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Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor

reuters.com

11–20 of 125 posts

Re: Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor

#11
post #9
post #4

And he'll be just as powerless to solve any of the big problems as the last half a dozen PMs.

A completely pointless exercise for all involved. Rearranging deck chairs of the titanic that is the labour party.

The issue isn’t the Labour Party it’s the entire country. Brexit has been a disaster, energy costs are through the roof, housing is becoming more costly, and there’s been no real economic growth in a decade.

But no one wants suffer the temporary pain to make the reforms needed to change it. They just want to grumble and say the current leader isn’t any good before moving onto the next one, rather than admitting they might need to actually accept some change in the country.

Re: Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor

#13
post #4

And he'll be just as powerless to solve any of the big problems as the last half a dozen PMs.

There is one thing that might be in his power: to stop censoring and arresting people protesting against genocide.

Edit: lol thanks HN for the usual downvote! :) I love this place!

Re: Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor

#14
Whilst the value of the pound and NHS backlog did slowly improve under Starmer, my favourite part of his term was the 2024 interview where he described himself as not dreaming or having internal thoughts.

I don't expect huge improvements under Burnham but I hope for at least some police manpower numbers to recover. There have been intermittent stories of planning, FSA and trading standards personnel being threatened by armed gangs in the last few years which is an indicator of some new severe gaps in state capacity.

Re: Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor

#15
post #4

And he'll be just as powerless to solve any of the big problems as the last half a dozen PMs.

Well Starmer had a massive majority and could have got whatever was needed passed to sort out public finances, but his MPs rebelled (or he chickened out).

Re: Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor

#16
post #4

And he'll be just as powerless to solve any of the big problems as the last half a dozen PMs.

There is one thing that might be in his power: to stop censoring and arresting people protesting against genocide. Edit: lol thanks HN for the usual downvote! :) I love this place!

...or any topic really. More people on the right than the left are being jailed for hurty words.

Re: Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor

#17
post #11
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A completely pointless exercise for all involved. Rearranging deck chairs of the titanic that is the labour party.

The issue isn’t the Labour Party it’s the entire country. Brexit has been a disaster, energy costs are through the roof, housing is becoming more costly, and there’s been no real economic growth in a decade. But no one wants suffer the temporary pain to make the reforms needed to change it. They just want to grumble and say the current leader isn’t any good before moving onto the next one, rather than admitting they…

> no one wants suffer the temporary pain to make the reforms needed to change it

If you could get one bill through Parliament, what would it do?

Re: Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor

#18
Ridiculous and undemocratic.

Burnham (for those who are unaware) can be best described as a Tony Blair B-side, and is most notable from his previous stint in government for his role in the Private Finance Initiative disaster, eg:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jun/28/labour-debt-peter...

Re: Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor

#19
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is one thing that might be in his power: to stop censoring and arresting people protesting against genocide. Edit: lol thanks HN for the usual downvote! :) I love this place!

...or any topic really. More people on the right than the left are being jailed for hurty words.

Getting constantly distracted by foreign-policy items 90% of voters barely care about is how the UK wound up in this mess.

Re: Britain's prime minister to step down, Burnham puts himself forward as successor

#20
post #4

And he'll be just as powerless to solve any of the big problems as the last half a dozen PMs.

There is one thing that might be in his power: to stop censoring and arresting people protesting against genocide. Edit: lol thanks HN for the usual downvote! :) I love this place!

I'm opposed too but there's little recognizance of the poor position the UK is in. Under the current decline of Britain's economic foundations, having enough diesel and gas to keep the lights on and the lorries running depends on imports from the US, which could well be banned overnight if the president - any president - feels they need to crack the whip.

Opposing the Oval Office means shortages in the supermarkets, gas power stations turning off and a bond crash that makes the DWP lack the liquidity to service all of the monthly state pension payments, besides a great many other problems.

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