Best Of

Whilst I agree Starmer is in trouble, I am not sure the Pincher analogy holds water.

With Pincher, it wasn't simply a failure of vetting but a situation where Johnson lied about what he knew and had colleagues unwittingly sent onto the media to propogate that lie. This was also the latest in a series of incidents where Johnson had been utterly unreliable.

That may yet turn out to be the case for Starmer, but I don't think we are there - it was a foolish appointment given Mandelson's track record, but I don't think the anger towards Mandelson for having misled Starmer is synthetic.

For that reason, whilst there is definitely a competence issue there and it's increasingly hard to see a very long term future for Starmer, I don't really see it playing out as it did in the final days of Johnson.

I also find the Rayner surge a little odd. She has a lot going for her, but she isn't exactly Ms Clean, the candidate of unimpeachable personal integrity.

She's the furthest they've got from the old boy's club attitudes that led to where we are.

I don’t think Angela Rayner is a traitor. I DO believe that about Starmer and those around him - Hermer, Sands, Powell. They loathe Britain and seek to harm Britons

It’s that basic

Rayner might well be an economic disaster but fuck it, how does that change anything. I don’t think Rayner will deliberately enact policies that are solely designed to harm the country she governs because she despises it

It’s a pretty low bar but I reckon she’ll clear it

Oh God, not this from you again: "she couldn't we worse".

She absolutely could be fucking worse.

I'm terrified of Rayner becoming PM.

Eh, it'll probably be fine.

Then again, I said that about Truss, so I don't know shit.

People say it every time they hate someone and want a change. We heard it with Boris, Truss, Sunak and now Starmer.

Do we ever learn?

No, because we're too blinded by hatred for the incumbent.

Things could certainly get worse, but that shouldn't lead us to tolerate a status quo that is inadequate. Starmer is not good enough. He has to go.

It's then up to Labour to see if they can find anyone better, and if they can't it then becomes the job of the electorate to choose MPs who can.

Have you seen the alternatives?

I don't want an ultra left-wing PM in office who will spend the next few years fucking me and my family.

Burnham is the only leadership contender who I've heard say anything that would be reckless in terms of the stability of Britain's finances, and he is safely not in the Commons.

I know Labour politicians are always going to look more extreme to you than to me, but people like Miliband, or Cooper, or Rayner, are far from being ultra left-wing.

They're to the left of Blairites like Starmer or Streeting, but they're far to the right of Corbyn and the Socialist Campaign Group.

Starmer exit in 2026 now shortened to 1.54:1, which is the shortest I've seen it. That's easy money if you're convinced he's going this year. (I'm not. I think those odds are about right.)

I think they're too short personally and have added to my currently massively offside lay, and will take more if 1.35 trades (looking v possible). Still, squeaky bum.

This is a huge story in the political bubble but it doesn't feel to me to have as much cut through to the real world as Boris did.

There is also an amusing irony irony that some of the markets will atm be being driven by someone much like Mandelson leaking what's going on amongst MPs to traders...

Didn’t we hear news yesterday that it had severe cut through on focus groups?

The Epstein angle, which brought down Andrew, surely makes it quite high profile.

At a politically focussed focus group, sure.

But when Boris's various scandals were going on, it was a topic of conversation amongst normies in the office. Pub bores would make jokes about it. I'm just not feeling the same sense of the country at large carying atm.

Maybe I'm just talking my position, idk

It's being joked about by the not-very-politically-engaged where I work. I'd say people are even crosser about the arrogance and entitlement on display here than they were about Boris.

It’s the money that cuts through most. How can you get a free 75K gift and not remember anything about it? That’s what can cut through into actual votes. Provided we can connect Mandelson to the Labour government, not let them say he was rogue and it’s not their fault.

Remember the old rule, Tory scandals are about sex, Labour scandals are about money.

And who can forget how half the cabinet rushed in after the election for free suits, football tickets and birthday parties. Pretty cheap stuff of course but Labour don't really do classy.

I have two words for you. "Lulu" and "Lytle".

Not a Scooby doo what you mean.

Best if you look that up for yourself then. The reference should be easy to follow to the point I was making.