Leaving.

It might be worthwhile looking at the other two-thirds of the comment, and context that goes with it…

-pretends to be shocked- French arrogance and ego once again undermines collective European defence and its ability to separate itself from American dominance. Well done Macron, well done.

Delusional.

That he couldn’t even see his premiership for what it was is damning and only further highlights how inadequate and unsuitable he was.

feels quite telling of how Keir Starmer can't do politics that he gave an interview about his decision (sure) to quit, in which he said that decision was ultimately incredibly personal, and then couldn't expand on what that meant, he just repeated the same words. a man who simply cannot communicate

Abundantly clear at this point that Polanski has been unable to meet the moment in a meaningful sense.

Have been at a number of events with various think tankers and senior civil servants and everyone knows this is happening but seems caught like a deer in headlights. Meanwhile Bridget Phillipson and Jacqui Smith blithely whistle on. Can’t hold.

Lost jobs, cold homes, and higher energy bills: the cost of Starmer‘s vanity.

I continue to believe that in the long-term David Cameron and George Osborne will be seen to have done far more damage to the British state than Liz Truss or Boris Johnson.

It’s all well and good to say the UK needs a new kind of partnership with the EU, however the lack of detail as to what it might entail is tiresome and frustrating. If not membership, then what? Especially when the issues raised suggest membership would be the best institutional relationship.

If only Starmer were PM and able to, you know, do what he’s suggesting Burnham do?

So sayeth the man whose political strategy was built on appeasing the far-right.

Dare I say the second most important position within government shouldn’t be treated as a factional sop? No 11 needs to go to someone competent and able to deliver No 10’s priorities in the face of HMT orthodoxy and obstinance.

The mandate fairies don’t exist. Stop trying to presidentialise British politics.

Two things can be true: 1. The UK state pension is the fourth-lowest in the OECD as a share of earnings. 2. The Triple Lock is still the wrong metric – much better to have a consistent and less volatile approach. www.arguably.uk/p/how-burnha...

On reflection, Starmer’s attitude in the article is even more damning that it appears. Despite committing the UK to meeting the NATO 3% target by 2030, he falls well-short, with the tweaks only marginally moving the UK closer from a position that forced Healey’s resignation.

Frankfurt airport this morning is especially bad.

Yet the few-remaining loyalists applaud themselves over the DIP. Contemptuous bastards who thoroughly deserve the dim view history will take of them.

The DIP ought to have been left for Burnham to sort instead of pushing through an inadequate plan in a pathetic attempt by that man to secure some form of legacy. What a disappointing excuse for a leader and Prime Minister.

I'm really disappointed in Starmer today. He's undoubtedly done more than his predecessors on defence, but this is a plan funded on Tory terms. Refusal to even discuss tax rises to pay for a faster and bigger DIP, will undermine rearmament, strengthen the Tory argument for cuts, and embolden Putin.

Reeves‘ arrogant and stupid manifesto commitment strikes again.

Performative cruelty simply to pander to racists and bigots who will not vote Labour no matter how cruel to foreigners and asylum-seekers they are. The sooner Mahmood is moved on and Labour stop chasing voters that don’t exist, the better.

A potential new front in the UK-US cultural discourse …

10) Merge, or recast, both the Treasury and the Business and Trade Department. The UK Treasury is almost unique among major European finance ministries in its domination of economic policymaking, subordinating industrial vision to short-term accounting. That has to change.

Good to see Agent HMT doing Moscow's job for them.

Indeed. You can already see with mayors it's becoming a route for ambition politicians. Which is a good thing.

Safe to say there’s no way Starmer could have delivered a speech like that - one that’s coherent, tells a clear story about what govt is planning to do, and one that he genuinely believes in.

Mahmood: „but the numbers! We’ve got the numbers down! We‘re winning!“

I consider it Rishi Sunak's defining legacy that he was able to take a bloated, badly managed infrastructure project and somehow make it 10 times worse by stripping it of it's entire reason for construction.

HMT: „spend money on something useful? Never!“

„It’s costing too much … so do the one thing we all know will make it cost more with no tangible benefit“. Just build the fucking thing, nay-sayers be damned.

So tired of nasty policies against marginalised people being promoted for competitive political advantage. Cruelty as a political game show.

If Burnhamism is going to save either Labour or the country it needs to bean ambitious political project. There is no job more important than Chancellor for that. It has to be appointed on that basis – not balancing the cabinet – or the project is doomed from the outset.

Given a good many of them have only had 2 years experience in government - let alone Parliament - I’m not sure this critique holds.

On the one hand, you’d expect better from Treasury officials (past or present). On the other hand, it makes total sense given the quality of Treasury thinking and policy.

London hotel prices are ever so slightly insane 😭

The BBC - no doubt at the behest of HMT - are myopically shooting themselves in the foot.

Draft conversion practices bill loopholes make it “instruction manual for abuse” 👇 www.wearequeeraf.com/draft-conver...

Starmer was elected by his constituents and only constituents. The Labour Party - whose MPs were elected - replacing him because of his litany of failings - is not extraordinary, nor is it a coup. It’s Parliamentary government on action.

At some point, central government needs to grow a spine and tell the handful of Janets that oppose new infrastructure - especially transmission infrastructure - to go do one. Alas, they’re too busy pandering for their votes.

To recap, govt commissioned the Strategic Defence Review, and now refuses to fund it fully, leading to Healey resigning. Instead of thinking again, that man tries to bury his decision under a tokenistic increase in the settlement to cynically claim victory. What was the point of the SDR?

Oh Christ.

Oh boy, tell me you don't speak any other languages without speaking any other languages.

Keir Starmer may well try to claim credit for this as well - but remember that he tried to kill the policy off when it looked like it was why Labour did not win Uxbridge (and the real reason was too many Green votes)

The petulant reactions to the possibility of Miliband becoming Chancellor are pathetic and undignified.

Australia is overrated.

To the surprise of absolutely no-one, Jenrick‘s a right piece of shit.

Ed Miliband is, as far as I can think, the only cabinet minister in this government (except possibly Rayner) to have both clearly been largely successful in policy delivery and not have vacillated like a weathervane under pressure. These are both key attributes for a Chancellor!