ml1dch Posted June 30, 2021 Share Posted June 30, 2021 These things are of very variable quality, but I thought this was a pretty good one: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 Not much chat on here about B & S, maybe we're all too depressed? Anyway, to pass the time, why not watch a video of George Galloway and a bunch of middle-aged Asian men on an open-top bus playing Three Lions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 All Galloway is helping to achieve is a Tory victory. How much of a nail in the coffin is another seat loss in a by election likely to be for Starmer? Over a year in and to have taken the party backwards from a pretty low starting point is poor to say the least. it is not as though he hasn't had plenty of open goals from the Tories to go at and gain from. I had high hopes when he came in but having given himself a bigger mountain to climb than when he started I really fear he is not the person to ensure the Tories don't win the next election, something this country desperately needs to happen even though sadly many don't see it. I don't know who that person in Labour is though either. What a mess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 Is Starmer on holiday at the moment? I think he was the only person that didn’t have an opinion on the resignation / sacking of Hancock. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 9 minutes ago, markavfc40 said: All Galloway is helping to achieve is a Tory victory. How much of a nail in the coffin is another seat loss in a by election likely to be for Starmer? Over a year in and to have taken the party backwards from a pretty low starting point is poor to say the least. it is not as though he hasn't had plenty of open goals from the Tories to go at and gain from. I had high hopes when he came in but having given himself a bigger mountain to climb than when he started I really fear he is not the person to ensure the Tories don't win the next election, something this country desperately needs to happen even though sadly many don't see it. I don't know who that person in Labour is though either. What a mess. He's going to try and ride out the wave of calls for him to go. The socialist campaign group don't have the numbers to mount a challenge without Starmer quitting. Angela Rayner could possibly succeed but not sure she would be any better than Starmer. If he resigns there's the numbers for anyone from the left that the SCG want to nominate e.g. Clive Lewis, Ian Lavery etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 30 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: Not much chat on here about B & S, maybe we're all too depressed? Anyway, to pass the time, why not watch a video of George Galloway and a bunch of middle-aged Asian men on an open-top bus playing Three Lions? I'm in 2 minds. I thought it would be like Hartlepool where the voting was as normal apart from all the Labour voters staying at home but now I'm thinking it'll be quite close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ml1dch Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 26 minutes ago, chrisp65 said: Is Starmer on holiday at the moment? I think he was the only person that didn’t have an opinion on the resignation / sacking of Hancock. Didn't he spend the whole of PMQs yesterday talking about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 8 minutes ago, ml1dch said: Didn't he spend the whole of PMQs yesterday talking about it? Ok yep he might have. I didn’t see that on the news, it didn’t drift across my social media as a positive or a negative and it wasn’t on Newsnight. So if he did spend PMQ’s on it that’s good. I’m kind of interested in news and politics and I didn’t notice it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 13 minutes ago, ml1dch said: Didn't he spend the whole of PMQs yesterday talking about it? It was probably the worst PMQ's I have ever seen in terms of Johnsons answers or lack of them. Starmer did well with his questioning yesterday. For whatever reason though he just isn't connecting with the electorate. He certainly isn't helped by the media but you can count on one finger what Labour leader has been in my lifetime. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bickster Posted July 1, 2021 Moderator Popular Post Share Posted July 1, 2021 14 minutes ago, chrisp65 said: I didn’t see that on the news, it didn’t drift across my social media as a positive or a negative and it wasn’t on Newsnight. So if he did spend PMQ’s on it that’s good. I’m kind of interested in news and politics and I didn’t notice it. Not really Starmer's fault that though, nor yours. We live less in a functioning democracy now than we did even last year. People aren't talking about Starmer because lots of media outlets seem to be operating on the principal that if you can't say something bad about opposition politics, it isn't worth saying 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 1 hour ago, darrenm said: I'm in 2 minds. I thought it would be like Hartlepool where the voting was as normal apart from all the Labour voters staying at home but now I'm thinking it'll be quite close. My 'people in Labour' follows on Twitter seem to be roughly evenly split between people who think they'll squeak a win and people who think they'll be comfortably beaten, so . If I had to make a prediction and look stupid in the morning, I will go with they'll just about cling on, given the trend of the seat has been *towards* Labour over recent years, and maybe the kerfuffle with Galloway has actually helped remind people there's an election on. But I'm not at all confident in that prediction. