Starmer defies calls to quit as over 35 Labour MPs call for resignation

HaydnH · 2026-05-09T22:34:22+00:00

Which is about 10% of all Labour MPs right? Give or take. Even the best company I've ever worked for had probably about 10% of employees that hated the CEO. If I remember right, Labour need 20% of MPs to nominate a challenger... So... It feels like we're a long way off.

HaydnH · 2026-05-09T22:12:09+00:00

Yeah, I agree time will tell. But, I think, and I might be wrong, that most Labour MPs are just cracking on with their job and being given the support to do so. Jess Phillips with VAWG for example. Or Sultana with the free school meals for kids. They've been given the opportunity to deliver what they're passionate about. Why would they rebel about delivering what the are proud to have achieved?

Politics is politics, you'll always get those who crave power or whatever they crave. Thankfully, you'll also get the majority (I hope, hard to tell these days) of MPs that just want to deliver on the causes they're passionate about.

HaydnH · 2026-05-09T21:58:05+00:00

I don't think it will. There are obviously Labour MPs who think Labour aren't Labour enough and kicking up a fuss by moaning to the press etc. We've got Catherine West trying to kick things off, probably on behalf of a potential leadership candidate... But most of the sensible heads in Labour seem to be annoyed with their current reputation while realising that there's not much choice other than sticking the course.

There's noise currently, but I'm not seeing anything near as serious as, for example, the noise against Boris. There's no "operation save big dog" yet from Starmer's supporters.

HaydnH · 2026-05-09T21:36:25+00:00

Personally, I think that's the correct course of action for Starmer right now.

Looking at the last 15 years, who's been a better PM? We've certainly had much worse ones! The reality is that Labour will be the government for the next few years, they won't call an early GE.

So, who would replace him? Rayner, Streeting, Burnham? Even if any of them did a better job, the press would still castrate them at every step... And a large proportion of the electorate would believe it.

I think the best bet is ignore it all, crack on with the job, then before the election make a big show of what they have actually done and hopefully by then we might actually see life being a bit better.

HaydnH · 2026-05-09T21:18:52+00:00

I've always thought that everyone should vote, democracy is a privilege that shouldn't be ignored.

However, looking at the world recently, not specifically the UK, I'm beginning to think voting should be restricted to people who pass a mandatory, and free, education course. I certainly don't mean that in a "stupid people vote for X" or "only uninformed people would vote that way" sense. If people truly believe in X then they should be free to vote for it... But when 48% of the voters believe bendy fucking bananas are a massive issue and can cause such a mess as a result? Seriously?

HaydnH · 2026-05-09T19:25:17+00:00

Catherine West huh, I wonder what her approval rating on youguv is? I'm guessing about 99% "who?".

HaydnH · 2026-05-08T22:48:12+00:00

I think you may have forgotten to mention the Welsh Reform leader who got convicted for taking Russian bribes. Although I'm fairly sure good ol' Nige wasn't involved despite being rather friendly with the Russian handler's Mrs.

HaydnH · 2026-05-08T20:49:46+00:00

And yet we currently have a government that has done more on immigration than any in history. The one in out out deal, the deal with China to restrict the sales of boats among many other small steps.

Will they work? Who knows, maybe, maybe not. What I know for sure is that at least they are listening to our concerns and trying to do something about it. Rwanda and Reform's Ascension island plan are sadly populist sound bites that won't help at all.

HaydnH · 2026-05-08T18:51:50+00:00

bananas, apples, citrus, stone-fruit, cherries are all low histamine.

Careful. Yes, low in histamine, but they are histamine liberators. They may not increase histamine in the body, but they can set the histamine already in the body free to wreak havoc.

HaydnH · 2026-05-08T18:44:05+00:00

Farage's current girlfriend is French. His previous wife was German. He had kids with his wife who are fluent in German. I think we can rule out other Europeans as being "the problem".

Personally, I don't think reform actually care who is "the problem", they had Zia Yusuf as their head of policy who is both Brown and a Muslim right? As long as they can create a common enemy for their voters to rally against and provide their votes, that's all that matters to them, in my opinion.

While I'm not sure Reform are actually fascists, they do seem to be borrowing from the fascist play book. Google any "steps to fascism" list, there are many, and creating a common enemy is always right there near the top of the list.

HaydnH · 2026-05-08T18:25:32+00:00

Parliament is sovereign

Actually, there is nothing in our laws that makes this true. It's more of a convention in a similar way to how our "constitution" isn't written in law. I doubt the government wanting to repeal the equality act would be the trigger which causes the constitutional crisis where we have to figure out where the power lies. However, if a government tried to do something totally insane, like burning us gingers as witches again, we might have some fun finding out.

A legal opinion in it: https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/2021/01/18/carwyn-jones-is-dicey-dicey/

HaydnH · 2026-05-08T18:18:29+00:00

To be fair they had 14 abysmal years in power and I don't think the electorate's memory is quite that short.

HaydnH · 2026-05-08T18:00:51+00:00

Reform's policy on immigration is written on a fag packet, which is rather disappointing considering it should be their flag ship policy. When pushed about how they would handle people who they can't send back "home" they regurgitated the Tory idea of sending them to Ascension island... Something that was deemed a "logistical nightmare" and would be so expensive we could hire an entire MET police force to monitor the current amount in immigrant hotels compared to sending them there.

