George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 26/06/20251. Starmer was warned and warned that his benefits cuts were not just cruel and unfair, but a political disaster. He dismissed the warnings, even this week, as no more than "noises off". Now, as the disaster materialises, he's desperately backtracking. Here's an idea: how about listening? 🧵 831714432
joespecial78.bsky.social @joespecial78.bsky.social · 27/06/2025I’ve given myself acid reflux over this because it’s been so stressful. I already had enough physical issues. It’s so incredibly uncomfortable and has potential to give me oesophageal cancer. So thanks for that Kier. 000
Grey Area @greyarea22.bsky.social · 26/06/2025What? Listen? That’s absurd No one has listened in years 2 million march against Iraq war 1 million march again Brexit 500k for Palestine But no Can’t actually listen Just demonise and criminalise Scum 010
1950sRobots @1950srobots.bsky.social · 30/06/2025Starmer, bought out by the Israeli government. Making Palestine Action illegal. Massive investment in data centres and kissing the asses of tech bros and Trump. Buying new nukes. Letting the disabled rot. What next from this right wing stooge. 000
Dr. Jenny Alexander @drjennya.bsky.social · 26/06/2025It's just horrifying to watch this values-bonfire of a political car crash in slow motion - unbelievably cloth-eared and inept 030
Rob Boar @gardenbob.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Completely agree. He's out of his depth and floundering. Suspect the party may get rid of him within a couple of years, if they have a backbone. 170
Keith Campbell Tupman @alex-harvey-1960.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Governance by SpAd. Not quite what I canvassed hard for, this time last year… 051
Exposing the Labour Right 🥀✊🇵🇸 @labourrightwatch.bsky.social · 26/06/2025They must drop the bill. Not crappy concession and dilutions. Drop it entirely. Then let someone with a human heart alter the requirements for constant reassessments etc. 0151
Cecil Nagy @cecilnagy.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Tony B and Starmer have proven to be career assholes 000
Andy Smart @andysmart1948.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Is it at all possible that Morgan McSweeney is not the Messiah and is just a very naughty self-publicist? Did the working classes of Barking maybe decide for themselves to stand up against fascism (as working class communities have done since time immoral)? 051
Oldnfat5705 @oldnfat5705.bsky.social · 27/06/2025By trying to keep an elite on side he is narking the bulk of the electorate. Helped by the press this is suicidal. It's been a year and he needs to show he is impacting on the lives of the majority or he's dead in the water. We don't need free unicorns but we do need something to hold onto. 030
Maryjka @maryjka.bsky.social · 26/06/2025They seem to live on a different planet. Only backtracked from winter fuel cut after it was clear people are angry. 9 months later! Why could they not see that most will?! Now same with benefits cuts. WTF they expect? People dye to keep them in power? ..because they are so bloody good? In what?! 0111
Redkite Traveller @redkite-traveller.bsky.social · 26/06/2025But who replaces him? None of the top table labour are appealing? Wes streeting the nhs sell out? Reeves ? Cooper? All 🤮🤮🤮 170
djcaress.bsky.social @djcaress.bsky.social · 26/06/2025I don’t think we’ll have to wait long until he again uses the line “I get it”, whilst the actions that follow show that he doesn’t in fact get it. 0461
GordyBeanbag. 🏴🏴🏴 @ggbev.bsky.social · 26/06/2025And, according to the UK Defence Journal, these jets can't be refuelled by UK in-flight tankers. 010
Don @donwynne6.bsky.social · 26/06/2025He has a hero (heroine?) who 'wasn't for turning' Perhaps that explains it?media.tenor.coma black and white photo of a woman with a moustacheALT: a black and white photo of a woman with a moustache 060
Bob of Bobington @mrweekender.bsky.social · 27/06/2025The “Labour right” need to be exposed and expelled, along with any individuals who are backing anything to do with Palantir. 191
Luke 🇬🇧 @emeraldthief.bsky.social · 26/06/2025It just comes across as so callous after 14 years of the Tories, got to remember all of the cuts he intends to do are on top of what Cameron already did, so hes objectively worse than the Tories in that regard. 1654
Catio Miles @catiomiles.bsky.social · 26/06/2025These welfare benefit cuts represent amount to £5 billion per year. If we join the EU, we will raise £60-70 billion per year for the Treasury. If the Labour MPs can force Starmer hand for £5 billion, surely they can force his hand for £60 billion? 021
Contempt for the Conmen @cftc.bsky.social · 26/06/2025I just don’t understand Labour’s desire to regularly jump through these cruelty hoops, when they could’ve steamrollered plans for full EU integration 12 months ago… and claw back a potently £40B. I pretty sure the latter wouldn’t have been received as badly. 0110