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted July 1, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted July 1, 2021 2 hours ago, chrisp65 said: Is Starmer on holiday at the moment? I think he was the only person that didn’t have an opinion on the resignation / sacking of Hancock. I didn’t see it, but backing up what has been said already, the evening standard give the impression Starmer convincingly hammered Johnson yesterday. Quote Starmer, turning cold as ice, brought up the case of Ollie Bibby, a cherished son who died in hospital of leukaemia without his family because they were obeying the rules on visits set by the former Health Secretary. “In hospital he begged to see his family,” said Starmer. The young man’s mother had obeyed the rules to the letter, yet Hancock had been flouting them at exactly the same time. Labour’s leader stared furiously down his nose at the PM: “How could you possibly think this matter was closed on Friday?” It is rare to see Boris Johnson properly rattled. But the penny finally dropped that the picture of Hancock grabbing his aide’s bum was not at all funny or frivolous to people who lost loved ones. The Tory leader turned pink and began blathering about sharing the grief and pain of Ollie’s family, as if that were possible. And then he made things worse by babbling: “Actually what we are doing as a Government, instead of focusing on stuff going on within the Westminster bubble, we are focusing on rolling out that vaccine.” Quick as a flash, Starmer exploited the PM’s blunder. “This is not the Westminster bubble,” he growled, his face dark with disgust. Starmer then showed how diligently he had prepared for today’s encounter. He had spoken to Ollie’s mum and heard first-hand about “the awful circumstances she and her family have been through”. While Johnson squirmed in his seat, Starmer said Ollie’s mother had told him she watched every one of Johnson’s press conferences “and she hung onto every word that Government ministers said so she would know what her family could and couldn’t do”. The appalled faces of Tory MPs showed Starmer had lit up a nerve. Remorselessly, Starmer accused the PM of failing to quiz Hancock “either because he didn’t want to know the answers or he knows full well there’s more to come out”. Johnson muttered “nonsense” from the bench opposite, but it was too late. He was a deflated figure by the end of the exchanges, caught out by his own complacence - first about the true importance of the Hancock scandal, then again when facing a former Director of Public Prosecutions who today revealed he is still master of a first-rate courtroom interrogation, with a lethal slug of political insight. Standard link 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 Looks like Labour by a gnat's whisker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted July 2, 2021 Moderator Share Posted July 2, 2021 Labour win by 300 odd votes, which will be described as narrow etc by the media but in reality it's a great result as their vote wasn't split last time and it was this. The Tories vote was split last time and wasn't this. Based on the last results figures and who was standing this time, Labour shouldn't have won this. But I doubt you'll see it reported that way 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 I think if there was 100% turnout and every single vote went to Labour, there would be Labour supporters saying thats not enough. Its time for Starmer to go. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 The vote in Batley and Spen wasnt so much a Pro Labour vote, more an Anti Owen Jones vote. The electorate just wanted to piss him off. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ml1dch Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 (edited) To return to a theme discussed after Chesham & Amersham, the Lib Dem vote dropped by 1,200, with a Labour majority of 300. It's far from inconceivable that had people not switched to do what was necessary to keep them out, then the Tories would have taken both. As it is, they took neither. Edit - and no Green candidate standing, and they took nearly 700 votes in 2019. Edited July 2, 2021 by ml1dch 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 (edited) Really pleased for Kim Leadbeater. It can't have been easy for her given what happened with her sister and the intimidation she has faced the last few weeks. If she has half as much about her as her sister did then Batley and Spen have got themselves a fine MP and Labour have got themselves a real asset in the HOC. Must be a relief for Starmer, A loss and he was fighting for his future as leader. Now it gives him something positive to build on and a bit of forward momentum although it needs to be remembered this is a seat Labour have just about held not won. Edited July 2, 2021 by markavfc40 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amsterdam_Neil_D Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 3 minutes ago, markavfc40 said: Really pleased for Kim Leadbeater. It can't have been easy for her given what happened with her sister and the intimidation she has faced the last few weeks. If she has half as much about her as her sister did then Batley and Spen have got themselves a fine MP and Labour have got themselves a real asset in the HOC. Must be a relief for Starmer, A loss and he was fighting for his future as leader. Now it gives him something positive to build on and a bit of forward momentum. It's only 300 odd votes though. It might be papering cracks or as you say he can push on, we will see how it goes but it's hardly a massive victory when in opposition. Labour should be winning these by miles IMO at this point in the Parliment / Covid etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ml1dch Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 14 minutes ago, Amsterdam_Neil_D said: It's only 300 odd votes though. It might be papering cracks or as you say he can push on, we will see how it goes but it's hardly a massive victory when in opposition. Labour should be winning these by miles IMO at this point in the Parliment / Covid etc. They should be watching Galloway hoover up over a fifth of the vote, and still be winning by miles? 300 votes might not be massive, but given plenty of people were predicting a third place finish for Labour, any victory is pretty massive. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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