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

reuters.com

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

#71

Post by OgsyedIE »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #61
pjc50 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The police swerved hard into deploying state capacity against exactly the wrong people: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/12/more-women-arres... Meanwhile ignoring the actually violent far right to the point that we had arson attacks in Belfast and a stabbing spree killer in Edinburgh.

Police has no choice but to arrest people who commit a serious criminal offence on purpose and very publicly. It would undermine their credibility and the rule of law not to arrest them. This is orthogonal with how police should tackle the violence you mention. Edit in response to @pjc50's replay below: The signs are a serious criminal offence. Supporting a proscribed terror organisation is a serious criminal offence…

How can this be squared with the decisions to not prosecute burglars, drug dealers, rapists and armed gangs, however? They are all people who commit serious criminal offences on purpose in Britain today without facing arrest.

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

#72

Post by cassianoleal »

pjc50 wrote: post #66
cassianoleal wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They painted the aircraft.

Not just that: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce950111xk7o "Corner, a former student at the University of Oxford, was also convicted of causing grievous bodily harm after he fractured Sgt Kate Evans' spine with a sledgehammer in the raid." But again, let's be clear: that justifies the conviction of the person with the hammer. Not the people with signs.

Ugh, thank you - I was not aware of this. I agree with you - this should have got that person prosecuted. People with signs is perhaps a tad exaggerated.

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

#73

Post by pjc50 »

rapsey wrote: post #70
pjc50 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gridlock is real whether it happens inside or outside the party. This is partly why we're here in the first place! Starmer is out because he couldn't do coalition management inside the Labour party.

He is out because he is an insane ideologue that the vast majority of the country despises.

> insane ideologue

Man doesn't have any ideas! Let alone insane ones. He's simply the dull thud of quiescent authoritarianism.

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

#74

Post by Splinter_enth »

OgsyedIE wrote: post #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…

Regardless of the rights and wrong policy wise: Starmer was not a people person. I was as big a remainer as you'd ever find, and even I have to admit Boris Johnson could work people. Starmer was so inept in his day to day handling of his fellow humans it's surreal.

My personal favourite (and not the only example, but my own final straw) was his response when a large chunk of his traditional electorate voted for a female Plumber 'who wanted to make work pay for working people' and build 'healthier communities' is worth watching as an example of how to make more people jump ship.

For better or worse I signed up for the Green Party on the spot when I read that.

He was possibly a good backroom manager and well intentioned, but for leadership... no.

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

#75

Post by hn_throw2025 »

pjc50 wrote: post #45
dabeeeenster wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rejoin the EU, single market, customs union, drop sterling and take the Euro. This would almost certainly start a civil war in the UK (I am not being dramatic) but its what is needed. Brexit was -8% GDP, according to Bank of England.

This wouldn't start a civil war. Many of the Brexit voters are already dead and most of the rest are retired.

Lovely comment thread. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the “democrats”…

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

#76

Post by gaiagraphia »

pjc50 wrote: post #44
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Most of the real power is in the budget, which is technically a bill, but I would 100% go for "change the voting system". Almost anything except D'Hondt is better than FPTP; for simplicity, we could just copy the Scottish Parliament's use of AMS. I would also insert a trapdoor that future changes to the voting system would require the approval of >50% of eligible voters, including non-voters. Yes, I know Parliament c…

Lots of the problems in the UK stem from a lack of strategic vision. More coalitions, infighting, compromises, etc aren't going to drive serious change home. Don't really care if it's Labour or Tory, tbh, just want national politics focus on bigger picture stuff and bulldoze through regs if it's a matter of strategic investment.

What would be nice for voting reform, is to add regional elections across the nation (replacing the old European ones). This would be a great layer of government to vote in coalitions, who deal with 'softer day to day areas of government' (care, benefits, roads, etc). Would be a great incubator for national talent, too. We should be able to see how future PMs deal with a region before trusting them with national affairs.

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

#77

Post by cryo32 »

cassianoleal wrote: post #13
bluescrn wrote: 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!

Ah yes the lovely protesters who spat on me, called me a baby killer and pretended they were going to punch me when I got stuck in the middle of them and said "I don't have time for this - I need to get to my mother" while I was trying to get to my dying mother in hospital and walked right into them leaving a tube station.

Fuck 'em. Sympathy gone.

Also I vote on local policy. The Middle East is a big political distraction from what's actually going on here. 99.9% of us can do fuck all about the Middle East and I suspect 90% of the country couldn't give a flying fuck about it either. But you know the council spent time on a meeting so they have a gaza policy but can't collect the bins reliably.

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

#78

Post by OgsyedIE »

Splinter_enth wrote: post #74
OgsyedIE wrote: post #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…

Regardless of the rights and wrong policy wise: Starmer was not a people person. I was as big a remainer as you'd ever find, and even I have to admit Boris Johnson could work people. Starmer was so inept in his day to day handling of his fellow humans it's surreal. My personal favourite (and not the only example, but my own final straw) was his response when a large chunk of his traditional electorate voted for a fem…

I didn't see that response, was it as bad as when he told his base the door was open and they should leave?

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

#79

Post by pjc50 »

OgsyedIE wrote: post #78
Splinter_enth wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of the rights and wrong policy wise: Starmer was not a people person. I was as big a remainer as you'd ever find, and even I have to admit Boris Johnson could work people. Starmer was so inept in his day to day handling of his fellow humans it's surreal. My personal favourite (and not the only example, but my own final straw) was his response when a large chunk of his traditional electorate voted for a fem…

I didn't see that response, was it as bad as when he told his base the door was open and they should leave?

His Home Secretary telling the voters to fuck off was another good one: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/04/21/shabana-mahm...

(note that the mirror image of this, the Gordon Brown being secretly taped talking about a bigoted woman, was considered career ending!)

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

#80

Post by AlecSchueler »

pjc50 wrote: post #52
OgsyedIE wrote: post #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…

The police swerved hard into deploying state capacity against exactly the wrong people: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/12/more-women-arres... Meanwhile ignoring the actually violent far right to the point that we had arson attacks in Belfast and a stabbing spree killer in Edinburgh.

> to the point that we had arson attacks in Belfast

Not to argue against the point you're making but these aren't good examples. Policing in both Northern Ireland and Scotland are fully devolved and operate independently of the government in Westminster.

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