Best Of

Pathetic turnout but another bad day for Starmer as Labour members back Burnham’s preferred candidate Lucy Powell over his preferred candidate Bridget Philippson

No evidence that Starmer preferred either of them. None of this makes a difference to Starmer's standing. In some ways things are looking up for him. Farage is looking sleazy and flakey and Kemi is beyond doubt a no-hoper.

So a perfect time for a Starmer reset which he needs and of all the leaders he's the one who holds the stage

How many resets does a Prime Minister need in a week?

Just when Starmer demonstrates his facile incompetence, Boris Johnson rocks up to the COVID Inquiry as a reminder that things could be even worse.

I expect the median voter would now bring back Boris as PM tomorrow. Heck, I expect the median voter would even bring back Rishi as PM tomorrow now

Starmer and Sunak are considered two cheeks of the same useless arse, and the median voter does not want a Johnson redux. You are wishcasting.

The median voter is now voting Reform

To an extent you have me there. But I would equally assume given the choice of Johnson or Brave Sir Nigel, Farage takes it by a country mile.

Caerphilly might question your Reform voting logic.

Caerphilly was fascinating. It does completely change the Reform narrative in my mind. Being the most popular party might turn out to be meaningless if you are also the most hated party. And Reform certainly sit in that strange spot in the political Venn Diagram right now.

Still quite a lot of Labour support to squeeze there too. It's not like 100% of their voters went Plaid.

It certainly upends the narrative that high turnout = Reform landslide. It looks like there is an opposite and equal reaction in that scenario.

Is South Wales directly comparable with NE or NW England? I doubt it.

Well, from a post-industrial deprivation POV - yes?

As a proxy indicator, the 57% for Leave in Caerphilly is very similar to Brexit voting parts of the NW and NE (e.g. Durham, around Manchester etc). If Reform can't win there then they are restricted to places like Teesside, Essex etc

The difference is in Wales there is a credible left-wing alternative - Plaid.

Pathetic turnout but another bad day for Starmer as Labour members back Burnham’s preferred candidate Lucy Powell over his preferred candidate Bridget Philippson

No evidence that Starmer preferred either of them. None of this makes a difference to Starmer's standing. In some ways things are looking up for him. Farage is looking sleazy and flakey and Kemi is beyond doubt a no-hoper.

So a perfect time for a Starmer reset which he needs and of all the leaders he's the one who holds the stage

How many resets does a Prime Minister need in a week?

Just when Starmer demonstrates his facile incompetence, Boris Johnson rocks up to the COVID Inquiry as a reminder that things could be even worse.

I expect the median voter would now bring back Boris as PM tomorrow. Heck, I expect the median voter would even bring back Rishi as PM tomorrow now

Starmer and Sunak are considered two cheeks of the same useless arse, and the median voter does not want a Johnson redux. You are wishcasting.

The median voter is now voting Reform

To an extent you have me there. But I would equally assume given the choice of Johnson or Brave Sir Nigel, Farage takes it by a country mile.

Caerphilly might question your Reform voting logic.

Caerphilly was fascinating. It does completely change the Reform narrative in my mind. Being the most popular party might turn out to be meaningless if you are also the most hated party. And Reform certainly sit in that strange spot in the political Venn Diagram right now.

Still quite a lot of Labour support to squeeze there too. It's not like 100% of their voters went Plaid.

It certainly upends the narrative that high turnout = Reform landslide. It looks like there is an opposite and equal reaction in that scenario.

Is South Wales directly comparable with NE or NW England? I doubt it.

On days like these, in order to keep a thread of faith one has to remind oneself of what went on between 2019 and 2024.

I had a blacklist of utter roasters I despised through the Blair years. My favourite (least favourite) was Geoff Hoon. Time to remake that list. The hateful Lucy Powell and Reeves are first and second so far. Starmer might be third.

What did Lucy Powell do? I think she's OK. A great opportunity for a Starmer reset. A compassionate Starmer is what's needed. Lets see more of the the human rights lawyer and less of the Trump sycophant.

