Interesting how BBC News are interested about this now and not, say, every ****ing Thursday evening without fail
Hard to believe that this shaved ape was a teacher, he would have fitted in well at my old school which made the news this week when a supply PE teacher punched and kicked a pupil then proceeded to verbally abuse him until the end of the lesson , nothing has changed since I left it appears
The Tory policy which Starmer was so opposed to that he...didn't vote against the migration bill in Commons last night? Also, the fact the slogan says "small boats" instead of "people" is hardly an immigration system based on compassion or dignity as it's using the exact same dehumanising language that Braverman has been using for months, language which has also brought us such gems from the Tories as "letterboxes" and "potted plants" among others
You know who else abstained from the vote? Rishi Sunak. https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/1497 Why do you think that is? You want Labour to say that they'll stop people? That's not only weird, but poor messaging.
Lisa Nandy and David Lammy also abstained, among others More tellingly, Starmer had five opportunities to pose a question about the Migration Bill at PMQs today, but what were his questions about? 1.) Gary Lineker 2.) Gary Lineker 3.) Gary Lineker 4.) Gary Lineker 5.) Gary Lineker Even if he was ducking the migrant bill in case 30p Lee said mean things about him on Twitter, where the hell are the questions about junior doctors, or today's Tube strike, or anything else that doesn't coincidentally extend the Tory culture war bullshit from last week for an extra day that meant people conveniently weren't talking about the Budget until Jeremy Hunt had the red box under his arm? Here's what Labour should say: we're not the Tories. I'd say that was a clear, concise message that also gives people a reason to vote for them while also not giving off the impression they think Red Wall voters are what Gullis accused Gary Lineker of saying they were. But instead what do we get? The opposite
Acting like Corbyn doesn't work. He proved that rather dramatically in two elections. It's rather ironic that you're telling Starmer to say that he's not the Tories, though. He's been repeatedly accused of only offering that. As for the strikes, it's pretty obvious that them becoming Labour Strikes in the press helps no-one. Getting into power and running the country properly helps everyone. Giving this lot another route back in would be disastrous. And before you say it, they're clearly not the same.
The issue with Labour over the past dozen years is whenever they have a leader who isn't acting like a Blair clone, there's a section of the party who are willing to undermine him even at the expense of the party coming to power - and this wasn't just the case with Corbyn, the same happened to Ed Miliband before him (and it has to be said the Lib Dems are also guilty of this, looking at the particularly nasty campaign to get Charles Kennedy out the door in favour of the political heavyweight that is Menzies Campbell) Realistically, Starmer hasn't offered not being the Tories, though. Be it using the exact same slogan as the Tories over migrants, to the exact same policies over EU membership as the Tories, that's offering Tory policy - and the fact he often does so when surrounded by a Tory amount of Union Flags does not help, especially since the entire flag shagging insanity of 2021 stemmed from Starmer issuing a directive that his MPs should try to be seen with a British flag - which the Tories promptly buried under an avalanche of flags, portraits of The Queen and busts of Winston Churchill. Hell, you get the exact same demonstrable bollocks spouted about Jeremy Corbyn from Starmer or Rachel Reeves as you do the Tories Also, they're already "Labour strikes" in the press, given the usual ****ehawks were routinely calling them that for months, especially the rail strikes - but there's certainly an in line to attack from, considering the Mail, Express and Torygraph appear to be learning that they haven't turned the public against doctors or ambulance staff as they hoped, hence they are a lot quieter (if not silent) on those strike days compared to rail strike days, and it's only headbangers like Jeremy Kynt who persist with the "bloody nurses" line (yes, that's a direct quote from the Jim Jones of daytime TV) since that's how far down the gammon hole TalkbollocksTV's viewership is. Is that worth five questions per PMQs? No, not least because the average week of Tory has more than five examples of corruption or sociopathy to choose from, but wasting five questions on Gary Lineker was a colossal waste of time today
Turning the massive amount of press about Gary Lineker into a Tory/BBC corruption story was simple. There was little to no downside and the Tories already did the hard work for them. Allowing the government to wreck themselves over the strikes was equally easy. Jumping in would've been a mistake and harmed both Labour and the strikers. As you point out yourself, the press has failed to turn it into an effective attack line. Corbyn undermined himself and he's continued to do so with his foreign policy stances. His disgraceful and massively unpopular crap about Ukraine still damages Labour. I dread to think what would've happened if he and Trump were in power, albeit for different reasons. Touching Brexit would still be a terrible idea. It's just not worth it right now and would be a tap-in for the filth.
