I would agree and along with Nasir he did some great work at the CPS. The Met police seem to be untouchable. If you read Nasir's book you can see how tough it is to get a conviction even in what seems to be a clear cut case.

Look at what happens when we try to extradite undesirables - there will always be a lefty human rights lawyer will to defend the indefensible and the laws have loopholes that are being exploited so that dangerous criminals are allowed to remain here

As no party will ever get >50% what are you suggesting no seats just a straight party vote and the parties just appoint the representatives they want in parliament. How do you determine who is in power - the party that cobble together 51% in which case the MPs from Scotland are the king makers and very likely will control what goes on?

My hope is that Labour is pacing itself. The next general election is not until 2024. By then, some of the bigger hitters will hopefully leave their select committee roles and return to the front bench.

I’m much more interested in economic politics, so I hope to see it re-emphasised. But nationalist identity politics has been the basis of the Johnson takeover over the Conservative party, and Labour does need to reflect on how to respond. How much new support the Tories carry forward after he goes will be interesting.

Many price in the lying [ito other people[/i with Johnson, but a lot (weirdly) don’t think he’ll lie to them. Whether it is voters, wives, advisors or unionists. But when they realise they’ve been had they turn. While they’re bought in, they can ignore the callousness, snobbery and corruption showing through the holes in his bumbling bonhomie act - so I don’t expect the ‘let the bodies pile high’ or ‘John Lewis nightmare’ or ‘VIP contracting lane’ stuff to cut through... yet.

The weakness of proportional representation is, of course, the disproportionate power minor parties can have. For me the fear is Farage rather than the SNP - but it is the same principle. And to be fair, it was kind of ridiculous that Paul Nuttal’s UKIP returned no MPs in 2017 despite getting more than twice as many votes as the DUP, for example. A relief, but still an oddity of the system.

Maybe a broader spectrum of political representation would prevent the current widespread political alienation we seem to have now? Maybe, I don’t know. There’d be a fragmentation, and it’d be uncomfortable with some of the new parties we’d see.

I know we've said it before but what a weird world you seem to live in where you think this stuff is either true or important - and what dangerously hard right media you must be consuming to have led you down this rabbit warren.

Spot on. It's a fascinating phenomenon.

I wonder how much this comes back to the identity politics bound up with Brexit that has driven some to the Tory party.
Allowing the idea that Johnson could have lied about anything gives rise to the chance that he was lying about Brexit (I mean really if you hadn't twigged this by now there's not much hope but there remain millions of true believers). It's such a cult-like badge of identity now that anything which questions it or the integrity of the disciples has to be disregarded.

I think you live in a very unrealistic world where you can't seem to see what is actually going on in front of you. You appear to think the EU is some benign organisation who has an underlying interest in its citizens - I don't see that side of it.

The problem with wokeness is whatever you say you will be upsetting someone - that is the problem Labour seem to have. So instead of focussing on attacking the Tories on things that matter all you hear is Carpetgate, Cronism etc. Listen to the last few PMQs its embarrassing. Labour for some reason seem to be either out of touch or don't feel able to attack the Tories where it hurts. The NHS for a start - but perhaps they are weak here because they really wanted to turn it into the NCS. Getting back to normality quicker - again they are weak there because they want to extend the period of returning to normality etc. Getting kids education catch up - again they wanted schools closed longer and they have issues with the teaching unions.

To me money needs to spend getting the NHS back to running normally and reducing the waiting lists, kids need to catch up on their education and we need to open up quicker.

I don't know how you've done it but you've conflated "wokeness" (whatever that is but it appears to involve right wing folk getting upset about people being nice to other people) with substantive policy issues. The first is a distraction from discussing the second for which there are a multitude of huge issues from the past decade of failure.

I suppose it might be an accusation that liberals are so up tight about their boomer relatives misprounouncing Vaisakhi or themselves deciding on whether trans women are at an advantage in sports vs cis women, that they don’t also have time to put forward a broad vision for national renewal.

Or it could just be that concerns about honesty and integrity in public life are now considered woke, maybe? Like ‘who cares if Johnson is a scoundrel, as long as he gets the job done?’. It then comes down to what we think the job is, and if some people think it is delivering a very hard Brexit, blaming the EU for the inevitable problems associated with that and installing Union flags in more living rooms, it can be argued he is delivering.

Labour now (or soon-ish) has to decide if it can offer an alternative vision that is attractive to a portion of those people, or if it has to borrow some elements of what they already like. Leading in a new direction or representing more of what already exists.

