On communications - no. On executing the bolder parts of his manifesto vision - not yet, but I think it is too early to judge. I agree with most of the taxation policies despite all the bleating. I also think he is generally quietly managing the smaller domestic stuff in a far more competent way than the Tories did. On the foreign stage he has acted in a dignified and statesmanlike manner. I think much of our foreign relationships are hideously complicated, and we are forced to co-operate with some distasteful regimes in our wider national interest, despite the over-simplified demands for us to call out everybody we deal with. I think he is going nowhere, although he faces some difficult challenges in getting some of the government's proposed measures through in the coming months. On those, I am sure there will be compromise. So for me, the jury is out (!), but I think he will struggle to be re-elected in 2029 because of the likelihood of the Conservatives and Reform combining either before of after the election. A simplistic summary of a complex situation.
I don’t disagree on sentiment. But nothing is going to change unless the internal regime pivots away from far right and the US decide they don’t want an ally in the Middle East. It’s just not going to happen. The UK has no power in this, like many things.
Interesting that you're ignoring the anti-Labour leftist/alternative vote that could bring him down in the inner city constituencies. I'm absolutely no fan of many of the gang who ran for parliament down here in Birmingham. But there's obviously movement towards it, it's only going to get worse, and they definitely won't go Reform. All it's really going to take is for a few of them to clean up their act and they could easily then attract a lot more people who have been alienated by Labour. They attracted enough even when it was clear they were all arseholes. If the Greens were more on it they could maybe grab a fair proportion of that vote round here - suspect they're not quite ruthless enough for that yet.
There are plenty in and around Labour that would do a FAR better job. Not many that would do a worse job. Burnham Rayner Phillips Long-Bailey Corbyn Butler Nandy Reynolds Just off the top of my head, they would all show how utterly useless starmer is if given the job for a week. He's pathetic he really is. No backbone, no principles, no plan.
I'm always surprised to hear that people think Starmer is bad at the job - it's the complete opposite of what I see! I think he's getting a lot done, but the party's comms/ spin work is really poor. On Corbyn/ Rayner etc - there might be a lot of good policies there, but they can't win an election. Partly because of our media and FPTP, but also because of their own personalities. Starmer did win an election, because he saw what he needed to do to win an election. Make smart decisions, don't upset people, don't overpromise and underdeliver. There's not much public appetite for the big shake up of capitalism that a section of the left wants to see. That would take a real force of nature Labour candidate to emerge, and there hasn't been one of those since Blair. We can't wait around for the next Atlee - I'll take Starmer slowly turning the direction over the oil tanker, over another Corbyn 'winning the argument'. (I wanted Corbyn to win). The truth is that we're skint. We've got the real economic damage of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and Brexit to contend with. Public services are shot. Major infrastructure projects disastrously over budget. Add to that the public sentiment - over the past 2 decades a big chunk of the population has got riled up to fever pitch on the issue of immigration. So much so that it's all a lot of voters care about. Social media is dividing us more than ever, and the UK's biggest ally has elected a maniac. This is the position Starmer has walked into. Do you think he's navigating it badly? I don't.
