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At the heart of learning is motivation.
How can a man who is subject to so many freebies have any motivation to change anything? He has been reduced to being pushed along by events, accepting the world as he finds it like his new best mate ‘working class’ Darren Jones.
And after this is over, I think he will be ‘looked after’ shall we say. So, top and tailed I’d say – no motivation to do anything at all that you could call useful.
I don’t think so. He’s tine deaf. But it’s rich pickings for the Green Party, who are currently the only clear message on the left calling Farage out.
The Greens’ new leader Zack Polanski is saying things, especially about government spending and tax, which sound as if he’s a follower of this blog.
He has favourably re-tweeted me on many occasions.
Unfortunately he probably won’t learn until it is too late. When the doors of 10 Downing Street close behind him for the last time and he walks into some nice well paid directorships, his reward for not really changing anything, he is so obtuse that he will probably think to himself ‘Job well done’.
I mentioned emotional intelligence yesterday. He has none. He has also surrounded himself with people with no emotional intelligence.
There is a complete absence of kindness and compassion on the Labour Party front bench, and that is a tragedy.
Probably not and with McSweeney at the helm, no.
Double-down Starmer.
Starmer’s shovel could do with a holiday, but he keeps digging.
Starmer’s deckchairs are worn out from being moved around so much.
Starmer – the personification of stubborn.
Stop Starmer.
Very good.
Starmer shows no ability to learn from events he’s now trying to stitch up the deputy leadership appointment but then why should he when he works for the rich!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/sep/08/labour-deputy-leadership-election-contest-keir-starmer-angela-rayner-uk-politics-live
A stitch up? How dare you suggest such a thing? Off to the Topwer with you…
Not just me off to the Tower. Here’s a top comment on Nesrine Malik’s article in The Guardian today:-
“There is not a word I disagree with in this article. It is excellent. Its analysis is spot-on and its combination of exasperation and despair precisely captures what many of us feel.
There is one point I would emphasise more strongly, though to be fair Ms Malik does make it. But this is of central importance. The government is paving the way for Farage and Reform. By aping their policy stances, they will not bring back voters who have deserted to Reform. They are never coming back. Given the choice of the real thing and an imitation offered by a PM whose pledges and promises cannot be trusted, they will quite naturally prefer the real thing. But by imitating Reform’s ideas and talking-points, they give them credibility. If the government were actually trying to usher them in as their successors, they would be acting more or less as they are.
It is open to the government to counter-attack. They could, with justice, portray Farage as a corporate shill masquerading as a man of the people, whose tax affairs are a whole dimension dodgier than Rayner’s ever were. But they won’t. They have no guts for a fight. No courage. They are only resolute when punching down hard on those unable to defend themselves or when nobbling their own left-wingers.
“Spiteful incompetence”?? Thank you, Ms Malik. You said it beautifully.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/08/keir-starmer-reshuffle-labour-tory-reform#comment-172474865
Very much to agree with.
Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away.
This describes Keir Starmer and the reaction of the British public rather well I think.
“Clueless” and “vacuous” are good words to describe him.
He is probably more fool than knave. Either way, I think the dye is cast. His days in office are numbered and the dreadful legacy of his government may well be a fascist government and the end of democracy in the UK.
Very good, even if familiar. To be reminded of such things is worthwhile.
I remember reading a comment on this site from someone saying that Labour was relishing taking on Reform. They will not be outflanked on the Right, apparently. That was their only strategy. They believed that the Left had nowhere to go. Things have changed now, but Labour doesn’t seem to be aware of this. They are also unaware of the motivations of the average Reform voter. Every interview I see with Reform voters indicates they are dissatisfied with the country as a whole. It is inequality, not immigration, that is making them miserable; it’s just that they believe immigration is the cause, as that is the easy lie, and they dislike the fact that the country appears to be letting in more people while not giving a s**t about those already here. Labour could win these people over by actually taking care of them, and by managing immigration in a seamless and orderly manner. Starmer appears to be surrounded by a team that is confident in their plan, with no awareness of the reality that their plans are made to face.
Much to agree with.
Very relevant comment nearly five decades of “trickledown economics” (favoured of course by Farage) has been responsible for the surge in corporate shills masquerading as political representatives of the people. The people themselves have not exactly helped themselves by looking into economic, monetary, and migration issues in any depth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR4Kbhm6Udw
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/09/05/migration-is-essential-we-literally-cannot-do-without-it/
If Labour were serious about beating Reform, that is the route of attack they should take; that Farage is perpetuating the same myth of trickle-down economics, and that in 40 years it hasn’t worked. That Labour doesn’t play this card is telling us that clearly that trickle down is the only idea they have in their own deck. Immigration is the only issue that the vested interests paying these political parties will allow them to argue about. They don’t care who wins, only that the people who do win won’t redistribute their money.
Thank you, Tom.
That was me.
The comments were made last December by Labour back room staff to an FT team that included a friend.
The left has nowhere to go? A few people here who disagree.
https://www.mainstreamlabour.org/about
Some good names on there. But isn’t it too late? Macavity and his minions (Starmer, Reeves etc) have done incalculable damage.
“Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity,
For he’s a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.”
🙂
But Mainstream is not a political party – those guys want to get their version of the Labour Party back. But that looks very unlikely to happen – if anything the recent shenanigans have the government veering ever more rightwards. Mainstream’s efforts might increase the confidence of those on the left to make their voices heard and so contribute to a zeitgeist supportive of a progressive resurgence. But Labour is too far gone to be the vehicle for that to manifest. It will just increase the popularity of Your Party and the Zack Greens.
