But Labour’s centrist leader managed to forget additional word in interviews with both ITV and BBC
Labour leader Keir Starmer has told a gathering of black journalists today that he ‘regrets’ calling the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement ‘a moment’ on Tuesday – and that he meant that it is a ‘defining moment’.
If so, however, he managed not to make himself clear in at least two separate interviews – with BBC News and ITV’s Good Morning Britain:
Starmer was attacked this week by black Labour MPs for his dismissive description of a movement responding to centuries of oppression and discrimination.
Will his explanation satisfy them, Black Lives Matter activists or their supporters? It doesn’t satisfy this one.
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‘I support Zionism without qualification” were Starmer’s words, ergo he is a proven racist. We should contact the Labour Party and report him for racism on the grounds that without a shadow of doubt, Zionism is racism.
you bet he regrets it ,,,,,, forward on onward with Forward Momentum !!
https://arsnotoria.com/2020/07/01/rebecca-long-bailey-a-wrongful-dismissal-for-anti-semitism-that-wasnt/
Cheers Jack. Good article.
“To some extent I’ve inherited this problem – I’ve just come in as leader of the Labour Party and the staff that are in place [across the party] have been working here for some time.” I would have thought that a forensic person he would have identified the “problem” especially with his background in human rights.
I also was under the impression that most of the “Staffers” under Ian McNicol had moved on or was the Panorama program a figment of my imagination.
Most likely, Starmer has realised he made a mistake and he is now making excuses, trying to cover it up. Time will tell.
I’ll bet his adviser’s had an earful for not putting him right after the first instance.
I doubt it, Toffee, most likely what we see is the opinions of Starmer himself. People like Starmer usually appoint advisers that tell them what they wish to hear.
What about the Kashmir u-turn and commenting unfavourably about the Israeli annexation of West Bank and Jordanian valley land, Sir Keir? Have you nothing to say about these horrendous failures of yours?
And has Margaret (not “the blessed”one oh Grantham, but the “you’re a f*cking antisemite” one) not bent your ear yet about conflating all Jews with the most vile political actions of a Likud-led aggressive state?
No? She really should, you know. She really should.
qwerboi did you catch this youtube meeting last night? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjQx2ZAI1cA
Thanks Jack, appreciated
Starmer’s position on this issue is very clear. He is a man who has made a career as a Public Prosecutor. It is precisely men, and women, like Starmer who BLM is aimed at. The problem is that policemen who kill and torture prisoners are afforded impunity by prosecutors- pandering to the cops and their ‘law’n’order’ supporters.
Starmer was just such a prosecutor.
Is there any US prosecutor known to BLM who has a record as bad as that of Starmer in the de Menzeres, Tomlinson and Mark Duggan cases?
This is the DPP who pulled out every stop to ensure that those involved in the Duggan killing disturbances were punished while the actual killing itself went unpunished.
As a leader of Labour he is a total affront, a major embarrassment.
First he said he meant epoch, now it is a defining moment. I know squirming when I see it.
One ‘mistake,’ surely constitutes a sacking from the cabinet, but two…
It seems like Sir Keir’s finding his feet fast.
So far Starmer’s only been selected for a guaranteed safe Labour seat and been elected from what I’d call a weak field of leadership candidates by the party itself.
I think that makes it fair to say he hasn’t been tested electorally until he’s fought a GE as leader.
I don’t like the expression ‘common touch’ but Corbyn had it in spades and I don’t think Starmer has anything remotely resembling it.
He seems to me to lack empathy, or at least the ability to express it believably. I’ve never seen him crack funny or heard him laugh – shit, I don’t even know what his smile looks like.
My default opinion of lawyers is that they’re limited – they can have a perfectly good career with zero intellect if they have a good enough memory because no actual judgement is required. I’ve encountered a number that fit my description and none that didn’t.
Lawyers’ careers are never on the line if they can just keep their noses clean – I think that breeds a box-ticking attitude to everything they do in life.
I don’t think Labour has a hope in hell of winning anything with that fucking automaton as leader.
The latest net satisfaction score achieved by Keir Starmer – now at +31 according to Ipsos MORI – is the highest score attained by any leader of the opposition since Tony Blair in the mid-1990s.
