Keir Starmer Labour Leader

berbatrick

Renaissance Man
Scout
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
22,157

Not commenting on the policy, but on the divide between the blue check replies (dozens at the top, all mad about spending, "where is the money for this", and suggesting Farage as the alternative), and the other replies (mad that he wants these people to work even when it's potentially dangerous for them).
 

Drainy

Full Member
Joined
May 5, 2009
Messages
15,109
Location
Dissin' Your Flygirl
berbatrick said:

Not commenting on the policy, but on the divide between the blue check replies (dozens at the top, all mad about spending, "where is the money for this", and suggesting Farage as the alternative), and the other replies (mad that he wants these people to work even when it's potentially dangerous for them).
Click to expand...
I wonder how many of the pro-Farage accounts can have their IP addresses tracked to St.Petersburg
 

Badunk

Shares his caf joinday with Dante
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
13,018
Location
Occupied Merseyside
Old interview but an interesting insight into the guy who apparently doesn't talk about his dad much.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54946046


Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has spoken of his regret at not being close to his late father, who he described as a "difficult" and "complicated" man.

He told Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, that he was "determined that my relationship with my own children will be different".

In the interview, Sir Keir also talked about how his political beliefs had shifted, and his aim to unite Labour.

And he spoke about his love of football, saying he plays every week.

Among the songs that Sir Keir chose were the England football anthem Three Lions by The Lightning Seeds, and Jim Reeves' Welcome To My World, which was his mother's favourite song.

He also picked a Northern Soul record - Dobie Gray's Out On The Floor - saying it reminded him of his "early days in London with a group of friends in a really grotty flat above a sauna and massage parlour that kept interesting hours".

Listen: Keir Starmer on Desert Island Discs

Who is Sir Keir Starmer?

Asked by presenter Lauren Laverne about his parents and upbringing in Oxted, Surrey, Sir Keir, 58, said: "I don't often talk about my dad."

"He was a difficult man, a complicated man, he kept himself to himself, he didn't particularly like to socialise, so wouldn't really go out very much. But he was incredibly hard-working."

Sir Keir said his father worked as a toolmaker in a factory and would work 14-hour days, coming home for an hour at 17:00 "for his tea" before returning to work again in the evening.

"But he had this utter devotion and commitment to my mum," said Sir Keir. "My mum was very, very ill all of her life and my dad knew exactly the symptoms of everything that might possibly go wrong with my mum, he knew exactly what drugs or combination of drugs or injection would be needed.

"He stopped drinking completely just in case he ever needed to get to the hospital with her. On the many occasions she was in hospital he would stay with her the whole time, he wouldn't leave the hospital, he would sleep on any chair or whatever was available."

But Sir Keir adds: "I wouldn't say we were close. I understood who he was and what he was but we weren't close and I regret that."

Keir Starmer QC, then the Director of public prosecution attends the CPS
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
Ten years ago, pre-politics, Sir Keir was the Director of Public Prosecutions

Sir Keir grew emotional when speaking about his mother - who had lived with the autoimmune condition Still's Disease since she was 11 - as he recalled when his father had phoned from the hospital to say: "I don't think your mum's going to make it."

He said his mother died just a few weeks before he was elected into Parliament as an MP in 2015, and his father died a couple of years ago.

'Started off as the radical'
Sir Keir's parents were "Labour through and through" but he said they did not have discussions about politics around the kitchen table.

Sir Keir said his politics had changed over the years but he still considered himself to be a socialist, adding: "Like most people, I started off as the radical who knew everything. I'm now much more open to ideas."

The former human rights lawyer and Director of Public Prosecutions also spoke about his aim for a "united Labour Party" and also addressed the recent decision to suspend former leader Jeremy Corbyn from the party.

"I didn't want that day to end in the way it did," he said, of the day the report into anti-Semitism in Labour was published. "I had no intention of purging anyone. I have no intention of purging anyone. I want the Labour Party to be a broad church."

He added being named Keir - after Keir Hardie, founder of the Labour Party - earned him "plenty of nicknames at school".

"I have to say at school, I was saying 'why on earth did you have to call me Keir? Why couldn't you have called me Pete or Dave or something like everybody else'," he said.
 

dumbo

Don't Just Fly…Soar!
Scout
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
9,468
Location
Thucydides nuts
I saw children reduced to bags of bones and I saw children smeared across roadways and I saw Keir Starmer defending it.
 