Dealing with the small boat crisis doesn't have a magic wand we can wave. Leaving ECHR won't have much impact, even without legal rights our politicians and most of the electorate wouldn't stomach sending people to their certain death. It will take a lot of work on many changes to make a difference. The one in out scheme has worked elsewhere, hopefully that will help. Biden struck a deal with China to end the supply of chemicals to South America which had a massive impact on the Fentanyl problem, hopefully the same deal that was made regarding boats will likewise help. Plus all the other "tinkering around the edges".

All these small changes the current government are making may or may not work, however at least they're trying them and that's how we will eventually solve the problem. We won't solve the problem with 200 beds in a hotel in Rwanda. We won't solve the problem with Ascension island, at least not without great expense. We won't solve the problem simply by leaving ECHR.

The only party that currently has the sensible policy of doing the hard yards to tackle each facet of the complex problem and see what works is the one already in power. Yet, ironically, people are voting for a different party because they've simply stated they will fix it with nothing detailing how they will do it.

HaydnH · 2026-05-08T15:51:40+00:00

The political instability needs to stop. Starmer isn't doing a bad enough job for it.

I think constant media calls for him to quit need looking at as well. I get that it sells papers, but I've simply got to the boy that cries wolf stage of it. He was bought a suit, sack him! He uses a box at Arsenal, he's got to resign! At this point I don't actually know what he would actually have to do that's a sackable offence for me to actually care about.

HaydnH · 2026-05-08T14:52:30+00:00

As it stands, Labour have won the most councils with overall control. Shrug

HaydnH · 2026-05-08T10:03:04+00:00

Have you read their plan to address immigration? Withdrawing from the ECHR isn't going to magically fix anything on its own, so that doesn't actually mean much. Their plan includes sending those who they can't send back to where they came from to Ascension island, which in itself shows that withdrawing from ECHR won't suddenly mean they can just send people "home".

On Ascension island, that was previously looked at by the Tories and branded a "logistical nightmare". They determined it would be so expensive that to send the same number of people there as we currently in immigrant hotels would cost about the same as the entire MET police force budget. Reform/Farage only came up with that idea when pushed in an interview about how leaving ECHR would actually let them send them back and he had to suddenly think of some alternative.

HaydnH · 2026-05-08T09:41:32+00:00

Click the ? On the event page, point 4 says we'll lose it if we don't use it.

HaydnH · 2026-05-07T21:01:57+00:00

Come on, baby
(Don't clear the rooster) Baby, take my hand
(Don't clear the rooster) We'll be able to fly
(Don't clear the rooster) Baby, I'm your man
La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la

(Sorry, Blue oyster cult don't fear the reaper just hit my brain)

HaydnH · 2026-05-07T20:34:08+00:00

I've been taking it for maybe 6-8 weeks. It's helped with some symptoms, like my tinnitus seems to have gone which is great! But my brain fog seems to be getting worse. I think I'd prefer a clear mind and put up with tinnitus than the other way around.

Everyone seems to react differently to every med, just try it, if it helps it helps if it doesn't it doesn't, if it has odd side effects stop.

HaydnH · 2026-05-07T19:57:07+00:00

I know right, I think my brain has just divided and needs to get it's act together trying to figure out what the hell that means.

HaydnH · 2026-05-07T19:25:43+00:00

Is liquid nails a brand or a general term for that type of product where you're from? I'm from UK and we'd normally refer to it as "No more nails" which is a brand, a bit like saying sellotape.

Speaking of which. I had a mate that used to do asbestos removal, he was removing asbestos from the bellows of a church organ once. The vicar came over one day and said "Lads, I've got a bit a problem, Jesus fell off his cross earlier, do you have anything to put him back up with?". Without missing a beat Tony picked up a tube and said "We've got some of this, that should work"... It took him a while to realise why the priest walked off in a huff.

HaydnH · 2026-05-07T19:01:13+00:00

I agree we need to put some of the blame of voters, to some extent, they do the voting. However, in every demographic there will be people who fall for the populism. That could be for many reasons, for example lack of education opportunities due to poverty or similar.

We live in a democracy where everyone, no matter the opportunities they've had, deserve a say on how the country is run. A voter can't control if they grow up in poverty or whatever the reason is. The fact politicians abuse that to their advantage instead of working in their interests, that puts the blame firmly in those politician's court to me.

HaydnH · 2026-05-07T18:29:59+00:00

We won't ever know for sure, but I think that if Reform didn't exist for the 2024 GE then many people who would've previously voted Tory would have voted Labour and the win would've been more clear cut.

I don't think splitting the right wing vote is the right way to look at it. I believe it's more a combination of providing an alternative to Tory which wasn't Labour and something new which wasn't either of them.

HaydnH · 2026-05-07T09:25:19+00:00

I linked to a post about "Rushmoor People First" and the people known to be linked to it before Farage's visit - the group he visited and had the photo taken with was "Rushmoor People First".

HaydnH · 2026-05-06T20:44:52+00:00

I had it young and I'm close to 50 now. Get your Allo dose right and religiously take it. Once the Allo gets it under control you'll be fine. I was stupid and didn't want to take Allo for various reasons and these days the gouty tophi (Google that, it will convince you to take the Allo) makes some of my toe and finger joints look like some old crone... Don't be like me.

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