Analysis

Radio programme call handler tells caller they’re struggling to find anyone to be positive about Starmer

Caller told he can’t come onto programme because ‘we need to try and find some balance’ after flood of critical calls

Academic Justin Schlosberg tried to participate in an LBC radio phone-in show on the topic of Keir Starmer’s leadership of the Labour party. He was unable to, despite getting through, because the programme’s call-handler told him there were too many others phoning in to criticise – and they were struggling to find anyone to speak positively.

Schlosberg, who teaches at Birkbeck University in London, related the conversation on Twitter moments later:

Starmer’s supporters try to explain away his unpopularity by claiming that social media users are not representative of voters in general. But with his polling plummeting and Labour trailing behind a Tory government that has overseen the needless deaths of many tens of thousands of people during the pandemic while simultaneously inflicting among the worst economic consequences of any major country, it will be interesting to see whether they think LBC’s generally right-leaning listeners are unrepresentative too.

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56 comments

  1. Starmer just needs to ask himself one question: “Am I the right person for this job?”

    Even he will have to admit that he isn’t.

    It’s time to go Keith.

    1. “It’s time to go Keith”

      That will be clear to everyone on 6th May 2021. The by-election and local election results the next day will confirm Sir Keir’s inability to lead a left of centre political pary.

      1. I worry that people will vote “Labour” for worshipping the Brand Name rather than taking into consideration the Politics! Geezus we need a Democratic Socialist Party ASAP! Without the Internal Sabotage and Conniving we will be flying, but we need sitting MPs to make the move! The Neolabour Tories will not see a Democratic Socialist stand for a seat, that is for sure! Just do not vote ‘Labour’ for the name’s sake you might as well vote Tory, in that case, that is what they are! All they’ll do is buy us another 41 years of Neoliberal Tory Hell!

    1. No I wasn’t. Even if I had been, I wouldn’t have rung in, as when you do I find you have to wait in a phone queue for what seems like hours, and frankly I’ve other things to do, which, not living in the NE you won’t know about, like penning articles fro the local press ftrom the Labour perspective, including one at the moment on social care reform from both a political perspective ( I was, for many years chairing / being a cabinet member for social services / adult care) and living, due to illness and accident, in a care dominated housing envioronment). I think that’s preferable to an ephemeral few seconds on a radio station relatively few people listen to.

    1. “Just got some bad news from twitter. It seems that Ellman is to rejoin the part”

      The Zionist.shills are regrouping!

      1. They are accusing the NIP of antisemitism now.
        The usual suspects.

      2. We might as well face it, the entire planet is Antisemitic!
        What an Absolute Farce!

        Anyway The UK Labour Party is long Dead, let them polish their Neon “Labour” Turd, in the hands of Warmongering Neoliberal/Neoconservatives and with no Democratic Socialists to hide behind their Emperor’s New Clothes moments are coming on sooner than later.

      3. So…you can’t be a Labour member if you’ve campaigned for another party, but you can if you’ve STOOD AS A CANDIDATE for another party.

    2. That really is bad news. Starmer and his supporters will see this as something to celebrate.
      At least it gives the BBC and the rest of MSM to report on it and give Corbyn another bashing.

    3. ‘Just got some bad news from twitter. It seems that Ellman is to rejoin the party.’
      Lundiel, I was just going to ‘like’ your post but that seemed somehow inappropriate to tbe subject matter, thank you any way for the info. What a thought, but another ‘nail in the coffin’ the reformist poltics of Labour, no disrespect to members on here.
      I suspect, one by one most of those shysters who departed under Corbyn will be let back in, even the rule breakers. Democratic socialism was just not going to be allowed. The ruling class panicked by the 2017 election result decided to remove Corbyn, who they knew was backed by a movemenr of millions of working peopld against austerity, so they started on the ‘peaceful’ method of anti semitism smears and claims of links to terrorism, if that hadn’t dealt with him, they had a chilling plan B.
      The army, in addition to encouraging avid anti Corbynism amoung their ranks with the use of Corbyn’s picture as target practice at a firing range, ‘the Sunday Times carried a story quoting a “senior serving general” who warned that the armed forces would take “direct action” to stop a Corbyn government.’
      https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-12-04-how-the-uk-military-and-intelligence-establishment-is-working-to-stop-jeremy-corbyn-from-becoming-prime-minister/
      Chile 1973?

