Keir Starmer - and his miserable government

Officially he's spoken to the King this morning and is now stepping down. No timescales have been given.

Remember during the Tories spree of PM's we never got an election and we're told by the opposition it was undemocratic to have all these PM's without a general election. I wonder if after the labour leadership contest we'll get a GE or if it will be more of the same, careers before country.

Streeting bottles it and won't run in any contest...which probably means he's been offered one of the big Cabinet jobs. Burnham could walk into No10 unopposed.

(Today 11:14 )coolguy4u Wrote:  Remember during the Tories spree of PM's we never got an election and we're told by the opposition it was undemocratic to have all these PM's without a general election. I wonder if after the labour leadership contest we'll get a GE or if it will be more of the same, careers before country.

This is worse than the Tories. At least the succession of Tory PMs all stood on the same GE manifesto that the whole country had a chance to vote on.

That's certainly not true of Liz Truss. I know she wasn't there for long, but her policies were a massive shift away from the 2019 Conservative election manifesto that the whole country had a chance to vote on.

The 2019 Manifesto: Explicitly promised not to borrow to fund day-to-day government spending and vowed to keep debt under tight control.The Truss Shift: Launched a £45 billion package of unfunded tax cuts entirely funded by massive state borrowing.

The 2019 Manifesto: Focused heavily on public investment, funding local services, and levelling up poorer regions via infrastructure. The Truss Shift: The outright abandonment of the levelling up agenda, in favour of a "trickle-down" approach, moving away from regional handouts and threatening widespread public spending cuts to balance her budget.

The 2019 Manifesto: Upheld a strict ban on fracking unless scientific evidence proved it was completely safe. The Truss Shift: Quickly lifted the fracking ban, prioritizing domestic energy production over previous green promises.

There are many other examples.

Idiot on SkyNews touting Miliband for Chancellor and Streeting as Defence Secretary.

Next thread title. Andy Burnham and his Clown Show Government.

It's not true of Theresa May either. Her policies were also a radical departure from the election manifesto under which David Cameron was elected in 2015.

The 2015 manifesto promised a strict tax lock that legally banned any increases to Income Tax, National Insurance, or VAT. May scrapped this in 2017.

The 2015 manifesto committed to continuing the triple lock on state pensions. May vowed to abolish the triple lock by 2020.

The 2015 manifesto promised to introduce a cap on care costs, limiting what people were required to pay for care. May dropped the cap, a change critics labeled a "dementia tax".

The 2015 manifesto strongly championed the free market and heavily criticized opposition proposals for state interventions in private industries. May proposed a state-enforced cap on energy bills to protect consumers, which was not only contrary to the Conservative manifesto, but was actually a policy which appeared in Labour's manifesto for that same election, a proposal that David Cameron had mocked as "Marxist".

As with Liz Truss, there are other examples.

(Today 13:14 )Glenn Miller Wrote:  That's certainly not true of Liz Truss. I know she wasn't there for long, but her policies were a massive shift away from the 2019 Conservative election manifesto that the whole country had a chance to vote on.

The 2019 Manifesto: Explicitly promised not to borrow to fund day-to-day government spending and vowed to keep debt under tight control.The Truss Shift: Launched a £45 billion package of unfunded tax cuts entirely funded by massive state borrowing.

The 2019 Manifesto: Focused heavily on public investment, funding local services, and levelling up poorer regions via infrastructure. The Truss Shift: The outright abandonment of the levelling up agenda, in favour of a "trickle-down" approach, moving away from regional handouts and threatening widespread public spending cuts to balance her budget.

The 2019 Manifesto: Upheld a strict ban on fracking unless scientific evidence proved it was completely safe. The Truss Shift: Quickly lifted the fracking ban, prioritizing domestic energy production over previous green promises.

There are many other examples.

I didn't say the manifestos were adhered to. They never are.

That wasn't my point. Burnham as PM wasn't even on the 2024 GE bingo card.

(Today 13:45 )mysterion Wrote:  It's not true of Theresa May either. Her policies were also a radical departure from the election manifesto under which David Cameron was elected in 2015.

I agree that Theresa May's platform was radically different to David Cameron's election manifesto, but on the other hand she only served as prime minister for 11 months before she called a general election, so she kind of gets credit for that, eventually seeking her own mandate.

Less than two years after a landslide, Sir Keir Starmer will resign as PM and Labour leader. I'm both saddened and angry how it's turned out. 14 years out of power watching the Conservatives sleaze. Fuck Boris Johnson forever for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and party gate. I obeyed the rules when I lost five of my family, two to the fucker. Two years of scandals. The biggest fuck up he ever made was hiring Peter Mandleson as Ambassador to the USA with his track record having to resign twice from the Cabinet. Such self-harm. Andy Burnham will be the next PM having got back into Parliament last week beating Reform. I think he's Labour's best bet as Angela Rayner, Wes Streeting, Yvette Cooper and Ed Miliband are no goes. Streeting wishes he went for the leadership challenge sooner, bet he doesn't have the 81 MP's required.