Poor old Kier Starmer..

Although I didn't actually vote for him.

Some thought his conference speech wasn't bad, but it wasn't.. world-changing was it?

In fact I didn't vote for anybody. I'd "decided" not to vote in advance. I went down with my son because he didn't know where the polling station was and hadn't voted before. But when we got there his name wasn't on the role.

(While he was away at uni, I'd failed to respond to a letter. We found it the following day.)

So we wondered if I could use my vote on his behalf.. But the people at the desk took a bit of a dim view of that. I suppose it's not surprising really.

Thank goodness ours is a very safe seat, so a couple of votes here or there would make no difference.

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Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M

You should always register to vote.
Even if you are unsatisfied with the candidates on your ballot paper.
You can always deliberately spoil it to register your 'protest'.

It's not often your country cares what you think or prefer.
And with so many 'chancers' running for office, of all parties, it's more important now than ever.

AfternoonWine · M

@Picklebobble2 My failure to open this letter wasn't deliberate.

SomeMichGuy · M

@AfternoonWine Nor was it an example of prompt attention. 😉

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

It doesn't need to be world changing. People voted tactically in 2024 to remove the Conservatives who trashed the economy under Liz Truss and sacrificed public interest for private gain under Boris Johnson.

Starmer is a competent technocrat who also happens to be quite good at uniting different factions of the Labour Party. He does not pretend to be anything else.

He made a pretty good effort at the conference to show how ridiculous and hypocritical Farage's policy announcement is. He also made a decent moral case for the rule of law and basic human dignity. He aligned himself with remarks made by Ed Davey last week. Hopefully another tactical alliance (includung any Tories who have not legged it to Reform) will see off the racists.

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@SunshineGirl Remember me?

Hope you are well.

I never bought the idea that Starmer was a unifier or a good technocratic leader.

He 'unified' the Labour Party by purging the left and the competency thing he tries to wear looks thinner every day.

I will say that he showed more life in the conference speech. He's explicitly attacking Reform. It is something and much needed.

Andy Burnham would be a better party leader. At this point, he's the one shot at winning the next election and keeping our a Reform/Tory govt

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@Burnley123 Hello again 🙂

Your views have remained consistent.

The prospect of a Reform government depresses me more than anything (although I think the likelihood of it transpiring is less than most people think).

I do have admiration for Starmer, but I sense increasingly that his cautious, longer-term approach may become an electoral liability. I cannot for the life of me understand why it has taken the whole summer for him to make an explicit attack on Reform. Now he has done so (at roughly the same time as Ed Davey) I have hopes of a Macron-style alliance against populism (another unpopular leader who nevertheless manages to channel opposition to right wing extremism from all other political parties).

HootyTheNightOwl · 41-45

If you're going to use your vote on his behalf, don't let them know that. Walk in and put your cross where he would have done... they don't know if you voted or he did that way.

AfternoonWine · M

@HootyTheNightOwl Well yes, but if we'd been planning voter fraud, of course I'd have opened all my post.. But we weren't planning anything and didn't know about the role problem til we got there.

As with so many of these security checks, the innocent are inconvenienced but the criminals have done their homework.

zonavar68 · 56-60, M

He's going to smash through his digital ID agenda regardless of opposition because the UN/WEF are telling him to implement it. Same thing is getting closer to happening here in Oz.

GeistInTheMachine · 31-35, M

Poor Starmer?! Poor UK and everyone else who has to deal with him.

TheOneyouwerewarnedabout · 46-50, MVIP

Herr" Starmer..

Achelois · F

He’s a nonce 😬

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AfternoonWine · M

@benJohnson99 So you've entirely discounted the Tory party? The "normal" run of things is that a "protest party" like Reform rises mid-term and falls back as the election approaches.

We'll have to see how things turn out over the next year or so. Will there be defections? What will people in the wings, like Boris Johnson, choose to do? Will Kemi Badenoch resign? Will Robert Jenrick replace her, and if he doesn't get the Tory leadership, what will he do?

Will Starmer resign...

There's lots of permutations in our politics. It's just not the binary choice of more Starmer or Farage. Compare this to the US in the run up to last year's presidential election and it's clear that our system is a lot "healthier."

benJohnson99 · 18-21, M

@AfternoonWine l think the legacy of Liz Truss finished the Tories

AfternoonWine · M

@benJohnson99 Yes. Possibly. But maybe that's because you're "18-21." They did get rid of Liz Truss pretty sharpish. The main parties have been bouncing back for decades. (Wikipedia lists the Tory Party as 191 years old.) But maybe this time.?

The question is (often repeated): are we entering uncharted waters? As far as the US is concerned, I'd say yes. The re-election of Donald Trump and the Democrats failure to come up with viable new leaders - it looks a real mess.

For us, our responsiveness (for instance in getting rid of Truss) I'd say it's a positive sign.

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