Judging by this, Wes Streeting doesn't seem to rush into things:
Streeting lives in Redbridge, London, with his partner Joe Dancey, a communications and public affairs adviser.[112][113] In October 2023, Dancey was selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Stockton West at the 2024 general election,[114] although he was unsuccessful.[115][116] Streeting, who is a practising Anglican, has said his faith is "about compassion, not walking by on the other side", and that it caused serious problems when it came to his sexuality: "My faith was a really big obstacle to accepting myself ... I spent many years choosing not to be gay."[3] He has been engaged to Dancey since 2013.
Interesting read, thank you. Building on my statement above about the enervation of the nation-state, you have hit on another Big Problem: algorithmic feeds acting as enragement devices to affinity groups. Starmer has his disadvantages (goodness knows I've listed them ad nauseam) but I don't know how any politician copes in this new world of hatred. Again, I don't have a fix for this.
Interesting read, thank you. Building on my statement above about the enervation of the nation-state, you have hit on another Big Problem: algorithmic feeds acting as enragement devices to affinity groups. Starmer has his disadvantages (goodness knows I've listed them ad nauseam) but I don't know how any politician copes in this new world of hatred. Again, I don't have a fix for this.
I hope he survives just to prove politicians can defeat a hate spiral. We kind of need it.
Zack Polanski falsely claimed to have worked at the Ministry of Justice while campaigning for elected office, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Green Party leader said on his official campaign website in 2020 that he was “currently working at the Ministry of Justice on their training & diversity programmes”
Zack Polanski falsely claimed to have worked at the Ministry of Justice while campaigning for elected office, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Green Party leader said on his official campaign website in 2020 that he was “currently working at the Ministry of Justice on their training & diversity programmes”
Zack Polanski falsely claimed to have worked at the Ministry of Justice while campaigning for elected office, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Green Party leader said on his official campaign website in 2020 that he was “currently working at the Ministry of Justice on their training & diversity programmes”
Zack Polanski falsely claimed to have worked at the Ministry of Justice while campaigning for elected office, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Green Party leader said on his official campaign website in 2020 that he was “currently working at the Ministry of Justice on their training & diversity programmes”
Zack Polanski falsely claimed to have worked at the Ministry of Justice while campaigning for elected office, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Green Party leader said on his official campaign website in 2020 that he was “currently working at the Ministry of Justice on their training & diversity programmes”
Zack Polanski falsely claimed to have worked at the Ministry of Justice while campaigning for elected office, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Green Party leader said on his official campaign website in 2020 that he was “currently working at the Ministry of Justice on their training & diversity programmes”
Zack Polanski falsely claimed to have worked at the Ministry of Justice while campaigning for elected office, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Green Party leader said on his official campaign website in 2020 that he was “currently working at the Ministry of Justice on their training & diversity programmes”
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
If policy was popular with Lab MPs he would be fine getting it through commons. If a budget measure lords can't block.
So I guess that points to a wealth tax plus (and this is important) some kind of tax cut to help with cost of living crisis.
Google tells me Catherine West's constituency of Hornsey is the 8th safest in the country
is this some 7d game of strip poker-chess where she ends up standing down for IT is HE, the Mancunian Son of God?
Just to note (which highlights Labour's problem if this was their 8th safest seat) that the wards which make up the Hornsey & Friern Barnet seat only just voted Labour on Thursday...
Have we all got our bingo cards ready for Starmer's big speech..
Son of a toolmaker, Tough choices, Further and Faster, Change is coming, Smash the gangs, Tough choices, Free breakfast clubs, More money in your pocket, £22bn black hole, War fighting readiness by 2034, Proud history of free speech, Far Right thugs, Adolescence, fantastic Netflix documentary, Release the sausages....
“Even those who don’t like Starmer can be surprised at the sheer intensity and spread of the animosity towards him. “[It] is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced,” John McDonnell said on LBC recently. On Newsnight on Wednesday, the Daily Telegraph’s Camilla Tominey said that “visceral dislike” of Starmer was the local elections’ defining theme – and the Labour peer Thangam Debbonaire conceded that “I’ve certainly picked that up on the doorstep, yes.”
“It’s not that Starmer is viscerally hated by some people – that can be said of other prime ministers like Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Boris Johnson – but that he seems to be viscerally hated across the board. Once, the spited Corbyn wing of the Labour party – victim of Starmer’s anti-left purges – was alone in its anger. Now you would be hard-pressed to say which constituency hates Starmer the most. For a prime minister who seems desperate to appear inoffensive above all else, it is quite the achievement.”
