Perhaps we'll find out what he stands for now.

I think he's more left than most make out. Will see I guess. No doubt the Murdoch press have a view as to how to spin him unfavourably whatever he does.

I want to see him DPP mode probing the Tories relentlessly

Never change, monks.

That’s a silly take.

Yeah what funk said basically. The whole "he's too centrist" line is maybe valid as a comparison to LB but pretty unfair compared to the Tories.

I’m not at all convinced the arguments about funding the NHS around normal time apply next to a pandemic. There’s no way the NHS should be running daily to be able to cope with a pandemic imho. It’s like paying for four car insurances in case you get a 4 cars suddenly. There are a lot of past decisions that have made things a hell of a lot harder (eg making nurses pay to train, taking away funding) but I’m not convinced the arguments of normal funding implicitly tell you how the nhs would cope in a ridiculous pandemic.

I haven’t seen anything from Starmer apart from ‘I’m electable’, whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean.

I genuinely don’t think it matters. What we need right now is a strong opposition – a Labour leader who will cut through bullshit and loudly and clearly call out the Tories every time they do something shitty. I don’t hold out any hope for Labour winning an election during the next eight years, I just want them to be a clear voice of dissent.

I dont get where this centrist thing comes from with Starmer. His haircut?

It strikes me people cant be arsed to read up on him so assume he is centrist and policyless.

First thing he said was he wants to focus on nationalising rail, mail and water.

It is only a few months since the nation’s concerned hand wringers couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Corbyn of course.

I’d still vote Labour, barring a turn to Cummings-esque free market sociopathy but I’m feeling little enthusiasm.

Hopefully Starmer will turn out to be alright.

Not really. We need substantial change, and that's what I will vote for. If it's coming from Labour, great, but if not I will vote green, as I have done in the past. I'm not interested in merely slowing the rot.

Personally speaking, I've lost count of the amount of times that I've read and heard irl people say they'd vote for Labour if Starmer was in charge. You need Tory voters to vote Labour for Labour to win. For two elections now this statement of the obvious has been contested by Corbynites. Now there can't be any dispute. 

He's the one politician that's managed to hold a senior position in Labour without getting Corbyn's musty stench all over him. He's got a track record of delivering results in public service. He's juggled the Brexit problem as well as any other politician. 

If he'd been in charge in 2019, Labour would have won that election. There's no way of knowing if I'm right. And if he fucks up over the next few years, then it's fair to conclude that I'm wrong. But right now you'd have a competent leader, seemingly with some degree of integrity, making life and death decisions. Instead of a lying clown. So all this stuff where, because you're not getting exactly what you want from a political party, you allow the worst to happen, is, imo, selfish and immature. I voted for a man I had no confidence in, a man I despised, twice, because he was the least worst option. And it's not like I've been in love with anyone I've voted for. Suck it up. 

He might be piss poor of course. He's kept pretty quiet about his politics, which is unusual for a leadership contender of a political party. And it's logical to conclude that's because he didn't want to put any lefties off voting for him. Just at a guess, I think he falls somewhere between Ed Miliband and David Miliband, hopefully much nearer to the left of that duo.

This corona virus stuff is probably going to finish Johnson. It could be year or more of this. The only thing they've had to sustain them since about 2015 is this Brexit bollocks. Which is now a worthless currency. Then the donors and Rupert Murdoch and media types will be looking for a new darling and there's Starmer looking statesmanlike and popular. So the whole enterprise could easily slide into Shill Ville.  

Anyway, it seems to me that there's a competent grown up at the top of politics for the first time in a long time. The Tories will be terrified of him, they'll be forced to grow up and improve and that can only be a good thing for the time being.

That’s fantasy land though. It didn’t matter who was leading Labour, the Tories were always going to have the backing of the press.

This reminds me, I think Corona Virus is caused by quizzes.

It would be better if he pretended Tory voters didn't exist.