# Keir Starmer tries to lead the UK **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 6, 2024, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805 "2024-07-06T06:46:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/281 "2025-03-01T09:22:11Z")
The whole thing is a no-win scenario; there’s no way to have a good meeting with Trump (if you try to be his ally, he’ll just use you; if you disagree with him, he’ll blow the whole thing out of proportion) and there’s no good outcome from refusing to have a meeting with Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/282 "2025-03-01T22:08:28Z")
The UK may get a trade deal from the visit, which wasn’t something the UK was likely to get for years otherwise. So while Ukraine was the top priority, a trade deal and no santions was a close second. Of course Trump’s word is not worth a dime so perhaps Starmer will end up with nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2025, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/283 "2025-03-03T22:17:24Z")
Two and a half per cent. wont touch the sides. ---
**Author:** ![FurloeRoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@FurloeRoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FurloeRoth)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/284 "2025-03-14T00:25:35Z")
Starmer continuing to govern like a really quite decent centre-right prime minister. His latest move is quite a bold one, abolishing the pointless layer of health service bureaucracy that is known as NHS England. The Tories would never dare do this. Only Nixon can go to China, I suppose, although to be fair this particular section of NHS superstructure was erected by the Conservatives, in some doomed attempt to introduce competition into the world’s largest socialist experiment outside of Soviet Russia. Well done. Whether the 20 trillion people ‘employed’ by this mysterious body will actually end up off the payroll remains to be seen, but it is the right thing to do. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2025, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/285 "2025-03-18T09:19:54Z")
> [@FurloeRoth](#): > > Starmer continuing to govern like a really quite decent centre-right prime minister. Just read a really great FT piece expanding on this, and the differences between New Labour under Blair and Starmer’s Labour today. [Starmer is zigging where Blair zagged](https://www.ft.com/content/f2359391-633e-4d99-92d2-81afe9f2f09e?accessToken=zwAGMJsEQZlAkdPyNZORYz5NmdOS0oGv6fLwng.MEUCIQCs6eW-KVAwuQCOz_QD23oyhblnyL597Q3_1KPHGnW-HAIgS6dxIF9B_KYjIQgC5kr7TvMkvwtGFxKxnYsCBcOCGmk&sharetype=gift&token=3841d3ed-738f-42db-a697-24829d71c817) > But some of it is about significant philosophical differences. Both governments are in a sense “centrist” but the accommodation Blairism represented was between rightwing economics and leftwing social policy, while this Labour party is reaching for leftwing economics and a traditionally rightwing approach to social policy. > … > What has happened is, simply, a historical reset for the Labour party. New Labour gave rise to the party’s longest and most electorally successful government by accommodating itself to an economic model that suffered one major blow in the financial crisis and another thanks to Brexit. Since then, the party has reverted back to many of the preferred methods of its pre-Blairite right, increasing trade union power, nationalising parts of the economy, and exerting further control over what businesses can and can’t do to their employees. > … > The minimum wage, introduced by Blair in 1999 at a very low level, was accompanied by a reduction in payroll taxes and a series of direct cash transfers from government to the working poor via tax credits. Starmer’s government prefers to raise the minimum wage to among the highest in the OECD, pair it with an increase in taxes on businesses and a swath of new regulations on how businesses hire and fire. Moves like the renters’ rights bill are putting new, more onerous conditions on landlords. (There may be a registration wall). The conclusion of the article is; this is a bad place to be, electorally speaking! Old style Labour lost elections a lot. Those regulations on businesses (which I think are basically good) will come at a cost, which will aggravate people, including people who voted for Labour in 24, and that is not necessarily being offset elsewhere. I think Labour put a lot of chips on the square marked “By 2029 there will be economic growth and hence room to spend without squeezing too much elsewhere” and what with one thing and another they might not be getting the payoff they wanted. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/286 "2025-04-08T19:17:55Z")
Finally Starmer is considering a big new initiative! > **[British Steel could be nationalised as PM and chancellor consider ‘all options’](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/08/british-steel-could-be-nationalised-as-pm-and-chancellor-consider-all-options)** > > Whitehall sources say Starmer and Reeves aligned in seeing steel as of ‘huge strategic importance’ British Steel is a very minor producer in the world steel industry and I think Thatcher was correct in denationalizing it. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/287 "2025-05-03T03:25:46Z")