Edit to add. I forgot the link, and I should put it in. The whole essay is worth reading. It’s intelligent
I don't think the hatred for Starmer is weird at all, but you do have to think things through for a moment to explain it.
All Prime Ministers are hated by large sections of the population. As the essay notes, so were Mrs Thatcher, Blair and Johnson. I remember the hatred people felt for Gordon Brown and Theresa May as well. But the first three had diehard supporters because they knew what they wanted to do and delivered it, or seemed to anyway. Whereas the second two didn't, so didn't and didn't.
And Starmer falls very much into the second camp. He has no strong or diehard supporters, which is the inevitable fate of a man who tries to fudge everything and usually ends up u-turning.
Added to that the stagnant economy and his personal willingness to screw over allies and total lack of charisma it's not surprising at all that nobody likes him, even if all this is difficult to put in a soundbite,
Have we all got our bingo cards ready for Starmer's big speech..
Son of a toolmaker, Tough choices, Further and Faster, Change is coming, Smash the gangs, Tough choices, Free breakfast clubs, More money in your pocket, £22bn black hole, War fighting readiness by 2034, Proud history of free speech, Far Right thugs, Adolescence, fantastic Netflix documentary, Release the sausages....
I think he'll go big on the EU and Europe.
The thinking will be it's the best chance he has of rallying progressives around him.
Have we all got our bingo cards ready for Starmer's big speech..
Son of a toolmaker, Tough choices, Further and Faster, Change is coming, Smash the gangs, Tough choices, Free breakfast clubs, More money in your pocket, £22bn black hole, War fighting readiness by 2034, Proud history of free speech, Far Right thugs, Adolescence, fantastic Netflix documentary, Release the sausages....
I think he'll go big on the EU and Europe.
The thinking will be it's the best chance he has of rallying progressives around him.
I won't even bother to watch it. There will be nothing new and it will just irritate me even more. His delivery is wooden, there is no truth in his eyes. Its unlistenable to because you KNOW none of it is true. Completely vacuous
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
If policy was popular with Lab MPs he would be fine getting it through commons. If a budget measure lords can't block.
So I guess that points to a wealth tax plus (and this is important) some kind of tax cut to help with cost of living crisis.
A really bold strategy would be a full council tax revaluation. Or its abolition and replacement with local income tax.
It would have many losers but I suspect in the Labour areas it would have many more winners.
‘ Husbands with second, third and even fourth wives living in the UK have had their benefits allowance increased by the Department for Work and Pensions.’
I'm sorry but this can't be real. Bigamy is illegal in the UK last I checked. What are the government playing at, literally writing Reform's manifesto for them.
Its true, it's a tiny number of people. But it is true. I linked to it earlier. We are indeed paying (increased) benefits to polygamous wives "because it is their custom". That, honestly, is the explanation
This country is a joke. Last year I paid well in excess of six figures in tax, I don't engage in any kind of tax avoidance or work through some IR35 setup even though I probably could. What am I bothering to do this for?
The pension/UC stuff I linked to earlier, as well, is much more disheartening. Because we are now giving the state pension (minus £3) to anyone who shows up who is of pensionable age. So you pay into the Exchequer for 35 years and the benefit you get is basically zero over someone who arrived last Thursday
One is a floor to make sure old people still have a basic amount of money to live. If they have some income, it tops them up to this minimum level.
The other is a benefit you get, and you get to keep even if you have other sources of income.
That's the simplest and most succinct explanation of the Benefits system I've seen. Change pensions to wages and Universal Credit and the meaning is correct too.
Welcome to the world of Ultra-Starmer! Like Starmer, but more.
No more will tax returns for the self-employed be quarterly: now they're monthly. Partial jury abolition to be replaced by total jury abolition. The UK isn't going to just give away one strategically important island we're not legally obligated to surrender: we're abandoning them all.
Edited extra bit: And how could I forget: mandatory online ID to be spread to ID cards. Because nothing says freedom more than a centralised government database and compulsory identification documents.
Well, I'm, not cheering on Angela Rayner as an alternative PM.
The Times reports this morning that she wants higher taxes on energy firms and bigger increases in the minimum wage to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Which means we'd have higher prices, higher unemployment, more debt and debt interest, and even worse growth.
‘ Husbands with second, third and even fourth wives living in the UK have had their benefits allowance increased by the Department for Work and Pensions.’
