Doing nothing is not an option. People are angry about the current situation. Doubling down on current policy of higher public spending, higher taxes and a faster drive to net zero will make everything worse and hasten the demise of the PM to be followed by his party.
Labour needs to try to be the party of the workers again, not the Benefits party. It needs to reach out to the UK settled population and put an end to illegal migration and excessive legal migration. It needs to rebuild our defences instead of running them down.
It should be scandalised by the way net zero policy is rapidly de industrialising the UK. It should lift its bans on domestic oil, gas and car manufacture. It should drastically change energy policy, reducing taxes and high prices of energy for business and homes.
It should reform welfare to get many more people back into work, cutting the big bill.It should stop giving away money and islands to foreign governments. It should cancel the ill conceived and damaging EU re set.
Those who debate whether Labour should turn right to confront Reform or turn left to tackle the Greens do not get it. The public want results on clear problems. They want the promised economic growth. They want the end to illegal migration. They want the pledged lower energy prices. They want more jobs not more unemployment. They are not asking for more politics, more spin, a choice between two wrongly categorised other parties. They just want the government to govern well. They want them to solve problems, not make them worse as they have been doing with the wrong changes.
May 10, 2026
Good Morning,
At last there appears to be acknowledgement by Lord J that politics as has been for our lifetimes, a comfy duopoly, is coming to an and! We don’t need the labour Party and we don’t need the Conservatives Party.
As I heard a lady yesterday, we now have hope for genuine change, not just words without actions.
Democracy may well have saved us from the legacy parties’ lazy and selfish politicians. The next big obstacle to is the entrenched Civil Service. At least the challenge is known.
Reply It was never a comfy duopoly. We have been through the surge in the SDP Liberal alliance under Thatcher, the phenomenal rise of the SNP to five terms in government in Scotland, the rise of Lib Dems in local government and their disastrous period for themselves in the 2910 coalition government of UK. Northern Ireland has always had different parties. Your slapdash Reform nonsense underestimates the difficulties of turning this country round and getting big changes to government. There are no easy answers and it will require people who become Executive Councillors and government Ministers behaving very differently and taking control of a badly performing over extended quango state
May 10, 2026
@Peter Wood – we want, need to become a Democracy, not one that is interoperated by our rulers to make life easy for them. We need a Parliament that will defend ‘Democracy’, will defend ‘Freedom’
In the Democratic world that is seen as government for the people by the people. Yes Democracy is flawed, but it promises a way forward rather than being dictated to by Political ideologues that place personal, very personal esteem and ego ahead of reality
May 10, 2026
Quite so. I put it to the debate that democracy becomes corrupted by political parties. Consider the effect if all MP’s were independent, then every vote would be of conscience and fact, not what’s good for the party. MP’s would (mostly) vote for the interests of their electorate and country. Party means hierarchy and power and obedience to vested interests. Our present system needs major overhaul.
May 10, 2026
‘The public want results on clear problems.’
What the public want and what it will get are two different things. If people are still expecting a saviour they will be disappointed. Experience over many different prime ministers should teach that.
May 10, 2026
But john Reform are the only party which is in tune with the public.
I know you dislike them but Starmer will continue with his futher and faster mantra which means more net stupid no stopping the boats and certainly no policies which will reduce the cost of living or energy prices.
Starmer will continue to talk about defence but actually do nothing, all the time dragging us into the EU orbit.
I hope he stays in post as he’s the best recruitment sergeant Reform could wish for.
Liebour have so much invested in their destructive policies they are incapable of change.
Reply Reform got only 27% national equivalent vote on thursday. I do not dislike Reform. I agree with some of their headline soundbites but see little evidence of any ability to implement serious change and witness too many poll chasing U turns. E.g. 2 child cap, triple lock, Doge policy, attitude to Trump, deportation of people granted leave to remain. Do they still want to introduce proportional representation and if so which system? This site is not a site dedicated to analysing and commenting on opposition parties. It is all about how to conduct government.
May 10, 2026
I worry about Reform’s economic policies which are morphing to appeal to the Labour Red Wall and looking increasingly like the existing political concensus.
May 10, 2026
100% correct.
Why can’t they see it?
May 10, 2026
Keir Starmer claims to have a mandate by being supported by the British people.
In the UK General Election on 4 July 2024 about 48.2 million people were registered/eligible to vote. Labour Party received about 9.71 million votes. 80% did not support Labour or actively voted against them.
In the May 7 Council elections Labour reached only about 16% of the vote share in England and was heavily rejected by the Scots and Welsh in their national elections.
The support Labour had in 2024 has disappeared. Go away Starmer and take Labour with you.
May 10, 2026
When they say ‘mandate’ they’re referring to their parliamentary mandate ie 60% of seats …..and not the peoples mandate, as you suggest Bloke, they only achieved less than 30% of the popular vote
May 10, 2026
@Bloke – that’s the bit their ego doesn’t get, support is when you are supported by the majority. The GE saw the nation disenfranchised, it could be seen that ‘none of the above’ was the largest vote by a country mile.
