hypochondriac

Don't disagree with that. I never understood the logic of removing Sure Start centres which were working very well and had become something of a hub of support for parents in need. When you focus purely on the balance sheet, you lose schemes that lose money on paper but provide intangible benefits that are hard to measure in purely financial terms.

I agree nothing is set in stone and as I said they could turn things around. Let's not pretend though that if the roles were reversed we would be getting posters on here asking that we reserve judgement on the Tories until the end of their five year term. It's perfectly possible to judge and pass comment throughout a term in office whilst reserving an overall judgement at its conclusion.

I don't think anyone has claimed that, just that Labour should get the same level of criticism for their handling of a poor economy after six months that any other political party would have. Of course they get an amount of leeway given the hand they were given but that's not the same as a solving them of their responsibilities and the choices they have made that haven't worked out at all so far. Maybe they will turn things around and we will see a neutral economy or even a small amount of steady growth this year and then they will rightly take the praise for that.

So what they are doing now does have an affect and they do have a share of responsibility for the state of things now.

What if Labour had taken different decisions since getting into power and we hadn't seen as much uproar, loss of business confidence, breaking records for the wrong reasons etc? If everything was inevitable regardless then are we saying that the government is an irrelevance and doesn't matter?

Good point. Should we have given Lizz Truss 5 years before passing judgement? Was the woeful performance of the economy during her short tenure her fault and responsibility? Or was she simply screwed by her predecessor?

I'm not pinning every bit of economic news in him. I am saying that his government's choices are having a negative effect on an economy that was already shit. They're the ones that went on about bringing stability and the adults being in charge. It's been anything but stable so far.

You know that banning someone for merely discussing the possibility of a lab leak is draconian and unacceptable but you don't have the guts to admit that so you run away like I said. Pathetic.

I didn't mention Galloway you spanner.

Also worth mentioning that those who are first to shout about Jo Cox are then the same ones using this sort of language and violent rhetoric. You can't have it both ways.

Absolutely hilarious coming from you of all posters given your habit of misrepresenting something and then running away when challenged. Still waiting for your answer about if it's reasonable to ban people discussing the possibility of a Wuhan lab leak prior to 2023 by the way.

I wasn't suggesting this is the start of him being good, simply saying that if this does signal a turnaround, it would be very like saints to ship him off and watch him tear it up elsewhere.

The idea that we should withhold judgement on Starmer for five years is absolutely hilarious. We should hold our politicians to the same standards regardless of political affiliation.

I don't like her. It hasn't got anything to do with her being working class or a woman but it does have a lot to do with her disliking men, dismissing their concerns as lesser because of their sex and her contribution towards the general coarsening of politics with her language and demeanour. I don't think Rayner is similarly unpleasant, she just seems pretty thick and unqualified for the position she finds herself in but a lot of MPs meet that description. International Men’s Day supporter and Guardian contributor, Ally Fogg, added his voice to the debate on Friday: “Phillips is neither ignorant nor stupid. She knows full well what International Men’s Day is for, why it exists, and what the related issues are. She knew full well that in laughing at the suggestion that Parliament might need a specific occasion to discuss issues like those above from a gendered perspective, she is in fact laughing at male suicide. She is laughing at men’s unnecessarily early deaths.” In amongst all of this furore, Phillips made a statement that doesn’t appear to be have made its way into the media. She said: “I hate fools who think men don’t have equality”.

Jess Phillips has laughed at male suicide, routinely used disgusting language online towards people she dislikes, is quite clearly a misandrist who favours one sex over the other, claims to support women yet seemingly doesn't know what one is and she's turned down a national grooming inquiry at least in part because she doesn't want to rile up her constituents. I don't think the things I care about align with Starmer at all but I wouldn't describe him as vile.

It would be just like saints to finally get Sulemana to a place where he can contribute positively only to sell him at the end of this window.

Of course the economy wasn't in good shape but let's not pretend that the political choices Labour have made haven't contributed to what we are seeing now. To suggest that what we have now was unavoidable is a fantasy.

TBF I listen to that podcast all the time and rort Stewart has some really odd takes. He totally embarrassed himself over the US election.

We've gone from modest and pretty uninpressive growth at the tail end of the tories to some of the worst economic performance in years with perhaps only Truss' short tenure rivaling it. Let's not pretend that this situation would have happened whoever was in charge or whatever decisions anyone took. This wasn't inevitable.

The last time I saw her she was making a decent contribution to trying to prevent assisted suicide so she's gone up in my estimation-albeit the only way was up.

You are completely correct but potentially interesting if he has a bit of sustained success. We may then have to ask the question how much of his crap performances were down to Russ ball.

If this comes to pass, would be interested in your thoughts @whelk. Not exactly a sign of a government doing well. In my opinion very unlikely she makes it till June.

What's the point in focusing on a negative when we've actually won a game for once and performed reasonably well? We're getting relegate regardless, might as well enjoy a win whoever it's against.

A decent performance and a win. Cool.

Good to see that Labour councils have their priorities in order. As I said though, Streeting used the more correct term Pakistani rape gangs earlier in the week so hopefully this an anomaly.