I'm sorry but this can't be real. Bigamy is illegal in the UK last I checked. What are the government playing at, literally writing Reform's manifesto for them.
Its true, it's a tiny number of people. But it is true. I linked to it earlier. We are indeed paying (increased) benefits to polygamous wives "because it is their custom". That, honestly, is the explanation
This country is a joke. Last year I paid well in excess of six figures in tax, I don't engage in any kind of tax avoidance or work through some IR35 setup even though I probably could. What am I bothering to do this for?
The pension/UC stuff I linked to earlier, as well, is much more disheartening. Because we are now giving the state pension (minus £3) to anyone who shows up who is of pensionable age. So you pay into the Exchequer for 35 years and the benefit you get is basically zero over someone who arrived last Thursday
One is a floor to make sure old people still have a basic amount of money to live. If they have some income, it tops them up to this minimum level.
The other is a benefit you get, and you get to keep even if you have other sources of income.
Its not a benefit it is an entitlement earned over 35 years. And the fact that the means tested benefits are basically the same shows you how little the State actually values your contributions, no matter how substantial or deemed they are. For those without other sources of income it is surely the worst deal in history.
Missing the point here. It's valueless because it doesn't actually (actuarially) have that much value*. Must come back to this someday.
* Wage suppression / poor UK productivity / declining value of sterling / p**s poor UK management / selling family silver etc
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
The Lords would have double-standards.
They'd justify joining the single market due to unprecedented challenges/extraordinary times etc. and wave it through.
I feel like the last Prime Minister who was actually good at big set piece interventions was Theresa May.
Starmer's speeches are usually completely forgettable, and the one time he accidentally said something memorable, he disowned it.
When we had this other chap, called "William Glenn" here, I am sure you remember a speech she gave where she said "Brexit means Brexit" rather than defining what it meant even though at that point nobody had decided.
I hold her responsible for a lot of the mess that followed. But otherwise, she was the last PM not in it for vanity.
May was overcompensating because she was seen as a Remainer . I thought at the time it would have been better to have a Leaver as PM during that time whose decisions wouldn’t have been questioned as betraying Brexit , and depending who that was might have been able to get a better deal, they might have made some compromises .By the time Johnson came in the whole situation was so toxic with the goalposts having being moved and no deal being banded around as if it wouldn’t have been a total catastrophe.
I hold no ill feelings towards May. For all her faults she didn’t embarrass the office of PM and wasn’t a corrupt pathological liar like the blonde buffoon who came after her .
May was a poor Prime Minister, within the normal limits of the term. Johnson and Truss required a new vocabulary to describe the scale of their policy and personal failings. Catastrophic was the lower limit of their failings, and certainly they were two of the most disastrous leaders in British history.
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
If policy was popular with Lab MPs he would be fine getting it through commons. If a budget measure lords can't block.
So I guess that points to a wealth tax plus (and this is important) some kind of tax cut to help with cost of living crisis.
Note that the (comparatively small) Mansion Tax announced in the last Budget (ie 2025 Budget) only comes into effect in April 2028.
Even if a wealth tax was announced literally today it's very unlikely any revenue at all would be raised before the General Election.
So it's not going to fund any increased spending which they would want to introduce much more quickly.
Zack Polanski falsely claimed to have worked at the Ministry of Justice while campaigning for elected office, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Green Party leader said on his official campaign website in 2020 that he was “currently working at the Ministry of Justice on their training & diversity programmes”
Welcome to the world of Ultra-Starmer! Like Starmer, but more.
No more will tax returns for the self-employed be quarterly: now they're monthly. Partial jury abolition to be replaced by total jury abolition. The UK isn't going to just give away one strategically important island we're not legally obligated to surrender: we're abandoning them all.
Edited extra bit: And how could I forget: mandatory online ID to be spread to ID cards. Because nothing says freedom more than a centralised government database and compulsory identification documents.
TBF, MTD and digital ID cards both emanate from the last Conservative government.
Zack Polanski falsely claimed to have worked at the Ministry of Justice while campaigning for elected office, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Green Party leader said on his official campaign website in 2020 that he was “currently working at the Ministry of Justice on their training & diversity programmes”
Well, I'm, not cheering on Angela Rayner as an alternative PM.
The Times reports this morning that she wants higher taxes on energy firms and bigger increases in the minimum wage to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Which means we'd have higher prices, higher unemployment, more debt and debt interest, and even worse growth.
Were you opposed to windfall taxes on oil companies when imposed by the Conservative government?
Well, I'm, not cheering on Angela Rayner as an alternative PM.
