My postman, John, and I had a conversation this morning, as we have talked many times over the past decade.
Our topic? Who might lead Labour. We came to pretty much this conclusion:
He put Burnham above Miliband. I did it the other way around.
Thereafter, our ranking was the same.
Our mutual loathing of Wes Streeting was agreed upon. We were absolutely agreed that Starmer was better than Streeting. It is good to see the Labour membership agree.
He might have chosen to trigger this election, but I sincerely hope he comes last.
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Streeting is in the pockets of the private healthcare companies.
Thatcher would have made him a Tory minister.
“These latest donations bring the total Streeting has accepted from private health-linked interests since 2015 up to £372,000 as declared to parliament and the Electoral Commission.”
Source: Health secretary keeps taking donations linked to private health
https://goodlawproject.org/health-secretary-keeps-taking-donations-linked-to-private-health/
And he still hasn’t pulled the plug on the Palantir contract despite saying he would review under public pressure. Likely he folded under their charm campaign.
At least Burnham has demonstrated he can lead.
Must keep fingers crossed Burnham leads in a proper direction leading to the change voters want.
Is it not suspicious that it is a Labour Together man who has stood down for Burnham?
Very
There’s plenty of info on Josh Simons, not least in Paul Holden’s “Fraud” exposé and your favourite search engine.
I wonder if he might be keen to escape the scrutiny of bodies such as IPSA by leaving parliament?
Sorry Richard. But however hard I try I can’t work out what you mean by your ‘oistamn’ John !
Postman! One of my better ones.
Is it too late for whichever better candidate gets in to get a green paper to white paper Neo-liberalism Relief Act into the parliamentary programme?
We so need one.
…and be politely but firmly requested to push through proportional representation for Westminster while they still have the majority to achieve it? Seems like the only way of putting the brakes on the Reform UK PLC juggernaut.
In the private whatsapp messages since published between Streeting and Mandelson, Streeting states that Israel is committing genocide. But when asked in the media about various actions by Israel and the US, Streeting clams up and says it is not for him to say. Such failure to have any courage of his convictions is further evidence that Streeting is utterly unsuitable for any leadership position.
@JohnA
I couldn’t agree more. As far as I’m concerned, Streeting is the Liz Truss of Likud-Labour (as I call the Starmfuherer’s clique) – promoted WAY beyond his ability, as your observation
“Such failure to have any courage of his convictions is further evidence that Streeting is utterly unsuitable for any leadership position.
demonstrates.
He is deeply unpleasant, as his track record, and now shameless manoeuvring demonstrate – the last person I’d want to see in No. 10.
Have just read Wes Streeting’s ‘self-congratulatory’ resignation letter as Secretary of State of Health and Social Care. This is the same person who has upset a lot of health professionals working within the NHS with regards to his negotiation skills when it comes to work/life balance and rates of pay; listening to those actually providing services within the community and finding it appropriate to use bullish language calling them ‘moaning minnies’ when they were raising genuine concerns about top-heavy demands put upon them to meet targets.
As a person who has experienced workplace bullying, and retired on ill-health grounds, his behaviour and impact on me being able to get my own time to discuss/arrange my health issues with my GP practice has been impacted; which led me to e-mail to my constituency Labour MP asking that he should apologise for such language last December. She did reply back with these words: “Thank you for sharing your concerns about the Health Secretary’s language and his response to GP’s concerns about his plans for digital appointment booking. I do not believe it is befitting of minister, let alone a Labour Secretary of State for Health, to use such language to describe hardworking NHS professionals.”
Think somebody needs to have an ego-check?
I did a twet on this very issue earlier this afternoon
Hi Richard,
There is so much of social media I can follow, let alone be party to Elon Musk – X and the ex-‘twitter sphere’.
I understand that in your realm of work, that is where a lot of activity happens.
I am making a collection on behalf of Mr Streeting – anything (in terms of info) useful on him that could be used against him. All donations happily recieved.
I suspect he will get nowhere. But it is always good to be sure.
The other question is: who will be the Manchurian candidate – controlled by other countries? & acting against the interests of UK serfs. To whom will the dark money flow (a la Starmer in 2020).
His best hope is a majhor office of state
I cannot see any chance of him winning
Wouldn’t it be nice if Labour had a candidate who:
a) had not received money from the corrupt Mandelson/McSweeny cabal Labour Together or
b) was not a member of the Labour Friends of Israel.
Rayner?
Can anybody in N10 work independent of the city of London? As long they serve the city masters, I personally dont see any meaningful change to the policies.
It would seem that the world’s meeja is piling in. That said, this particular article would suggest that a village somewhere is missing its resident idiot (the sub-title is pathetic)
https://www.euractiv.com/opinion/starmer-cant-answer-britains-identity-crisis/
If anybody knows of a village missing something called “Simon Nixon” – contact Euractiv.
This may an indicator of the future and possible response to Reform/Restore and the Fascist revival.
In what they say is a first for England, Helen Godwin, the Labour mayor of the West of England, unveiled Cllr Tony Dyer, the Green leader of Bristol city council, as deputy mayor.
