Nail on head.

Conservatives have taken the middle ground Labour needed to regain so hard to see any solution for them.

As long as Labour promote pro EU stuff they will never get these seats back, they need to unequivocally make no rejoining the EU a policy foundation.

Swallow the ideological pride and try a making Brexit work strategy.

Project Fear has proved to be generally a load of crap, the vaccination success which would not have happened were we still in is tangible.

Waste of time trying to argue otherwise.

Annelise Dodds career is history, imagine being so crap you were shuffled to replace Angela Rayner.

Responsibility Deficit Disorder is a medical condition. Symptoms include inability to be corrected when wrong, false sense of superiority, desire to share personal info no else cares about, general hubris. It's a medical issue rather than pure arrogance.

I suspect that from Starmers POV, just surviving the weekend is a positive. And makes me wonder if all this Rayner stuff was a clever ruse?

On Saturday, all the talk was about if Starmer survives. Then we get the announcement/briefings that Rayner is being sacked. All hell breaks lose. 24 hours later and Rayner is not being sacked. Instead promoted to an office that supposedly shadows Gove. And spun as a promotion.

Here we are on Monday. Starmer still in place. And the left seemingly pacified.

Could have been a master class in changing the narrative.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.

LOL. Trust me, I love it when people disagree and there is a bloody good chance that face value is all there is to it.

But humour me on this. I am nerd for this kind of s*** and will happily see all kinds of things in the tea-leaves when there is nothing at all.

Firstly, Starmer is a wounded animal. Ignore all the spin about Wales and the Mayors, Thursday was catastrophic for Labour for all the reaons already articulated. And solely for the choice of Labour's candidate in the Hartlepool by-election, then heads have to roll. Beyond shocking.

Now Starmer faces two potential risks to his leadership if he has no intention of standing down. The first is a motion of no confidence from his own MP's, which requires (I think) 40 signatures. This then starts of a new leadership contest. Now there are 38 Labour MP's from the Corbynite Left who would happily sign this no matter what and two more could easily be rustled up but they need at least one heavy hitter to join the.

The second is if the TU's rock up to his door and threaten to pull the financial funding that is under pinning the Labour Party which is in dire financial straits at the moment.

With Angela Rayner closely linked to both groups. In terms of the MP's who would sign this motion of no confidence, she is considered to be their representative in the shadow cabinet and I believe she shared (might still) a flat in London with Rebbeca Long-Bailey who is/was Corbyn's chosen heir apparent. And Rayner is also closely linked to the TU's. Once again, she is seen as their closest friend inside the shadow cabinet.

Also, Rayner is Deputy Leader. If Starmer goes/gets pushed, she is the one who automatically steps up.

Now my understanding is that she was putting herself forward to do the round of Sunday morning political talk shows, apparently more than happy to be fed lines from Starmer's people. And I suspect they smelt a rat. Fearing she was intending to rock up on the Andrew Marr show and deliver the stab in the back. Part of a coordinated attack from both the Corybinite wing of the PLP and with the full backing of the Unions.

So Starmer, advised I am 100% sure by the likes of Mandleson and Campbell, decided to go on the attack. Starts briefing about her sacking and all of a sudden the story changes hence we get the hysteria.

Meaning that she does not get the chance to go on the television and signal the rebellion the following morning. For those crucial 24 hours she was not in the Shadow Cabinet and even if she still goes ahead with this possible attack on Starmer, it can be put down to just her spite coming to the fore.

24 hours later she is back in the Shadow Cabinet, the rebellion has been headed off for now and Starmer gets to start the week still in charge with no formal challenge to his leadership underway.

Now, if this scenario is in anyway true, Starmer is still deep in the s*** but he gets to start the week still in situ. He has bought himself time.

However, he could just be a f***ing moron. All possible!

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.

The Deputy Leader does not step up if the leader goes, there will have to be another leadership election.

Referencing the outgoing Shadow Chancellor, can you imagine being held in such low esteem by your boss that when sacked you are moved sideways to replace Angela Rayner, Star Wars shoes and all

Responsibility Deficit Disorder is a medical condition. Symptoms include inability to be corrected when wrong, false sense of superiority, desire to share personal info no else cares about, general hubris. It's a medical issue rather than pure arrogance.

Just had a quick read of the BBS on the Hartlepool outcome. Very predictably most on there are blaming the voters for being stupid and not understanding what they were voting for.

That just about sums up the hard left, blame the voters never the policies.

And naturally they are outraged over the bill to force people to provide photo id when they vote.

So hands up if you don't have one of the following:

Passport
Photo Driving Licence
Freedom Pass / Oyster photo card
EU Id Card (loads of Remainers must have this)
others*

*The government has not yet announced the list so I expect there will be some horse trading in the trial I took part in they included birth certificate, and utility bills.

I got a provisional driving licence (£20-30).

Now all the government needs to do is sort out the people on the roll who shouldn't be there and the postal voting fraud.

Edited by Badger11 (12 May 2021 9.51am)

One more point

The solution to the tax issue is simple.
Flat rate on all you earn above 12500
Say 15% then say 5% NI , none of this upper limits, just a flat amount across the board.
From every pound you earn hmg gets 20p.
That's not hard to do and this would be before any philanthropy and other 'ways around'.
Those figures were for an ie only. Danh and others would know more about earnings and tax in the UK I'm sure as they are money peoples.
Now that's a vote winner