The Times reports this morning that she wants higher taxes on energy firms and bigger increases in the minimum wage to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Which means we'd have higher prices, higher unemployment, more debt and debt interest, and even worse growth.
Were you opposed to windfall taxes on oil companies when imposed by the Conservative government?
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
The Lords would have double-standards.
They'd justify joining the single market due to unprecedented challenges/extraordinary times etc. and wave it through.
If the voters are unhappy with what the Lords do, they can just vote them out at the next el… Hold on! They’re not elected! Isn’t this just an argument to introduce an elected second house?
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
The Lords would have double-standards.
They'd justify joining the single market due to unprecedented challenges/extraordinary times etc. and wave it through.
If the voters are unhappy with what the Lords do, they can just vote them out at the next el… Hold on! They’re not elected! Isn’t this just an argument to introduce an elected second house?
I've just seen an Instagram that says Rayner got 50k from a Company called Refrigeration House Limited. If true its pretty substantial.and why?
Here is a February report on an earlier payment from the same donor:-
The money from Refrigeration House Limited, an Oldham-based family business set up in 1965, would, even if it were repeated in monthly installments, amount to £600,000 a year. Paul Jordon, the Mancunian who runs the firm, says: “As a local businessman, I know Angela’s track record and we need more people in politics with her background and real world experience. I’m happy to support her office because she has an important and ongoing contribution to public life.” https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2026/02/what-is-angela-rayner-up-to
All of which raises the question: where are the Staggers' subs? The American spelling of instalment is used, and the last sentence in the donor's statement makes no sense as written: presumably ‘has’ should be ‘makes’.
I dunno. Is 50 bags a lot? It's all properly declared anyway which is how people know about it. The question should be, how many more staff does Rayner have after this and other donations towards staffing costs? https://members.parliament.uk/member/4356/registeredinterests
Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, has just spoken to BBC Breakfast.
"It's been like a slow car crash over the last few months," he says. "That's why I called for Starmer to stand down in February, because I think what we've seen in the last few days was inevitable."
Wright says there needs to be a change of leadership - but he doesn't want it to be rushed
Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, has just spoken to BBC Breakfast.
"It's been like a slow car crash over the last few months," he says. "That's why I called for Starmer to stand down in February, because I think what we've seen in the last few days was inevitable."
Wright says there needs to be a change of leadership - but he doesn't want it to be rushed
he doesn't want it to be rushed
In other words, nor until that pillock from Manchester is eligible.
Welcome to the world of Ultra-Starmer! Like Starmer, but more.
No more will tax returns for the self-employed be quarterly: now they're monthly. Partial jury abolition to be replaced by total jury abolition. The UK isn't going to just give away one strategically important island we're not legally obligated to surrender: we're abandoning them all.
Edited extra bit: And how could I forget: mandatory online ID to be spread to ID cards. Because nothing says freedom more than a centralised government database and compulsory identification documents.
The phone booth is ready. The cape is freshly pressed. The glasses are ready to be discarded at a moment's notice. Today is the day. Super Starmer will be revealed.
Well, I'm, not cheering on Angela Rayner as an alternative PM.
The Times reports this morning that she wants higher taxes on energy firms and bigger increases in the minimum wage to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Which means we'd have higher prices, higher unemployment, more debt and debt interest, and even worse growth.
How on earth would that help the cost of living crisis, or for that matter levels of employment.
Hopefully she’s just saying this to get votes from the Far left in Labour and isn’t serious. Just as SKS did.
Striking thing is that Reform's wins aren't just concentrated in outer London boroughs, outside Romford and the bits of Dagenham that wish they were Romford, they're the outer bits of those boroughs. A few sprinkles on BoJo's doughnut.
In Havering, Hexit is a potent meme. It makes no sense- the boundary between Havering and Essex is obvious and the one between Havering and B+D/Redbridge isn't- but it's potent. Suspect that there's a very high density of "Kent/Essex, actually" in those Reform wards.
But London and Greater Manchester are the only big bits of England that really work, in terms of generating prosperity and growth to keep the show on the road. Yet there's lots of fear of them and no real wish to try to duplicate what they're doing.
Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, has just spoken to BBC Breakfast.
"It's been like a slow car crash over the last few months," he says. "That's why I called for Starmer to stand down in February, because I think what we've seen in the last few days was inevitable."
Wright says there needs to be a change of leadership - but he doesn't want it to be rushed
he doesn't want it to be rushed
In other words, nor until that pillock from Manchester is eligible.
