Bob Fielding

Retired, thank goodness,
Barnsley fc for 62 years and counting,
Proud husband, father and grandad,
No DMs, you will be blocked
#FarageOut

[Bob Fielding @fielding_bob]

@TTIDxTHFC Watched it on BBC i player

[Bob Fielding @fielding_bob]

Have just watched #BBCNewswatch and Chris Mason being interviewed in response to numerous complaints.He finds it offensive what people are saying. I'll tell you what Weasel, it's you who is offensive trying to justify the rubbish that your dept put out. Sack Mason.

[Paul Vick @PaulVick138203]

Do you think BBC Chris Mason played a big part in the mainstream media campaign that helped to bring down Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer?🤔
Repost after voting please.

[Cherry @Cherryopenmind]

The Anatomy of the Downfall of Journalism by Cherry 1/2
Month after month week after week and sometimes day after day you chronicled relentless attacks on the Prime Minister. Yes you Chris Mason.
You did this by finding unnamed sources regularly retailing gossip and writing your own political opinions with the support of right-wing elements who came to the BBC from GB News. They now run a house that was supposed to be a public service to inform the nation but instead they turned it into a machine to destroy Keir Starmer. This was taken on as a mission from day one even before he became Prime Minister.
Only Chris Mason could compare Boris Johnson and Liz Truss with Starmer. Only he could compare clowns without knowledge to a decent honest and moral man. As a voter I am utterly sick of the constant chatter about cutting the winter fuel allowance for pensioners. I know plenty of people who used that money to go on holiday and did not need it at all. The media keeps pushing this narrative because the British public is not ready to admit that people who do not need the money are getting it while those who truly need it miss out. What Chris calls U-turns I call a Prime Minister who listened to the public and his voters before changing his mind to deliver what people actually expected. Forgive me if I do not call that a U-turn but a Prime Minister who listens.
I can easily understand why Chris Mason mentions Mandelson and McSweeney but completely avoids writing openly about Blue Labour. I assume you are simply not allowed to mention them. You talk about all the briefings born in Number 10 where journalists regularly encouraged MPs to plot. Though we cannot force people to be loyal and honest if they are not. All those MPs can walk hand in hand with Chris Mason when it comes to morals ethics and honesty.
We do not need Chris Mason to explain what journalism is. We know very well what journalism means because he does everything that journalism should never be. We understand that sources do not always need to be named. But when you do this 365 days a year with several unnamed sources every single day to build a narrative to bring down a PM then everything becomes perfectly clear. Your explanations are not needed Chris because what you did was not journalism. It was building a narrative to remove a legally elected Prime Minister.
Everything from November until today was about you predicting inventing and encouraging MPs who lack morals ethics and political wisdom to feed you information. You created an atmosphere of chaos that we know all too well from the Tory era. You attribute this to the state of the Labour Party but I openly state this is the consequence of the toxic state of the media disinformation online the impact of the orange clown Trump and the influence of Bannon and Farage. You have always protected Farage and you still do today. Labour MPs are just as much victims of this endless disinformation and manufactured chaos as the citizens of this country.
Naturally you remain completely silent on how the Makerfield by-election was actually staged and who stands behind it. You write very little about Josh Simons and his career in Blue Labour or the thirty thousand pounds paid to smear your fellow journalists. You are very quiet on that front. Now you want to present Makerfield as something that just had to happen rather than a staged coup. You present Andy Burnham as someone the Labour Party desperately needs instead of showing how Blue Labour is sneaking him through the back door to serve their interests because Starmer refused to do it last year. The moment Starmer refused to play their game he sealed his own fate because he could not survive the enemies he made alongside you in the media.
You even go a step further by commenting on Mike Tapp who was loyal to Starmer and Shabana Mahmood who is now punishing him for that loyalty.
#ChrisMason #BBCPolitics #KeirStarmer #UKLabour #MediaIntegrity #BritishPolitics #ShabanaMahmood

[Paul Vick @PaulVick138203]

Do you think the people of the UK have lost one of the best Prime Ministers this country has ever had because of the influence of a spiteful social media billionaire?🤔
Repost after voting please.

[Paul Vick @PaulVick138203]

Did Sir Keir Starmer make you feel proud to be British again?🤔
Repost after voting please.

[Paul Vick @PaulVick138203]

Do you care if Nigel Farage took a 5m bung from a crypto billionaire?🤔
Repost after voting please.

[Paul Vick @PaulVick138203]

Are you absolutely livid at the way Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been treated by all those who have conspired to bring him down?🤔
Repost after voting please.