They refuse elections, the idea of seeking validation and approval for the direction being taken doesn’t suit there very personal ideology. The great comparison is that since 2TK was elected and before he will allow another election the people of the USA would have had 3 GE for those that represent them.
2TK has no mandate, no manifesto for the things he has dictated sine he sat in No10. On Monday he will double down on his ‘Plan’ and in the same week he will cause the ‘King’ to pronounce 2TK’s next bit of indoctrination. That wont be an elected on manifesto, or give him a mandate – its his own ‘wet d…..’ What he wont do is ask the People that empower and pay him if they approve.
Reply He has a mandate and would have public support for ending illegal migration and making UK fastest growing G7 country. He should do that.
May 10, 2026
Labour cannot do as the blog indicates because almost by its very nature its M.P.s and its members are impractical left wing idiots. Probably their best chance would be to make Wes Streeting their leader because he is relatively intelligent, pragmatic and focused on making things work (indeed rather better as health minister than his Conservative predecessors because he is less accepting of institutional failure and the professional civil service complacent acceptance of failure) but I don’t see Labour doing that as they are now allergic to ‘Blairites’. Instead Starmer is talking about redoubling his efforts to backtrack on Brexit which is a surefire way to lose the constituencies that most wanted Brexit to Reform and thereby the next General Election but Starmer’s and Labour’s inability seems to know no bounds.
The more urgent question for us on the right is what should we be doing? The answer really is obvious except to the leadership of both Reform and Conservative Parties is ‘unite the right’ for the next General Election. We should be saying that while Reform and the Conservative Parties will (at least for now) remain independent parties and fight each other in some local elections Labour has got the country into such a great mess and the prospect of either another Labour government or a coalition of the left is so horrific that at the next General Election the Conservative Party and Reform will make a deal to have joint candidates and a jointly agreed program for government (manifesto) for the next Parliament to save our country from economic ruin. That is the only way to ensure there is not a split vote on the right and thereby victory for the right. To do that both Conservative and Reform would have to take some painful decisions. The Conservatives would have to allow Nigel Farage to become Prime Minister (as he is a better and more charismatic politician than Badenoch or whoever and leads the faction that is getting more votes) and Reform would have to allow the Conservatives equal status and equal numbers in the coalition and probably allow all sitting Conservative M.P.s to remain in place when they could probably have beaten them, particularly in Essex, Suffolk,Norfolk and Lincolnshire in an election. It is time for the Conservatives and Reform to face reality that they are unlikely to win, indeed could be obliterated on their own but together they will win.
May 10, 2026
It shouldn’t be about uniting the right, rather enabling the centre ground, where most people are. The problem is that the centre ground are the most likely to be turned off by politics, and they don’t get motivated to go into politics or turn out to vote (there being no one they relate to). So we get the politics of extremes.
May 10, 2026
John your wish list for a Labour government doing the basic task of government and doing it well are predicated on them having those fundamental principles as their core policies. Sadly as we can all see and are suffering Labour have policies that do not enable the basic roll of good governance to happen.
It is that very clear and basic, the gap between what the public want/need and Labour’s blindness to that, has resulted in them being smashed at the local elections and devolved representation.
Labour is all but abandoned in Scotland, is all but finished in Wales, it has no roll in Northern Ireland which only leaves England for them to operate in. That final area of representation is now disappearing too. Reform’s rise and the Greens providing the option of none of the above leave Labour’s Marxism floundering.
It is difficult to see where Labour imagine their vote for continued existence is going to come from?
Even the immigrant voters are deserting them. From the Keir to the Keir as they might be chanting soon.
May 10, 2026
Your first two Paragraphs are correct John, but that boat sailed many years ago, and the passengers have now moved on to Reform to see what they can offer..
There is not one Labour Cabinet Minister who has ever run their own business, or controlled a large commercial organisation, and few have ever even been a working Trade Unionist in a manufacturing plant, so what on earth do any of them know about what workers or business wants and needs in the real World.
Over the past 3 decades we have been taxed and regulated to death, just to feed political dogma and ideals, the real workers, strivers, investors, and savers have given up hope, because there is no longer any point in trying to make your own life better through your own effort, as the rewards are too little, and the financial risks are too great.
We have seen a whole range of Ministers accepting personal gifts, invitations to large scale events, and prancing all over the World stage at the taxpayers expense, because they feel they need and have to look the part and be seen as important, but little ever comes out of such trips other than more cost to the taxpayer.
Contrary to official figures people believe crime is growing, living off the state is growing, the civil service and local governments are failing, and the cost of everything is increasing (due in many cases to government policy).
Look no further than the shoplifting epidemic, and illegal immigration to see how the justice system is failing.
I could list a hundred more examples, but space will not allow.
May 10, 2026
An excellent contribution.
