what the opportunities are to raise his profile?
Over the past 3 or 4 months he's appeared half hearted at best. Not the stuff to inspire.
RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:
I believe Starmer has become so anonymous his Crimewatch manifesto picture could be a mannequin carefully liberated from the window of a defunct Topshop taken from a Sennokot advert and nobody would be any the wiser.
FTFY.He has been looking more bunged up than usual...
jakesmith said:
Tony427 said:
loafer123 said:
Vanden Saab said:
Really? Personally I think the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care would be perfect. Now there is a PM in waiting if ever I saw one.
I love the fact that even a proponent of his skills couldn't recall his name and had to use his title instead.I looked him up...apparently it is Jonathan Ashworth.
Means nothing? Certainly didn't to me, so here's a photo;
Personally, I'm still none the wiser.
High Court Judge has termed it a "fishing expedition" and ruled against her. Permission to appeal denied and costs awarded to Labour!
Oops! You couldn't make it up.
Will be a bit prickly round the Ashworth dinner table tonight methinks!
The natives are becoming restless
Sir Keir Starmer's critics in Labour become increasingly vocal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56246532
He really needed to come in and take the party by the scruff of the neck. Booting out RLB was seemingly a token gesture, the grass was trimmed but is growing back stronger. I give him a year.
Sir Keir Starmer's critics in Labour become increasingly vocal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56246532
He really needed to come in and take the party by the scruff of the neck. Booting out RLB was seemingly a token gesture, the grass was trimmed but is growing back stronger. I give him a year.
Andy 308GTB said:
The natives are becoming restless
Sir Keir Starmer's critics in Labour become increasingly vocal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56246532
He really needed to come in and take the party by the scruff of the neck. Booting out RLB was seemingly a token gesture, the grass was trimmed but is growing back stronger. I give him a year.
Somebody already gave him crayons. He's lovin' it.Sir Keir Starmer's critics in Labour become increasingly vocal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56246532
He really needed to come in and take the party by the scruff of the neck. Booting out RLB was seemingly a token gesture, the grass was trimmed but is growing back stronger. I give him a year.
Labour typically do well after a long spell of Conservative leadership...you know, when the economy is in good shape, businesses doing well etc. After the pandemic and a massive, massive eye watering bill there is literally no free money trees growing for a Labour government to spend...so where does that leave them? Nowhere to go I would say.
Starmer may as well sit on the sidelines for at least the next 10 years. Starting off with nothing is not where Labour can help right now.
Starmer may as well sit on the sidelines for at least the next 10 years. Starting off with nothing is not where Labour can help right now.
Andy 308GTB said:
The natives are becoming restless
Sir Keir Starmer's critics in Labour become increasingly vocal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56246532
He really needed to come in and take the party by the scruff of the neck. Booting out RLB was seemingly a token gesture, the grass was trimmed but is growing back stronger. I give him a year.
To be fair, the two guys who have put their names to this were prime Momentards in the Corbyn era. And Burgon is the village idiot's village idiot. But it does mean Starmer has to tread more carefully. I don't know what sway the hard left have in the PLP these days.Sir Keir Starmer's critics in Labour become increasingly vocal
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56246532
He really needed to come in and take the party by the scruff of the neck. Booting out RLB was seemingly a token gesture, the grass was trimmed but is growing back stronger. I give him a year.
bhstewie said:
hstewie said:RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:
I believe Starmer has become so anonymous his Crimewatch picture could be a mannequin carefully liberated from the window of a defunct Topshop and nobody would be any the wiser.
Not far off.In the middle of a pandemic I don't really know what the opportunities are to raise his profile?
By all means question obviously dumb actions, but those aren't quite as clear cut as some round here (;)) seem to think.
Focus nearly every ounce of energy on deciding what the Labour party is to be. Deal with that structurally and very transparently/loudly. And from there, start to build policies that people will believe in.
Having people like Rayner, Anneliese Dodds, Ashworth etc up front all the time is not a winning strategy. He has to have strong actual policy with strong people delivering the message (I wouldn't take a packed lunch from those three as examples, and I'm not convinced they'd be able to deliver one anyway).
"But look at the crew Boris has"? Indeed. So it should be a piece of piss to get something better stood up front. That it isn't just shines more of a light on what Starmer needs to do, and perhaps perversely (to some) makes him look even more useless.
I'd also suggest he shouldn't simply try and do the opposite of what Johnson is doing. If he believes some of their policies are in the right direction, be candid about it and put the case for being able to deliver on them better.
At the moment he seems to be doing nothing. I hope for the country's sake he isn't, otherwise there should be no surprise if the Tories get an even bigger majority next time out. I genuinely think we have seen them at their weakest. Any govt would have been at this stage. The ability to show a clean pair of heals to them should have been at its greatest in the last 12mths.
It will only get harder from here, and Starmer looks like he's done barely anything. I wonder how much of that is down to the heavily fragmented nature of his party and its followers. Everyone makes much of Tory division. I suspect it is nothing compared to Labour.
I think the time has passed for it, but one it may have been in the country's best interests if both major parties had split in two. That said, the debacle of the HoP under May's reign probably shows what would have happened and that would not have been healthy.
jakesmith said:
Murph7355 said:
Having people like Rayner, Anneliese Dodds, Ashworth etc up front all the time is not a winning strategy.
You might as well have just said this.They are screwed IMO as he doesn't have the ability to get rid of the hard left whack-jobs without risking his position
(Though I'm not sure those three are especially hard left, are they?).
I suggested Starmer as the best leader for Labour last year and so far as I can see he is still the only person who can take them forward in the polls. The shadow front bench is beyond hopeless and whilst the likes of Rayner and Long-Bailey are in the public eye Labour will go nowhere. There is also a general lack of intellect in their MPs and it beggars belief that Dawn Butler ever got elected - I would like to know if she knows about anything at all? Think back to the Labour heavyweights of the 70s - there's apparently no-one of that ilk in today's Labour party.
They seem to have no ideas apart from spending more money; is there anything at all their policy is only that they want to spend more money on it?
But above all they have to jettison the idea that the country needs a radical overhaul. We have evolved to where we are today largely because it's what people want. It might need a few tweeks here and there but the electorate will never vote for the trusted and familar to be turned upside down by a bunch of people they have hardly heard of and whose instincts they don't trust.
And bin the bloody 6th form victim politics. It impresses no-one outside the inner circle and will not win back the lost northern votes.
They seem to have no ideas apart from spending more money; is there anything at all their policy is only that they want to spend more money on it?
But above all they have to jettison the idea that the country needs a radical overhaul. We have evolved to where we are today largely because it's what people want. It might need a few tweeks here and there but the electorate will never vote for the trusted and familar to be turned upside down by a bunch of people they have hardly heard of and whose instincts they don't trust.
And bin the bloody 6th form victim politics. It impresses no-one outside the inner circle and will not win back the lost northern votes.
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