LP

@DamianLow3 Great post. A couple thoughts: 1. Politicians / parties should stop over-promising AND people should be realistic about what they can actually achieve 2. The mob mentality going on here between the press and people who think 'change' is a magic word is depressing

Now that it's a question of when rather than if Keir Starmer steps down, it seems his legacy will divide opinion for years. One part of it that will become clearer with time is that he inherited one of the most politically and economically damaged versions of modern Britain any prime minister has faced. 1. Starmer took office after years of Brexit paralysis, leadership chaos, economic instability, collapsing trust in politics and public services pushed close to breaking point. 2. The political challenge was not simply winning power. It was restoring a basic sense that government itself could still function competently after years where politics often felt erratic and performative. 3. And whatever people think of Labour now, Britain does feel politically calmer than it did during the final years of Conservative rule. The problem for Starmer is that stabilisation rarely feels emotionally satisfying to voters living through stagnation. 4. If your mortgage is high, your rent is unaffordable and public services still feel stretched, “things are less chaotic” is not enough. That is where much of the frustration around him comes from. Many people expected not just stability, but visible national renewal such as cheaper living costs, faster growth, functioning infrastructure and a stronger sense the country was moving forward again. 5. Some of that impatience is fair. this government has on occasion looked too cautious, too managerial and too reluctant to tell a bigger story about where Britain is heading. But there has also been something unusual about the scale of hostility directed at Starmer personally. At times it has felt less connected to what he has actually done and more to what he represents culturally. 6. He is not a culture war politician. He does not perform outrage naturally. He rarely behaves like politics is entertainment. In a media environment built around emotional intensity, that can ironically make him look weaker than more chaotic figures. 7. The real irony is that many of the same people who said they wanted seriousness and stability after the Johnson and Truss years often seemed strangely underwhelmed once they got it. That may ultimately become Starmer’s political problem and his historical legacy at the same time. He arrived at a moment when Britain desperately needed stabilisation, but in an era where politics increasingly rewards spectacle over restraint. 8. History tends to judge leaders differently once the noise dies down. And there is a reasonable chance Starmer will eventually be viewed less as a failed transformational figure and more as someone who helped stop a period of national political deterioration from becoming something worse. That may not inspire chants or mythology. But after the volatility Britain went through, it may turn out to have mattered more than people currently realise.

@atrupar They’re never going to stop pivoting to Biden. it’s all they’ve got ie they ain’t got shit

even Katie Pavlich is pressing Jim Jordan on how Trump is wrecking the country (note how Jordan immediately pivots to "whatabout Joe Biden")

@labourlewis What’s the saying… those that wield the knife don’t wear the crown

I know the news Andy Burnham has a route back to Westminster will divide opinion. So, before anything else, I want to speak plainly – to Labour members and voters, to those who have left us, and to anyone on the centre-left, whether you vote Green, Lib Dem, or are simply looking for a politics that hasn't given up on you. Last week's local election results were, for many of us, existential. Not disappointing. Not a setback. Existential. Look across Europe and beyond at what happens to social democratic parties that refuse to step outside the economic orthodoxy of the last forty years – the one that hollowed out our public services, privatised what was ours, drove inequality to indecent levels, and cleared the ground for the authoritarian right to march into. That is the path we are on. Keir Starmer has refused to see it, and the country cannot afford another general election spent finding out the hard way. So let me be direct. The Prime Minister should set out a timeline for an orderly transition. I have said this before. I say it again now because the stakes have changed. Reform is not a protest – it is a project. And it will not be beaten by a Labour Party that mistakes managerial caution for strategy. As regards Andy, I want to set down here that I do not see him as some kind of messiah. Far from it. As someone who has been around frontline politics for more than twenty years, he has made his fair share of mistakes. But for the last ten years he has been a serious, grounded, and effective Mayor of Greater Manchester. The party and the country need their strongest players on the pitch, and he has a great deal to offer at a moment when the national stage has rarely mattered more. I hope the NEC will listen to the overwhelming view of the Cabinet, the PLP, the membership, and the unions, and let Andy stand. And I hope and believe the people of Makerfield will send him back to Parliament. But that is not a given. We know Reform will throw everything at this by-election. We must do the same and then some. Reform have spent a year being told they are inevitable. Makerfield is where we find out whether that is true. Every advance has a limit. This is where we set it. Millions of people, including my constituents in Norwich South, need this government to succeed. They need housing, working public services, secure jobs, water and energy that serves them rather than extracts from them. That work is not finished. But the honest truth is that stopping Reform and rebuilding the country is bigger than any one party. It will take a progressive politics willing to listen, willing to cooperate where the public interest demands it, and willing to drop the tribal habits that got us here. The country is ahead of us on this. It is time we caught up. Makerfield is one of many places where Labour has lost trust. It is an area Andy knows and has lived in for many years. If selected, he will work hard to win that trust back and make the case for a Labour Party worth voting for again. That case has to be made not only to people who once voted Labour, but to everyone who believes the answer to Reform is a serious, democratic, social alternative – not a paler imitation of the politics that created the problem. This by-election is not about one seat. It is a test of whether Labour understands the moment we are in. No single party is going to stop Reform on its own. The progressive majority in this country is real – but it is scattered across Labour, the Greens, the Lib Dems, nationalists, independents, and millions of people who have stopped voting altogether. Our job is not to demand they all come back to us. It is to earn the right to work with them, on shared ground, for a shared future. To former Labour voters: come and talk to us again. To Green and Lib Dem voters: we are not enemies. To Labour members and MPs: this is the fight. Let's get on with it. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

@reformexposed Can someone please explain to me how you only get suspended for saying that people from a country should be melted down to fill potholes?

