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Are the Greens now a factor here? I am sure I have seen polling showing that they have reasonable support in the constituency and surely local voters would be more than happy to give the Labour leadership a bloody nose by voting for them, not least because they are actually left wing.
I wouldn’t be so quick to write them off, HDLG: they came third in 2024, only 332 votes behind Reform, and there are many people who supported Labour at the last general election who are disappointed by the actions of this government.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the Greens win the by-election. Not saying it will happen, but it wouldn’t come as a complete shock.
Labour will take some pain in the council elections , however they haven’t in the actual bi elections , Farage failed to win 2 …
Starmer may have won the battle against Burnham for now but he is by no means guaranteed to win the war. The decision seems to have angered a lot of people in the party.
I think it was unwise for Starmer to cast a vote against Burnham. In the unusual circumstances, he would have been better off standing aside and leaving it to the rest of the NEC.
Another potential problem he has now is: what if Labour loses the by-election to Galloway or (worse still for Starmer) Reform? Presumably the candidate will now be a local activist hardly anyone has heard of before. If that candidate is defeated, the question will inevitably be asked about would the result have been different if Burnham has stood? He does have name recognition and seems to have a following in Manchester.
I can understand Starmer acting to clip the wings of a rival – but it is a risk with a potentially big down side.
Value – “BigG, I am afraid you are missing the point. Companies who grow too quickly eventually
run out of cash and fall into administration. It is the same with countries; they only survive
long term if they have the funds. The USA has spent above its means for decades and is effectively
bankrupt.”Hi Value, the US has been in debt from day 1 in the American Revolutionary War
back in the 18th cenuary, it’s never been out of debt. There are no sovereign
coutries that are debt free. But you are right, the US has the largest debt,
followd by China. I don’t want to start the GDP thing again
but although
the US has the largest debt, around 35 trillion, whereas China’s is around 19 trillion.
however the US’s financial debt GDP is about 124% GDP whereas China has about 300% Gdp.
So China, even with less debt, is using much more of it’s state assets doing whatever
it is they do.Ok, no more GDP, if that’s helpful then good, if you feel it doesn’t clear up things
then let’s just move onAw the best ma freen (as it’s Burns night)
Thanks BigG. I remember Galloway’s appearance before that committee. It was very funny seeing all those senators get taught a lesson!
“Are the Greens now a factor here?”
According to the bookmakers, yes.
Only three firms have priced up the contest so far. The best prices are 6/4 Green, 13/8 Reform, 2/1 Labour.
Galloway had said he would stand only if Burnham was the Labour candidate, so presumably he is out of the running now.
If Burnham was the candidate, I doubt the betting would be the same. Labour would probably have been a shade of odds on.
If Labour does lose this by-election, Starmer will inevitably face questions about why he blocked a high profile candidate with a strong local following and also be open to accusations of putting himself before the party.
I remember at the time CAS, it made the hairs on the back of my
neck stand up, he wiped the floor with them…..enquiry closed
Burnham stopped being an MP because he was given something more lucrative. He now wants to be one because he’s got his eyes on the leadership. It’s an insult to the people of Manchester who gave him a second term as mayor. Imo he’s an opportunist. He’s done nothing but snipe at Starmer from the sidelines since the election.I don’t trust him. A mayoral election would cost millions and might end up with Reform winning. What good would that do.
I don’t trust Burnham either. As I said up the thread, his stated reasons for wanting to stand were entirely bogus.
Everyone knows what he was planning. He hoped getting back into the Commons was stage 1 in his operation to oust Starmer and become Prime Minister, something he seems to regard as his birthright.
Someone who was a disaster as Health Secretary and couldn’t even defeat Jeremy Corbyn in a leadership contest does appear to have a very high opinion of himself – but politics does attract more than its fair share of sociopaths and narcissists.
However, Starmer and the NEC’s reasons for blocking Burnham are equally bogus. They really care about saving £5 million, do they? Well I am sure they could easily make that sort of small saving elsewhere if they were so minded. They just don’t want to.
Starmer is running scared from a rival. Everyone knows it. He doesn’t emerge any stronger for what he has done. He has clearly angered a substantial section of the party and what was left of his authority is even further diminished. If the by-election is lost, his position is arguably untenable.
John McDonnell isn’t right about very much but I think he is correct to say that Starmer is now more likely to face a leadership challenge in May than he was before (assuming he makes it to May). The likes of Streeting are not even bothering to conceal their ambition now.
Plenty of backbench Labour MPs elected for the first time in 2024 are staring at the prospect of serving only one term. They know they are going down to certain defeat under Starmer and have probably figured they have nothing left to lose by backing someone else.
And please London centric media, stop referring to Burnham as the “King of the North”. If they bothered ever travelling North of Hampstead, they would realise that is lazy, cliched rubbish.
I agree with Cork All Star. Labour will lose the next election if Starmer is still Prime Minister. The reason is that he hasn’t got any backbone. He thinks that grovelling to Trump will give the UK some advantage, whereas Trump takes him to be a fool The only chance we have as a country is to take Mark Carney’s advice which is to join together with other ‘middle power’ nations to take Trump on.
The vast majority of people in tbe UK love the NHS and the BBC, the latter because they have produced honest and objective reporting for decades. When you compare that with Fox News in the USA you realise how lucky we are. With Trunp trying to extort $5 billion out of the BBC, I would expect a Prime Minister to let him have it with both barrels. To merely say softly ‘I support the BBC’ is frankly pathetic.
Voters tend to support politicians who have conviction. That is why an extreme left wing Jeremy Corbyn nearly won an election for Labour. Starmer has no conviction about anything, so we don’t know what we are voting for. That’s why he is a certain loser next time. The Labour Party know this, but they don’t know how to get rid of him.
Corbyn lost two elections and nearly winning an election is still losing.Imo a party leader should stand down after losing an election. Starmer is dealing well with the loose cannon of a POTUS that is Trump. If he’s so weak how did he sort out anti semitism in the party and lead them to a rare Labour election victory.
If you don’t vote Labour then your voting Tory or Tory mk2 with Nigel at the helm ( helm as in boat hitting the rocks and sinking ) Starmer is going nowhere , as Andy found out he,s taking no **** , as I said earlier he was voted in for 4 years , let him do his 4
In my opinion the Labour NEC have made a grave mistake, Burnham should have been allowed to stand.
Priority at this stage is to win this by election and he is without doubt the best candidate to do it.I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways
but although
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