There have been local elections with the Tories having massive losses, Labour having significant losses, Reform having massive gains and the Liberal Democrats having significant gains: > **[Farage claims Reform UK local election gains ‘beginning of the end’ for Tories](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/02/farage-reform-uk-local-elections-beginning-of-the-end-for-tories)** > > Hard-right party wins byelection with 17-point swing from Labour and adds more than 500 council seats ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/288 "2025-05-03T13:23:09Z")
I’m starting to hate my inner pessimist… > [@Keir Starmer tries to lead the UK](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/149): > > My inner pessimist after reading this: Labour will be perceived as a failure whatever they do and the next government will be basically Nazis. I hope my inner pessimist is wrong but he’s being depressingly right lately. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/289 "2025-05-03T21:13:42Z")
Give your inner pessimist some Yerba Mate and try to get “him” to think about the upcoming World Cup, unless that will make “him” crankier and more pessimistic. Didn’t Quino write (via Mafalda) that pessimism was Argentina’s greatest resource? **Aside:** I was listening to a comedian on the radio, who said (paraphrasing) a friend was trying to persuade him to go to Pamplona for the “Running of the Bulls”. The comedian’s friend was supposedly out of shape. The comedian wanted his friend to understand: “You won’t be running with the bulls. That would imply a degree of acceptance and mutual cooperation with the bulls. You would be exercising together. But you will be ‘running _from_ the bulls’. Do you see the difference? As a society, we spend a lot of time worrying about the right pronoun. But we really need to start worrying about the prepositions too. In fact, my friend would be better off just starting to run at all, with no bulls involved. Maybe the bulls would be impressed and more inclusive. ‘We see that you are starting to take your health more seriously’”. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/290 "2025-05-03T21:49:35Z")
@Frodo (Hope this works…) [![](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FEoPNBEzXUAU5uCl.jpg%3Alarge&f=1&ipt=abe132faa38367e0d2195b262225133161b0b19de07fb33f532f37ab83e0ef70) ](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FEoPNBEzXUAU5uCl.jpg%3Alarge&f=1&ipt=abe132faa38367e0d2195b262225133161b0b19de07fb33f532f37ab83e0ef70) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/291 "2025-05-03T21:54:00Z")
(Fiddly, given my middling Discourse skills, but I finally embedded the _guevón_…) ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/292 "2025-05-03T21:59:46Z")
Translation: Teacher: “Our soil is one of the main sources of…?” Mafalda: “Pessimists” Mafalda: “Got a zero for sincerity!” ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/293 "2025-05-03T22:01:11Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > try to get “him” to think about the upcoming World Cup We are definitely going to get creamed in the next WC, with luck we’ll get out of the group stage, past that? forget it… ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/294 "2025-07-04T16:44:03Z")
So it’s now the one year birthday of Starmer’s Labour government. Who wants to talk about all his successes in this first year? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/295 "2025-07-04T17:12:51Z")
His surviving in power a year seems like one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/296 "2025-07-04T17:32:03Z")
I expected him to be a plank of wood. I didn’t expect him to be a rubbish fire. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/297 "2025-07-04T17:49:14Z")
Yeah. I mean, he’s still been a huge improvement over the pulsating mass of fetid ichor that is Badenoch and the Tory Party but not only are his successes few and feeble his positions on pretty much everything are utterly pointless. What does Labour even want anymore? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/298 "2025-07-04T22:13:39Z")
Well, there is this: [https://whathaskeirdone.co.uk/](https://whathaskeirdone.co.uk/) ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/299 "2025-07-05T00:00:13Z")
They are renationalising the railways which the Tories would have never done. I would also argue that the dumpster was a raging inferno when they took office. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805/300 "2025-07-05T06:37:53Z")
> [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](#): > > They are renationalising the railways which the Tories would have never done. Eh, the railways have been subject to creeping de facto renationalisation for a long time as private companies failed to meet their promised performance targets. Starmer has just ripped the band-aid off. What I want them to renationalise is the fucking water companies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/keir-starmer-tries-to-lead-the-uk/1003805.md?page=16)