Whilst the value of the pound and NHS backlog did slowly improve under Starmer, my favourite part of his term was the 2024 interview where he described himself as not dreaming or having internal thoughts.<p>I don't expect huge improvements under Burnham but I hope for at least some police manpower numbers to recover. There have been intermittent stories of planning, FSA and trading standards personnel being threatened by armed gangs in the last few years which is an indicator of some new severe gaps in state capacity.
The police swerved hard into deploying state capacity against exactly the wrong people: <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/12/more-women-arrested-terror-offences-men-palestine-action/?msockid=3d76bbfa31016ef70f17acf330766fdc" rel="nofollow">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/12/more-women-arres...</a><p>Meanwhile ignoring the actually violent far right to the point that we had arson attacks in Belfast and a stabbing spree killer in Edinburgh.
> to the point that we had arson attacks in Belfast<p>Not to argue against the point you're making but these aren't good examples. Policing in both Northern Ireland and Scotland are fully devolved and operate independently of the government in Westminster.
True. The modern far right is both a social media and traditional media driven phenomenon, internationally, and I don't have great suggestions for dealing with it other than "maybe the government should boycott Twitter <i>before</i> they ban sixteen year olds from it".
Police has no choice but to arrest people who commit a serious criminal offence on purpose. It would undermine the rule of law not to arrest them.<p>This is orthogonal with how police should tackle the violence you mention.<p>Edit in response to @pjc50's replay below:<p>The signs are a serious criminal offence. Supporting a proscribed terror organisation is a serious criminal offence according to the law and arrest is unavoidable.
How can this be squared with the decisions to not prosecute burglars, drug dealers, rapists and armed gangs, however? They are all people who commit serious criminal offences on purpose in Britain today without facing arrest.
The attack on Brieze Norton was a serious criminal offence. The signs are not, no matter how much people want to pretend they are to conflate the two issues.<p>The police always have a choice as to which crimes they investigate. This is why petty theft in London is almost totally ignored.<p>(and the underlying decision to proscribe Palestine action was, of course, taken by Keir Starmer. It is a significant part of why he is out now.)<p>(edit war: "the signs are a serious criminal offence" -- this is why the Americans will be laughing at us about freedom of speech when they wake up on this forum.)<p>I don't see corresponding arrests being deployed against Twitter posters who were supporting the riots in Belfast, including the firebombing of immigrant homes, for example. I guess that's because they're not an organisation with a name, which is the important thing, rather than the actual violence?
"not dreaming or having internal thoughts."<p>Internal thoughts or internal voice?
Regardless of the rights and wrong policy wise: Starmer was not a people person. I was as big a remainer as you'd ever find, and even I have to admit Boris Johnson could work people. Starmer was so inept in his day to day handling of his fellow humans it's surreal.<p>My personal favourite (and not the only example, but my own final straw) was his response when a large chunk of his traditional electorate voted for a female Plumber 'who wanted to make work pay for working people' and build 'healthier communities' is worth watching as an example of how to make more people jump ship.<p>For better or worse I signed up for the Green Party on the spot when I read that.<p>He was possibly a good backroom manager and well intentioned, but for leadership... no.
I know you probably didn't mean it that way - but people with aphantasia are often very creative, and visionary despite.
Well the bigger issue is that none of the major parties in the UK have any kind of sensible list of priorities, that they can actually whip the MPs to stick to.<p>So governance is, at best, semi random…
And he'll be just as powerless to solve any of the big problems as the last half a dozen PMs.
People forget that the government is still mostly the civil service. The thin veneer of politicians over the top doesn't change the operating constraints of the UK unless you can spend a long time on the matter and reshape things slowly. Which was what was happening until this mess.<p>Now it's start again...
Well Starmer had a massive majority and could have got whatever was needed passed to sort out public finances, but his MPs rebelled (or he chickened out).
And were being dealt with quite well by Starmer, but that wasn't good enough somehow
Just a symptom of late Capitalism. They are all like this one but with different flavor.
A completely pointless exercise for all involved. Rearranging deck chairs of the titanic that is the labour party.
