Family, business, politics, rowing and a few other things
Joined September 2014
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Deirdre Fox retweeted
Who should be the leader of the Labour Party and hence the Prime Minister?
Please retweet.
@UKLabour
81%Keir Starmer PM
9%Andy Burnham
1%Wes Streeting
8%A N Other
765 votes • Final results Deirdre Fox retweeted
I spoke with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, @Keir_Starmer. I am grateful for all the support the United Kingdom provides to Ukraine – our efforts to protect life. We coordinated positions on the diplomatic track regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine, and we are working to reinvigorate substantive diplomacy. We also agreed on future contacts.
Deirdre Fox retweeted
The Guardian: “Net migration down by three-quarters, the biggest fall in NHS waiting lists for 17 years, knife crime cut by 10%, the economy growing the fastest in the G7, rising wages, energy bills and petrol prices held down, the biggest sustained rise in defence spending since the cold war, a massive expansion of free childcare …
If Keir Starmer did tub-thumping lists of Labour’s achievements in the style of Gordon Brown, he would not actually have a shortage of things to talk about.”
During the two years of Labour government, following fourteen years of Tory mismanagement, there have actually been significant improvements in Britain. Why does the Tory media not report them?
Deirdre Fox retweeted
I have found the new Russian sanctions law and the PM and trade minister Bryant are correct that the permission to import Russian jet fuel and diesel refined in a third country is a waiver from new sanctions. Tory leader Badenoch was barking up wrong tree, it seems. But maybe that is understandable to a degree because the government’s communication on this was confusing, to put it kindly
Responsible government in action #keirstarmer
Deirdre Fox retweeted
A man of substance!
A man who stood up and put his country before his career
A man who has made a major impact on the world stage while being targeted by the Right at home
A proud man, an honest man
He is Sir Keir Starmer and we need him to continue his work
#TENYEARKEIR
Deirdre Fox retweeted
Andy Burnham has made a chaotic start to his attempted return to Westminster and presumably to eventually become Prime Minister.
Listen carefully:
You must be off your fucking heids if you think Burnham is a better choice than Starmer.
Starmer is slowly getting it right.
Deirdre Fox retweeted
REPOSTING - to emphasise, such arrogance and ego centred mentality by Burnham -tells BBC running in #Makerfield by-election to "save’’ Labour. Rubbish. Person that saved Labour was Starmer after the Corbyn years and made it an electable party again. All naked ambition to be . PM
Deirdre Fox retweeted
Under the Tories, waiting lists went up and up and were left at record highs.
That is not acceptable, which is why Labour has been giving the NHS what it needs to get back on its feet, including major investment.
Waiting lists are now down by over 300,000 since the election, and down by over 6,000 in Portsmouth, despite record numbers of people coming forward for treatment👇🏻
David Lammy @bbcradio4 "the PM is the most resilient person I know".
"Let's us get on with the business of governing, which is rare for the Labour Party and rare for the Labour movement".
He's not going anywhere!
Deirdre Fox retweeted
Right so Keir Starmer has reduced immigration by over 70%, kept us out of the Iran War, massively boosted defence spending, reduced NHS waiting times, and started growing the economy again.
But we should sack him off for Burnham in under 2 years because Manchester has £2 buses?
A PM who seeks to unite and put country first
Today the voices of division will be loud.
They don't speak for the country I know, one that belongs to all of us.
That's our Britain. A Britain worth fighting for.
lbc.co.uk/article/keir-starm…
Deirdre Fox retweeted
What is becoming increasingly clear from mainstream coverage is a basic assumption that simply does not hold. There is a repeated claim that Labour members, supporters, and the wider electorate are aligned behind a change in leadership. Yet anyone who actually listens to people on the ground hears something very different.
There is support for the Prime Minister. He won the mandate, and many are content to see that mandate carried through. What is emerging is not a demand for change, but frustration at a parliamentary party that appears to be talking to itself rather than to the country.
That disconnect is where the real danger lies. The Parliamentary Labour Party risks becoming so detached from its own base that it creates a backlash of its own making. Not a theoretical one, but a very real reaction from voters who will not take kindly to internal manoeuvring overriding the result they endorsed.
The idea that Andy Burnham can simply be placed into a seat and return without consequence underlines that disconnect. In the current climate, there are no guarantees. A by election would be contested hard from all sides, and as Sir John Curtice has already indicated, the likelihood is that Andy Burnham would not be in a safe position and could well lose such a contest. Such is the strength of Reform across these constituencies that the very fact a sitting Labour MP would step aside to accommodate him only heightens the risk. You are potentially giving up a seat that is secure for the remainder of the term, only to place it into immediate jeopardy. Lose that contest, and it becomes a significant political gift to Reform, amplified by a right wing media that will seize on it relentlessly.
At the same time, there are early signs, however modest, that the government’s economic direction is beginning to show movement. There remains time within the term for that to develop and be judged properly. That is where the focus should be.
Instead, what is unfolding is faction set against faction, each advancing its own preference while handing an advantage to opponents. It is precisely this kind of division that benefits others and weakens Labour’s position.
Much of this appears to be driven not by grounded political reality, but by media narrative. Commentary is being treated as consensus, and speculation as direction.
If that assumption is wrong, and it may well be, the consequences will be significant. The public will not quietly accept decisions that appear to override the mandate they supported. And when that moment comes, it will not be the commentators who are held accountable. It will be those within the party who chose to act on it.
We cannot continue to deny the political reality through procedure.
We need a timetable for an orderly transition of leadership. A full and frank discussion about the future direction. @AndyBurnhamGM must be allowed to play a full part in that, if an opportunity arises.
Deirdre Fox retweeted
I think it’s the worst thing Labour could do right now, there’s no reason to panic over some adverse polling less than two years into a ten year project - and some of what we’re seeing is more opportunism than panic - but if there is to be a leadership contest my first choice for the job would be Keir, that’s who I’ll back.
The NHS has been battered for 14 years by Tory neglect and underfunding. Just as things are starting to turn a corner, Wes decides to walk away from a job he’s actually good at. Because he’s lost confidence apparently. Hard to square that with his talk of being proud to fight in the trenches with Keir at the general election. When the going gets tough and all that…...
People around Ed Miliband have been briefing that he’s urged Keir to set a timetable to walk away - unhelpful enough to say it - worse to leak it to the press. Ed is seen as a potential contender, I’m not convinced. A few weeks ago, he told the country he would finally break the link, the market mechanism that drives our energy bills sky-high in a crisis - the following week he announced the details and he did not break the link or even weaken it. Ed misled the country in my view and the Prime minister.
Keir's top team should be standing behind him right now - and not with knives in their hands.
How about some policy ideas?
This whole leadership circus is a massive distraction from the job, not just at a time of global crisis but at a time when the people of Britain are making clear they want more change, they want to feel the change in their lives. The answer to that, some seem to think - is to have a new leader. That’s a delusion and often enough a conceit, sold to us on the premise it’s in the national interest or the party’s interest - when the truth is much closer to home.
Labour has a job to do and a mandate to do it.
Let’s get on with it.