Keir Starmer

[west didsblue]

You really don't need to justify yourself for not being an unfloating voter. As we have seen from the way the Tory party have changed over the last 7 or 8 years, to wed yourself to one party for life is blinkered and biased. Idoits crowing at you as though your political party is a football team are part of the problem.

It’s not really a case of justifying myself. More of taking the opportunity to point out that the current Conservative Party are nothing like the party of 10 years ago. I’ve never made a secret of the fact I’m pretty much a centrist in most of my political views and Blair/Starmer are probably closest to my personal outlook. The fact that makes me a piss taking target for those both on the left and the right suggests I’m probably not mistaken as to where I sit on the political spectrum.

 

[Pam]

I have despaired every time I’ve looked at Twitter since Musk took it over. The lunatics have well and truly taken over the asylum on there. I wouldn’t take Twitter as a bellwether for general public opinion. I had convinced myself based on Twitter that Brexit had absolutely no chance. It is increasingly becoming 4chan just without any of the fun bits.

As for the Labour Party, it would be so easy for them to secure my vote 100%. Just guarantee the implementation of PR reform then I’ll vote for them even if their number two policy was kicking puppies. I doubt that’ll happen though unfortunately as the statesmen that used to do things like that for the greater good, regardless of how it impacts them, don’t seem to exist any more.

My seat is one of the few remaining that Labour have zero chance of winning so whoever I vote for will be mostly symbolic anyway.

X is full of people who think Donald Trump is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Literally. What a demented cesspit.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

It’s not really a case of justifying myself. More of taking the opportunity to point out that the current Conservative Party are nothing like the party of 10 years ago. I’ve never made a secret of the fact I’m pretty much a centrist in most of my political views and Blair/Starmer are probably closest to my personal outlook. The fact that makes me a piss taking target for those both on the left and the right suggests I’m probably not mistaken as to where I sit on the political spectrum.

I understnd mate and that's what I'm trying to say. I'm exctly the same as you politically. Corbyn really didn't represent me at all and I felt he was massively detrimental to the Labour party but I didn't go around telling people I was not going to vote for him because he was too far left - that would have been idiocy and made Boris Johnbson more likely to be PM. I voted for him as the least worst option amongst two. In fact I wasn't even particularly politically engaged at all until 2016 when I was jolted into life with the shock that common sense doesn't always prevail.

 

[bluenova]

Reading twitter this morning, i just despair.

Look for yourselves, the party is not the party I used to love.

It's very big - can you be more specific?

 

[Pam]

The Tories and their voters have nothing positive left to promote themselves, so they are simply trying to discredit the opposition.

Some are even going to tactically vote to get out the government they voted in last time around! (Whilst having to take the piss out of the Labour Party to quasi justify their last vote in their heads)

They are cutting off the oxygen to their brains with their genuflecting, boot-licking, self-loathing dark blue Tory scarves wrapped around their necks. Someone needs to loosen the knot for these bone heads and ban them from entering polling stations. A&E are full of the bastards having to get pencils dislodged from their noses every election day. My husband is a nurse and swears this is the truth.

 

[LesBleuMiserable]

It hasn’t been since Michael Foot’s era I would guess.

Or John Smith albeit he was in opposition

 

[Pam]

It’s not really a case of justifying myself. More of taking the opportunity to point out that the current Conservative Party are nothing like the party of 10 years ago. I’ve never made a secret of the fact I’m pretty much a centrist in most of my political views and Blair/Starmer are probably closest to my personal outlook. The fact that makes me a piss taking target for those both on the left and the right suggests I’m probably not mistaken as to where I sit on the political spectrum.

I think the 2019 intake didn't help. Full of loons in Red Wall seats who weren't properly vetted because they were never expected to win their seats. They are UKIP entryists, most of them, and the chickens have well and truly come home to roost with that bunch of demented, know-nothing spivs. Nor did mad Johnson's purge of the rump of centrists that were still around before his catastrophic leadership got underway help matters. Not that Cameron was much of a centrist. How many people did he kill with his brutal, shitty, opportunistic austerity horror show? Shiny faced, pig mithering twat is about the best that can be said for that one.

 

[The perfect fumble]

It’s not really a case of justifying myself. More of taking the opportunity to point out that the current Conservative Party are nothing like the party of 10 years ago. I’ve never made a secret of the fact I’m pretty much a centrist in most of my political views and Blair/Starmer are probably closest to my personal outlook. The fact that makes me a piss taking target for those both on the left and the right suggests I’m probably not mistaken as to where I sit on the political spectrum.

I've seen this argument rolled out before.

When both the left and right think you're wrong it confirms only one thing, your political opinion, nothing more.

You might believe something so gobsmakingly bat shit crazy neither left or right advocate it, their rejection would not make you right, besides, so much politics is identitarian now, where you are on the right/left spectrum is not the issue.

 

[Brewster's millions]

I think the current Tory party have some way to go before securing my vote. Whilst I may have foolishly flirted with the idea of voting for them for a short period in the distant past, it was long before they became UKIP and proceeded to elect a succession of corrupt and/or useless leaders, and before they normalised lying and discarded cordial relations with half the world, and before they made nearly everyone poorer for no reason other than to enrich their mates. Sorry to disappoint you.

I think you’re just playing hard to get.

Anyway, I wouldn’t normally criticise anybody for not wanting to vote for Jeremy Corbyn - how could anyone vote for him - but what I do find surprising is that you voted for either the Conservatives or Liberals in 2015; i.e. the incumbents.

The reason for my surprise is the endless amount of time you’ve spent arguing on here - mostly with myself - about the austerity programme during the 2010 Parliament. You’ve argued how it was apparent even at the time that austerity was unnecessary, counterproductive, and how, above all, austerity was politically - rather than economically - motivated. And yet you still voted for one of the coalition partners in the following election.

Seems a tad hypocritical, does it not?

 

[west didsblue]

I think you’re just playing hard to get.

Anyway, I wouldn’t normally criticise anybody for not wanting to vote for Jeremy Corbyn - how could anyone vote for him - but what I do find surprising is that you voted for either the Conservatives or Liberals in 2015; i.e. the incumbents.

The reason for my surprise is the endless amount of time you’ve spent arguing on here - mostly with myself - about the austerity programme during the 2010 Parliament. You’ve argued how it was apparent even at the time that austerity was unnecessary, counterproductive, and how, above all, austerity was politically - rather than economically - motivated. And yet you still voted for one of the coalition partners in the following election.

Seems a tad hypocritical, does it not?

I voted Labour (Miliband) in 2015. That comment was after the election when Corbyn took over. 10 years ago I thought austerity was a necessary evil that should have ended mid way through that parliament. My discussions with you related to 13 years of austerity not 2 or 3, and with the benefit of hindsight I don’t think that austerity should have been part of the solution at all. My Lib Dem votes were in the 2017 and 2019 elections and were for two reasons. One was that I couldn’t stomach Corbyn and secondly was for local reasons, and if the Tories had any chance of winning the seat my vote would have been for the party best place to prevent that. I find it strange that people like you can stomach a corrupt party that is a million miles from traditional Conservative values and spends its time looking for populist policies that are sound bites for the current news cycle. You’d vote for a pig with a blue rosette.