What I’ve come to realise about Keir Starmer….

He can’t do much worse than the current non elected clown. If he gets elected at least he’s been voted in. The Country’s on its knees and it’s only the wealthy who can afford to live.

Boring is good. We don't want another self obsessed attention seeker, thank you.

This anti-Semitic cloud hanging over his head must be worrying as must be the recent events over the prospective candidate recently de selected for his comments. Must feel close to home since he is married to a jewess and his children brought up in the Jewish faith.

He is a serious man

I think he always looks worried because he knows he's probably going to win the next GE and that his party will be no better than the Tories

I like Starmer in himself.
Government ministers such as Lammy 😱 Rayner, the shirt button Jonathan Ashworth and the Net Zero zealot Ed Milliband worry me. But it’s what we’re going to get so I’d best get used to it.
Fortunately I quite admire Rachel Reeves.
I think she’s the power behind the throne although Rayner has huge internal support via the unions.

“remember governments get elected not by their success in getting party members to vote for them but their success in getting people who are not party members to vote for them. “
Well said MOnica!
I feel it is time to make voting compulsory at general elections- as they are in some other democracies.

The two recent by-election results show Labour has not been disadvantaged by the anti-Semitic blunder at Rochdale and has no need to throw fox hunting onto the table as a distracting dead cat. Starmer should focus on what matters to ordinary people: NHS waiting lists, housing, the cost of living and the wholly inadequate performance of a useless, in-fighting Tory government.

I can't forget he was head of CPS when all the allegations about Jimmy Saville were made and dismissed. He must have known about it as everyone in those offices would have been aware. People would have discussed it about such a famous person. He just denied all responsibility.
Also his policies seem to constantly change.
Risshi can't negotiate as it's always his way or the highway which is no good for a democracy - hence all the strikes still ongoing.
At least with Boris he would bow to public opinion and extended benefits during covid.
Don't really know who to vote for in the forthcoming election this year.

Just what I was going to say Nicenanny!

I have met Starmer, he doesn't have much 'presence' to be fair. I didn't vote for him to lead the party but I think we are ready for a serious politician who has to walk a very fine line indeed.

He is everything the 'charismatic' Johnson wasn't (I won't mention the other non-democratly elected PMs) he has integrity, intelligence, honesty, and an ability to keep calm when everyone around him is flapping about.

Yes, he loods worried and rightly so- the country is in a terrible mess and he will have to try to sort it out- he's between a rock and hard place and I don't envy him.

Do I trust him though? That is the important question. We have to say good-bye to personality politics if we are to climb out of the mire we put ourselves into.

sazzl, you’re wrong to suggest Starmer was aware of or had any part in Saville not being prosecuted.

Quite honestly I feel sorry for whoever becomes Prime Minister after this lot. They will have a great deal of problems to try and sort out. The trouble is the general populace will expect an instant solution. If it's Keir Starmer at least he has said that there will be no instant fix, I think a double term of office will be needed before everything starts to turn around.

Iam64

sazzl, you’re wrong to suggest Starmer was aware of or had any part in Saville not being prosecuted.

Whomever came up with that slur (was it Michael Fabricant?) has done so much damage, as people have swallowed it hook, line and sinker. I wish Starmer or the PLP would prosecute the perpetrator for slander, as it is such an unfair accusation, and maybe (if the right wing press actually published it) the publicity would get the message across that it is wholly untrue.

Sorry it wasn't Nicenanny3- it was Callistemon I was agreeing with way back on first page! Still not got the hang of this!

DS64till In Britain we have yet to have a directly elected Prime MInister and the leaders of the country's political parties have always changed regularly, whether they are in office or not.

If Keir Starmer had a heart attack and resigned after he was elected PM, his party would choose/elect a successor withut aany reference to the electorate.

That’s true Monica, but there’s no doubt that at an election people do vote for a party partly based on what they perceive as the suitability of the leader to be Prime Minister.

Spec1alk the day voting becomes compulsory is the day I stop voting. Democracy means having the right not to vote if you do not wish to. That includes not voting, even when there is a 'none of the above' option on the ballot

I certainly did when Corbyn was leader and left the party until
He had gone

It’s just his eyebrows. Maybe he needs new ones…

missdeke
^ Quite honestly I feel sorry for whoever becomes Prime Minister after this lot. They will have a great deal of problems to try and sort out. The trouble is the general populace will expect an instant solution.^

’Twas ever thus.
The reason the Tories got in after 13 years of Labour was because the general populace thought Labour weren’t doing a good job any more. The new government blamed their predecessor for the mess they had to deal with.
No matter how justified the need for change, it’s the same thing all over again.

he always seems to come over as dull and boring with zero personality - and always tries to look earnest - he needs acting lessons... Better than Corbyn but the same party and he did back Corbyn. Looks like he will get in - I prefer Andy Burnham - wish he would leave Manchester.

Yes certainly depth and integrity would be fantastic, along with some honesty and honour.

I think he’d be the best of a bad bunch at the moment.

Except it’s it the same policies or belief systems over again. Blair’s government did so much good for education health and children’s services. Cameron set about with a wrecking ball. The tories don’t value the nhs or other public services. Starmer’s career pre politics shows he does.
Angela Raynor built a successful life in the face of childhood poverty thanks to the public services that supported her
We must have hope

Andy Butnham was twice rejected when he applied to be leader. Leave hi. In Manchester, he’s working well for our city