[The Rev. Anton Mittens 🌹👮🎓 @MittensOff]

Apparently 'NO ONE CARES', about an alleged £5m bung to Farage, do you?
Care - repost 'I care'
Don't care - like.
What an arrogant little man Nigel Farage is. #Farage #ReformUK

[Gordon Fielden @GordonFielden]

Well, there we have it. Keir Starmer has announced his resignation and has set out the process by which a new leader will be chosen. For the time being, I suspect he will remain in post until that process has concluded, as is normally the case.

Now, however, the real backlash begins.

Those who supported the mandate secured in the 2024 General Election must now start organising, building support and demonstrating that there is an alternative path forward. Darren Jones appears, to many, to be the most credible alternative to Andy Burnham. He comes with a much cleaner record, no significant scandals, no major failures attached to his name, and has consistently been regarded as articulate, balanced and capable. Most importantly, he has shown that he can take on Reform and any other political opponent in a serious and effective manner.

That will be the key question in the weeks ahead, should he decide to stand.

My advice to Labour members would be not to tear up your membership cards just yet. You will have an opportunity to make your voices heard. However, if you oppose Andy Burnham's candidacy, you should make that clear to your MPs and to those involved in the process. The Labour Party needs a genuine contest, one capable of producing a leader with a clear mandate from the membership.

Darren Jones could credibly argue that he is continuing the mandate secured by Keir Starmer, having been part of the team that worked to deliver it. Andy Burnham, by contrast, was not part of that project and therefore has much more to prove.

There may well be other candidates who choose to put themselves forward, and they should be heard. At this stage, however, Darren Jones appears to be one of the strongest contenders and one of the least burdened by political baggage. If Andy Burnham were to win the leadership, I believe the pressure for a General Election within six to eight months would become overwhelming, and Labour would face a very real risk of electoral collapse under his leadership.

[Gordon Fielden @GordonFielden]

@Keir_Starmer
Dear Sir Keir Starmer,

I would like to offer my sincere thanks to Sir Keir Starmer.

He brought the Labour Party back from the far left and made it electable once again. He took on a Conservative Party that had presided over fourteen years of decline, division and damage. He built a broad coalition of support, won a General Election, and returned Labour to power with a majority of 120 seats over all the other parties combined.

That was an enormous achievement and, in my view, a blessing for the country. Not only did it bring an end to Conservative rule, but it also delivered a commanding mandate through which Labour's manifesto could be implemented. Many of us believed that this would allow the country to move steadily towards a closer relationship with Europe and perhaps, in time, towards another referendum on our place within the European Union.

What nobody anticipated was the scale and intensity of the campaign that would be waged against him from the very first day by sections of the mainstream media and those who own them.

Of course, he made mistakes. Every Prime Minister does. Yet the criticism often appeared wildly disproportionate to the reality. The truth is that Keir Starmer chose the difficult path of government rather than the easy path of populism. He focused on doing the job rather than chasing headlines. In today's political climate, that almost seems to have become a weakness.

The Government was not helped by those within its own ranks who exposed it to unnecessary criticism. Angela Rayner's difficulties over her financial affairs created avoidable problems and provided opponents with ammunition that should never have been handed to them. Then came the attacks over Peter Mandelson and a succession of other manufactured controversies. At times, it felt less like scrutiny and more like a determination to undermine.

What angers me most is the growing belief that much of modern political journalism is no longer concerned with reporting facts and allowing readers to reach their own conclusions. Too often, narratives are constructed first and facts assembled afterwards.

Despite all of this, Sir Keir conducted himself with dignity on the world stage. He projected seriousness, stability and calm leadership. He was prepared to stand up to Donald Trump when many others preferred to remain silent. Whether one agreed with him or not, he carried himself as a Prime Minister and represented the United Kingdom with distinction.

We are now left facing a very different situation. There are those who seek both the leadership of the Labour Party and the office of Prime Minister despite having played no role in securing Labour's historic victory. Andy Burnham left national politics after twice failing to win the Labour leadership and chose a different political path as Mayor of Greater Manchester. Yet now there appears to be an assumption in some quarters that he should simply walk into the very position that eluded him before.

I sincerely hope that does not happen unchallenged. There are other candidates, credible candidates, who could unite the party and carry forward the mandate that Labour secured in 2024. They deserve the opportunity to make their case to the membership and the country.

The Labour Party must not allow itself to believe that there is only one option. Nor should members accept the notion that the outcome has already been decided.

Finally, thank you, Keir Starmer.

