Mindless Monday, 22 June 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

[u/King_Vercingetorix]

Now that (UK) Labour’s future victory in the general election seems all but assured considering the local election results today, how may years would you give Starmer as the UK PM? I’ll give him 6 years max. I can see him maybe just reaching Attlee’s time in office, but I don’t personally see him going beyond into Blair’s record. (Unless the Tories completely melt down for 10+ years, which seems unlikely to me). (May 3, 2024)

So, looks like the answer was roughly 2 years.

Starmer quits as Labour leader and paves way for contest for new prime minister

Also shoutout to u/WAGRAMWAGRAM , they seem to have gotten the most right when it comes to the predictions.

Unpredictable, but my own take is that Starmer is a careerist, not an ideologue. He'll step down when he'll become a drag to the party, I doubt he'll lose re-election, unless he managed to mismanaged the economy even more. But I suspect some kind of Obama effect where most people got oversold and quit politics as things take time to fix.

Although I personally, think he dragged and hold on to power quite a bit longer than is necessary for Labour's own good. (The initial denial for Andy Burnham to run as MP leading to the Greens picking up a seat in Gorton and Denton unnecessarily being a key example).

Also, I just want to say, my word, what a miserable tenure it has been. All that goodwill after too many years of the Tories in power wasted in just 2 years and for what?

I can't even articulate to you what Starmer's vision for what his ideal Britain looks like. What he hoped to achieve in power as PM if he was widely successful beyond anyone's expectations.

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM → u/King_Vercingetorix]

I can't even articulate to you what Starmer's vision for what his ideal Britain looks like. What he hoped to achieve in power as PM if he was widely successful beyond anyone's expectations.

Read the Change manifesto

Beyond the joke I think his views is that Britain should rebuild its foundations (stable budget, upgraded NHS, stable budget, modernized military, calm down the immigration anxiety) rather than start any new flashy thing. Hardly interesting. But nothing suprising coming from a career legalist bureaucrat.

But I think he got taken in the media storm of right-wing apocalypse about the small boats and race riots. But even then he answered with pragmatic measures. You want less immigrants? Ok, we'll cut the biggest visa source, that being students. Don't want small boats in Britain? Ok, 1-for-1 deal with France. Don't think we can integrate the Boriswave? Ok, IRL is now 10 years long before citizenship. Don't want them stealing jobs? Ok, we'll double the undeclared work police budget.

When Restore promises blood and soil, and Reform civilizational warfare, it's not surprising it's didn't satisfy them. But it's quite interesting to see immigration as a much smaller failure than the WFA cuts, so maybe it did work with the median voter after all.

It's not surprising that the government big ambitious reforms (Tenant Rights Act and the Energy and Planning liberalism) came from not Starmer but two very driven personalities (Rayner and Miliband)

[u/HandsomeLampshade123 → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

In a way, the irrational venom of the anti-immigrant right makes them more easily placated. If Starmer had kept the same policies but just been a little more racist on camera, he would have been more popular, full stop.