Except it isn't simple: people who have long known that the Tories have had the BBC by the short and curlies for over a decade weren't going to vote Tory anyway (or, north of the border, weren't going to vote Tory or Labour anyway), while the people who are going to vote Tory have been brainwashed into believing that the BBC is a lefty institution so they aren't going to be swayed because the Mail, Express and Torygraph have done all the legwork to make sure Starmer was wasting his breath by the third question on the same subject. And, yes, I have seen the suggestion that he's playing 4D chess by pinning the culture war bollocks onto the Tories so if Sunak denies it that would drive the voters into the welcoming arms of Farage's Bunch, but there's a problem with that line of thinking. What;s the problem? Well... You would think that Starmer would have learned that using all five questions on one subject wasn't the wisest strategy after Partygate, as all that led to was Mail digging up something which Guido Blog didn't want to touch with a 10ft pole from a year prior about Starmer having a beer with colleagues after lockdown measures were eased and that was splashed on the front pages for over a week - and it shouldn't have been, not because it was a non-story (given how often those are front page news, after all) but because all Starmer had to say is the photo was taken after lockdown was lifted so he did nothing wrong, instead he gave a lawyer's answer and the whole thing dragged out for way longer. And why is this not going to drive potential Tory voters into Farage's clammy hands? Simple: because ever since Starmer appointed Sue Gray, every Covid truther, anti-lockdown wingnut and TalkbollocksTV host has dredged up the Durham non-event and rallied behind the Tories, which could have been avoided if he didn't do something as monumentally boneheaded as announce he had appointed Sue Gray at the exact moment in time where Partygate was back in the news thanks to Matt Hancock having the intellectual deficiencies necessary to think he could trust Isabel Oakeshite with a few thousand Whatsapp messages When it comes to strikes, Starmer's issue is he treats them all equally: something to stay away from in case some strawman in Hartlepool gets triggered at seeing a Labour MP standing with strikers, even though anybody can see that classism is behind the very different tones to covering the strikes. Let me put it this way: how many times have you seen the likes of Alison Pearson or Grant Schapps quote a completely fictitious salary for the average train driver, with a quite obvious undercurrent of "They shouldn't earn this, as it's a poor person's job"? They can't do that with NHS staff, because it's ingrained in the mind of every Little Englander that being a doctor or a GP is a very middle class occupation, so the Mail daren't call them greedy as that's attacking their own, and that gives Labour a line to attack as even that strawman working class bloke in Hartlepool would agree that NHS staff have been shat on. Hell, I'll even offer Starmer a freebie: not only have NHS staff not received a raise in ten years, they haven't received those badges Mancock expected them to pay £8.50 for when they were on the frontlines during Covid - and there's a reason that line works, because it bypasses Sunak's usual "That was under the last leader" response by putting the pressure on him to fulfill what the previous two leaders haven't gotten around to in three years Touching Brexit is a bad idea, but the problem is Starmer's touching it by doing a 180 on his leadership pledges and effectively going along with it, which leads to the issue that when yet another thing goes tits up such as how a harsh winter meant the entire EU (and Ukraine) could get tomatoes but the UK couldn't, that effectively puts Starmer in a position where the blowback also hits him - which also takes us back to how, in trying to appeal to a strawman in Hartlepool who likely does not exist, he's pissing off a Remain-voter in Bristol who certainly does exist