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
If policy was popular with Lab MPs he would be fine getting it through commons. If a budget measure lords can't block.
So I guess that points to a wealth tax plus (and this is important) some kind of tax cut to help with cost of living crisis.
A really bold strategy would be a full council tax revaluation. Or its abolition and replacement with local income tax.
It would have many losers but I suspect in the Labour areas it would have many more winners.
A government with five years and a massive majority ought to be an opportunity to tackle and resolve some long- standing problems. Local government finance and the moribund state of council tax is one. The House of Lords is another. The state of social care is yet another. Or, the welfare system. So far, Labour shows no sign of being either able or willing to get stuck in to any of them.
Have we all got our bingo cards ready for Starmer's big speech..
Son of a toolmaker, Tough choices, Further and Faster, Change is coming, Smash the gangs, Tough choices, Free breakfast clubs, More money in your pocket, £22bn black hole, War fighting readiness by 2034, Proud history of free speech, Far Right thugs, Adolescence, fantastic Netflix documentary, Release the sausages....
I think he'll go big on the EU and Europe.
The thinking will be it's the best chance he has of rallying progressives around him.
No he won't. It's already been briefed they will stick to the red lines on Single Market and Customs Union. So by definition, he's going small.
Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, has just spoken to BBC Breakfast.
"It's been like a slow car crash over the last few months," he says. "That's why I called for Starmer to stand down in February, because I think what we've seen in the last few days was inevitable."
Wright says there needs to be a change of leadership - but he doesn't want it to be rushed
he doesn't want it to be rushed
In other words, nor until that pillock from Manchester is eligible.
Except the pillock from Manchester isn't going to get elected - given that the most plausible seat had it's byelection earlier this year and there are very few others where the opposition is split 50/50...
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
If policy was popular with Lab MPs he would be fine getting it through commons. If a budget measure lords can't block.
So I guess that points to a wealth tax plus (and this is important) some kind of tax cut to help with cost of living crisis.
A really bold strategy would be a full council tax revaluation. Or its abolition and replacement with local income tax.
It would have many losers but I suspect in the Labour areas it would have many more winners.
A government with five years and a massive majority ought to be an opportunity to tackle and resolve some long- standing problems. Local government finance and the moribund state of council tax is one. The House of Lords is another. The state of social care is yet another. Or, the welfare system. So far, Labour shows no sign of being either able or willing to get stuck in to any of them.
The Ledbetter/euthanasia plan was their attempt at fixing social care.
Striking thing is that Reform's wins aren't just concentrated in outer London boroughs, outside Romford and the bits of Dagenham that wish they were Romford, they're the outer bits of those boroughs. A few sprinkles on BoJo's doughnut.
In Havering, Hexit is a potent meme. It makes no sense- the boundary between Havering and Essex is obvious and the one between Havering and B+D/Redbridge isn't- but it's potent. Suspect that there's a very high density of "Kent/Essex, actually" in those Reform wards.
But London and Greater Manchester are the only big bits of England that really work, in terms of generating prosperity and growth to keep the show on the road. Yet there's lots of fear of them and no real wish to try to duplicate what they're doing.
Funny old world.
Love those sorts of maps. Not as wonderfully granular as the commune-by-commune maps from French elections, but still detailed enough to give a glimpse of the electoral geography.
The borders are fascinating. Particularly that clear line between Tory and Lab/Green in South East London. The border is real and visible: it’s by and large the point at which 19th C and Edwardian housing gives way to 1930s. Straight streets replaced by curvy ones, and front drives.
I feel like the last Prime Minister who was actually good at big set piece interventions was Theresa May.
Starmer's speeches are usually completely forgettable, and the one time he accidentally said something memorable, he disowned it.
When we had this other chap, called "William Glenn" here, I am sure you remember a speech she gave where she said "Brexit means Brexit" rather than defining what it meant even though at that point nobody had decided.
I hold her responsible for a lot of the mess that followed. But otherwise, she was the last PM not in it for vanity.
That was very clear
It meant that the instruction from the voters was that we leave the EU and it was the responsibility of parliament to execute on that instruction. The context was people were agitating for a second referendum or to reject all potential forms of brexit with the hope of staying in the EU
I've just seen an Instagram that says Rayner got 50k from a Company called Refrigeration House Limited. If true its pretty substantial.and why?