I think he was entitled to a year and a half to find himself but now's the time to show what he's really like. He could do worse than folow the Mamdani playbook..

The Mamdani playbook may revive Labour in the inner cities and university linked towns where it has been leaking votes to the Greens and Plaid. It certainly won’t in the red wall and seaside towns it has lost to Reform

Pathetic turnout but another bad day for Starmer as Labour members back Burnham’s preferred candidate Lucy Powell over his preferred candidate Bridget Philippson

No evidence that Starmer preferred either of them. None of this makes a difference to Starmer's standing. In some ways things are looking up for him. Farage is looking sleazy and flakey and Kemi is beyond doubt a no-hoper.

So a perfect time for a Starmer reset which he needs and of all the leaders he's the one who holds the stage

The media are already portraying this as a win for Burnham’s preferred candidate and a defeat for Starmer after Powell criticised his ‘unforced errors’.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/10/25/labour-deputy-leader-elected/

It is a disastrous end to a terrible week for the PM, which saw his party come third in a by election in a Senedd seat which had always elected Labour candidates before and which saw a Find Out Now poll put Labour third behind not only Reform but even the Conservatives as well

Pathetic turnout but another bad day for Starmer as Labour members back Burnham’s preferred candidate Lucy Powell over his preferred candidate Bridget Philippson

Yes. The Labour membership have voted for the Burnham/Powell economic insanity. This is a BIG moment.

Economic insanity is where the Labour membership and back bench MPs now are, this is what the Labour Party is telling the UK electorate this morning.

SFAICS party members of all parties, now membership is so small, are mostly people who cannot see a balanced picture of what governance and the nationwide political process actually is. It's full of people who believe it is good to do X, Y and Z, and have no interest either in constraints A, B and C, or the rival claims of interests F, G and H.

Noting this, normal people don't join.

Another blind spot, shared by governments - this one is egregious - and membership is that ordinary people are infinitely more interested in ordinary competence from government than in 'change'. Secretly most people don't like change.

By competence I mean answering the phone, being easily contactable, not letting prisoners escape, timely justice, getting it right first time, not giving billions in welfare/contracts to frauds, police turning up when you call once every 20 years, not having roads that destroy a car's suspension. Boring stuff.

Pathetic turnout but another bad day for Starmer as Labour members back Burnham’s preferred candidate Lucy Powell over his preferred candidate Bridget Philippson

No evidence that Starmer preferred either of them. None of this makes a difference to Starmer's standing. In some ways things are looking up for him. Farage is looking sleazy and flakey and Kemi is beyond doubt a no-hoper.

So a perfect time for a Starmer reset which he needs and of all the leaders he's the one who holds the stage

How many resets does a Prime Minister need in a week?

Just when Starmer demonstrates his facile incompetence, Boris Johnson rocks up to the COVID Inquiry as a reminder that things could be even worse.

I expect the median voter would now bring back Boris as PM tomorrow. Heck, I expect the median voter would even bring back Rishi as PM tomorrow now

Starmer and Sunak are considered two cheeks of the same useless arse, and the median voter does not want a Johnson redux. You are wishcasting.

The median voter is now voting Reform

No, the modal voter is voting Reform,

If we arrange people on a left-right scale, Reform get 29%, then Tories get 18%, so we’re 47% along. Next come the LibDems maybe, so the median voter is LibDem.

Pathetic turnout but another bad day for Starmer as Labour members back Burnham’s preferred candidate Lucy Powell over his preferred candidate Bridget Philippson

No evidence that Starmer preferred either of them. None of this makes a difference to Starmer's standing. In some ways things are looking up for him. Farage is looking sleazy and flakey and Kemi is beyond doubt a no-hoper.

So a perfect time for a Starmer reset which he needs and of all the leaders he's the one who holds the stage

How many resets is this so far?

Starmer isn’t working.

Steal the original for a poster - a line of Starmers disappearing off into the distance.

This is the way a great civilisation ends… not with a bang but with a flock of starmers