      1. The likes of Mann, Woodcock, Austin can now safely return to the other Tory Party no difference in fact they can indulge in their Far Right and Neoconservative tendencies far easier and with a lot more acceptance in the Neolabour Tory Party. I think the Conservative Tory Party is a bit more restrictive on the Far Right and Neoconservatism and they are simply not smart enough to dodge the Rhetoric.
        re The Article yes! Some people just can not see what a powerful Politician JC is! 80% of his own PLP Sabotaged and Connived against him, International Governments hounded him down UK, IL, USA, Every Elites’ Owned MSM (Even the “Left-wing” MSM), Just about 99% of The HoP, Probably more than 80% Labour HQ Staffers, Just about every Labour Movement/Group/Project Faked, Lied, Cried every day for nearly 5y! AND STILL he did not once waver or quaver! If that guy is not studied for many years to come as the most relentlessly attacked, without any substance, and still to achieve what he did, then I fear future UK Politics is at great risk!
        Knowing about all these Special Forces on the Get Corbyn case and the most flawed GE system in the world, it is no wonder that the Blatantly Most Popular Politics lost GE19 and the PM’s first words “We Pulled it off”!
        Did you know that one group owns everything GE related! The Company Shaws who supplies everything GE, Ballot Paper, to Box, to Booth, to Pencil The Electorate Commission and this new Electoral Reform thing, is all one Company, now how easy would it be to “for queen and country (of course)” Steal a GE with that little lot!?
        The next and biggest GE problem 3 Volunteers per Box, 1 is the returning Officer, That 1 Returning officer at 10PM takes that station’s Ballot Boxes/Papers and load it in the back of his/her Own Private Car and ALONE drives 5/10/30 Minutes to the Counting Station, what on earth could go wrong “For Queen and Country(of course)”!? We are taken for mugs, good people are smeared and bad, really, really bad people are praised and revered! Madness, Utter Madness!

  2. “…………………. a .Tory government that has overseen the needless deaths of many tens of thousands of people………………..”
    It is rhetoric such as this that explains why Skwawkbox is not taken seriously as a platform for serious political debate.
    To articulate such vile dishonesty is not only infantile it is offensive. You should be ashamed of yourself.
    Remove it.

      1. The truth is Labour lost the last GE by 162 seats. Conservative seats increased by 48%, labour decreased by 59%. Worst ever result in Labour history. That is the truth and as you say, , ‘the truth’ often hurts.
        Skwawkbox and its followers dont like Keir Starmer. I get that.
        The difference between you and me is in our perception of KS. I know you dont like him, that much is obvious, but why dont you like him? that is what I dont hear.
        I see him for what he is a well respected establishment figure, that after a successful career and early retirement thought he might have a go at politics. What is wrong with that?
        Its got to be more interesting that tending the allotment.

      2. Never mind the propaganda MacKinnon. The conservatives won an election where Labour faced unprecedented smears and propaganda on a 63% turnout and Labour lost by 3.5 million votes.
        Starmer was elected leader partly on a pledge to carry on with Corbyn’s policies. As soon as he was elected he abandoned any semblance of social democracy, surrounded himself with right wing advisers and started a renewed crusade against the left under the auspices of yet more alleged antisemitism. He even got the American asset Smeeth to introduce his virtual conference. That leads to another dangerous president, the man is an Atlanticist, one who not only follows American foreign policy but who agrees with an exclusive deep state group that democracy needs to be rationed. If he were ever to lead this country he would further enmesh us in American regime change wars.
        He also has the way of a political scoundrel, appealing to nationalistic tendency, wrapping himself in the Union Jack while following dangerous, foreign interventionist policy and wishing to increase spending on weapons, the army and security services.
        The man has no place in Britain’s future and your portrayal of him is totally fake.

