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Labour Leader: Keir Starmer II

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I think you're right that the importance of PMQs is overrated. William Hague was said to be excellent at PMQs, but where did it get him?

On the other hand success at PMQs does seem to matter among opinion formers, so if Starmer is successful at PMQs he will get more positive coverage for other things he does.
He had lots of other ‘issues’ & up against an equally skilled opponent.
 
Oh I think PMQ is doing an excellent job at regularly exposing Johnson as plainly unfit.

I agree - with his barrister's training I would certainly hope so. Unfortunately a vocational degree, the ability to cram and to define an argument in a sterile context doesn't make a leader in itself. Maybe that was enough in Westminster circles in the past but people want radical policies now, and radical policies will be necessary for the future for sure, but there's been very little (if anything) to suggest that Starmer is capable of delivering.
 
I agree - with his barrister's training I would certainly hope so. Unfortunately a vocational degree, the ability to cram and to define an argument in a sterile context doesn't make a leader in itself. Maybe that was enough in Westminster circles in the past but people want radical policies now, and radical policies will be necessary for the future for sure, but there's been very little (if anything) to suggest that Starmer is capable of delivering.

Which particular barometer of public opinion leads you to this conclusion?
 
Correction: ....[some] people want radical policies ......and [you think] radical policies will be necessary for the future...

You don't because you're missing the point - the Tories are offering extremely radical policies just the wrong kind, but they're popular. Sturgeon too is radical in her own way - leaving the UK is very radical and growing in support. You don't counter those by saying let's go back to the failed policies of Gordon Brown or supporting the Union. We'll be facing 'no deal' with the EU, or some shabby compromise, a dreadful deal with the US with rising healthcare costs and declining food standards, increased pressure on the climate - all that needs imagination.

Which particular barometer of public opinion leads you to this conclusion?

Read the Tory pollster I referenced yesterday
 
'Sensible policies' will be difficult for Labour to define in current circumstances. The Tories have already thrown public money at supporting the economy for the past few months, and are committed to major public works during the current parliamentary term. The Chancellor has indicated that tax rises are inevitable. Clearly Labour can say that they will do what everyone hopes/expects they'll do - support the NHS, sort out the mess that education is in - but what else that is a) sufficiently distinct from what the Government is doing and b) 'sensible' (however defined)?
 
You don't because you're missing the point - the Tories are offering extremely radical policies just the wrong kind, but they're popular. Sturgeon too is radical in her own way - leaving the UK is very radical and growing in support. You don't counter those by saying let's go back to the failed policies of Gordon Brown or supporting the Union. We'll be facing 'no deal' with the EU, or some shabby compromise, a dreadful deal with the US with rising healthcare costs and declining food standards, increased pressure on the climate - all that needs imagination. Read the Tory pollster I referenced yesterday

Is that the poll that found Starmer is far more popular than Corbyn? The article concludes "But looking at the current polls, the resilience of the Conservative brand, the continued toxicity of Labour’s image, and how governing parties usually perform at this stage, the Tory party is in a better position than the reaction to that Opinium poll suggested."

How on Earth does that suggest people want more radical politics? It tells me the exact opposite.
 
Corbyn was neck and neck with the Tories too

""Nor is it all Corbyn’s fault: the problems of even the Gordon Brown years still hang over the party, with many of my focus group attendees saying it would be “just like last time” if Labour was in charge of the economy."

Imagine where the Party would be without the Blairites sabbotaging Corbyn's leadership from 2015 onwards - imagine had they supported the Party and not the Tories. The 2017 manifesto was extremely popular despite all that sh1te, thanks to enormous funding from Unite in support of the election campaign and the commitment of Momentum supporters on the ground. Starmer's p1ssed all that up the wall in favour of his control of the party machine and ideological purity - neoliberal purity.

The risk is, and it's a big risk, even if elected on vague promises, he'll fail to deliver and fuel a further drive to the right.
 
Is that the poll that found Starmer is far more popular than Corbyn? The article concludes "But looking at the current polls, the resilience of the Conservative brand, the continued toxicity of Labour’s image, and how governing parties usually perform at this stage, the Tory party is in a better position than the reaction to that Opinium poll suggested."

How on Earth does that suggest people want more radical politics? It tells me the exact opposite.
Starmer’s popular. The reason the Tories are still out in front is because they’re popular too. Boris is popular. And it’s not because of his sensible attitudes to international trade and calm, competent handling of the current crisis. It’s because he promised to stick it right up smartarse Remainiac MPs, Brussels bureaucrats and refugees, even if - especially if - it meant setting fire to the economy, parliament and the UK itself. Current Tory policy isn’t just radical it’s apocalyptic, and they’re more popular, after a decade in power and a mass cull of their own livestock, than any party since peak Thatcher. Herself no moderate.
 
Coming from the man who just elevated Claire Fox to the HoL, that was rich indeed.
He’s using the same technique as Trump- make an outrageous accusation then leave it hanging ( or in Trump’s case, take down the tweet later before it gets moderated but leaving the stink hanging). Johnson is literally trashing the reputation of “the mother of parliaments” on the world stage.
 
Corbyn was neck and neck with the Tories too

""Nor is it all Corbyn’s fault: the problems of even the Gordon Brown years still hang over the party, with many of my focus group attendees saying it would be “just like last time” if Labour was in charge of the economy."

Imagine where the Party would be without the Blairites sabbotaging Corbyn's leadership from 2015 onwards - imagine had they supported the Party and not the Tories. The 2017 manifesto was extremely popular despite all that sh1te, thanks to enormous funding from Unite in support of the election campaign and the commitment of Momentum supporters on the ground. Starmer's p1ssed all that up the wall in favour of his control of the party machine and ideological purity - neoliberal purity.

The risk is, and it's a big risk, even if elected on vague promises, he'll fail to deliver and fuel a further drive to the right.

So no evidence for your statement about people wanting radical politics.
 
As for Boris Johnson, he clearly struggles against Starmer at PMQs, but does it matter:

https://bylinetimes.com/2020/08/28/boris-johnson-the-anti-prime-minister/

The "mutant Algorithm" quote leapt out at me.

Interesting to hear someone on the Radio having fun asking a minister when the algorithm mutated?

He got an answer that involved a lot of nervous blither and no actual words of course, so he then asked what it mutated from and to? Similar response. I do like to hear a politician squirm in their own hypocrisy. It would be even more fun if a few other journalists asked questions like that
 
So no evidence for your statement about people wanting radical politics.

It says in black and white that people don't blame Corbyn they blame Brown. The reason for that was the repeated failure under Milliband's leadership to explain the root cause of the banking crash. There's no suggestion whatever the folks didn't like the 2017 manifesto. You need to get your head around Brixit and what is happening on the radical right. Corbyn is blamed for backtracking on the referendum result.
 
Corbyn did ask serious and important question, which May would avoid by making jokes that fed into the anti Corbyn narrative and produced the usual deafening chorus of farmyard noises from the Tory (and Labour) backbenchers. Then after that, all that was shown in the media was the joke and all that was heard was the Tory braying. Corbyn’s question was lost

He usually gave the impression he was just reading last month’s homework. Just totally outside the current news cycle, e.g. Gina Miller would have beaten the government in the courts, Farage/Yaxley Lennon would be bringing their racism to the streets and Corbyn would ask a question about bloody bus stops in Warrington or something. Real ‘focus group says no’ cowardice at challenging the issues of the day IMHO.
 
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