I tend to agree
Why was Lammy shuffled out of the Foreign Office? And Cooper out of the Home Office. Yes, both are useless and overpromoted but surely having prepared in opposition for those posts, ridiculous to have to start a new post after only 15 months?
Now the holy trinity of Starmer, Lammy and Cooper should be trotted off to the Hague to face charges of aiding and abetting war crimes and genocide, one can but hope. Vile creatures.
According to Con Coughlin in the Torygraph, Lammy wasn’t pro Zionist enough:
Cooper’s first job as Foreign Secretary is to undo Lammy’s shredding of our relations with Israel
Let us hope that Starmer’s government will now adopt a more nuanced approach to the challenges facing the Middle East
Con Coughlin
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/06/coopers-foreign-secretary-lammy-israel-relations/
(Has to be seen to be believed.)
https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-must-not-award-elbit-a-2-billion-military-deal/
This should really get rid of Starmer.
This tells you all you need to know about Starmer:-
https://www.indy100.com/news/banksy-royal-courts-of-justice-london-artwork-gavel
Starmer, or at least his advisors, know there is an alternative to out-Reforming Reform UK.
They also know that this strategy alienates a large portion of the electorate.
The question therefore is, what is their end game?
I honestly don’t think Starmer et al. care that the door is left open for Reform UK. Not when we consider the public condemnation Russia receives for it’s drone attacks and the lack there of for Israel.
This Government does not care.
Is this reason to hope?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/07/labour-insiders-form-new-centre-left-network-in-bid-to-change-partys-direction
https://leftfootforward.org/2025/09/richard-burgon-labour-leadership-will-move-heaven-and-earth-to-stop-left-candidate-to-getting-on-deputy-leader-ballot/
I voted for Richard Burgon to be deputy leader last time. No longer a member so can’t vote this time, but he’d make a good PM, let alone deputy.
He has very little understanding of economics.
Maybe you could try to help him?
Lots of us on here had very little understanding of economics until we started reading this.
Some of us still don’t, but we try hard, just like he could if he knew where to look.
We have met.
I’ve heard him speak twice in Bristol, once in the 2020 deputy leadership election and once at a Corbyn rally.
Burgon resisted pressure to sign the Board of Deputies ridiculous bullying 10 pledges, one of only 2 deputy leadership candidates to do so in 2020 (the other was Dawn Butler, famous for calling PM Johnson a liar in parliament). All the leadership candidates kow-towed to the interfering BoD bullies.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Labour_Party_deputy_leadership_election
Burgon cant get 80 sponsors, nor can any left wing candidate. Starmer has organised the rule changes and deselections/discipline/expulsions to guarantee that. Dissent is not tolerated. The 2025 deputy leadership contest is already a Starmer stitch-up.
Starmer apparently will not be attending this year’s TUC conference. The unions should respond by stopping funds for his party.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/06/reshuffle-of-junior-ministers-raises-fears-over-future-of-labours-workers-rights-bill
Surely it’s the case Starmer would be much happier in the Fascagist Party. He could promote genocide, oppressing the poor with trickledown economics, and dismantling freedom of speech and protest!
The end game… What is the end game here?
Starmer and his disgustly cruel and indifferent actions lead me to think there is something much more disturbing going on here – like by the time the next election does come round, life wont be the same, somehow. Because no one in their right mind would go along with some of the extreme ideas that he and his minions are pushing through.
Seriuously, how does Arthur Daley (farage) of the toffs get anywhere near winning making his voice resonate to working class people.
The media has a lot to answer for – its going to be interesting in a few weeks when ITV finally airs The Hack.
The new ‘mainstream’ Labour group are hoping for an ‘open dialogue’, which is precisely the opposite of Starmer’s faction’s modus vivendi – the one thing they refuse to do is to ‘discuss’ anything.
Even some docile MP’s have started to admit this, as they stare into the abyss.
Apparently not
He quite simply, should not be a Prime minster!! . Has neither the gumption, aptitude, or belief in the system he was elected to represent!
Yes we have been here for many years in a “yes pleasing ” paradigm to neoliberalism. .
This doesn’t start with being elected! It starts with changing the system.!
Again and again they follow suit and it fails.! ?? Yes question
” You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results”.
You cannot also change the stupidity of fitting square peg’s into square holes for which we simply forgot the size! Sadly the advice in Whitehall remains as it does and those mistakes are clearly made.
The Labour Party has now become the defunct Tory Party having stolen their failed policies. Starmer obviously cannot see this, being lacking in any political nous.
Then, we must ask the question: what is he doing in politics? Does he know the answer? Is he on the take, or just a time-server who has reached his level of incompetence?
I’m sure the left will abandon him very soon and regroup under more able and committed politicians. The voters will also jettison him and his false Labour government as soon as they get the chance.
I would only fear Reform if they made an alliance with the Tories. Farage is bound to implode when confronted with his past. Their 30 % in the polls puzzles me- their core support is no more than about 15%; the rest must be people disaffected with politics. This 15% could easily switch to a party of the left.
I was “political advisor” to my wife when she was a local councillor, many years ago. One mantra of mine was that the governing party can never outrun an opposition on its own turf. In simple terms Labour needs to address the real issues which have already been identified here, namely a general and genuine feeling that the government is not doing anything to improve most ordinary people’s lives.
Preciseky
All these comments remind me of Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘The Ex-ministers’. No doubt Starmer, Lammy and Cooper will soon join their ranks.