      3. Richard also has issues with interpreting statistics. It seems he leaves other, relevant figures that enable proper contextualising,out.
        He also doesn’t know that 2019 was not as bad as 1983, and that in 2019, Labour’s vote still went up to a higher level than Blair ever achieved.
        But why blame the realities of FPTP when one can blame JC?

    1. I guess you also believe that Neoliberal/Neoconservative Blairites and Starmerists are “Socialists” and to the left of the Tories/Politics? Neoliberalism is Thatcherite, Neoliberalism is not Liberal nor is it, MSM created, “Centrist” they are Tories, Right Wing Tories and they Killed The UK Labour Party now they can have their Corporate Neoliberal “Brand” They successfully Killed The UK Labour Party so let them have it, but The Democratic Socialist, Hardieist, Bevanist, Corbynist UK Labour Movement, will always belong to the People wherever we decide to settle. The Neoliberal, going on, Neoconservatives have no use for it in any case, nothing Tory in it! We don’t need the Brand Name “Labour” to be a part of the International Democratic Socialist Labour Movement, we just need to be true to our Socialist Roots and remain True to The People of Great Britain. Something The Neolabour Tories can NEVER claim to be!

      1. SKELLYKNELLY,
        You talkin to me?
        Your using too many names. Too many Neo’s this and Neo’s that. And the right/ left spatial metaphor really does my head in. Try talking like normal people so I have a chance of understanding what it is you trying to say.

      2. richard mackinnon
        Yes I did reply to you, you will notice I do not use Left/Right because The Neolabour Party are a Tory Parasite infestation that has now consumed and killed all of The UK Labour Party.
        The Neolabour Party = Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism = For The Establishment/Elites.
        The UK Labour Party = Democratic Socialist = For The People.
        Two Polar Opposite Political Parties not one Party’s Left/Right.
        If you have difficulty in understanding me, like normal people, just ignore me, I REALLY wont mind.
        https://www.reddit.com/r/UKpoliticalmemes/comments/mfsl91/rip_uk_labour_party_long_live_keir_hardies/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

      3. That’s why SteveH keeps saying he’s a “democratic socialist” based on the “definition” of those words offered in Blair’s watered-down-to-nothing version of Clause IV: a “definition” that is so unspecific and anodyne that it is impossible for anyone in the House of Commons NOT to fit it- Margaret Thatcher would be a democratic socialist by that definition, ffs.

      4. It is a funny thing that, they “want to be” Democratic Socialists, but they hate Democratic Socialists, Socialists, Communists and “Leftists” with pure venom! It was Thatcher’s boi Blair who put a stop to singing The Red Flag! We know who we are and they can put as many LED’s and Neons on their Thatcherite Neoliberal Neolabour Party “Labour” Corporate Logo as they want but they will not and can not ever be what they are not and Democratic Socialist they certainly are not whatever Clause IV’s Definition has to say about it.
        We are Democratic Socialists who used to be in a Party that was called the UK Labour Party, but The Neolabour Party “Democratic Socialist” Tories killed it.
        RIP UK Labour Party!
        Long Live The Democratic Socialist UK Labour Movement, wherever our new home might be, the movement of The People NOT The Elites/Establishment/Machine!

    2. richard mackinnon. Do you not think that dischrging from hospital, people diagnosed with Covid and sending them to care homes is criminally negligent and caused the deaths of thousands of people? Couple that with the avoidable deaths of thousands more because of Johnson’s failure to lock down sooner in favour of his ‘herd immunity’ strategy and the charge that the Tory Government has overseen the deaths of tens of thousands of people is well justified.

      To answer why many Labour and ex Labour members have no time for Starmer, it’s because he is a phoney with a vindictive streak, intent on pleasing the rogue, racist, apartheid State of Israel.

