Having clobbered the rioters (children included) and ignored those that provoked the riots, screwed the OAPS and ruined consumer confidence we then discover heās on the gravy train.
No credible vision, no credible plan and no roadmap to get there.
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Iād like to know what Sue Grayās role really is because if she is Starmerās āspecial advisorā then she needs to be sacked or have her pay cut given the mess he and the party have made of the first few weeks in power. Labour may have a massive parliamentary majority but not public support as Starmerās current popularity ratings clearly shows, he and they will need the latter if they really want a second term which should be a formality given the state of the Tories.
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Maybe more votes for the Lib Dems too.
Iām very disappointed that Starmer & Reeves can cut the heating allowances of pensioners and then blithely accept expensive gifts & cash from whoever. Itās a behaviour that smacks of being no different from past Tory behaviour.
The least he/she could do is to explain clearly what the rules are about āgiftsā and justify why they think are entitled to accept them. I donāt think there is any justification, especially after warning everyone that the financial future of the UK is going to be grim.
I am pretty sure that the rules about gifts can be found in the public domain somewhere but nowhere would it say they āhaveā to accept them.
Has anyone paused to consider the difference between the media treatment of Starmer with that of serial Tory PMs and politicians who were either incompetent or on the make.
Itās almost as if our media had some sort of inbuilt bias against Labour
Wonder why that might be?
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Of course not, that would involve thinking for ourselves.
More seriously, I think thereās an argument for a clothing allowance for the partners of ministers and particularly the PM. Itās not like theyāre employed by the crown with at salary but they still, in effect, have public duties to perform.
Women in particular seem to get it from all directions, criticised if they wear expensive clothes, criticised for wearing cheap clothes, criticised for wearing the same outfit too often, criticised if they rent an outfit and so it goes on. Basically, we want our politicians on the cheap and then complain if they live within their budget.
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There is no doubt that Starmerās popularity has plummeted. I believe that MPs should be paid a proper wage and not be allowed to receive any form of payment for anything from anyone including second jobs.
The story seems to have been hyped out of perspective by the press as usual. Starmer declared Ā£100,000 of gifts from supporters since 2019. So thatās roughly Ā£20,000 p.a. Compare this with Ā£200,000 spent in a single incident on wallpaper by a previous incumbent and paid for by the tax payer. Or compare it with the Michelle Mone scandal where Ā£200 million was corruptly wasted on PPE paid for by the previous clowns using tax payerās money.
I think means testing hardship benefits such as winter payments is a reasonable approach especially when times are hard. There are around 1 million over 65s with assets exceeding Ā£1 million. They are hardly going to miss a few extra Ā£s. I would not describe that as having āscrewed the OAPSā
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The problem for the U.K. isnāt that Starmer and Labour are proving utterly useless, itās that thereās no-one nor any other party that wouldnāt be just as terrible should the they find themselves in government.
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I agree with that
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When youāve got the leftish press also criticising Starmer etc you know there is a problem, itās one thing kitting out the PM and his wife when theyāre representing the country but donāt forget the majority of the freebies etc totalling Ā£100K were before he became PM.
Whatever your politics the optics arenāt great and lets hope this is the end to it.
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With the press, yes 
Seriously - I think MPās gratuities should be more closely controlled and scrutinised but Labour has a much more difficult relationship with the press than the Tories do.
The RW press attack it because it is Labour, the left wing press attack it because the Labour leadership does not espouse the particular flavour of socialism to which the reporter writing the article subscribes.
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So you think the criticism of Starmer and co is justified then?
To a point yes - increasingly I think that a Ā£90k salary for an MP plus legitimate expenses should be enough but itās still not a level playing field in terms of scrutiny by the media which also needs addressing.
E.g a Ā£200k bung to Boris to decorate the NĀ°11 flat - can you imagine the furore if Starmer had one of his mates do an expensive (though in very poor taste IMO) designer make over for his official accomodation yet it barely made a ripple in the press at the time (if it was reported it was not generally criticised except in the mildest terms).
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Nigel Farage claimed a Ā£32,000 all-expense paid trip to America was to ārepresent Clacton on the world stageā in the MPsā register of interests. Was that legitimate? [just curious emoji] 
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The feck it was.
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a) Clacton hardly needs representing on the world stage
b) Farage doesnāt even bother to actually represent Clacton in the HoC (or even in Clacton come to that).
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No, it wasnāt.
Farage is a self-interested grifter just like the rest of them.
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King of the current pile but not all have the exact same attitude or focus.
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The problem for the UK is the UK. Itās broken. It lurches form crisis to crisis under the same two parties each taking turn to blame the other while digging the hole deeper. It is unsustainable. If it was an animal youād put it out of its misery. The United in United Kingdom is as meaningful as Keir Starmerās āChangeā.
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I really believe he needs more time before judgement. I took over a department that had been mismanaged and it took a huge effort to turn around its 15 years of bad management.
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