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“Maybe Labour, even though they say they will contest every seat, have deliberately chosen someone that isn’t a threat to the Green candidate.”
Why is Labour helping out the Greens in a Labour held seat? It might make some tactical sense if it was a by-election in a seat Labour never did well in and had no chance of winning. But Labour has held the seat for years (it was Gerald Kaufman’s constituency).
The opinion polls show Labour could have won the seat easily if Burnham had been permitted to stand. Instead Starmer put his own interests ahead of his party and has handed Reform the chance of an electoral and propaganda victory.
If Reform wins, I don’t see how Starmer can continue. His enemies within Labour will be emboldened by the charge he has stupidly lost a by-election to his main opponents when he should have won.
The Greens winning would be marginally less damaging but it still wouldn’t look good for him.
I only said ‘maybe’. It looks as if they’ve put up a good candidate so I misjudged it. I don’t think Keir is putting his best interests before that of the party. Burnham said he would do a full term as mayor if he was re elected and is putting personal ambition before party loyalty and Keir can see that. I can’t stand the man. I also can’t stand that new Green leader ( used to love Lucas;pure class and so eloquent). I don’t understand why he’s so popular. Will listen to the interview with him on TRIP Leading to see what all the fuss is about. Imo he needs to smarten himself up and get his teeth fixed ( or am I being bitchy…probably am?)
If I lived in Manchester and had voted in Burnham as mayor I’d expect him to serve the allotted full term that the electorate were kind enough to grant him.
To jump ship at the chance of hauling himself further up the political greasy pole would annoy me, and I suspect a significant number of those who voted him in feel the same. Therefore, I go against the general received wisdom that had Burnham been allowed to stand in the by-election the result would be a shoo-in for Labour.
I found it disappointing – though hardly surprising – that he attempted to stand, and my reaction was one of hoping he got stuffed and the unnecessary, costly election for a new mayor went to Reform. Naked ambition one second, out into the long grass with tail between legs the next.
I haven’t formulated a firm opinion on Polanski yet, though superficially I don’t really warm to him. Some have asked why he didn’t put himself forward for the by-election. I’d like to think it’s because being an elected member of the London Assembly he didn’t think it right to abandon that ship. If so, the warmth increases a notch or two.
I do live in Greater Manchester and yes voted for Andy Burnham in the latest Mayor’s election.
The New Statesman explains why Andy would have made a better PM than Keir
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/09/exclusive-andy-burnhams-plan-for-britain
You've got to accentuate the positive.
Eliminate the negative.
Latch on to the affirmative.
Don't mess with mister in between.Drone. If you listen to TRIP Leading interview with Polanski he explains why he wants to get a seat in London. Having just listened to it I agree with how they summed it up afterwards. In that, like Alastair and Rory, I really warmed to him in the first half of the interview in which he talked about his background and beliefs. However, in the second half in which he was grilled about Green Party plans for the economy it didn’t really add up ( although I must admit to not understanding economics at all). And, as Alastair pointed out, there is a real danger that a Green vote splitting the Labour vote is going to hand a lot of seats to Reform. I don’t think that a lot of people voting Green really understand what they stand for in much the same way as Corbyn attracted young voters by promising to do away with tuition fees. I think what has made him popular is the fact that he openly says that the situation in Gaza is genocide. Oh and he mentioned his teeth right at the start of the interview, which made me feel really bad.
“I go against the general received wisdom that had Burnham been allowed to stand in the by-election the result would be a shoo-in for Labour.”
Maybe not a shoo-in but as mentioned earlier, an opinion poll (admittedly based on a small sample size) showed 49% support for Labour if Burnham was the candidate. And Labour were 4/9 with the bookmakers, whereas they are now 5/1 after choosing an undistinguished local councillor.
I would have laughed if Burnham had lost but I think he would have won convincingly.
There is a chance Labour will face another difficult by-election. Dan Norris, the MP who defeated Jacob Rees Mogg in Somerset, has been arrested on suspicion of rape, sexual assault and upskirting offences going back several years.
Even allowing for the important principle of the presumption of innocence, it is difficult to see how he can realistically continue in post if he is formally charged.
Having read the last few posts, all I say: what a mess.
I have said on numerous occasions that a Reform government would be a disaster. I don’t think I could stand ICE agents roaming the streets rounding up everyone who looks like a inmigrant whether or not they are.
It is fact (as demonstrated by one of the above posts) that people vote for politicians who have a clear view of how the world should be and what they will do to improve things.
Starmer sits on the fence and nobody knows what he stands for. Hence voters run away. If he openly criticised Trump for his evil behaviour and lack of respect for the law, his poll numbers would shoot up.
I’m sure things would be different if we were still in the EU and not desperate for trade deals with America. It’s easy for politicians not in government to say what they think of Trump.
“I don’t think that a lot of people voting Green really understand what they stand for”
I bet the average Green voter understands their policies more than those who support Farage understand exactly what a Reform government would mean for them.
It would help if the media gave the Greens due prominence in line with that which other parties with a similar number of MPs enjoy.
The reality is that no country has to trade with the USA; Mark Carney of Canada has proved that. My father, along with thousands of others, fought in world war two so we would be free. But we are not free now as we are subservient to the USA and suffer endless propagsnda from our right wing press. Those people working for these awful newspapers know if they don’t print the rubbish they are told they will be out of a job. In turn, the electorate will be told by Farage (and these newspapers) that immigrants will be eliminated Trump syle. The poor suckers will not realise that to do this we would hwve to ignore international law, whereupon we ALL lose our human rights.
Starmer thought by grovelling to Trump by inviting him to meet King Charles we would be rewarded. The dictators ‘reward’ was to sue the BBC for $5 billion. Starmer’s response was to say “I support the BBC’. A true leader would have told Trunp to get stuffed. As a country we have to set ourselves free. Where is today’s Churchill?
But we are dependent on American until we further rebuild our ties with the EU. Something that Starmer was doing even before he became PM. Easy for opposition parties to say what they think about Trump. You only have to look at how sensible ( and outspoken) politicians become once they’re not MP’s eg Heseltine and Major.
We don’t have to be dependent on the USA. The fact is that this is a myth. The reality is that we are in deficit; we buy more from them than we sell to them. China will help us out with trade and yes we need closer ties with the EU. Mark Carney of Canada has shown the way forward by looking for more markets including doing deals with the EU. We should do the same thing.
If we keep on grovelling to the USA we might lose the English Language. We will be wearing eye glasses, walking on side walks, worrying if we are color blind, forced to carry guns and lose our NHS. An absolute nightmare!
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