      Will that do for now?

      1. Jack T
        On your first point, Johnson and the virus; I dont know, maybe he could have done better. No doubt; in the future the self appointed experts will argue that he should have done this or that sooner. .
        Two points to be kept in mind, This was the first pandemic in 100 years, and, Johnson himself nearly succumbed to it.
        On your second point regarding Israel and Starmer; if Starmer falls in line behind The State of Israel under its present leadership and gives Netanyahu his unequivocal support then he is a fool.
        When Trump was in the Whitehouse Netanyahu believed he had a free hand. Trump is gone and therefore Netanyahu can no longer rely on America’s support without question. And he, Netanyahu might not be around much longer.
        Times have changed in the space of a year. The virus has hit the US harder than any other country. Biden is dealing with a declining and unstoppable economic recession. And he is well aware of it.
        Starmer, if he has any sense should be very careful when it comes to his foreign policy position.
        Biden is not a fan of Great Britain or Brexit . He will look to Dublin and the EU as his friends in Europe before us. Biden sees himself as from Irish descent. He knows his history. He knows the history of Britain and Ireland. I cant say with any proof but I think he will see comparisons between GB and Ireland and Israel and Palestine.

      2. Richard MacKinnon can’t you do better than repeat a Guardian foreign policy article that repeats a foreign office briefing? Biden is following American foreign policy just the same as Trump did there’s no change apart from personal presidential relationships, for example a cooling towards Bibi Netanyahu and a load of baloney over the good Friday agreement. Biden has already upped the anti in Syria. He’s working with Al Qaeda, illegally occupying a third of the country, stealing oil and using sanctions to cause starvation in order to accomplish regime change. Much the same can be said of Venezuela, Iran, Russia and China. His/America’s/Britain’s/Turkey’s and the gulf states intervention in Syria are aimed at consolidating Israel as the regional power, promoting sectarian war, breaking Iran, starving the Syrian people into submission and sponsoring extremist religious Islamic proxy army recruited from around the world to fight a cruel war public opinion won’t allow the west to fight with their own troops. While the media will tell you all about the poor Uighurs in concentration camps, which is a lie, they will tell you nothing about the 15000 Uighur fanatics and their families who strike terror into the people of Syria by their cruelty and fanaticism.
        Biden is worse than Trump because he’s more malleable and in tune with the deep state. Plus his son is utterly corrupt.

      3. richard mackinnon, you were extremely selective in your reply to me. There is no argument about Johnson wanting herd immunity as a way to deal with the virus. In March last year the UK’s chief scientific adviser said the government wants 60 per cent of the population to catch coronavirus to try and create “herd immunity”. There is no argument about the murderous madness of this policy or to put infected people among infirm but virus free occupants of care homes. Please don’t attempt to smoke screen Johnson’s culpability for the deaths of probably tens of thousands of our citizens. He has bumbled, blustered and bullied his way through this catastrope as he always does when confronted. He is a proven liar and a total disgrace.

        As for Starmer falling or not falling in behind Netanyahu, another smoke screen from you. What Starmer has done is fall in behind the racist, apartheid concept of Zionism, which is a vile doctrine and totally against the Socialist beliefs which he pretends to espouse. This would be the case no matter who would be Israel’s PM with it’s racist Nation State Law and more than forty other Laws deliberately aimed at making the lives of Palestinians unbearable.

        If you think for one second that either Bozo or Starmer have any merrits whatsoever then you are not a Socialist and you should not be a member of the Labour Party, that’s if you are!

    3. richard mackinnon
      Stamer is a right wing establishment shill.
      Calls BLM a moment, does nothing about the anti black racism in Labour.
      Visits a homophobic church that promotes gay conversion therapy.
      He is a Labour as Jacob Rees Mogg.

      1. If you say so different. You seem to know a lot more about Starmer than I do.

      2. richard mackinnon
        “If you say so different. You seem to know a lot more about Starmer than I do.”
        It’s all in the public domain. But you,, like Steve the troll only have passive aggression.
        Stop being an arsehole.