The new Labour leader, who took up his post at the start of April, has been given a boost by the fresh polling data that shows 51% of Britons are satisfied with him and 20% dissatisfied, with 29% saying they don’t know.
https://labourlist.org/2020/06/starmer-achieves-best-opposition-leader-net-satisfaction-scores-since-blair/
Please feel free to check out his various predcessors’ results.
SteveH, the blindingly bleedin’ obvious conclusion to be be drawn from Spielman’s tricky-dicky little animated graphs is that numbers go up, numbers go down.
The numbers quoted (a little too gleefully I thought) are a happysnap from a honeymoon.
David – Except in this case the numbers represent the they best achieved throughout their tenure as opposition leaders. There are some startling contrasts. It would be somewhat surprising if a news blog sponsored by Unite and Unison wasn’t ‘gleeful’ at these excellent polling results so early in Keir’s tenure as Labour leader..
Ooops – the
they bestbest they achievedI find it significant that Rodgers printed Spielman’s accusation of Corbyn having the lowest ever approval rating and Starmer the highest ever – without comment.
Comparing the lowest rating Corbyn ever achieved (IIRC he went as high as 45%) with the highest Starmer has yet (ever?) achieved is somewhat misleading, not to say cuntish. Oops.
David – I guess Sienna thought that her readers were quite capable of drawing their own conclusions from the results of this Ipsos-MORI poll. The polling is after all consistent with the results from many other polls.
David – Nobody is gloating, You may well be correct in what you are implying that this is as good as it gets for Keir but on this particular metric Starmer’s figures can only get better. I’m simply pointing out that there appears to be far less active opposition to Keir than there was against Jeremy. This can only bode well for Labour’s future electoral prospects, particular when you take into consideration that Starmer was also very recently polled as being more trusted than Boris as PM. As for policies and the future manifesto, well that’s decided by conference so with that in mind alongside Keir’s pledge to follow the spirit of the 2017 manifesto I have very few doubts that the next manifesto will be a necessarily updated version of the manifesto that was so well received in 2017.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has overtaken Boris Johnson as the British public’s preferred choice for Prime Minister, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by Opinium for The Observer, found that 37% said Sir Keir would be a better choice for the top job compared to 35% who favoured Mr Johnson. It also revealed the majority of Brits disapprove of the Government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis for the seventh week in a row.
The gap between Labour and the Tories is also continuing to close, with Sir Keir’s party currently only four points behind in terms of voting intentions, down from a 20-point lead in February.
Adam Drummond, head of political polling at Opinium, said: “Boris Johnson’s approval rating remains narrowly negative while Keir Starmer’s remains substantially positive (moving from a net +22 last week to +27 this week).
“Politically, the ‘new normal’ is that for the first time in over a decade Labour has a leader who outperforms their party while the Conservatives have a leader who underperforms theirs and the crossover in preferred prime minister is a reflection of that.”
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/keir-starmer-overtakes-boris-johnson-as-publics-preferred-choice-for-prime-minister-new-poll-shows
Credit where credit is due, whether you like it or not, Keir has got off to a good start.
I’m certainly capable of drawing my own conclusions – I usually succeed in remaining uninfluenced by those of others, unlike some.
Starmer’s been leader for three months – his honeymoon period – and the poll is a fucking snapshot like I said.
Come back and gloat when he’s produced a manifesto for the many and proved himself to be on my side and I’ll cheer him.
Until then I’ll call him a neoTory cunt, m’kay?
Oh – and if he goes on win an election on a manifesto any Tory could have written, will I change my opinion of him then?
Take a guess.
David – see my reply above at 4:41. I intended it to appear here.
I didn’t imply that “this is as good as it gets” – maybe his approval rating will rise to 100% but that would be unusual – almost without exception they fall. New leaders typically get the benefit of the doubt .
One could transpose this whole conversation to 1994 and the dead end of the lost Blair/Brown years – Starmer winning a GE would be just as futile.
Equally futile but in effect, worse – because the 1% are stronger now than then and getting stronger.
Smarmer meant exactly what he said. His follow up words confirm that. He stated that BLM was a moment of reflection in response to what happened in America over the last few weeks.