Herman Toothrot

Full Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2021
Messages
1,942
RedSky said:
There is no damage, it's cornstarch you moron.
Click to expand...
There's some sort of alga on there. Apparently more valuable than the countless nature we are losing through climate change and more rage-inducing than the murder of human children.
 

Fluctuation0161

Full Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2016
Messages
8,218
Location
Manchester
I thought I couldn't dislike someone mote than Southgate tonight... in steps Sir liar Starmer.

Although this presenter is obviously a Tory.
 

Herman Toothrot

Full Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2021
Messages
1,942
When you have an unassailable lead by offering nothing other than not being, officially, a Tory, there is nothing to win in these debates. Luckily, Little Rishi Sunak is waiting in the wing, ready for someone to hold his sparkling water.
 

Compton22

Knows that he knows nothing.
Joined
Jul 27, 2014
Messages
3,400

Outside of the rest of this debate, I think this is one of the most important questions in all of politics at the moment. So much of the rise in right wing politics is based on finding issues of division. We can see the effects of it in the UK after 14 years of Tory rule. We need to heal as a country because of what the politics of hate and division has done to us. I fear Europe and other countries will go down the same route and I can only hope that Starmer and a potential Labour majority will go some way to doing that. Probably one of the more genuine moments I have seen from him actually.
 
Last edited:

DanH

Full Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2004
Messages
1,657
Location
armchair
Compton22 said:
https://www.x.com/BestForBritain/status/1803893868682686807

Outside of the rest of this debate, I think this is one of the most important questions in all of politics at the moment. So much of the rise in right wing politics is based on finding issues of division. We can see the effects of it in the UK after 14 years of Tory rule. We need to heal as a country because of what the politics of hate and division has done to us. I fear Europe and other countries will go down the same route and I can only hope that Starmer and a potential Labour majority will go some way to doing that. Probably one of the more genuine moments I have seen from him actually.
Click to expand...
It's a nice point and the sooner we can more away from the more extreme rhetoric the better.

Oh, and if you want it to display as embedded preview you need to change the 'x' to 'twitter' in the URL. It would be good if the admins could get some fix in place for automating that.
 

Compton22

Knows that he knows nothing.
Joined
Jul 27, 2014
Messages
3,400
DanH said:
It's a nice point and the sooner we can more away from the more extreme rhetoric the better.

Oh, and if you want it to display as embedded preview you need to change the 'x' to 'twitter' in the URL. It would be good if the admins could get some fix in place for automating that.
Click to expand...
Ah, I was wondering why it wasn't embedded, I thought it was putting the www. in front :lol:
 

Raven

Full Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2012
Messages
7,021
Location
Ireland
Compton22 said:

Outside of the rest of this debate, I think this is one of the most important questions in all of politics at the moment. So much of the rise in right wing politics is based on finding issues of division. We can see the effects of it in the UK after 14 years of Tory rule. We need to heal as a country because of what the politics of hate and division has done to us. I fear Europe and other countries will go down the same route and I can only hope that Starmer and a potential Labour majority will go some way to doing that. Probably one of the more genuine moments I have seen from him actually.
Click to expand...
It's a good point and one I definitely agree with but probably a lie.
 

CassiusClaymore

Is it Gaizka Mendieta?
Scout
Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
36,020
Location
None of your business mate
Supports
The greatest team in history
Yeah that's the best I think I've ever seen him come across. Certainly since he became Labour leader. Genuine or not, he actually sounded like a grown up and someone you'd want representing you.
 

Sweet Square

ˈkämyənəst
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
24,417
Location
The Zone
The economy is both a pie and household income. Politicians need to be smart and score the open goals. The divisions of the past years have divided a country that now needs to heal.
 

Don't Kill Bill

Full Member
Joined
May 14, 2006
Messages
5,722
His most embarrassing moment today was trying to defend ever thinking JC would make a great PM.

There are people on here who still think he would have.

It's comedy gold when you think about it.
 

DavelinaJolie

Full Member
Joined
May 8, 2013
Messages
3,726
Compton22 said:

Outside of the rest of this debate, I think this is one of the most important questions in all of politics at the moment. So much of the rise in right wing politics is based on finding issues of division. We can see the effects of it in the UK after 14 years of Tory rule. We need to heal as a country because of what the politics of hate and division has done to us. I fear Europe and other countries will go down the same route and I can only hope that Starmer and a potential Labour majority will go some way to doing that. Probably one of the more genuine moments I have seen from him actually.
Click to expand...
As much as I dislike him generally, it was nice to see him say this and it's something he said that I genuinely think he believes, which is usually hard to pinpoint.