    4. Richard, the statement you refer to may be debatable, but it is certainly nothing to criticise Skwawkbox for. This is a view taken by many eminent epidemiologists and virologists. It is also the view of the editor of The Lancet.

      1. Incidentally, the former Chief Medical Officer, when giving evidence to the inquiry chaired by Michael Mansfield QC, said that, during his tenure he was told by Tony Blair that he (the CMO) should make all the decisions and deal with all public communications, and that he (Blair) would back all the decisions. He also said that, some time during Cameron’s premiership, such responsibility was removed from the CMO and taken over by government ministers.

      2. goldbach,
        My comment regarding ‘overseeing needless deaths’ was my immediate reaction to reading the statement. I stand by it.

      3. “It is rhetoric such as this that explains why Skwawkbox is not taken seriously as a platform for serious political debate.”
        I’m a little puzzled. Maybe I’m reading what you wrote wrongly. Your sentence, above, appears to me to be critical of Skwawkbox for saying what has been said by many epidemiologists, virologists and the editor of The Lancet. I, certainly, would not want to gainsay their assessments of how the pandemic has been handled. If my assumption is correct then, by inference, you are being equally critical of them. If my reading of it is wrong please explain, and I will be happy to accept my reading error.

    5. You articulate a particular and peculiar problem.
      It is not allowed, today, to address the truth. As such, you are wasting your time on this site.
      Such deceitful restrictions do not apply.

    6. Remove yourself MacKinnon.

      If it’s not taken seriously, why are you even here?

  3. Where have you been Ricky Mac ???
    You’ve obviously not been very wide-awake this past year.
    Starmer’s pathetic leadership is excelled only by the corrupt and inept handling of the Pandemic by this Toe Rag government.

  4. Frankly I am finding all of these recent articles etc that are enthusiastically extolling Starmar’s superb attributes successes to be absolutely hilarious. The are so blatantly at odds with the reality that they are on a North Korean delusional level.

    They just look like one last and very desperate throw of the dice on his behalf by those who supported him and who now realize that they are stuck with him. It will all end in tears in May.

  5. Four years of concerted MIS-representation of Jeremy Corbyn as a Czech spy, a racist antisemite, a friend of terrorists when every opportunity was taken to affect a deep intake of breath every time this name was mentioned, they (MSM) had to admit that uner his leadership Labour was transforming itself from a conventional political party back into an embryonic mass movement which the Labour Movement always intended to be, and concede that the PLP’s then leader (JC), was tremendously ethical person with considerable integrity. And it scared them shitless.

    And today? It might not be a part of the propagandist narrative, but they have to admit that Sir Keir is as dull as dishwater with political views that fail to stimulate interest.

  6. Well ‘we’ told ‘you’ so! For ‘nearly 5 years’ and here we are! If only people listened to the likes of Justin and the many more of ‘us, who were screaming as loud as we could’, but they appeared to have their AirPods on full blast with the screeching of Neolabour Tory Party Sabotage, Smearing Lies, Elites/Establishment MSM and MSSM, so they could not hear ‘us’ or Jeremy Corbyn through the clanging of their empty tin cans!
    Now all ‘we’ can do is hope that the remaining 10/15 ‘Democratic Socialist’ UK Labour Party MPs get a move on and start ‘a New Democratic Socialist Party’ before they are also Witch-Hunted down by the Neoliberal/Neoconservative Neolabour Tory Party and ‘we’ll’ consequently have no Democratic Socialist Representation in The HoC just 100% Pure Thatcherite Neoliberal Toryism!
    I really would like to see us liberated in my time, but by pretending The UK Labour Party is not Dead, we’re only buying ourselves another 41 years of Thatcherite Neoliberal Hell!
    PS. Accents are purely for certain anal individuals, who ran out of “valid” arguments.

