That Starmer fella...

Well, that was an unpleasant rabbit hole.

So to win Hartlepool back Starmer should espouse TERF friendly policies such as routine inspection of children’s genitals before allowing them to play sports?

Go to Kathleen Stock's writing if you want it from the horse's (philosophy professor's) mouth in a reasonably nuanced (or at least thought-through) version. Then read the relevant criticism of her views (obviously).

I know Joe!

Bailey doing better than Khan in London so far. Fuck me, Starmer is toxic.

He writes some good stuff.

Is this a joke?

Worthwhile twitter thread here. Essentially all commentary about the whys and wherefors of this are secondary to the fact that more people are voting labour (the age at which the population switches to Tory is going up), but the young Labour voters are increasingly concentrated in cities, leaving the Conservative party hoovering up a majority of rural seat.

No. Bailey performing better than Goldsmith, Khan doing worse than 2016

I'm sorry but I completely disagree - Labour went to the left after Brown and have lost the three subsequent general elections touting left wing policies, which the British electorate have consistently rejected. They have to move away from that if they want to be elected again.

Starmer isn't up for election in London.

If you want to know why the Labour party is doing so badly, then looking at how they campaigned in London would be illuminating. This 'straight fight' nonsense was pathetic, campaign on your policies, not being 'not Tory'.

Labour have been shedding votes since 2001

The anomaly was Corbyn 2017, less so in 2019 pending Brexit scheissgheist

The 2017 Labour vote was bolstered by the remain vote, which had nowhere else to go in a vain attempt to stop Brexit.

Let's see after the 2nd choice votes are counted.
Few Green 1st choices are going to go to Bailey.

I can't... Even among the Tory Londoners I know, their voting for London mayor has nothing to do with Starmer.

I'm in a very different place politically and I don't love Khan, although I've given him a vote. It's also a much less binary election than nationals, so really not likely to my mind many people would switch between khan / bailey, and would vote for different candidates

I'll probably get banned just for saying this, but I've lived in the world in a female body for nearly half a century and I'm not going to vote for someone who denies that sex matters as well as gender because I KNOW sex matters.

Being female has a massive impact on my life which is nothing whatsoever to do with how I feel inside and everything to do with how the world treats bodies like mine.

same babe

In a self conscious way as a man telling a woman what to do.. you didn't need to qualify that post with thoughts of being banned. I'm sure that suggesting SRAM was better than Shimano would be closer to that particular edge.

I don't think this is true at all. If anything the 2017 Labour vote was clinging on to leave voters—why would remainers vote en masse for a party that was promising to leave the EU??

Is anyone denying that sex matters?

And is this even an issue that would feature in the Top 10 concerns of most voters in this election?

It's not something I've heard mentioned at all in any campaign or any discussion about the election so far.

I'm not sure about that.

I think that 2017 was an election held on the the understanding that Brexit was a fait accompli given that Parliament had voted to trigger Article 50 three months earlier, with the backing of Labour.

I get the impression 2017 was an election about what sort of issues we would be dealing with looking past Brexit (in which Labour's vision was backed by 40% of the electorate despite poor leadership).

2019 was an expression of anger that it still hadn't happened yet, with Labour cast as the ones trying to hold it up.

Lots of voters interviewed put Corbyn's lack of leadership higher than Brexit in 2019 - but would he have had that image if he'd actually explained his position and not equivocated hopelessly about it, while drowning in the rest of the hostility he faced?

Lots of people's "if only" scenarios seem to revolve around Ed beating David.

Mine would be if Corbyn had stepped aside for someone more competent and dynamic after 2017. But that too would have probably floundered somewhere trying to please metropolitan liberals and the rest of the red wall.

There’s things I really liked about Corbyn and things I disliked and were disappointed by and in the end was really disappointed by.

But I really wish I could see into the alt universe where we voted for May’s deal and the brexit albatross wasn’t hanging around his neck . What would the 2019 election have looked like - I know we may not have had one if May had done brexit but still...

Lots of people's "if only" scenarios seem to revolve around Ed beating David.

Mine would be if Corbyn had stepped aside for someone more competent and dynamic after 2017.

I sometimes wonder where we'd all be if John Smith hadn't passed away so suddenly. I was 17 and he seemed at the time to be a reasonably capable opponent to the then government.

Maybe he'd have won a GE, but we'll never know.

It's pretty likely he would have done, he was around 20% ahead in the polls at the time of his death

We're in danger of getting into 'best prime minister we never had' territory here ...

He always came across as a man of integrity and intelligence in his public appearances. The only time I saw him speak in a smaller venue though - Labour meeting with maybe 30 there - he didn't seem to have the depth I'd expected and hoped for.