@katyswain thsnks, I look forward to it. So in simple terms, it’s yes and no?

@Paul what’s the evidence to support “fear of the press” as a main or more of a driver for doing nothing/moving further to the right, though? Starmer was elected as Labour leader on a pro-Corbyn platform with full media support - no doubt they were aware he would bin all those progressive pledges and restructure internal democracy to prevent another challenge from the Left. In power, he has pushed through some deeply unpopular and fiscally conservative policies regardless of the terrible press reaction to them - two child benefit cap, cuts to pensioners’ winter fuel allowances, spring to mind. He defended Israel’s “right” to commit war crimes in Gaza, and has taken us without any kind of vote ever nearer to what would very likely be a catastrophic war with Russia. He showed no fear of the press then. His popularity is at an all time low in the polls. If it isn’t ideological - defending the status quo, dividing any mass opposition via culture wars - it’s plain stupid.

@matt christ, he’s still in denial!

>Yes, I did say “don’t worry a hurricane is not on the way” in an earlier broadcast but I was talking about Florida and I went on to say “batten down the hatches there’s some very windy weather on the way”. Clear enough, except for the press! Florida did not get a hurricane either, and our ‘storm’ wasn’t a hurricane.

>Nevertheless 18 people were killed.

@matt a Michael Fish weather app would be a welcome addition to the climate-change-denialosphere.

@Paul this is a pretty accurate analysis, imo.

@matt basically every TV, radio and pop star we grew up with.

@matt the Fred Talbot app would need an age restriction on it.

@Paul unfortunately, the Labour Party is run by a political clique who are only really interested in power. Getting into government was the be all and end all of what they wanted to achieve. As you say, they believe they can manage the same failed policies more professionally than the previous clown governments. Starmer was just the safe pair of hands to front it up.

@Paul as leader of the opposition, he spent most of his time supporting a right wing government. As leader of the government, he spends most of his time supporting the leader of the de facto right wing opposition. The former was a “very clever” political strategy to win many more than enough votes from people who would normally vote Conservative in order to win the general election. I’m sure he and his advisors think they’re repeating the same trick now.

@Steve I would suggest that division was the goal of the establishment’s unified political strategy of framing the issues that need fixing through a lens of an “immigration crisis”.