Godwin’s people say this is the first appointment by a Labour leader of a Green politician as deputy mayor of any combined authority in England.
Godwin said the pair were united over issues such as improving transport, building new homes and creating new jobs.
Dyer said working together across political parties was the way to make sure the west of England fulfilled its potential.
Very welcome
refreshing to see them working together rather than at each others factional throats. BUT do no easily dismiss Reform as far right let alone fascist. I am old enough to remember the NF, BNP, Column 88 and Combat 19 and….John Tyndal. He would make Farage look like Trotsky.
I am working on a series on this issue.
There’s also this story about political parties coming together to oust Reform https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgpyxw7l5no
It reads:
“The Conservative Party has suspended its group leader in Worcestershire, after he struck a deal with the Green Party and others to oust Worcestershire County Council’s minority Reform UK administration. Councillor Adam Kent’s suspension came after a full council meeting on Thursday that saw the Tories team up with the Green Party, Liberal Democrats and independents to form an alliance.”
The Conservatives clearly don’t want to be seen to be ganging up against Reform but local councillors seem to be more pragmatic than ideological, which is heartening. Mr Kent says: “On national policy there are many areas where we continue to disagree with the Greens – however, local government is not Westminster. Over the last year residents have suffered appallingly due to the instability of Reform in Worcestershire. At some point, responsible councillors have to stop standing on the side lines.”
I am glad your postie has time for conversation, ours barely has time to deliver the post, which he (or sometimes she) only does about 3 times a week.
Me I’d bring back Corbyn.
Wes Streeting reminds me so much of Liz (4.5%) Kendall.
I take comfort from that. I hope she, Peter Mandelson, Binyamin Netanyahu, Trump, and Ghislaine Maxwell will publicly endorse Mr Streeting. He deserves their public support
please could you do another youtube video on the bond market hysteria? The ‘left’ media like Novara media especially now keep repeating this line constantly over the last week, about how the danger of having a left candidate is they will be constrained by the bond markets, and can’t do afford to do anything because of them. They have completely swallowed this drivel in its entirity and now repeating it out to their vast left-leaning audiences who will also internalise that sort of thinking.
It’s exhausting watching outlets like Novara Media completely swallow the Treasury’s favorite ghost story: the Bond Market Bogeyman.
Aaron Bastani acts like the bond market is a vengeful god that will smite any candidate who dares mention public investment. By telling someone like Andy Burnham to stay quiet about what we can afford, they aren’t being “pragmatic”; they’re doing the City’s PR work, preemptively surrendering the right to govern.
This “hysteria” is a political choice, not an economic law. The media loves weaponizing the Liz Truss disaster, but the comparison is intellectually dishonest. Truss failed because she funded massive, unproductive tax cuts for the wealthy during high inflation. That is fundamentally different from borrowing to invest in productive assets—like social housing, green energy, or regional transport.
Bond traders aren’t ideologues; they want returns. A country with crumbling infrastructure and a stagnant workforce is a far riskier long-term bet than a country with a coherent plan for national renewal. When “left” commentators internalize this mental ceiling, they fall for the household budget fallacy. The UK is a sovereign issuer of its own currency. The real constraint isn’t a lack of permission from Gilt traders; it’s the availability of real resources like labor and materials.
By policing the language of candidates, these media voices shrink the Overton Window until it’s a tiny slit. If we accept that the bond market has a permanent veto over democratic manifestos, then we’ve already lost. It’s time to stop cowering and start pointing out that the state has the power to shape the market, not just the other way around. We can’t afford not to invest. It’s high time the alternative media stopped repeating the very drivel used to keep us paralyzed.
Perhaps there is some justice or maybe karma in Starmer having done to him what he did to Corbyn. I’m reserving on Polanski and the Green Party, but otherwise there doesn’t seem a political party competent to lead, let alone a politician of integrity or opposing neoliberalism in the leadership queue. Certainly none that want to give up classical economics. But, England is not alone, Carney’s Liberals are taking us Canadians down the road.
[…] second is that he has, like everyone else, read the opinion polls on this issue, which I shared here yesterday, which show that he has almost no chance of winning a Labour leadership election and, as a […]
[…] second is that he has, like everyone else, read the opinion polls on this issue, which I shared here yesterday, which show that he has almost no chance of winning a Labour leadership election and, as a […]
There once was man called Wes Streeting
Who bloviated with boastful wet bleating
About his vision, his ideas, his catechism
To a party still wedded to neo-liberalism
And in the end, all that happened, was a beating
Now I see, your postman ! I wondered who you oastmn was. I decided it was some kind of shell fish delivery . Keep up the good work , you are the sane voice !
Sorry….
Talking about Streeting’s woeful record – his fixation on what he called ‘the independent sector’. to help with the NHS, the Guardian / Prem Sikka notes that Spire Healthcare which draws a third of its income from NHS may be taken over by a hedge fund… Maybe the Glossary should have an ‘Hedge Fund’ entry?