Here is a February report on an earlier payment from the same donor:-
The money from Refrigeration House Limited, an Oldham-based family business set up in 1965, would, even if it were repeated in monthly installments, amount to £600,000 a year. Paul Jordon, the Mancunian who runs the firm, says: “As a local businessman, I know Angela’s track record and we need more people in politics with her background and real world experience. I’m happy to support her office because she has an important and ongoing contribution to public life.” https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2026/02/what-is-angela-rayner-up-to
All of which raises the question: where are the Staggers' subs? The American spelling of instalment is used, and the last sentence in the donor's statement makes no sense as written..
It makes sense if it's funding towards a leadership campaign.
Welcome to the world of Ultra-Starmer! Like Starmer, but more.
No more will tax returns for the self-employed be quarterly: now they're monthly. Partial jury abolition to be replaced by total jury abolition. The UK isn't going to just give away one strategically important island we're not legally obligated to surrender: we're abandoning them all.
Edited extra bit: And how could I forget: mandatory online ID to be spread to ID cards. Because nothing says freedom more than a centralised government database and compulsory identification documents.
The phone booth is ready. The cape is freshly pressed. The glasses are ready to be discarded at a moment's notice. Today is the day. Super Starmer will be revealed.
Odds on he doesn't make it out the phone booth....
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
The Lords would have double-standards.
They'd justify joining the single market due to unprecedented challenges/extraordinary times etc. and wave it through.
It's not going to happen, so you can climb down off that high horse.
I feel like the last Prime Minister who was actually good at big set piece interventions was Theresa May.
Starmer's speeches are usually completely forgettable, and the one time he accidentally said something memorable, he disowned it.
When we had this other chap, called "William Glenn" here, I am sure you remember a speech she gave where she said "Brexit means Brexit" rather than defining what it meant even though at that point nobody had decided.
I hold her responsible for a lot of the mess that followed. But otherwise, she was the last PM not in it for vanity.
That was very clear
It meant that the instruction from the voters was that we leave the EU and it was the responsibility of parliament to execute on that instruction. The context was people were agitating for a second referendum or to reject all potential forms of brexit with the hope of staying in the EU
Boo fucking hoo. Are you still whining about that? Get a grip.
Zack Polanski falsely claimed to have worked at the Ministry of Justice while campaigning for elected office, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Green Party leader said on his official campaign website in 2020 that he was “currently working at the Ministry of Justice on their training & diversity programmes”
Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, has just spoken to BBC Breakfast.
"It's been like a slow car crash over the last few months," he says. "That's why I called for Starmer to stand down in February, because I think what we've seen in the last few days was inevitable."
Wright says there needs to be a change of leadership - but he doesn't want it to be rushed
he doesn't want it to be rushed
In other words, nor until that pillock from Manchester is eligible.
Except the pillock from Manchester isn't going to get elected - given that the most plausible seat had it's byelection earlier this year and there are very few others where the opposition is split 50/50...
It's like painting a target on your back - but his supporters claim 'not to be stupid'.
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
If policy was popular with Lab MPs he would be fine getting it through commons. If a budget measure lords can't block.
So I guess that points to a wealth tax plus (and this is important) some kind of tax cut to help with cost of living crisis.
A really bold strategy would be a full council tax revaluation. Or its abolition and replacement with local income tax.
It would have many losers but I suspect in the Labour areas it would have many more winners.
A government with five years and a massive majority ought to be an opportunity to tackle and resolve some long- standing problems. Local government finance and the moribund state of council tax is one. The House of Lords is another. The state of social care is yet another. Or, the welfare system. So far, Labour shows no sign of being either able or willing to get stuck in to any of them.
The Ledbetter/euthanasia plan was their attempt at fixing social care.
Indeed, except they were all really careful not to say that bit out loud.
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
A big announcement might save him for six months though. Delivery is a future Keir problem.
I give it 50/50 - many MPs and 100% of the commentariat are desperate for him to announce he is going sometime this week, but they cannot keep that up forever, and if the plan is for Burnham to be The One then things might even go briefly quiet until he pulls the trigger.
WHAT! Isn’t one Keir enough? What did we do to deserve a future Keir as well?
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
A big announcement might save him for six months though. Delivery is a future Keir problem.
I give it 50/50 - many MPs and 100% of the commentariat are desperate for him to announce he is going sometime this week, but they cannot keep that up forever, and if the plan is for Burnham to be The One then things might even go briefly quiet until he pulls the trigger.
WHAT! Isn’t one Keir enough? What did we do to deserve a future Keir as well?
Didn't T H White foresee this in his book Once and Future Keir?
If Team Starmer thinks that those extracts are going to prove enticing, they have seriously misjudged things. AGAIN.
