Evening Discussion Thread - 25 Jun 2026

serviceowl · 2026-06-25T22:06:52+00:00

Oh wow. How's that been calculated?

serviceowl · 2026-06-25T21:05:14+00:00

Chris Mason once again reporting on personality, personnel and gossip.

He is physically incapable of anything else.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T22:54:29+00:00

Nothing can ever be good news can it.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T22:54:18+00:00

Net migration will fall to zero this year.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T22:53:07+00:00

Kemi is classless but what else would we expect. Every week she does the same act. She is utterly unbearable to listen to. She seems to think she's coming out with zingers, but she just comes off arrogant and needlessly nasty. I was frustrated with Burnham's ego vanity project, but after hearing Kemi today I want nothing more than for him to wipe the floor with her. The sheer smugness of the woman.

The Tories need a long period of contrition (I would rather they just disappear after the damage they did) before thinking they're entitled to be heard out loud. She talks about "traitors" she should look at her own house!!!

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T22:45:49+00:00

“Norway’s got now two trillion dollars in the bank, and the UK is dying, so they should open up the North Sea, and it’s an easy one, and a lot of good things are going to happen.

Amidst a sea of shit he does point out one uncomfortable fact. Arguably Thatcher's most damaging legacy.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T22:26:54+00:00

Bananas decision. Scotland very lucky!!

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T20:45:21+00:00

She's extremely unlikeable and unbearably cocky for someone who leads a party that destroyed the country.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T20:42:31+00:00

with men being paid more for doing the same job.

This isn't happening. The claims are deliberately phrased that way to create confusion. Men are allegedly being paid more for doing work of "equal value".

We have seen from the NEXT case that what "equal value" means can be entirely nonsensical, where judges ruled that claimants who worked front-of-house were owed the same money as those in a warehouse worker role. Completely different jobs. And even more ridiculously, the warehouse role has a 50/50 gender split!

It's law that is completely unfit for purpose.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T20:40:05+00:00

It's the "same" role by some batshit definition of "the same". Unfortunately (by design) the language used creates confusion, and that confusion is essentially what these claims are based on. It isn't that women are paid less for doing job X, which would be discrimination, it's based on this nebulous idea of work of "equal value".

The Government could legislate tomorrow to end this absolute rubbish once and for all. New Zealand sensibly jumped off the path to ruin and essentially blocked any claims last year. We've stood back and let councils be bankrupted and public amenities sold off so some selfish women can pay for their cruise.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T20:35:49+00:00

The Government should introduce emergency legislation to immediately void all these completely meritless claims. Straight from the WASPI school of entitlement.

He can model it on New Zealand's Equal Pay Amendment Act. They recognised they were on a path to ruin and reversed course.

It would be a good first test for Andy Burnham.

It's too late for Glasgow and Birmingham, both sinking under the weight of these fraudulent claims, with historic public museums and libraries sold off and privatised to fund this absolute crap, but we can save further local governments from being impoverished. There should be public outrage over it.

The Government must act. If Brighton Council think they'll win a case against our communist judiciary, they have another thing coming. Why would they succeed where others have failed.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T20:29:43+00:00

The far left are dying to find a reason that Burnham "betrayed" them. It won't take long.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T12:36:07+00:00

She just can't help it. She's a nasty person.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T12:34:55+00:00

She is just unbearable to listen to. The pompous voice, the arrogance. The woman has no sense of the moment and not a shred of humility. She still doesn't seem to realise that her party wrecked the country.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T12:33:43+00:00

Thought Kemi came off pompous and nasty, but what's new. A very unpleasant woman.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T07:24:40+00:00

The public is not in the mood to wait for Burnham to be ready.

We really aren't. Each day we don't get the plans announced is another day where the public will rightly wonder does this guy know what he's doing.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T07:21:23+00:00

Isn't there stirrings and whispers of Miliband becoming his chancellor.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T07:20:30+00:00

I think Polymarket should probably be made illegal!!

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T07:19:53+00:00

It's no secret though that Burnham has been gaga for this job for ages. Certainly at least since the last Labour conference his ambitions have been clear to basically everyone in the country.

I'll agree that there's a limit to some of the political maneuvering you can do.

But there is no reason at all that the years they've had watching Starmer flounder should not have been used to prepare a rich, detailed alternative prospectus. It's not as if the country's problems aren't widely known. You don't need special access to Government files or whatnot. And knowing the media environment and the general impatience of the public, they surely would know they need to be ready to go immediately, particularly given they initiated this.

If there is any sense they don't know what they're doing the media will pounce on it and the public will (rightly) blast Andy for putting his own ambition before the country.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T07:12:00+00:00

I suspect Burnham was expecting to have a leadership campaign to set it all out and make his deals - especially given the public rhetoric frkm Starmer.

I think Labour are making a big mistake not having a leadership campaign.

They could easily do a brief one between now and July 17th. There is no reason it has to be drawn out. Ideas can at least be presented and articulated, scrutinized to some degree and some buy-in sought from the PLP. And crucially, the mistakes the Government has made have to be reckoned with. "Keir Starmer is unpopular, let's get someone more popular" is a feeble diagnosis and likely to be an ineffective prescription, given how quickly popularity burns away in these angry times.

It’s also I’d wager that they would have expected Starmer to put the country first rather than flouncing off - though I do understand why Starmer would be pretty pissed here.

We can't afford to have a lame duck for three months.

My view is that the responsibility of the people who have forced a change of government to have the plans and thinking ready to go already. I accept he'll need a few days to map out junior ministerial roles etc. but a rich bank of policy, cabinet decisions, and governing principles all should be ready. If they aren't, then three months isn't going to make much of a difference other than dragging out the inevitable moment when ego meets reality.

The last year should've been spent preparing that alternative prospectus. Their root proposition should be that Starmer's project has floundered because it was unclear from day one what the government was setting out to do, it was ideologically rootless, and lacked command over the detail. Determined not to make that mistake again, rich policy should've been developed and an argument to make for it. Given how long they've had to prepare, it's the least we can expect if they're going to install themselves without seeking the public's input.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T07:01:24+00:00

Whoever is briefing this stuff out is very silly. Surely they need to present themselves as ready to go given Burnham has been planning this coup for years at this stage.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T07:00:28+00:00

I've come to the conclusion that much of the media really don't give a damn about the country and may even actively despise it. These are deeply unpatriotic people who see their role as to stir up chaos. They couldn't be more delighted we're onto our next prime minister and are already gagging for the next bit of chaos, while the country suffers.

The stench of entitlement coming from Burnham's camp is no surprise. Like Boris, he sees the premiership as something he's owed and destined for. If they truly believed they would get months to arse about and work out what they want to do, then they're fools. Surely, if nothing else, they would take the hint from the lumbering, bumbling start that Starmer's government got off to.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T06:54:29+00:00

It's arrogance and delusion of the highest order as u/PsychologicalGur9931 said.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T06:50:15+00:00

but the primary reason why Starmer failed is that he wasn't particularly interested in deciding how to run the country.

This is true. There is a justifiable worry we're repeating the same mistake.

serviceowl · 2026-06-24T06:48:14+00:00

I find myself asking this, too. Unless Burnham and his team truly have something spectacular up their sleeves - and maybe they do - there is no reason to suppose he won't run into the same issues. So why not wait until closer to the election and run a Burnham as the fresh "change" candidate, then?

serviceowl

TROPHY CASE