Reform UK Councillors Gone Since The Local Elections: Updated Since Local elections (less than a week): ➡️ Lost Seat Mike Morris Clarence Mitchell Alan Cook Mark Shooter Kira Gabbert ➡️ Resigned Daniel Devaney Stuart Prior Jay Cooper Ashley Monk Jo Monk ➡️ Defected Nick Farmer ➡️ Suspended Ben Rowe Glenn Gibbins Paul Heyward

@Neets21 Desperate for drama bec drama makes them feel important and gets clicks

I don’t feel let down by Keir Starmer. However, I do feel massively let down by our media. There seem to be very few journalists who are reporting without fear or favour or in the best interests of the public. They are a braying toxic mob intent on destruction Why? #Starmer

@alexwickham Nothing would make me happier than the outcome of this being that Starmer stays and Streeting goes.

***BREAKING: Labour’s soft-left condemns Wes Streeting’s bid for No10 and vows to oust him from Downing Street if he becomes PM*** A senior soft-left source blasts Team Streeting for their public statements calling for a “swift” and “rapid” contest before Andy Burnham can get in. The source says: “If Wes thinks he can pull off some kind of stitch up to avoid a fair process that he will have no legitimacy even if he briefly ends up in office. There would be no support for the government in the Commons and we would challenge him at the first opportunity. He’d be lucky to outlast a lettuce.” It means the Labour Party is in civil war tonight Streeting appears to be trying to force a contest before Burnham is eligible It is causing meltdown among soft-left and left MPs Senior figures on the left of the party are threatening to oust Streeting from No10 if he succeeds in his bid to be PM

@campbellclaret They really need to back off they are full on amateur hour at this point and the press isn't just smelling blood, they're making the cuts.

Whatever complaints MPs have about Keir Starmer, they are now descending into the kind of headless chickenry that - whatever and whoever the outcome - will make the situation even worse for Labour. If there is a grand plan starring Catherine West and a few PPSs, then it doesn’t feel terribly thought through. A period of calm would do none of them any harm. The general election is a fair way off. The next legislative programme is about to be unveiled. There are better ways to reach such an important decision and better times too. You are MPs not commentators who exist to feed a frenzy.

@kateferguson4 These people need to grow tf up. They're making Labour look like amateur hour.

Apparently Andy Burnham has told backers he has a plan and a seat. But no MP resignation yet! All eyes on this..

@BBCScotlandNews I think the mature thing to do sometimes is not listen to the whining of children (Reform)

Holyrood leaders 'childish' for excluding Reform, MSP says bbc.in/4dAXcVZ

@ichikawa_zoo 発作を起こしていたサルについて、何か最新情報があれば教えていただけますか？動画を何度か見たのですが、パンチくんが様子を見に行っていたように見えました。ありがとう！

5/10(日)9:05 おはようございます。中の人です。 今日も9:30から元気に開園いたします。 写真の右手の通路を奥に進んでいただくと 観賞植物園や自然観察園がございます。 いずれも無料の施設です。 特に今はバラ園がきれいです！ 是非お立ち寄りください🌹 #市川市動植物園

@ichikawa_zoo 発作を起こしていたサルについて、何か最新情報があれば教えていただけますか？動画を何度か見たのですが、パンチくんが様子を見に行っていたように見えました。ありがとう！

5/9(土)の入園者数は約2,600人でした。 中の人は投稿の頻度をあえて落として、 なるべく通常業務といたしました。 でもサル山の巡回は当面続けます。 これも続くのか😅恒例の #パンチをさがせ …今まででいちばん難易度が低い！？ #市川市動植物園 #がんばれパンチ

@Mr__Comics @iamwater01 @PolitlcsUK Except they lost to SNP in Shetland

@iamwater01 @PolitlcsUK The Shetlands are Lib Dem Strongholds, an apocalypse could happen and LDs would still win a 70% majority there

🚨 BREAKING: The Lib Dems have held the Orkney Islands in the first Scottish Holyrood election 🟠 LDM: 7,221 (70.2%) 🟡 SNP: 1,661 (16.2%) ➡️ RFM: 844 (8.2%) 🔵 CON: 358 (3.5%) 🔴 LAB: 199 (1.9%)

@smokeyeyes__ @iamwater01 @PolitlcsUK It was def a surprise (to me anyway) but apparently the LibDem choice is the head of their local council and is pretty unpopular.

@mspark @iamwater01 @PolitlcsUK Sheer hubris on my part ngl

@iamwater01 @PolitlcsUK The LibDems have held the Orkney seat since its inception in 1999. Liam McArthur has been in office since 2007 and is well liked. This is about as surprising as the sun rising in the morning.

@PolitlcsUK Imagine getting absolutely annihilated by the Lib Dems in 2026. Not Labour. Not Reform. Not even the Tories. The LIB DEMS 😭

@LibDems This is not a confidence inspiring graphic

🔶🗳️🔶

@jamiedupree what a bizarre hill to die on

Here are the 35 House members (23R, 12D) who voted against allowing SNAP (food stamp) benefits to cover the purchase of 'hot rotisserie chicken'

@AFP THAT'S MIFFY, GET IT RIGHT 😹

VIDEO: A worn-out Pikachu plushie, tired teddy bear or stained stuffed animal can all get a new lease of life at a Japanese laundry service, making beloved toys squeaky clean again. Business is booming at Cleaning Yonmarusan, a regional chain in Yamanashi, west of Tokyo, with customers coming from all over the world for the service.

@atrupar We did not shut shit down hard enough after the Civil War

Burgum refuses to provide straight answers to Hirono's line of questioning about whether displaying information slavery in parks is a "partisan ideology"

@DamianLow3 So… the courage of immigrants?

Plastic patriot alert