Biden beat Trump, despite being about 160 years old, because enough people saw Trump for what he is. Eventually, I hope, Starmer will see off Johnson, despite being a bit wooden, because enough people will see Johnson for what he is. That said, it is astonishing to me that so many people haven’t seen it already, so you never can tell.

Lmao. Kier starmer has been found breaking lock down rules today. I look forward to the usual Labour fan boys saying either

1. Lying and say he hasn’t..or...
2. Whataboutery

I would be more worried about Johnson’s popularity if I was you and who paid to have Child number who knows bottom. This would be an ideal job for your because your nose is usually stuck up. I will let you work out what.

I suppose his list of crimes are diminishing, last week according to the mind of SC he organised a shooting by Police and allowed Saville to escape prosecution.

Mr Pot!
Mr Kettle is so pleased to see you.

I doubt very much Johnson will be leading the Tories into the next election - Stevie Wonder can see he will be a huge liability by that time - unless of course the polls remain as is.

By the time of the next election the economy will be on an upward curve which could be a challenge for Labour. The idea of greater state ownership wasn't attractive at the last election and it will not be at the next. The NHS will not be the issue it was and neither will Brexit - we will have learned to live with disfunctional relationship we negotiated - that is the way of business. All the predictions of long queues at Dover, food shortages haven't materialised and when we get back to a normalised holiday carry on the world will seem a much more pleasant place. What if Scotland get independence - Labour have no chance of power.

3. The above poster accepting he's a hu[imong[/ious bellend.

Didn't read past the first page when people were surprised about any politician lying.

If you are Labour it is easy to suggest all the problems in the NHS are to do with funding - in reality its a combination of issues - waste in the NHS is huge but it isn't nice to say it. Could the NHS have done much better during the pandemic of course it could but it is not great to suggest so.

Could the kids have been better serviced by their schools during the closure of course they could have but to say that would upset the unions and your supporter base.

Much easier to focus on sleaze/trans issues - sadly most people care much more about getting their cataracts done and the their kids getting a decent education - addressing these challenges would upset their funders. Perhaps if Labour didn't dilly dally around these subjects their stock might rise. Suggesting a 12% pay increase in the NHS - the vast majority of which did less work than normal is - to say the least - barmy.

In what ways, specifically, could the NHS have done better during the pandemic given the politicians’ decisions (which were difficult, I admit)? I’m sure there are some, but I’d be interested to hear what you think they are. You talk about waste in the NHS but it is probably on of the most efficient healthcare delivery systems (for the funding receives), in the world. It is threadbare now in places, but after years of austerity what would you expect? The idea that most NHS staff did less work during the pandemic - what is the basis for your assertion? It doesn’t chime with the first hand accounts I have had from healthcare professionals across different areas of medicine.

Have trans issues been heavily emphasised in Labour policies, press releases or campaign materials lately? It hasn’t regularly been a focus at PMQs, for example. Sleaze has, and it has been an easy target, I agree. Sometimes easy is effective though - it was much easier for Johnson to ride nationalist populism into number 10 than it would have been to come up with a coherent set of policies to attempt to address the underlying frustrations that prompted so many people to want change. It’s not like Johnson built his electoral success on better delivery of healthcare or education. Flags, lies and whining worked. Labour maybe needs a dash of that cynicism, but too much and what is the point?

How do you know this? What were they doing instead? Where are these baseless assertions coming from?

He doesn't
They were working
Thin air to fit his narrative

Has the waiting list for appointments and operations not grown significantly??

Now I have no idea what they were/are doing instead, but from personal experience

- a relative with cancer having his appointments/scans/treatment put off until you literally have to beg for scans and the appointment date with the consultant to be met
- to then have a scan 4 weeks prior to the appointment, then arrive at the appointment to be told by a registrar (consultant in a meeting, despite it being his normal clinic time) that the scans haven’t yet been read and someone will phone us but couldn’t say when

GP’s no longer undertaking face to face appointments without a telephone consultation first - and whilst giving a day can’t say at what point during that day they will phone. Indeed the wife’s GP surgery still has locked doors so you can’t get to reception, forms handed out through windows and any face to face appointments through a side door

Tough times for NHS workers no doubt, and especially critical care - but rest of it not covered itself in glory in my experience

Aye were working - just like teachers

It is sad, a tragedy in fact, but they had to prioritise. Which meant other things were de-prioritised - because the resource to cope with what had happened and everything as else as well doesn’t exist. It wasn’t that the oncologists weren’t working, for example, it was that many of them were assigned to managing patients with COVID-19 instead of carrying out their normal practice.

Dont make excuses for them
Theyre all just excessive waste, sat on their backsides at home, hiding behind unions because their lazy.
Slag them off without any knowledge of what goes on day to day just to fit a twisted narrative