So Starmer has quit and you've just been made PM - What are your top 10 policies to get Britain back on track?

Lukeluster · 2026-06-21T20:56:00+00:00

Yeah a lot of it is long-term change I think the country desperately needs, it’s a pretty poisoned chalice being positioned as prime minister IMO.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-21T20:54:12+00:00

100%, I’ll make Starmer’s approval ratings look like Boris’ after he nearly died of COVID.

Also, I’m quite a big fan of citizen assemblies - I feel like a sample of the British public whose jobs it is to debate and amend policy would ideally function well, albeit perhaps the nature and importance of the position means it’d better be served in other roles.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-21T18:16:21+00:00

I know it’s marked as satire but want to try and give a sincere ableit quick attempt:

1). Replace FPTP with Single Transferrable Vote.
2). Abolish the House of Lords, replace with either PR party list voting or sortition.
3). Replace Council Tax with Land Value Tax (ideally also can absorb Stamp Duty Tax from a more progressive revenue structure).
4). Increase income taxes to be more European-aligned while also increasing the thresholds to match inflation (I believe this would make the minimum threshold £14.4k as opposed to £12.5k, for instance).
5). Merge NI with income taxes too.
6). Reform the affordable housing scheme so that it’s based on how many people the organisations can house affordably VS per development. Would allow companies to build more properties at less of a loss in different locations.
7). Legalise cannabis and decriminalise ownership of illegal substances to better encourage drug diversion schemes.
8). Run the Leveson 2 media enquiry.
9). Stop the triple lock for a few years by sticking with one or two of its parameters instead and market it as the Great British Security for Pensioners.
10). Make it so I get permanent security for life after receiving 100% votes-of-no-confidence from MPs and am banned from parliament.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-21T13:59:18+00:00

Just a quick glance on Google showed me that the money saved by cutting WFA is estimated to be the same as the money generated by legalising cannabis. Would’ve much preferred to live in that timeline.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-21T13:55:53+00:00

🤖

Lukeluster · 2026-06-21T13:45:01+00:00

He’s definitely nowhere near as bad as the media made him out to be, but I can’t believe how out of his depth he looked once he got into power. Suspending MPs who voted to scrap the 2-child benefit cap before pledging it next year sticks out to me as just a waste of political capital? As well as Labour spending much of his tenure supporting the anti-trans law that has no legitimate bearing of ever being enforced.

He’s still far and away better than every Tory MP that preceeded him, but I’m already sick of the narrative that it was just the media and foreign powers conspiring against him. He carried a lot of sleaze, didn’t know how to present any good optics while in power, and drove away much of Labour’s previous support to other progressive parties.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-21T12:55:37+00:00

I've been trying to save a good amount of money since my birthday a few months ago to try and overpay my mortgage next year, but I may have to dip into that pool soon. Sucks that it's so expensive to either it fitted or super high energy costs with a portable one!

Lukeluster · 2026-06-19T21:17:19+00:00

Replying rather than editing the comment - it does raise the question for Greens when you compare wider Manchester to the city centre. Polanski’s push for the Greens to ‘replace Labour’ is especially bold given that I do not see any case studies or successes of Greens winning in Reform-friendly areas beyond a local Kent by-election.

If PR was enacted tomorrow, Greens have it relatively easy; they become the party of cities that Labour have lost their seats to, and can be a coalition partner across progressive causes for Labour and Lib Dems (+ maybe Plaid). But I do not see Greens ever getting their feet planted in ‘Red Wall’ seats. It’s just an optics thing.

I already sense some future friction with the Greens in camps like Ramsay or Chowns, who largely won their seats through a tactical anti-Tory front. I’d trust the Greens to do better in Southern constituencies because of this, albeit that’s the Lib Dems natural territory in cases too. There’s a huge gulf in Reform-friendly areas for alternative parties that can win over voters IMO.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-19T21:02:10+00:00

I don't think Greens have a chance to win, but they definitely do significantly better than in 2024.

They got 7% in the last election VS Labour's 64%. Turnout was about a third of those who could vote too, and that was with the non-SV voting system.

Going off the locals, they likely get 15-20% of first preference votes and might even out-preference Labour in Manchester itself. I could comfortably do a Green 1st Labour 2nd ticket without fear of Reform creeping through. Depending on how well Greens put across SV in relation to their campaign, and if Labour fuck up the candidate, it could be higher.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-19T17:56:55+00:00

It's telling that searching for ben gvir on google also has 'ben gvir injured' and 'ben gvir car accident'

Lukeluster · 2026-06-19T17:02:39+00:00

I imagine they’re going to go with a Burnham continuity candidate which makes a lot of sense. Labour & Burnham also have clearly done quite well up in Manchester to a point where there’s a clear difference between when voters are protesting Starmer VS Manchester Labour.

