| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time 06:57 - May 8 with 2069 views | onceablue |
Labour have no chance of winning anything whilst he is in charge.
If he thinks anything of the party he says he loves he will resign he has to
Unfortunately he made too many promises he just couldn’t keep and blaming the previous Government just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Imagine if after 2 years under McKenna we were still useless but he kept blaming the previous Manager, the state of the training ground, the pitch etc - You would still expect to see some improvement
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| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:39 - May 8 with 334 views | Blueschev |
Too many promises? He didn't make any, and now the government he leads are reaping the rewards of having no plan or vision for government. |  | | |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:44 - May 8 with 305 views | redrickstuhaart |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:32 - May 8 by Guthrum |
However, these are also local elections, traditionally used by those who don't consider they count for much (!) and want to register national political protests.
Additionally, the Reform gains look huge, but it's from a standing start. These seats haven't been contested since 2022, when the party did not really exist as a force and Farage wasn't leader. Also at a time when Labour were the protest vote against a Conservative government. There's bound to be a large swing by those who don't like The Government (in whatever form) at all. The "I don't trust politicians, they're all dodgy" crowd. |
At the last big locals, the area I was in had 3 seats for grabs. About30 percent voted libdem. 25 percent voted green and about 10 percent labour. Tories got all three seats. | |
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| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:46 - May 8 with 288 views | GlasgowBlue |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:04 - May 8 by ElderGrizzly |
As of 8am this morning, the Tories had lost a higher % of seats than Labour in these elections too.
Marginal, but 68% to 66% |
Tory vote starting to hold up now. Especially in London. |  |
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| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:52 - May 8 with 265 views | ElderGrizzly |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:46 - May 8 by GlasgowBlue |
Tory vote starting to hold up now. Especially in London. |
Lib Dems starting to win councils both down south and oop north.
Beating Reform in both Portsmouth and Stockport |  | | |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:54 - May 8 with 253 views | GlasgowBlue |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:52 - May 8 by ElderGrizzly |
Lib Dems starting to win councils both down south and oop north.
Beating Reform in both Portsmouth and Stockport |
Ignore. Out of date poll. [Post edited 8 May 11:00]
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| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:55 - May 8 with 252 views | Guthrum |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:33 - May 8 by SuperKieranMcKenna |
There will always be wars and instability in the world, it seems a cop out to me that our politicians of all colours have left us so ill equipped to deal with them. Ukraine and the ensuing inflationary crisis - we were hardest hit in the G7. Our energy policy has left us totally reliant on gas and global supply chains. Offshoring our industry, food production, and energy has come back to haunt us and will continue to do so.
Farage wants to make it worse with his hostility to renewables, and Greens with their opposition to nuclear - SMR’s could be a game changer. People wouldn’t be suckered into the anti-elite charade from Reform had Labour and Tories actually made people’s lives better. Housing costs are amongst the highest in the west yet immigration hit 1m net, wages haven’t risen, and youth unemployment is growing due to an almost unlimited labour market. Public services are still on their knees. I get it takes time, but other than nationalisation of the rail network, very little has changed. They’ve been riddled by incompetency like Rayner and the Mandelson thing, it just looks like business as usual with a bet less overt corruption.
Hopefully this result will be a wake up call to them, but I’m not optimistic- they seem totally unprepared for power despite being a shoe-in and a huge majority in the general election. |
Problem is, tyhere is no feasible way of improving people's standard of living. Every other government on the planet is struggling with the same issues. The ones who claim not are lying.
Standards of living in the UK have risen massively over the last 50 or 60 years. The present dip is from a very high point, historically. There isn't so much room for the dramatic improvement older people or the previous generation saw in that time. So of course things will feel unsatisfactory.
Moreover, inflation has been huge over that period. Particularly in the realm of earnings, needed to pay for the luxuries with which we fill our homes and lives, but consequently pushing up the price of anything else requiring human labour. The desperate squeeze on taxation is to help cope with this, but services cut result in more expensive private replacements (e.g. dentistry), or knock-on issues (e.g. the crisis in mental healthcare).
It cripples any hope of fundamentally tackling the systemic problems.
The best anybody in the Western world can do is tinker around the edges. Meanwhile opportunists spout unrealistic promises of a return to the land of milk and honey - which they cannot, or never intend to, deliver. Backed by media organisations led by people with their own agendas for preserving extreme wealth and influence. |  |
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| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:56 - May 8 with 247 views | ElderGrizzly |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:54 - May 8 by GlasgowBlue |
Ignore. Out of date poll. [Post edited 8 May 11:00]
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What's the point of a 9 month old You Gov poll to what happened in a local election yesterday? | | | |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:58 - May 8 with 239 views | GlasgowBlue |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:56 - May 8 by ElderGrizzly |
What's the point of a 9 month old You Gov poll to what happened in a local election yesterday? |
Ignore that. I thought it was a new poll as it cane up today. Should have checked the date. | |
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| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 11:03 - May 8 with 228 views | ElderGrizzly |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:58 - May 8 by GlasgowBlue |
Ignore that. I thought it was a new poll as it cane up today. Should have checked the date. |
The desperation for a 'gotcha' can sometimes bite can't it? ;) | | | |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 11:16 - May 8 with 213 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:55 - May 8 by Guthrum |
Problem is, tyhere is no feasible way of improving people's standard of living. Every other government on the planet is struggling with the same issues. The ones who claim not are lying.
