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# Trump's Gaza Plan, Labour Conference, and a Postal Strike
- URL: https://www.craftpolitics.fm/episodes/trumps-gaza-plan-labour-conference-and-a-postal-strike/
- Published: 2025-09-30T18:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-08T01:16:20.000Z
- Author: Joseph Lavoie
- Tags: Holly Mumby-Croft, #scan, #episode, #ai-5

Three stories, three drinks, and a Labour minister who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else.

This week on Craft Politics, Joseph Lavoie, Andrew Percy, and Holly Mumby-Croft break down Trump's 20-point Gaza plan, Keir Starmer's Labour conference reset, and whether anyone in Canada actually cares about the postal strike.

We discuss:

**Trump's Gaza plan has Tony Blair's fingerprints all over it.** The phased approach, the confidence-building measures, the language around putting arms beyond use — Andrew walks through why this looks like the Northern Ireland peace process transplanted to the Middle East, and why that might not work when you're dealing with Hamas instead of the IRA.

**The diplomatic isolation theory.** Joseph asks whether Bibi Netanyahu's hand was forced — not by Trump's impatience, but by the fact that Canada, France, Australia, and the UK all recognized Palestinian statehood in the same week. Andrew's not convinced. Trump doesn't care what Britain thinks.

**Starmer's conference went better than expected.** Full hall, decent speech, no disasters. Then he called Reform's immigration policies racist, and Nigel Farage got the clip of the year. Holly and Andrew unpack why that was a massive own goal — and whether it signals Labour's given up on its working-class base.

**The Andy Burnham backfire.** He attacked Starmer days before conference, called the operation factional and divisive, and positioned himself as the alternative. Then it all went quiet. Did it actually help Starmer by rallying the party against a common enemy?

**Canada Post is on strike and nobody seems to care.** Joseph walks through why a postal strike today doesn't have the political weight it would have had 20 years ago — but warns that small business owners and rural communities might be a different story if this drags into week three or four.

**Lipstick on a Gerbil: Steve Reed defends Starmer's leadership.** Two-thirds of Labour members think the PM is doing a bad job. Reed says they're working toward a decade of national renewal. We rate his performance and debate whether blaming the previous government still works when your main opposition is Reform.

Plus: Yorkshire brewery family trees, the universal service provision that nobobody uses anymore, and whether Trump really does just want peace — or a Nobel.

00:00 Welcome and subscriber thank you  
00:41 Rad Daddy roasts the hosts and beer introductions  
03:46 Trump's 20-point Gaza plan unveiled  
05:47 Does recognizing Palestinian statehood actually matter?  
06:33 Trump the peacemaker—countering the warmonger myth  
08:10 Tony Blair's fingerprints and the Northern Ireland blueprint  
09:58 Netanyahu's diplomatic isolation and the Abraham Accords risk  
17:49 Hamas versus the IRA—can genocidal instincts be negotiated?  
19:48 Labour Conference—Starmer's reset attempt in Liverpool  
22:08 Andy Burnham's botched attack and the myth of King of the North  
24:13 Starmer calls Reform racist—massive own goal  
27:01 Labour's impossible coalition—working class versus metropolitan progressives  
33:16 Canada Post strike—does anyone actually care?  
36:26 The death of universal service and the village post office  
37:52 Amazon killed the postal star—small business versus consumers  
40:01 Air Canada sympathy versus postal worker indifference  
42:44 Lipstick on a Gerbil—Steve Reed defends Starmer's leadership  
45:11 Rating Reed—two coats of lipstick and an uncomfortable face  
48:43 Beer tasting notes—Theakston's, grapefruit lager, and Jilly Goolden