The issue isn’t the Labour Party it’s the entire country. Brexit has been a disaster, energy costs are through the roof, housing is becoming more costly, and there’s been no real economic growth in a decade.<p>But no one wants suffer the temporary pain to make the reforms needed to change it. They just want to grumble and say the current leader isn’t any good before moving onto the next one, rather than admitting they might need to actually accept some change in the country.
> <i>no one wants suffer the temporary pain to make the reforms needed to change it</i><p>If you could get one bill through Parliament, what would it do?
Most of the real power is in the budget, which is technically a bill, but I would 100% go for "change the voting system". Almost anything except D'Hondt is better than FPTP; for simplicity, we could just copy the Scottish Parliament's use of AMS.<p>I would also insert a trapdoor that future changes to the voting system would require the approval of >50% of eligible voters, including non-voters. Yes, I know Parliament cannot bind its successors and all that, but at least I can make it look bad to change it again.<p>Does this solve any of the immediate problems? No. Does it solve the dysfunctionality since 2008? I think so, especially given that polling these days looks like five parties getting 20% of the vote each. Labour themselves came to power on 38% of the vote.
Lots of the problems in the UK stem from a lack of strategic vision. More coalitions, infighting, compromises, etc aren't going to drive serious change home. Don't really care if it's Labour or Tory, tbh, just want national politics focus on bigger picture stuff and bulldoze through regs if it's a matter of strategic investment.<p>What would be nice for voting reform, is to add regional elections across the nation (replacing the old European ones). This would be a great layer of government to vote in coalitions, who deal with 'softer day to day areas of government' (care, benefits, roads, etc). Would be a great incubator for national talent, too. We should be able to see how future PMs deal with a region before trusting them with national affairs.
The grand coalition governments of the EU are not in any way better. They just result in bickering and gridlock because parties that hate each other get stuck in the same room.<p>This is your pet issue, completely based on the grass looking greener on the other side.
Rejoin the EU, single market, customs union, drop sterling and take the Euro. This would almost certainly start a civil war in the UK (I am not being dramatic) but its what is needed.<p>Brexit was -8% GDP, according to Bank of England.
This wouldn't start a civil war. Many of the Brexit voters are already dead and most of the rest are retired.
Yea no will never happen.<p>Only way into the EU is way you described. Full on Schengen, EUR, no more special UK exceptions etc. Will never fly.
Oh, no, we don't want you, keep your mess to yourself instead of making it EU's
Repeal Town and Country Planning Act 1947
Disband the UK
There shouldn't be any temporary pain from bringing energy costs down or letting the economy grow (on a per-capita basis I suppose, politicians do tend to try and cheat with migration). It would be good for everyone, or at worst neutral with wildly rare exceptions who are worse off. Which does make it a bit of a mystery why the UK and a number of other Western polities put up such a determined struggle against the two.
People are desperate for change! It's just that due to a misinformation fuelled online (and traditional media!) environment, nobody can agree what that is.
Disagree. Every one of the issues you mentioned is a direct result of labour/tory uniparty ideology. Netzero, endless migrants, insane taxation and so on.
There is one thing that might be in his power: to stop censoring and arresting people protesting against genocide.<p>Edit: lol thanks HN for the usual downvote! :) I love this place!
Locking up placard-wavers is stupid, but so is intentionally waving a placard with the name of a proscribed group, when just about any other message supporting the cause would be fine.<p>If you do a million pounds in criminal damage and attack a police officer with a sledgehammer, you can't just write it off as 'direct action', you deserve a tough jail sentence whatever the cause.
Ah yes the lovely protesters who spat on me, called me a baby killer and pretended they were going to punch me when I got stuck in the middle of them and said "I don't have time for this - I need to get to my mother" while I was trying to get to my dying mother in hospital and walked right into them leaving a tube station.<p>Fuck 'em. Sympathy gone.<p>Also I vote on local policy. The Middle East is a big political distraction from what's actually going on here. 99.9% of us can do fuck all about the Middle East and I suspect 90% of the country couldn't give a flying fuck about it either. But you know the council spent time on a meeting so they have a gaza policy but can't collect the bins reliably.