It is just typical Starmer word soup, no real content, just words
That won't save him.
We just need this to be over. For the country, for Labour and for him.
To be this beleagured cannot be easy to bear. Even if he tries to deluded himself that he has a future, deep down he must know that he has no future.
A long, bitter retirement beckons.
Speeches tend to be just words.
He needs a big policy announcement. Wealth tax, pr, join the single market, it is go big or go home time.
But there's no manifesto commitment to any of those, the Lords will strike all of them down and he doesn't have the political capital to ram any of them through the commons multiple times without it being killed by a thousand cuts.
If policy was popular with Lab MPs he would be fine getting it through commons. If a budget measure lords can't block.
So I guess that points to a wealth tax plus (and this is important) some kind of tax cut to help with cost of living crisis.
A really bold strategy would be a full council tax revaluation. Or its abolition and replacement with local income tax.
It would have many losers but I suspect in the Labour areas it would have many more winners.
It would be Reform areas that would be the biggest winners.
Council tax is equivalent to 0.5% of property wealth in aggregate. Even if you increased it to a flat 1%, a majority of households would get a cut, and that cut would be enormous in places like Teesside, where the current rate can be as high as 5% depending on band.
There was a lot of crap spouted on PB about people not caring about the WWC over the weekend. Well, this is the kind of policy that could hugely improve livelihoods in those areas, along with abolishing energy standing charges, quadrupling bus services (back to 2010 levels) and so on.
Rayner was, of course, in govt at the time and, yes, she’s hypocritical. It’s not a binary choice.
Declared Vs undeclared is binary
For all the PB gammons with a hard-on about how corrupt their heros can be... A more apt comparison would be that Farage's undeclared bung is 6.25 Borises. Though Boris gets extra points for being PM when he didn't declare it.
Comments
Which is usually a virtue, but can be carried to extremes.
(In the US, most engagements last between 12 and 18 months; if Google is right, they last, on average in the UK, a couple of months longer.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_87UDpwi42Y
The Green Party leader said on his official campaign website in 2020 that he was “currently working at the Ministry of Justice on their training & diversity programmes”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/05/10/zack-polanski-falsely-claimed-worked-ministry-justice/
We are twp steps away from finding out Walter Titty once turned up with the fake military medals on Armastice Day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nQeCCW7vHc
Hilariously under "three syllables" Chris Whitty. WTF?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smiN258dVcU
https://www.ukpol.co.uk/neil-kinnock-1985-labour-party-conference-speech/
https://x.com/BNHWalker/status/2053506013291020490?s=20
So I guess that points to a wealth tax plus (and this is important) some kind of tax cut to help with cost of living crisis.
Exclusive: Zack Polanski falsely claimed to have worked at the Ministry of Justice https://share.google/GCYJJ5UmQBKRFWVuV
I hope they are all feeling fair now..
Son of a toolmaker,
Tough choices,
Further and Faster,
Change is coming,
Smash the gangs,
Tough choices,
Free breakfast clubs,
More money in your pocket,
£22bn black hole,
War fighting readiness by 2034,
Proud history of free speech,
Far Right thugs,
Adolescence, fantastic Netflix documentary,
Release the sausages....
All Prime Ministers are hated by large sections of the population. As the essay notes, so were Mrs Thatcher, Blair and Johnson. I remember the hatred people felt for Gordon Brown and Theresa May as well. But the first three had diehard supporters because they knew what they wanted to do and delivered it, or seemed to anyway. Whereas the second two didn't, so didn't and didn't.
And Starmer falls very much into the second camp. He has no strong or diehard supporters, which is the inevitable fate of a man who tries to fudge everything and usually ends up u-turning.
Added to that the stagnant economy and his personal willingness to screw over allies and total lack of charisma it's not surprising at all that nobody likes him, even if all this is difficult to put in a soundbite,
The thinking will be it's the best chance he has of rallying progressives around him.
Completely vacuous
Labour still ended up with a few seats too many - say, 9.
It would have many losers but I suspect in the Labour areas it would have many more winners.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgzv77ldpdo
Welcome to the world of Ultra-Starmer! Like Starmer, but more.
No more will tax returns for the self-employed be quarterly: now they're monthly.
Partial jury abolition to be replaced by total jury abolition.
The UK isn't going to just give away one strategically important island we're not legally obligated to surrender: we're abandoning them all.
Edited extra bit:
And how could I forget: mandatory online ID to be spread to ID cards. Because nothing says freedom more than a centralised government database and compulsory identification documents.