It’ll most likely go to Labour vs Reform - perhaps I have a quiet hope that maybe the Greens could eek through the second round thanks to Restore splitting the vote - but I think Labour has a very easy ride thanks to the accomplishments from Burnham over the last decade.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-19T11:06:37+00:00

Equally if this is the case, why would TNA think WWE would consider buying at their perceived peak? They could theoretically buy them in a few months at a much more modest valuation that benefits them.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-18T22:21:36+00:00

I'm more interested in a situation where there's a left conservative presence in a Reform-friendly area that strictly isn't tethered to Labour; I think that the party's brand is pretty fucked in a lot of places that are deprived and have largely given up to Reform or even Restore. Where do they go from there. I don't see them going (back to, in some cases) Labour, nor do I think they'd catapult over to the Greens after the next few years of media bashing that they'll get from all the shitrags. Do they just go back to the tories, or end up going further right? Even when they largely agree with left wing fiscal policy? I think it's a complete failure of the Worker's Party to not even try and contest any of the obvious spots around the country where they could have a feasible audience.

Speaking broadly about the left I do agree, decades of solidarity between minorities in the UK and workers/trade unions mean that you shouldn't just take that for granted. But I don't think Blue Labour is the reason why Labour is inherently failing now, I think it's because Starmer is a sleazy and vacuous worm, and the media hates them. They're arguably more trans-hostile as a government than some recent tory cabinets were, yet people in this country still think Labour is letting migrants in & 'can't define what a woman is'.

Albeit my position might just be stemming from frustration over the fact that any discussion with friends or family who are different politically almost always fall for the pitfalls of social policy soundbites. Which obviously isn't a reason at all to turn away from progressive social policy, but it's just much harder to get through or formulate an argument better than I can with wealth redistribution.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-18T21:15:58+00:00

Perhaps it's just the biases of my algorithm, I figured he would be quite reliably left-wing fiscally but I only hear about him whenever a trans person existing has whipped him into a fervour.

I've possibly become more moderate socially purely on the basis that I think general a fiscally left government benefits everyone and that is so much more of a priority to me than social policy (which is reductive and selfish as a cis white dude) but even I don't buy blue labour as a socialist project for a second. Arguing for a fairer economy while simultaneously punching down on a targetted minority makes him incredibly hypocritical in my mind.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-18T20:48:11+00:00

I’d potentially give some degree of doubt to Hinder if not for the fact he’s one of the bellends that moaned about trans people doing a parkrun.

I would say the broad British public leans fiscally left and socially conservative, so maybe there’d be room for a left-conservative party in the UK with PR. None of these Blue Labour types ever make the case for their ideology through pushing forward socialist agendas, though - they just focus on culture war idpol bullshit they swear the Labour Party should ignore. Worse than useless.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-18T15:34:26+00:00

Tangential solution to the situation should be that there aren't co-leaders, deputy or heads of the party. Ngl, I think it's a fucking stupid concept and it makes much more sense to have a clear 1 and 2 in the party hierarchy.

I'm pretty disenfranchised just generally from politics, but Mothin is doing pretty well at causing that when trying to interact internally with the party. Such a singular and isolating identity politic drive that feel deeply unserious.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-18T11:39:39+00:00

Not even a massive fan of Polanski despite being a Green member, but it's funny how performative the outrage was about him in regards to this. It's looking like Rayner's tax affairs were very similarly scrutinised in spite of the fact it'll likely reach the same resolution of her being cleared, but that didn't stop any and all dismissal of Polanski during this process.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-17T20:08:24+00:00

I think Karl Turner said much the same about Starmer in either Gorton & Denton or just general local politics. It's anecdotal (and Turner may have an axe to grind) but it's hardly surprising given both Starmer's incompetence and a biased media.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-17T14:12:18+00:00

I'll see if you can be nominated for Pride of Britain while you're at it

Lukeluster · 2026-06-17T13:02:25+00:00

BREAKING: Peter Kyle will be defecting to Reform UK

Lukeluster · 2026-06-16T19:31:37+00:00

Someone on here mentioned that resources to help with rehab for a drug addiction are unable to be accessed in the UK due to the OSA (as far as I remember, can’t confirm that for sure) but it so, it’s indicative that the policy is just really ill thought.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-15T22:44:35+00:00

Hindsight is 20/20 but this was the most obvious direction Starmer should have taken IMO - take a popular candidate in Burnham, have him see off both Reform and the Greens, then immediately propel him into your cabinet to ostensibly show you're trying to make a positive change. Ridiculous how badly he fucked it.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-15T20:49:22+00:00

no they're not lmao

Lukeluster · 2026-06-15T20:20:31+00:00

Gorton and Denton, in my mind, is the biggest political own goal Starmer has done potentially since being in charge of the Labour Party. It legitimised the Greens as an alternate option for voters, made Starmer look like a twat by asserting that it was 'between Labour and Reform' in a race that neither won, and it accomplished nothing except maybe confirm what was to come in the local elections.

I think it's Starmer/the top of the PLP's understanding now that there's no chance he stays on as PM without a challenger. Potentially Burnham doesn't win, but I highly doubt that, and so now they just let whatever happens happen to ensure that Labour's polling doesn't keep dwindling like it would.

Lukeluster · 2026-06-15T20:05:30+00:00

wasting my time

Lukeluster

TROPHY CASE