George Hotchkiss @hotchkiss13.bsky.social · 26/06/2025RS was accused of being out of touch. KS is. He’s wandered corridors of power so long he has no grasp that if you remove benefit people starve. Nor does he care. 180
TimB33 #noKings @timb33.bsky.social · 26/06/2025I believe he wants both the wfa and the pip means tested (fair enough?). Iirc Welfare's the UK's biggest cost, and again iirc. the labour manifesto said no tax increases, so they're not taxing "the rich" (although, they should do that). 100
ala8.bsky.social @ala8.bsky.social · 27/06/2025Cut off his own nose out of spite, targeting the vulnerable to save money 020
Dave Arthur @mortdarthur23.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Starmer's policy choice is simply osbornomics + extra nuclear missiles & has produced a welfare bill that kemi badenoch is proud to support... it is far too late for the labour party to save itself now... 0102
𝓙𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓼 BUTLER 🇮🇪🇪🇺🇫🇷 @jumblerates.bsky.social · 26/06/2025... but he has to pay trillions for defence 030
Simon A. @simona62.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Spot on as always, Mr. M. More and more I’m thinking that Morgan McSweeney (labour’s chief strategist I believe) is just a RF plant. 000
Stuart Hemingway @stu31.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Starmer will have to change this bill or face humiliating consequences. I feel he has no choice given the numbers apposing it 000
ForeignGadger @foreigngadger.bsky.social · 26/06/2025The thing about "noises off" is that if you trivialise them, and ignore them, they will come and bite you in the arse. Hard, and relentlessly. 010
itsthesystem.bsky.social @itsthesystem.bsky.social · 26/06/2025That'd be a good start. However, this would suggest that the other side has something to say that's worth hearing. I think managers and leaders nowadays just aren't wired to think like that. This is at the root of many of our problems. The power has shifted away from the grassroots 000
Puddles Of Custard 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ @puddlesofcustard.bsky.social · 26/06/2025He's not backtracking at all, his "concessions" are a trap. Most people don't realise how easy it is to turn a "current claimant" into a "new applicant" 140
bigsizey.bsky.social @bigsizey.bsky.social · 22/07/2025You need ears to listen. And even then there are those who listen but don't hear. 000
kittywhisperer.bsky.social @kittywhisperer.bsky.social · 27/06/2025For the love of all that is holy, will you please view everything he does through the lens of his proscribed mission: to destroy the Labour Party. Everything then makes sense. “Fun” Fact: he’s been doing it for YEARS already. 000
Roger The Dodger @rogerthedodger.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Bearing in mind his background as a successful human rights lawyer, who must have been at least half-decent at putting forward a convincing case in court, it's shocking how disastrously he's presented his policies to the British public It doesn't feel as if he's emotionally involved in any of them 140
Stuart Duncan @stueyd.bsky.social · 27/06/2025He also needs to listen on Israel, Europe and Wealth Tax ... 020
Suz @lily2748.bsky.social · 28/06/2025Was he following trump's lead to take medical care benefits away from 11-16 million people? 000
David Hallett @hallett.social · 26/06/2025He's too busy listening to tone deaf Morgan McSweeney. Big mistake. P.S. Who voted for McSweeney? I didn't. 0281
jolantalove.bsky.social @jolantalove.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Agreed, these cuts are not only morally 'cruel & unfair', they also lack economic sense. The most it wld raise is £6.7 Billion (but wld push many into poverty & cost NHS & soc. much more in resultant health & care terms). Whereas The Greens proposed Wealth Tax wld bring in £24 Billion 💚 #BackZack 0162
Robin-DeBowler @robin-debowler.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Ouch. A spade is a spade though George. If he could just answer the simple question you asked. Which boils down to 'why' Why cuts what possible justification Why no tax at the top of the pile. JUST WHY? 0131
Bryan @obsessive-emulsive.bsky.social · 27/06/2025I agree with all of this except the puppet part. He is clearly a muppet 110
Kevin P @keysrgood.bsky.social · 27/06/2025The influence of funders on a party has never been so obvious. What was the Labour Party is now lost forever. If you didn’t realise it before, only the the Green Party is offering any kind of socialist policies. Labour, Conservative and Reform are all serving the same policies of hate and spite.policies.to 2110
Eddie Climate 🇺🇦 @eddieclimate.bsky.social · 26/06/2025They started off a week after the general election with the cuts to winter fuel payments for 10m pensioners... and have gone downhill from there... hapless and dysfunctional. 1110
