Then it’s all on Starmer now. No distractions and so far he isn’t popular.
I’m left wondering if this is our Biden not stepping aside moment.
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A Blairite, a Brownite, a Milibandite and a Corbynite all walk into a pub.
The barman says, “Hello, Mr Burnham, what can I get you?'"
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Biden stepped aside and Trump still won.
I have no skin in the game as I have come to terms with this storyline / arc playing out towards a mostly bitter end in Europe (including the UK). It feels like things will come to a head over the next decade or so, at the end of which, we will either plunge further or maybe, just maybe, we will have a reset and a brighter future somewhere ahead of us - you’ve gotta have hope…
Time and inertia are against a quick course correction. There doesn’t seem anything (baring Aliens or God materialising) that can be done that wouldn’t take a decade, likely multiple decades, to course correct from where we are.
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Too late, but I agree with the rest of your sentiments and hope.
I just think there’s a huge number of dissatisfied and lost voters out there looking for someone to grab it, and so far Starmer isn’t. It doesn’t matter how good the policies and results are, they aren’t hitting home sadly.
Even if Biden had stated he was not going to run again, I’m not convinced there was a candidate ready. I cannot see Starmer stepping aside changing anything. Even if he stepped down last year - what does it change. Messages are not going to move the dial. The mess has to play out. Better economical winds have to come about. Some party, it won’t be the next one, will sail the better winds in a decade or so.
In short I’m not sure whether there is/was anything the UK could have done to avoid the path we are on.
Those that voted Leave will now (likley) all vote Reform and the ones that were on the fence, will vote Reform as those voters’ economical situation hasn’t improved or improved enough. Those in the middle/higher income bracket, don’t want to pay inheritance tax, don’t want to pay extra to the private schools their kids are going to, nor more tax on additional properties… and so they will also vote Reform - primarily as they don’t see the Conservatives winning.
Will be interesting to see Farage in power, I’m sure he will have an answer to a way out of the hole we’ve dug - even if it is in enabling a way to finding the bottom…
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Such bullshit from Labour 
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Have to disagree. The last thing we need is another Reform MP or more likely a Reform mayor of Manchester. Plus the huge expense of a totally unnecessary mayoral election.
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Think Reform are likely to win in Manchester?
Yes I do.. I didn’t think we would have a Reform MP on Merseyside but we do…
Now Burnham is not standing, one Bookie has already got Reform slight favourites to win the by election in Gorton.
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I think @tesh is correct - it’s unlikely someone like Burnham can be different enough to change the mood music towards this government. I think the general narrative at play in the media and amongst voters has always made this an uphill battle for Labour, particularly when its election win owed so much to such a diverse group of voters.
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Yeah no worries. They haven’t helped themselves though, or offered anything that the left can get behind which is where my head is on this.
If the Greens are stealing votes from you, there’s an issue somewhere. They seem to be fixated on this almost Blairite obsession with the middle ground, a middle ground that has changed significantly.
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None at all?
Sure there have been mis-steps. But how much of this is also down to expectations that are not likely to be deliverable?
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None that they can see and feel. That’s the issue. I know they are, but the story is shut down before anyone sees it. Which is your original point I believe.
For me it’s largely been their Comms and then the stupid stuff like the Rayner debacle, and the others. It’s just a bad look no matter how well you’re actually doing in reality.
And the centre right obsession they have feels laid out perfectly in their unwillingness to look at the link between energy prices and gas. Also last week’s “effort” with water companies. I’m not convinced by the £100bn counter argument to nationalisation, or the half way efforts they put in here.
Now this could (probably) be down to my lack of knowledge in the detail, but this again comes back into their Comms needing to fill that gap.
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Another one. Surely time for a rebranding.
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What? “The Conservative Party: Now officially with fewer twats.”
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I was thinking “Reform - Conservative, but more cuntish”
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YouGov voting intention from 19 Jan has it as Reform (24%), Labour (19%), and Tories (18%). There was a 9% difference between Reform and Labour on 5 Jan, and there are quite a few articles out there arguing that the Reform numbers weakening is a thing, not just a blip.
Like I said above somewhere, I will be interested to see if Starmer looking sane in a world of insanity will have an impact.
Also wonder what impact the ‘Tories-except-by-name’ will have.
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Situation continues to remind me of first Chretien government in Canada in the early to mid 90s. The overarching fiscal situation forced major government cuts, and two years in Chretien’s numbers were woeful. However, the split on the right (also called Reform, with the traditional party being the Progressive Conservatives) meant that even at the nadir, under the FPTP system the Liberals were never really in trouble. Reform’s vote was too regional to be efficient, the PCs were too diffuse to win a percentage of seats in line with their vote percentage.
It is possible that the most important dynamic right now is the ability of the old Conservative Party to continue on to at least force a merger on terms, rather than collapsing into the Reform Party.
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That’s today’s winner 
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Cool cool…
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