Standards of living in the UK have risen massively over the last 50 or 60 years. The present dip is from a very high point, historically. There isn't so much room for the dramatic improvement older people or the previous generation saw in that time. So of course things will feel unsatisfactory.
Moreover, inflation has been huge over that period. Particularly in the realm of earnings, needed to pay for the luxuries with which we fill our homes and lives, but consequently pushing up the price of anything else requiring human labour. The desperate squeeze on taxation is to help cope with this, but services cut result in more expensive private replacements (e.g. dentistry), or knock-on issues (e.g. the crisis in mental healthcare).
It cripples any hope of fundamentally tackling the systemic problems.
The best anybody in the Western world can do is tinker around the edges. Meanwhile opportunists spout unrealistic promises of a return to the land of milk and honey - which they cannot, or never intend to, deliver. Backed by media organisations led by people with their own agendas for preserving extreme wealth and influence. |
I think that’s a somewhat defeatist outlook though- we’ve fallen behind many European peers in terms of gdp per capita. Brexit will be part of that but it’s a longer trend, I worry for the latest grads who are competing with skilled labour - immigration properly implemented should be filling skills gaps, but for some industries it’s just a way of not having the expense of training people up (or competing for willed labour). We’ve not created enough skilled jobs that are increasing the tax take proportionately to the rising workforce. All recent governments have focussed solely on gross economy size which as any economist will tell you is a meaningless metric.
As I alluded to the inflationary environment isn’t an accident - it’s been elevated by our energy policy- which is the highest in the western world and flows through to every sector of the economy. And the opposite is true in regards to government spending, for fixed lending inflation reduces our debt and frees up spending (another failure was gambling on index linked debt). Other countries like France largely avoided it through their huge nuclear sector (a domestic industry we largely dismantled) and actually benefited from selling that energy to their neighbours. These aren’t impossible things to tackle but it takes a government looking beyond a singular term - unfortunately they are more interested in preserving power through promises of lower taxation, rather than selling a positive story for the future. | | | |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 11:23 - May 8 with 199 views | Pinewoodblue |
Starmer has shown himself to be weak on all fronts except filling Westminster with a lot of MPs who don’t really represent the.ideals of their constituency. Especially those active in local politics.
He had an opportunity this week to stand up to Trump by telling him the US can not use our bases if he decides to go on the offensive and start widespread bombing of Iran.
As others have said he has made it difficult for the party to elect a suitable replacement if he were to be forced out.
I haven’t seen much effort being made in the local elections, same applies to Tories & Lib Dems none of whom went so far as to distribute campaign literature. Suggests to me a divide between Parliamentary parties and local branches.
I suspect however Reform have spent more than they are allowed to.. |  |
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| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 12:29 - May 8 with 152 views | BloomBlue |
Politics across the world seems to be moving more and more towards the model of voting not for what a party can do for you but voting for any party other than the 'current in power' party.
The trouble with the old UK two big party model is both have failed so now you've reached the point of 'I'll vote for anyone other than those two'.
I also get annoyed local council elections is now about the government rather than local issues. Don't come knocking on my door and start talking about illegal immigrants or Palestine I'm not f*****g interested, thats for the government. I want to know what you're doing with stopping the closure of the local community centre and library. What about the potholes outside the local school, some local kid cycling to school is going to get killed soon avoiding those potholes. Nothing worse than hearing someone in the pub saying I voted for xxxx because they will make a great PM.. FFS you're not voting for a government... sorry rant over |  | | |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 12:39 - May 8 with 144 views | Benters |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 07:54 - May 8 by reusersfreekicks |
Says the Farage worshipper
Irony claxon hitting maximum volume |
Balls. |  |
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| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 12:50 - May 8 with 121 views | Kievthegreat |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:44 - May 8 by redrickstuhaart |
At the last big locals, the area I was in had 3 seats for grabs. About30 percent voted libdem. 25 percent voted green and about 10 percent labour. Tories got all three seats. |
This seat I saw used as an example of the problems with FPTP:
Charles Dickens (Portsmouth) council election result:
REF: 30.0% (+30.0)
LDEM: 27.4% (+11.7)
LAB: 21.0% (-29.3)
GRN: 17.0% (+17.0)
CON: 4.6% (-14.0)
Reform GAIN from Labour.
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-... — Britain Elects (@britainelects.com) 2026-05-08T04:23:02.396Z
65% voted for Left or centre-left parties. Reform win on 30%.
Best description of this election is that Labour are losing votes to the Greens, but seats to Reform. If there is no change to the electoral system, then it is essential that tactical voting is well co-ordinated. |  | | |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 13:47 - May 8 with 54 views | Dubtractor |
| What excuse will Mr Starmer use this time on 10:46 - May 8 by GlasgowBlue |
Tory vote starting to hold up now. Especially in London. |
Not in Suffolk it isn't! |  |
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