The Times reports this morning that she wants higher taxes on energy firms and bigger increases in the minimum wage to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Which means we'd have higher prices, higher unemployment, more debt and debt interest, and even worse growth.
* Wage suppression / poor UK productivity / declining value of sterling / p**s poor UK management / selling family silver etc
They'd justify joining the single market due to unprecedented challenges/extraordinary times etc. and wave it through.
Even if a wealth tax was announced literally today it's very unlikely any revenue at all would be raised before the General Election.
So it's not going to fund any increased spending which they would want to introduce much more quickly.
https://www.ft.com/content/8ce1b9be-1d51-466b-90de-54bff1a504ca (£££)
Bad for Wes's chance of getting the big job.
The money from Refrigeration House Limited, an Oldham-based family business set up in 1965, would, even if it were repeated in monthly installments, amount to £600,000 a year. Paul Jordon, the Mancunian who runs the firm, says: “As a local businessman, I know Angela’s track record and we need more people in politics with her background and real world experience. I’m happy to support her office because she has an important and ongoing contribution to public life.”
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2026/02/what-is-angela-rayner-up-to
All of which raises the question: where are the Staggers' subs? The American spelling of instalment is used, and the last sentence in the donor's statement makes no sense as written: presumably ‘has’ should be ‘makes’.
I dunno. Is 50 bags a lot? It's all properly declared anyway which is how people know about it. The question should be, how many more staff does Rayner have after this and other donations towards staffing costs?
https://members.parliament.uk/member/4356/registeredinterests
"It's been like a slow car crash over the last few months," he says. "That's why I called for Starmer to stand down in February, because I think what we've seen in the last few days was inevitable."
Wright says there needs to be a change of leadership - but he doesn't want it to be rushed
In other words, nor until that pillock from Manchester is eligible.
EDIT: I wonder if they will extract them using the CIAs Fulton surface-to-air recovery system as seen in The Dark Knight?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FW9Sqxb-4o
Hopefully she’s just saying this to get votes from the Far left in Labour and isn’t serious. Just as SKS did.
And why is it in the heat cone from the lamp?
https://bsky.app/profile/owenwntr.bsky.social/post/3mljrn7a7ws2g
Striking thing is that Reform's wins aren't just concentrated in outer London boroughs, outside Romford and the bits of Dagenham that wish they were Romford, they're the outer bits of those boroughs. A few sprinkles on BoJo's doughnut.
In Havering, Hexit is a potent meme. It makes no sense- the boundary between Havering and Essex is obvious and the one between Havering and B+D/Redbridge isn't- but it's potent. Suspect that there's a very high density of "Kent/Essex, actually" in those Reform wards.
But London and Greater Manchester are the only big bits of England that really work, in terms of generating prosperity and growth to keep the show on the road. Yet there's lots of fear of them and no real wish to try to duplicate what they're doing.
Funny old world.
"Time to musk up..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKiSPUc2Jck
They are now stuck there, wanking each off and eating beans from the tin until the steam packet eventually arrives from Cape Town.
It's already been briefed they will stick to the red lines on Single Market and Customs Union. So by definition, he's going small.
The borders are fascinating. Particularly that clear line between Tory and Lab/Green in South East London. The border is real and visible: it’s by and large the point at which 19th C and Edwardian housing gives way to 1930s. Straight streets replaced by curvy ones, and front drives.
It meant that the instruction from the voters was that we leave the EU and it was the responsibility of parliament to execute on that instruction. The context was people were agitating for a second referendum or to reject all potential forms of brexit with the hope of staying in the EU
Considering that these transitions are the norm we should really have a less messy way of doing them.
Starmer is the lamest of lame ducks. He needs to go now rather than drag out the paralysis.
Better than the Labour Party has.
Which smells like Bigfoot's dick...
He’s the MP for Blackley and Middleton and has a majority of just over 10,000.
Council tax is equivalent to 0.5% of property wealth in aggregate. Even if you increased it to a flat 1%, a majority of households would get a cut, and that cut would be enormous in places like Teesside, where the current rate can be as high as 5% depending on band.
There was a lot of crap spouted on PB about people not caring about the WWC over the weekend. Well, this is the kind of policy that could hugely improve livelihoods in those areas, along with abolishing energy standing charges, quadrupling bus services (back to 2010 levels) and so on.
A more apt comparison would be that Farage's undeclared bung is 6.25 Borises. Though Boris gets extra points for being PM when he didn't declare it.