Bad start, but I think as he went on he gained steam and looked a much more confident speaker.

My main criticism is not telling the shithead that brought up the private school VAT policy to go feck himself.
 

Buster15

Go on Didier
Joined
Aug 28, 2018
Messages
13,951
Location
Bristol
Supports
Bristol Rovers
Don't Kill Bill said:
His most embarrassing moment today was trying to defend ever thinking JC would make a great PM.

There are people on here who still think he would have.

It's comedy gold when you think about it.
Click to expand...
Well I was definitely not one of those people and I made my views on JC pretty clear at the time. So much so that for the first time I actually thought of not voting Labour, but did in the end.

All Starmer needed to say was that he said it at the time but in retrospect realised it was a mistake. Full stop.
 

Buster15

Go on Didier
Joined
Aug 28, 2018
Messages
13,951
Location
Bristol
Supports
Bristol Rovers
CassiusClaymore said:
Yeah that's the best I think I've ever seen him come across. Certainly since he became Labour leader. Genuine or not, he actually sounded like a grown up and someone you'd want representing you.
Click to expand...
Must confess I didn't watch it. But I am pleased to hear you say that.
Assuming Labour wins, he is going to be the PM and I really do hope he turns out to be a good one.
 

dumbo

Don't Just Fly…Soar!
Scout
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
9,468
Location
Thucydides nuts
Compton22 said:
Click to expand...
It's a pretty facile point. They make up motives and justify them to themselves as they go along.

Harm is what matters and what one does to prevent it, not the feeble "ooh we're trying to do our best" protestations of feckless politicians. I don't want the portrait of a tormented soul struggling to walk a precarious line from my politics. I want effort and courage to do what is right even when it is inconvenient. Whether that be telling the hard truths on climate change and the sacrifices required, or telling the rich that they might have to contribute more to get children out of poverty, or telling your Israeli friends to stop melting children for fun.

Being nicer, being kind, a gentler politics means shit all if below the surface you are running policies that continue to harm the vulnerable and protect the harmful.

Is trying to silence the Forde Report being kind?
Is using Diane Abbott and Brianna Ghey as political props being kind?
Is saying that "Israel has that right" in response to a question about starving a people, being kind?
 

Paul the Wolf

Score Predictions Competition Organiser
Joined
Apr 17, 2014
Messages
18,220
Location
France - can't win anything with Swedish turnips
Buster15 said:
Must confess I didn't watch it. But I am pleased to hear you say that.
Assuming Labour wins, he is going to be the PM and I really do hope he turns out to be a good one.
Click to expand...
I watched some of it on Youtube after the football. Seemed just the same, waffling on without giving any answers and going off subject as in all the other interviews.
He didn't mention his father though but a new character has appeared, his sister. He needs to be a good one.
 

Badunk

Shares his caf joinday with Dante
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
13,018
Location
Occupied Merseyside
Compton22 said:

Outside of the rest of this debate, I think this is one of the most important questions in all of politics at the moment. So much of the rise in right wing politics is based on finding issues of division. We can see the effects of it in the UK after 14 years of Tory rule. We need to heal as a country because of what the politics of hate and division has done to us. I fear Europe and other countries will go down the same route and I can only hope that Starmer and a potential Labour majority will go some way to doing that. Probably one of the more genuine moments I have seen from him actually.
Click to expand...
If he was this type of person in answer to every question, I'd vote for him in a heartbeat. But he's crossed too many red lines for me. Great answer, though.
 

Badunk

Shares his caf joinday with Dante
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
13,018
Location
Occupied Merseyside
Back to the usual nothing answers. Condemns what the Tories have done but refuses to say if he'd change it.

 

Giggsyking

Full Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
9,023

I listened to a funny poem about him today, I will post it when I find it on twitter.
 

dumbo

Don't Just Fly…Soar!
Scout
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
9,468
Location
Thucydides nuts
There once was a leader from Labiour
We voted him to be our saviour
But things hit the skids
He starved all our kids
What typical Tory behaviour.
 

Sweet Square

ˈkämyənəst
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
24,417
Location
The Zone
There is a house in Surrey
They call the pebble-dash semi
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God, I know I'm one

My mother was a nurse
She helped privatise in a hurry
My father was a tool making man
Down in Surrey

 
You must log in or register to reply here.