Not defending Starmer in any way, but to try and begin to compare him to the last 14 years, of Tory sleaze, corruption, self-indulgence, cronyism, etc, etc, etc, is quite laughable. The Hurting Tories on here are having a bed-wetting fest. I’ll judge this Labour Govt. further down the line not when they’ve been in office a few weeks, including the Summer recess.
I still think Labour are preferable to the Tories as they have plenty of decent MP’s. The problem is the decent ones are pushed aside & the front bench is full of poor ones as are many of the new ones that weren’t selected by their constituents to stand.
I work in local government. Cannot accept any freebies or gifts ever. Under any circumstances. They may not be as bad as the Tories but it still feels like one rule for them another for the rest of us...
I know what you mean. I’m a retired civil Servant having worked in the DWP for 18 years. When the Downing Street Covid Parties scandal was publicised the uproar was about breaking Social distancing rules and the following lies by Johnson? I always said why were they even allowed to drink alcohol on works premises, we certainly couldn’t.
All he had to do was turn down free gifts, and pay for stuff out of his £100k+ salary. That's it - that's literally all it would have taken to break from what we had before.
Thinking about that Tragic that children die but satisfying that Terrorists are feeling terror . Scary technology , what next exploding I phones ?
They've paid sponsorship money, and the box is part of that deal. Starmer isn't sponsoring Arsenal and they're not the PM.
I think he's made a massive mistake, this is hardly going to stop people saying "they're all the same" is it?
He's certainly not covering himself in glory. And he should lead by example. But I've never thought perks as the worst thing in the world. (Invitations as not in gifts) Even for tories. What I do object to is cash for questions. Regardless of party. But to put labour as a party in the same league as tories is beyond laughable. So vote for who you like. But if Tory or Reform. Please put forward your views on why. And who you actually trust to lead those 2 parties. Eric illsley got booted out and he was MP for Barnsley. Not everyone can be trusted. (Difference is, he broke parliamentary rules and beyond. Convicted. Maybe they should be stiffened up a bit) Regardless of how they perform their job. We too could not accept gifts at my place of work. Everything was raffled off. Eg plonk beer etc. And it was a disciplinary action to do so if found out. No doubt one or two at management level and the top took the risk. It was rife. Free holidays in companies accommodations being a bribe in effect to keep contracts. Some of those who preached honesty being the worst offenders.
I’m apparently one of the thick ones. Me being so thick, could you educate me as to where I should have allocated my vote? I think he’s been a bit shortsighted on the freebies issue and stubborn to double down on it - but it really isn’t that big a deal on the grander scale. He should have just accepted his error, held his hands up and we could move on. Saying he’s the same as the corrupt, foul government we’ve just usurped is wide of the mark and unfair. He’s had what, three months to overturn the issues they created? Not having a universal heating allowance for pensioners is the right thing to do - we don’t need to be splurging on them based solely on age as many are cash and asset rich. However, where the line has been drawn re pension credit is questionable. Though the fact the triple lock means all pensioners will get year on year income increases eclipsing most of the working population is skirted over by the media establishment attacking him. Whether or not you agree with what was agreed, a bit of grown up politics has resolved pay disputes with train drivers and junior doctors meaning further strike action which shut down hospitals or brought the country to a standstill are now abated. I suspect nurses will have a fair deal in due course to abate any industrial action from them. They are being tarred and feathered over the prisoner early release scheme - a scheme they didn’t devise or implement by the way - when those released early are not violent criminals, nor on long sentences; and over 80% of them would have been released within the next three months anyway. Inflation is steady at a manageable rate; interest rates coming down. I’m not a fan of Starmer per se; he’s not exactly a socialist - but a Corbyn would never ever be elected, and whilst his ideologies don’t appear to fully match mine, we live in a realistic world. I voted Labour, I don’t regret it, and would again tomorrow. The time to judge his premiership isn’t in the first few months. The fact we are talking about him going to Arsenal and his Mrs being given some clothes is absolutely bizarre. I also love how people assumed Sunak paid for his tickets at Southampton… they might not have been gifted by the club, they might have been ‘paid for’ - I’m not so sure he opened his wallet. Johnson had allsorts of holidays and stuff which were never declared so this about Starmer having more freebies than anyone else is disingenuous to say the least. He’s just declared everything. And let’s not forget he is a paying punter at Arsenal, he’s been bumped into hospitality from the stands at the advice of his security team and the club haven’t charged him the difference. He hasn’t taken a complete freebie. I don’t see him as the liar some paint him as. He’s taken over a country which is very different, and in a much worse state, than the one in which he made previous pledges years ago. I keep in mind he’s a lawyer, a bloody good and successful one, and he speaks like a lawyer at times, not a politician. He’s not box office and I think he’s got things wrong both in power and before - that doesn’t mean I think he’s as corrupt and self serving as previous incumbents. It saddens me to see the amount of stuff posted on social media about him by people at the lower end of the economic scale. Buying into the establishment rhetoric. If Labour don’t win the next election in 2029, or whenever it is, only one other party will. And it will arm the right wing and further right even more. Let’s just hope over the next four and a bit years we do see some rebuilding. We see some socialist policy implemented. We see an improvement of life and prospects for the working class. We see an improvement in the nhs, policing. Not perfection, not miracles, just green shoots and hope. If he delivers none of it, then we’d have to consider the best option, though I can’t ever imagine me thinking a Conservative government to be the answer.