May 10, 2026
concur
May 10, 2026
There’s absolutely no chance of what you say happening. Starmer’s article in yesterday’s Guardian makes no commitment whatsoever to a change of course. On we go with politician destruction of our way of life.
May 10, 2026
Even if the Labour government were to begin introducing sensible policies, who would believe them? Who would venture to start a new business, or invest in growth, while those in power are poised to soak them in tax and burden them with regulation?
All they are is their ideology, and even if those in government have seen it unravelling, they are set to be replaced by others who still hold to it.
Buckle up for 2029, it won’t get better until then.
May 10, 2026
Labour wreck the economy. Nothing new there, they always do.
Starmer is a ‘dead man walking’ fact. He has to go.
The country is crying out for change. That can only come from the Right. Reform are leading the way, but the Right needs to unite. For it is certain the Left and Far-Left will unite to twist democracy in an attempt to prevent a Right-wing victory at the next general election.
May 10, 2026
@OA. Definitely, the right needs to unite or we could have a traffic light coalition as the next government. Very roughly to get a plurality a Party needs a 5-10% lead over its main rival. Its the Party with the plurality which gets invited to cobble together a government. What if Reform fell short? They have a rough 8% lead now over the next popular Party (Labour). Can they maintain it?
Reply 7% over Conservatives
May 10, 2026
Appointing Harriet Harman and Gordon Brown, despite all their negative historical activities, as advisers, suggests that Starmer is now embarking on a scorched earth policy to accelerate his mission of ruining this country in every conceivable way.
May 10, 2026
As so often, I agree with all you say, but can you see Starmer, or any of the likely candidates for his place, doing any of it? And for Starmer to see Gordon Brown as his saviour beggars belief.
May 10, 2026
All good ideas but those are all the main purposes of a Labour govt! High tax, regulatory strangulation, expensive energy, uncontrolled migration, surreptitious Rejoin the EU. You could add ignore (selected) criminality where that supports a woke agenda. That’s what Labour MPs want power to do.
The journalist Tom Newton-Dunn points out that if Labour really want to save leftism they should force through PR – together the leftwing parties, labour, green, libdem, Celtic separatists – they could get a majority. Dangerous times.
May 10, 2026
The Labour I remember ( “Old” Labour) would not have been in favour of importing cheap workers to supress wages, so would not have been keen on the EU. They would have been very much in favour of “Made in Britain” (and the factories required to do it). They knew what a “worker” was because they’d probably once been him.
They were of course very much in hock to the Unions and we had terrible industrial relations but they also had the redeeming feature that they believed in this Country – albeit they wanted to Nationalise it all. I never voted for them after seeing inside a British Leyland factory and seeing the Unions ‘at work’ but I preferred them to the Lawyers that pretend to be Labour today.
Strange to say, I find them almost honest by todays standards – they certainly told a few porkies but not the outright lies and deceit that the new people peddle. Perhaps I’m just being nostalgic but I didn’t detest Old Labour as much as I do the New.
May 10, 2026
Your suggestions to Labour sound like they’d turn it into Reform. I can’t see them going that far! I can see them dressing up policies to pretend they are going in that direction, but in reality not changing direction or even doubling down. This is the Libdem modus operandi, too: deny you’ve signed up to damaging policies and/or pretend they won’t be harmful, and claim they are popular too.
May 10, 2026
If you consider the reckless malicious damage and destruction created in less than 2 years, doing ‘nothing’ we be a bonus and a relief.
There is no one in this Parliament and its leadership that has a clue about managing or even being a government, so for them all to ‘butt out’ would give the country a chance to breath, recoup, and put things back in order.
The Political ideology dished out by this Parliament is about them personal being rulers of the worst kind. Not one of the wishes to work with the People of this nation, they want to fight, indoctrinate and punish.
May 10, 2026
Doing nothing is not an option ….”just watch Starmer”, they’re going faster & further at doing nothing
May 10, 2026
Only one thing for Labour to do now is to work to get the best possible deal with the EU. By the time of the next GE the Trump presidency will have passed and we’ll be all out of synch. There’s a lot of unhappiness about and the only chance Labour has now of increasing voter share and saving itself is to face up to Reform and declare for Europe.
Reply Try reading this site which shows how EU alignment will do more economic damage. Silly assertions in your comment
May 10, 2026
So the current Prime Minister has resurrected Gordon Brown and Harriet Harmen but no new job as yet for Peter Mandelson. Gosh!!
How about finding Tony Blair something to do in Starmer’s Jurassic government to make the nightmare complete?
May 10, 2026
Bringing in 2 old cronies that never did anything worthwhile for the country will not do it – If labour were serious about finding out where they went wrong they would start a debate, an honest one on what modernisation means.
They have been pushing their version of modernisation down our throats without any agreement or explanation – how about they asked us what we wanted our future to look like!
We oppose their dictatorial style imposition of things like id cards with the implication that they know best – clearly they do not! We want government by agreement, not dogma.
They need to step back and look at the massive mistakes they were about to make.