General British politics discussion thread

The assumption that Starmer needs to adopt right wing policies and sound like a right wing politician in order to win the next election is an odd one. The Tories are coming up to 14 years in power and are hated by a large swathe of the population now. People who have made a decision to not vote for them are not going to suddenly weigh in behind them again if Starmer starts coming out with decidedly "un-Tory" statements. Sunak himself is deeply unpopular, regarded as a major disappointment and will not be a vote winner.

IMO, it's almost as if Starmer is too afraid to be too much of an opposition leader or to say anything that will upset the apple cart. But you would have thought that anyone with intentions of trying to sweep a strongly disliked government of 14 years out of power would be promising real and radical change rather than a continuation(!) of what the Tories have been doing.

A lot of the anger isnt with Tory policy rather the fact the Tories were unable to correctly implement the policy.

Also you had stuff like the lockdown rule breaking and a group of very talentless unsavvy MPs which are both not policy issues.

He is dead right to not touch Brexit.

But what I don't get is a lot of these interviews are preplanned. If he got ambushed about Thatcher on a radio call in show I would understand him waffling some "innovation" line but he is under no pressure to do a Telegraph article.

But he hasn't "not touched Brexit" . He is in fact still promising to make it work, or at least saying the Tories did not make it work

Quote "“They have squandered economic opportunities and failed to realise the possibilities of Brexit. ..,” he wrote."

Had he remained silent on Brexit, or made no commitment, I could understand. But he is still talking about the possibilities of Brexit, like it is a good idea, just not done right. So not too far from " make Brexit work".

He is making a virtue of breaking ties with Corbyn, because he refused to condemn the Palestinians, while praising Thatcher.

Most people don't have some text book thinking on right and left. They make their minds up on individual topics without having to conform to whatever the supposed right and left answer is.

The people who stick to one side or another without proper consideration are idiots.

Just because Labour wants tougher immigration rules, it doesn't automatically make them right wing.

I see we have reached the “actually Keir Starmer is playing 4D chess” stage of the discourse about his milquetoast politics.

Technically all he said was if the UK could produce enough workers then they should cut down on immigration which is how it already works anyway.

Mentally he never left the Oxford debating society. He thinks he can just say whatever and it'll all be a good laugh.

Cummings tweeted at length yesterday that the Rwanda plan was only ever meant to be a cheap diversionary stunt by Johnson, but suddenly the story grew legs and the numerous racists and bigots latched onto the idea. Before long, he had to start actively planning for Rwanda, even though most people in the government and the civil service knew it was bonkers and a waste of time and money.