  7. Rumours are that Jess Phillips that foul mouth stab in your front as well as your back tory like is being touted to be the next saviour of the labour party what a carryon is this fucking NEW labour party

    1. BRIAN61
      Yes they did splash out quite a bit on the last fruitless drive on Phillips didn’t they, you’d think they would understand that someone even far less popular than Keith Stormtrooper might not be the best idea. Do they think that because most of us left the Party we are not still emotionally connected after many years of supporting the now Deceased Democratic Socialist UK Labour Party!? Do they think we are not going to let them know exactly what we think of their stupidity!? We don’t need to be Party Members to make them feel our Rage!
      RIP UK Labour Party!
      Long Live The UK Labour MOVEMENT!
      TBH who can they put at the podium without total ridicule there is not one Neolabour Tory Party MP who can do it, not one.
      I personally would rather see the handful of UK Labour Party MPs leave and form a New Democratic Socialist Party than stand at that box, under that Brand, getting ripped apart by the pack of rabid strays right behind them, day in and day out!

  8. So hands up so we can find the fool that actually likes Mr Tory-lite head of the cult of new Labour 2.0 anyone?

    Okay, nope that was just tumbleweed…

  9. lundiel05/04/2021 AT 3:47 PM

    Thanks for your reply. Here are a couple of points we disagree on.
    Ask anyone, especially ex Labour voters up north, ‘why did Labour lose the 2019 GE’. What do you think the answer would be? Would it be, because “Labour faced unprecedented smears and propaganda on a 63% turnout ” I dont think so.
    I think it would be something like “because I could not vote for Jeremy Corbyn”.
    Next point of disagreement.
    You say, “Starmer was elected leader partly on a pledge to carry on with Corbyn’s policies” And your point is? Dont tell me you are calling out Starmer as a cad and a bounder for not doing as he said he would? Please dont try that, you are not that naive. You might get away with that with the usual suspects, but that will not wash with me.
    Let me explain something to you, that you know fine well, politicians exaggerate, sometimes they tell untruths. If it benefits them at times, like election times, they tend to say thinks that they dont really mean.

    1. Some social conservatives said they couldn’t vote for Corbyn once the media had trashed him and made him out to be another middle class luvvy from Islington. However the last election was fought and won on Brexit and Corbyn followed very bad advice and the democratic choice of the party on the matter.
      The rest of your post is sneering bollocks. The manefesto and policy promises are the backbone of parliamentary democracy. Your description of the politician as a kind of 18th Century cad is laughable, even Johnson knows the limits to lies.

      1. “However the last election was fought and won on Brexit and Corbyn followed very bad advice and the democratic choice of the party on the matter.” Exactly.
        That is what happens to leaders who follow bad advice. Sometimes defeat is not the end of it. Sometimes when you get it so badly wrong, humiliation is the burden of defeat.
        I remember watching Corbyn’s contortions in the months before the Brexit referendum, it put this picture in my mind: an old man trying to climb over a barbed wire fence, trying his best not to get his best corduroys torn.

    2. Given that a number of shadow ministers threatened to resign if Corbyn didn’t follow their ludicrous second referendum “policy”, Corbyn was caught in a trap with no way out. It may have been a deliberate trap, or it may have been created out of the sheer stupidity of those ardent Remainers but, whichever it was, one of them is now leader of the party ……. and it shows.

  10. Are you a joker, Ricky Mac ??
    You are so transparent that we can see thru you like a glass window.
    You are Just-So-Sincere !!!! ……NOT

  11. I think all the things that happened this year are just gaslighting the left. They want us to leave the party so they have an even tighter grip. And there are no alternatives to Labour unless those alternatives start to organise properly. Hartlepool seems a good first shot, pity that there are no council candidates (yet) and I am afraid that many Labour candidates are going to be voted out in May.

  12. LBC got Alan Johnson to speak on Starmer. His OTT gushing endorsement of Starmer saying he had done a brilliant job was an obvious attempt by the Right to paint him as saviour to Corbyns disastrous reign and ended up being a complete embarrasment!

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