Tbh the last 50 years have got us where we are. Front benches of both “main” parties are now so devoid of intelligence and vision they just flounder when real world problems impinge on their constant droning in that crumbling museum of Westminster.

All you’re describing there is conservative vs progressive politics. Ultimately Brexit broke through a lot of that and revealed Westminster’s 40 year indifference to places outside london wrt economic prosperity. Thatcher’s shadow looms large in more ways than one.

This habit governments have had in the last 20 years of “trying policies out” via the media is so f***ing stupid. They don’t seem to realise what the fallout can be: modern politicians are so clueless, so devoid of direction or conviction. Endless focus group shite.

Look, just shut up until she actually says something. I’m sure a lot of us are sick to the back teeth of all the moaning, all the speculation, all the FUD around this. It’s tedious… 🥱

None of this persuades me that enough people are now so thoroughly pissed off with “slow business” that they won’t destroy as much of existing parties as they can.

And when I say vision I mean something people can tangibly hope happens, because that’s what has completely drained now - hope. Brexit was a tantrum by a lot of pissed off people, and nobody in Westminster has really engaged with that IMO.

I’d say my opinion of the comparison is very valid indeed. That comparison smacks of faint praise! I agree entirely about stability, but I think the public post 2016 has just had enough now. It’s a form of political nihilism I don’t think Keir has any answer to. We need a party w/ vision AND reason.

Call me back when the Tories stop selling Thatcher worship idols at their conferences. 😂

Labour have Burnham waiting in the wings to do another Corbyn: the crazy way the pendulum is swinging in these moribund legacy parties just smells of death.

When you’re offered the choice between two dead, decaying dogmas who pitch tax cuts or terrify you with “communism” (I’m exaggerating horribly), expect a (diminishing over time) percentage of the public to keep voting Tory. And FPTP means “strong government”.

The situation is unbelievable.

Yeah, but it seems “everybody else” (see polls) has become a nihilist.

My god, that says it all. The man’s a robot. He’s like May sans the whimsy. The previous Tories were a revolving door of post Brexit hubris and incontinent idiocy. To say he’s better than them is like saying a solid turd is better than explosive diarrhoea.

I’m not so sure that’s true. Post 1997 (remember the pagers?) politicians and the media became locked in a rhetorical war, while the public was largely ignored. The incomprehensible drivel we see reported now is the iteration of that combative, reductionist standoff. The public are bewildered.

Good take. In an age obsessed with the hyper-exaggerated TikTok and Instagram emotionally expressive landscape, politicians who looked “a bit weird” 20 years ago are now impossible to relate to at all. The age of authenticity has thrown them into even sharper relief.

Centrism dead? Nah. All of it.

What do you expect after 50 years of utter mismanagement? Where do you think 2008 came from? Where do you think 2016 came from? Why is our water full of sh*t and needs yet more cash from taxpayers? Where did the oil revenue go? I see no sovereign wealth fund… and your paper did nothing to help.

I’ll be honest - your assessment that he may be thinking he’s too old sounds spot on to me.

Every clip I see of him now, he sounds vague, old, weaker - his speech patterns and tone are meandering, like grandpa Simpson. The man is spent. Obama was a baby when he started, and it aged him massively!

And the east wing project wasn’t going to touch the existing building.

Liar.

I think it’d be better to wait to see if it dips. I got in a couple of years back so there’s gains which buffer me at the moment.