I'm opposed too but there's little recognizance of the poor position the UK is in. Under the current decline of Britain's economic foundations, having enough diesel and gas to keep the lights on and the lorries running depends on imports from the US, which could well be banned overnight if the president - any president - feels they need to crack the whip.<p>Opposing the Oval Office means shortages in the supermarkets, gas power stations turning off and a bond crash that makes the DWP lack the liquidity to service all of the monthly state pension payments, besides a great many other problems.
You mean Palestine Action specifically, because the leadership of that group are violent terrorists.<p>It's weird how you people never notice that NOBODY else is "arrested"
...or any topic really. More people on the right than the left are being jailed for hurty words.
Ridiculous and undemocratic.<p>Burnham (for those who are unaware) can be best described as a Tony Blair B-side, and is most notable from his previous stint in government for his role in the Private Finance Initiative disaster, eg:<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jun/28/labour-debt-peterborough-hospital-pfi" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jun/28/labour-debt-peter...</a>
Why undemocratic? I thought parliamentary elections in UK worked like in most of Europe: you vote for a party, not a candidate.<p>At least here, it already happened, to have the PM resigning and then someone else from the party to pick up the role and that’s legally sound.
> I thought parliamentary elections in UK worked like in most of Europe: you vote for a party, not a candidate.<p>They are. It's a parliamentary system, not a presidential system. Nobody votes directly for who will become PM, who is ultimately selected by the monarch as the person who can best command a majority of the House of Commons – normally the leader of the biggest party, of course, but not necessarily. Perpetuating this view is frustrating because it's not what the system is designed for, and I feel a common misconception among voters that they are "electing the PM".<p>With the increasing breaking of two-party politics, it would not surprise me if we see this precedent of the monarch choosing a PM who can command a majority tested in close outcomes in future GEs where no party gains an overall majority. I'll be particularly interested to see how the press describes such an outcome, if it occurs, especially if the result is that the party with the most votes doesn't go on to join such a coalition.<p>Nevertheless, it frustrates me when these changes are described as "undemocratic", as that's a common talking point perpetuated by a poor understanding of the constitutional basis of UK elections. If there is a desire that the PM should be directly elected, that would mean a substantial rewiring of the UK constitution more broadly.
You vote for a local candidate, who may belong to a party. The candidate can switch party, resign from the party, etc, and will still keep his seat.<p>Whoever can prove to the King he can 'command the confidence of the house' is given the title of Prime Minister, and is free to form a government.<p>Unfortunately the system has flaws, and a sizeable chunk of people treat it all as a Presidential vote by proxy.
Agree with your first sentence but he is described as being on the very left wing of the party and, if he becomes PM, it will be with the support of the left wing, not the blairites.
Same problems, different face.
The power of having a parliamentary system. Combined with the power of 77,462 residents of Makerfield.<p>Love the UK - we can be brutal if MPs want a leader .
Starmer was the UK version of Joe Biden. He was the right guy to get Labor back on track and sort out the financial disaster left by the Tories. But he couldn't build a convincing vision of the future.<p>But replacing it with another guy that has no mandate is a fatal mistake. What Labor needed was an internal contest to fight for the best ideas, even if the winner was already pre-determined. A single local poll can't possibly decide the future of the country.<p>But perhaps the idea is to trigger a re-election because a "continue as usual" will be fatal for Labour and the country.
Will he last longer than a cabbage?
I'm not entirely certain of the electoral details, but the UK Labour party is neck-and-neck with the UK Conservatives for falling from being a top-2 party [0]. This type of decisive reform may be sufficient to keep them out of 3rd place, so it is worth a try. The voters could take to it.<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_U...</a>
Might as well just hand Farage the next general election at this rate. The last decade has been personality cult after personality cult. We had the start of stability and have thrown chaos in again. Just what the opposition want.
No need to get used to him. Won't last long either.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire?
Just one more minister, I promise you, just one more and all politics will resolve. Come on, just one more and it will fix everything. Please just one more. One more minister and we can fix the whole problem.<p><a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/one-more-lane-bro-one-more-lane-will-fix-it" rel="nofollow">https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/one-more-lane-bro-one-more-la...</a>
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