MartyH @mogo-uk.bsky.social · 27/06/2025Our first lesson, the reason we have two ears, yet just one mouth. They didn’t read the room, they ignored their own MPs, the party members and the public. This may save them face, time will tell. If they increase tax on the very wealthy and clamp down on businesses in the budget, it may be okay. 000
DrLiseKit @lisekit.bsky.social · 26/06/2025All of the above, *and* in theatre noises off are not accidental occurrences, they’re central to the narrative and meant to be heard. (So he might not realise he’s right about these particular noises). 180
Paul Bittlestone @paulbittlestone.bsky.social · 26/06/2025He is a corporate cock puppet to the extreme. With added royal entitlement. 070
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 26/06/20252. Once again, you must ask yourself what the hell is he playing at? While squeezing the poor for every penny he can extract, he refuses to levy a wealth tax. And guess what? Voters absolutely hate it. We are profoundly attuned to unfairness, and no amount of spin will stop people seeing it. 666380
Gwen @gwenglens.bsky.social · 27/06/2025What really angered me this morning was reading that only now will Labour start working with disabled people to reform the benefit system appropriately. Only now! Why tf did they not do this from the start? ‘Nothing about us without us’ eh? Clearly they missed that equal rights history lesson. 051
morrismummer @morrismummer.bsky.social · 26/06/2025This will not be forgotten. It's Labour's poll tax, Labour's Partygate. Whatever Starmer does now, Labour will never be forgiven. The thought of relying on Tory MPs to impoverish the disabled is too much, especially when there's money for nuclear bombers. 0345
bradley252.bsky.social @bradley252.bsky.social · 26/06/2025He has advisers who are not only dire, but some reason he can't get rid of. I wonder if Morgan McSweeney (Labour's Dominic Cummings) has really compromising material on Starmer that's keeping him in No.10's team? 111
Lilly Evans 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇬🇧🇷🇸 @alherix.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Why is this just his fault? What about his chief No10 advisor who seems to think that he can deal with it all? 000
Steve B @stevebasnett.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Who is this for? Chasing Reform voters he'll never win over? Con voters who switched seeing no difference? Enraging Labour voters/groups/MPs; destroying his own credibility. Robbing welfare dependents to give to the rich - it's as if 'promises were made' to mafia DONorS. bsky.app/profile/stev...Steve B@stevebasnett.bsky.socialIs UK economic growth the top priority? No. Defence spending increase is the antithesis of growth. Costly weapons expensive to guard sitting around until obsolete or, worse, exploded at monumental cost and even greater loss. And weapons bought from the US permanently extracts growth from the UK. 0100
Old Hobbit🐸 @oldhobbit.bsky.social · 27/06/2025Focus groups, opinion polls, computer models, wonks.... staying as far as from normal people as possible. 000
l'Esprit de l'Escalier @espritescalier.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Has he considered that the 'noises off' might be the horn of an oncoming freight train? 180
Peter Barden @peterbarden.bsky.social · 26/06/2025He’s finally realising the McSweeny coolaid isn’t so cool.. 031
Andrene@phytobelief @phytobelief.bsky.social · 26/06/2025It was clear the moment they took those clothes, who they are. Money grubbing liars. And the PR disasters that followed. Tough decisions? Not tough on them at all. Most charitable view is their inept Trumpian advisers as you say, George. 130
Gerry @gerry-88.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Reeves is the king pin, a shill for the rich and Israeli genocide sympathisers. 010
@raystonian @stonia2.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Some of us warned and warned against Starmer since his leadership was bought by the Israel lobby 060
DamonTheDemon @damonthedemon.bsky.social · 26/06/2025A man so ready to do something like this and then no matter the harm and outcry, continue to support this policy, is a nasty little wanker. A spiteful, hateful incompetent and deserves nothing but to be despised and ridiculed. A towering failure as a man, a human, a leader and a PM. 3384
Axel Foley @roadwarrior29.bsky.social · 27/06/2025The hapless Keir Starmer, the Hiram Holliday of British politics. 210
SarahAndCo @sarahandco.bsky.social · 26/06/2025bsky.app/profile/sara...SarahAndCo@sarahandco.bsky.socialYAY! I do debt management and benefits for my tiny charity. We've been dealing with many clients who have had their PIP cut for no reason. I fire off riot act letters to DWP. Young mum just called the office to say £930 back pay has hit her account today!! Don't mess with Sez!😉🥳🥳🥳🥳 0240