Also, "forced just before the election", is far better than, "forced out in the middle of the parliament"

Wasn't it wine with lemonade?

Idk, someone camping it up as Martin Bashir could be fun.

In fact, they should have done a Bashir film instead

Ha, I thought of the Architect - Listing - NIMBY industrial complex

Maybe, but all that money. He could take up any number of expensive hobbies

Given how many of them had local links he got very lucky.

TBH, I'm not getting in to a discussion on this. You are welcome to look up both the polling and economic data from before the war.

Riots rarely topple British governments.

The SDP poll ratings peaked well before the War.

You are just incorrect on this. That it's a popular myth doesn't make it any less of one.

That's just not correct and is cope.

Both the economy and her poll ratings had improved before the Argentinian invasion.

Also allegedly* wrote some very interesting stuff on Millwall message boards

* I believe he claimed he was hacked.

Yes, the Truss energy bail out is an underestimated part of the mess we are in.

If the Trump-Iran crisis continues for long enough then all bets are off.

But that would also make it unlikely this government will be re-elected anyway.

I knew Sunak was a ultra dry neo-Thatcherite and yet his technocrat managerial vibes still tricked my memory.

Yep, it's a grim repeat of the end days of Johnson and Truss and their energy crisis.

Was his NI cut more on top?

The Starmer project is about appealing to left wingers with left wing economics, and centrists with moderate social positions. Plus lots of green policies to appeal to both.

This has failed.

Major U turns like that always come at a cost.

Johnson had the pandemic to justify it and a large part of his party and the RW media never forgave him. Then Sunak reversed much of it.

Which policies do you think are going to turn it around for him?

I find it hard to believe he's in the same position as Thatcher in 80 or 81, she was very unpopular but had set herself up for victory at the next GE.

Starmer is a strange and contradictory man in many ways.

As it stands his major achievement is taking Labour away from the far left, but then revitalising the far left in another party.

It's hard to see how the Greens could be in government with a big ticket concession to them on; nuclear, defence, NIMBY maxxing, etc.

I don't see how Starmer could survive that U turn anyway

If they are the last hope, and I also worry about the various alternatives, then that's even more damming. They will not win the next election under Starmer.

I don't want to see a Reform led government, or one with Polanski in it.

But history didn't end in 2024, and Starmer spoke of a decade of national renewal.

Winning elections is less than half the battle, you have to govern, then get re-elected

It was rational if you only care about winning.

But it has hobbled the government's ability to actually govern

Making impossible promises has got them in this mess.

That manifesto is the original sin of this government and a major reason they are so unpopular.

It may well be impossible to raise income tax now, that is not a defence of Starmer, it's the opposite

Yes, that's exactly the sort of roles I've been asked this questions about

That's not how a successful governments operate. Tax rises are unpopular, you do unpopular stuff at the start of the parliament so by the time of the next GE you have something to show for it.

Yes, the aim is not "to fix the foundations necessary for a market economy to operate"

The plan is to play for time and hope something comes up to allow the planned tax rises for 28/29 to be pushed to after the next GE

I've been asked similar before.

Is it a particularly high stress or fast moving environment?