It has not been an easy journey, and there have certainly been occasions when many of us disagreed with you. Yet few can doubt that you worked tirelessly to deliver what you believed was best for the country. Had you chosen to stand again, I believe a considerable proportion of Labour's 350,000 members would have supported you.

I wish you every success in the future.

You will be remembered as one of the few Prime Ministers in modern times to secure a genuine mandate from the British people and to govern upon it. As events unfold in the months ahead, many may come to realise that removing you was far easier than replacing what you represented.

And should those who engineered this upheaval discover that the public has fallen out of love with their chosen successor, they may find themselves reflecting upon a warning that many chose to ignore.

Thank You

[Paul Vick @PaulVick138203]

Do you think Nigel Farage needs to set out a timetable for his departure from Reform UK after the disastrous Makerfield by-election result and recent 5 million pound crypto billionaire gift scandal?🤔
Repost after voting please.

[Paul Vick @PaulVick138203]

Do you think Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting and all of the Labour Party MP's backing them are a disgrace to The Labour Party?🤔
Repost after voting please.

[Bob Fielding @fielding_bob]

@JoWhiteSays @AndyBurnhamGM As my MP Jo that is really disappointing. I've been a Labour supporter my whole life and to stab our Prime Minister in the back after 2 years is frankly dreadful. That will be two less votes for you at the next election. I cannot vote for anyone who is disloyal.

[Bob Fielding @fielding_bob]

@johnandi @LabHoldtheline Have you clicked on the picture?

[Bob Fielding @fielding_bob]

I just signed: Tell Labour MPs: Hold the line. — add your name too. via @labholdtheline https://t.co/uyBwupnKq2

[Gordon Fielden @GordonFielden]

Substantial numbers within the Labour Party membership want Keir Starmer to stand if there is a challenge. They want the opportunity to decide for themselves who should lead their party.

That is precisely why the current campaign to pressure Starmer into resigning is causing so much anger among members.

If Andy Burnham's support among Labour members is as overwhelming as some MPs, ministers and commentators claim, there would be no need to force Starmer from office before a contest takes place. The membership would simply deliver its verdict.

The obvious question is this: if Burnham's victory is so certain, why are so many people working so hard to avoid putting that certainty to the test?

Many members have reached their own conclusion.

The moment a leadership election takes place, control passes from Westminster to the membership. Anonymous briefings, media narratives and parliamentary manoeuvring cease to matter. The decision rests with Labour members alone.

That is why the democratic process matters.

A resignation without a contest creates the impression that the Labour Party has united behind Andy Burnham and that the question has already been settled. Yet many members do not recognise that picture at all.

Indeed, some suspect that the reason for avoiding a contest is the fear that it may reveal something very different: that support for Burnham is neither as universal nor as overwhelming as the current campaign would have people believe.

That possibility alone makes a contest essential.

If there is to be a change of leader, it should happen openly, democratically and with the consent of the membership.

Let Keir Starmer stand.

Let Andy Burnham stand.

Let the arguments be tested.

Let approximately 350,000 Labour members decide.

Anything else risks looking less like a democratic transition and more like a coronation.

And if there truly is overwhelming support for Andy Burnham, then his supporters should have absolutely nothing to fear from putting that claim before the membership and allowing it to be tested.

Most importantly, Labour Party members now need to recognise what is at stake. This is no longer a matter of simply disagreeing with what is taking place or expressing frustration on social media. If members believe the current approach is wrong, then they need to make their voices heard through every legitimate avenue available to them within the party.

The rules of the Labour Party give members rights and a voice in choosing their leader. If that process is bypassed through pressure, manoeuvring and a campaign to force a resignation before a proper contest can take place, then members risk surrendering control over one of the most important decisions they are entitled to make.

If members want a contest, they should say so.

If members want Keir Starmer to stand, they should say so.

If members believe the leadership should be decided through due process rather than political pressure, they should say so.

Because once such rights are surrendered, they are often far harder to reclaim.

The membership should not be a spectator in this process. It should be its final arbiter.

[Ted Smith 🇪🇺 @TedUrchin]

Who would be the best Prime Minister of the UK?
Don’t forget to retweet far and wide please.
Oh, I’ve left off Wes Streeting. He has no chance in any case, the wet wimp, but have included Darren Jones, a potential strong contender.
Please add an alternative if you wish.

[Leeds Fella : Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦 🇬🇧🇨🇦🇲🇽🇪🇺 @FellaLeeds]

Straight poll

You decide who you want as PM

Please share far and wide

Thank you

[Paul Vick @PaulVick138203]

Do you think Sir Keir Starmer and his government have done a good job running the country?🤔
Repost after voting please.