Best Of

I really want a Charlie Kirk hater to post a video clip of Charlie being vile or hateful

I wasn't a big fan, but I'd seen a few clips of his videos. He seemed intelligent and friendly, but rather self assured and too Christian for my liking

Since his death I've seen more videos than I could ever watch. But where I have watched he was never hateful, or in any other way vile

He has a self or Jesus assured arrogance that he's right, but he's also kind and friendly to everyone he debates

I struggle to understand how he could have possibly inspired such deadly hatred

I am not a Kirk hater.
His politics were very far from mine, but I don't think he was a genuinely evil man in the manner of a Trump or Miller.

And while you characterisation if him isn't a million miles from the truth, it's also wrong to pretend that he was the kind of right wing paragon some describe.

For example.

Charlie Kirk: Joe Biden should be “put in prison and/or given the death penalty for crimes against America”
https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-joe-biden-should-be-put-prison-andor-given-death-penalty-crimes-against

Labour mps not happy

https://news.sky.com/story/labour-mps-already-angry-over-claim-mandelsons-appointment-was-worth-the-risk-13430757

There’s no future in this story, Big G, it will fizzle out in favour of another headline to direct unhappiness at. It’s how politics always works 99% of the time. Starmer was ultra careful in PMQs not to answer a question with a lie, that’s the moment he got away with it.

Underlying it is lack of economic growth and easing of credit crisis, once/if Starmer gets that he’s safe as houses to lead Labour into the next GE.

I think you are wrong. The hatchet job done on Starmer by the right wing media, both traditional and on X has done for him. He hasn't helped himself either.

The Telegraph has been particularly effective. The unhinged anti-Starmer headline normally bears little relationship to the text of the story. Allister Heath and Allison Pearson are the King and Queen of the unhinged Starmer headline.

Those who have debased Starmer had four years to prepare too. As they don't know yet who the next Labour PM will be that character has a window of advantage that Starmer did not.

I'd like the defenestration to happen quickly.

Bollocks.

Starmer came into office with a vast majority and a fair amount of good will.

He then proceeded to set fire to the goodwill. And burnt bridges with a range of the left.

He has done this to himself - you should really give him credit for the achievement.

Labour mps not happy

https://news.sky.com/story/labour-mps-already-angry-over-claim-mandelsons-appointment-was-worth-the-risk-13430757

There’s no future in this story, Big G, it will fizzle out in favour of another headline to direct unhappiness at. It’s how politics always works 99% of the time. Starmer was ultra careful in PMQs not to answer a question with a lie, that’s the moment he got away with it.

Underlying it is lack of economic growth and easing of credit crisis, once/if Starmer gets that he’s safe as houses to lead Labour into the next GE.

I think you are wrong. The hatchet job done on Starmer by the right wing media, both traditional and on X has done for him. He hasn't helped himself either.

The Telegraph has been particularly effective. The unhinged anti-Starmer headline normally bears little relationship to the text of the story. Allister Heath and Allison Pearson are the King and Queen of the unhinged Starmer headline.

Those who have debased Starmer had four years to prepare too. As they don't know yet who the next Labour PM will be that character has a window of advantage that Starmer did not.

I'd like the defenestration to happen quickly.

Bollocks.

Starmer came into office with a vast majority and a fair amount of good will.

He then proceeded to set fire to the goodwill. And burnt bridges with a range of the left.

He has done this to himself - you should really give him credit for the achievement.

Oh behave.

"Starmer plans on stopping work at six pm on Friday and not be returning to work until Monday morning. What will happen if war is declared at the weekend?" "Starmer is a part- time PM". And that was the week he won.

This Government had no honeymoon. Not that I am suggesting they should. They had no plan either. But they are still less crap than your lot from 2019.

Labour supporters' frustration at the lack of scrutiny of Farage's Reform is rather like Conservatives' frustration at the lack of scrutiny of Starmer's Labour before the 2024 election.

The Telegraph and the Mail have always been histrionic about Labour, as has frequently pointed out, so I am not sure that they are the reasons for the public's change of opinion on Labour since the election. The same people read them as before, the same people ignore them as before.

The FT's Miranda Green made a good point recently: Labour did have a honeymoon period, but it was before they actually entered government. They were riding high pretty much from the 2022 minibudget (probably even from Partygate onwards) and nothing really changed after that until they won the election, whatever the usual suspects threw at them. Once he entered Number 10, Starmer's famed genie transformed into a monkey's paw. I think a lot of the attention has been unfair, but so it was in the other direction before the election.

Part of the reason for the focus is that they are now in government and so it matters more; partly it is that Labour (and Starmer in particular) were so prissy and sanctimonious about government scandals when they were in opposition, so, as John Rentoul points out, they are being held to the higher standards which they presumed themselves innately to embody. But I think the main reason is that they are currently not succeeding in the actual business of government, particularly with regards to economic growth. If the economy were going gangbusters now (to say nothing of housebuilding) I don't think enough people would care about the scandals for them to matter.

Farage may not receive proper scrutiny on either policies or scandals until or unless he enters government, as was the case with Starmer. If Farage does become Prime Minister, that is where his problems really begin (for all sorts of reasons).

Clive Lewis also had an unexpected view on the March (1/2)

Believe it or not, I had an old school friend on today’s marches in London. He sent me some photos from the crowd.

We went to middle school together and grew up on the same Eastern District council estate in Northampton.

I asked him why he was there. He gave me two answers:
1.“The government doesn’t listen to us.”
2.“I want to feel proud of my country again.”

He wore a Union Jack, not a St George’s Cross as he said that one had been hijacked by racists.

He wasn’t there for Hopkins, Musk, or any of the professional ‘grifters’ as he put it. He was there to feel part of something bigger, though he admitted there were a lot of, in his words, “assholes” there.

He’s an electrician. He’s smart. He’s not racist, but he’s not “PC” either. He’s not a fan of Keir Starmer but he also believes Farage would be a disaster.

Oh yes, he’s a bundle of contradictions! But aren’t we all?

I don’t know what ‘box’ we put him or the millions like him in. And I think pretending they’re all racists or fascists would be a massive mistake.

Some were. But not all.

This is about something bigger than immigration slogans or GDP numbers. For decades we’ve hollowed out our national life, underfunding and undermining the very institutions that once brought us together…


https://x.com/labourlewis/status/1966988870890963361?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q