UK General Election 2017 - 8 June

[Ben]

Revolution.

[Ben]

Shell triple profits now as well. I was thinking about this earlier when I saw that they'd knocked up petrol a couple of pence again overnight: maybe we should have gone the windfall tax route. Yes they probably would have found a way to claw it back from us (especially with a Government that is so aligned with them) but the only response so far was to knock 5p off fuel duty which is the infinitely worst move imaginable; we barely notice the savings at the pump (£2 a tank) and it's simultaneously costing the public purse billions.

Maybe the tax isn't the best way but these motherfuckers need regulating a lot more.

[Yevrah]

There seems to be general lack of understanding among all comers that when you have inflation profits go up and when you have mad inflation you get mad profits.

The reverse is obviously true for deflation.

[Ben]

Inflation is 7%, not 300%. They're still using the same profiteering tactics. The whole industry is run by a cartel ffs. They cut production by 10m barrels a day (which in retrospect was way too much) and are purposely taking forever to ramp it back up; output is still 2.5m per day lower than this time two years ago when we were all sat at home. They got stung by running out of storage and having to pay people to take the oil off their hands so they've gone to the extreme opposite now.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I went to vote this morning and everyone was treating me like royalty. Turns out that, living as I do at number 2, Aardvark Avenue, this makes me the #3 voter on the electoral roll in my area.

Anyway there were about 43 Lib Dems outside the polling station as they look to make headway in their battle to unseat Dominic Raab here at the next general election. In order to do this they have basically morphed into being more-Tory-than-the-Tories, in other words a bunch of toffee-nosed NIMBY cunts opposing all developments for any reason.

Fuck the Lib Dems, I voted residents.

[Yevrah]

Inflation is 7%, not 300%.

Their costs will have gone up by a hell of a lot more than 7% and it doesn't take a 300% increase in inflation for profits to go up by the same percentage.

The argument would be better served if people understood this.

EDIT: It veers into "let's tax sales" territory if people don't.

[Ben]

Their costs will have gone up by a hell of a lot more than 7% and it doesn't take a 300% increase in inflation for profits to go up by the same percentage.

The argument would be better served if people understood this.

EDIT: It veers into "let's tax sales" territory if people don't.

You're being entirely dismissive even when you're no expert yourself. Both BP and Shell reported profits way above expectations, which is an indicator they ran a higher profit margin in the first quarter because the analysts would understand how much production costs have increased. In addition, Shell have just confirmed they paid zero tax on North Sea production and BP have agreed to invest £18bn in North Sea production which is a sure-fire sign they know they need to be seen to be doing something before pressure on the gravy train builds too high.

[Yevrah]

You're being entirely dismissive even when you're no expert yourself.

I'm no expert on the inner workings of BP, but I do understand inflation and its relationship with profit.

[Spikey M]

Oh ffs I forgot it was polling day today. It's basically pointless bothering but I'll drag myself there at lunchtime.

[Ben]

I'm no expert on the inner workings of BP, but I do understand inflation and its relationship with profit.

I never said it's not related, but surely you can't just use "inflation" as your sole argument to explain away billions of pounds of profit which was way more than expected.

[Kikó]

Won't someone think of the poor oil companies?

[Boydy]

Assembly elections in NI too. Sinn Fein likely to be the biggest party and set to be First Minister (Deputy First Minister is actually an equal post but the DUP will still be seething/probably won'taccept it and collapse everything). Also small chance that Alliance beat the DUP to be the second largest party which will really out the cat amongst the pigeons in terms of our political set up and who gets to be Deputy First Minister.

[Boydy]

Also, shoot the oil execs.

[Spikey M]

It's the traders driving the prices up too. We should be killing Mellin really.

[Ben]

Congratulations to my local authority for ridding itself of all Tory councillors.

Losing Westminster is a biggie as well.

[Mellberg]

:D

I see the Tories got spanked last night. Hate to see it.

[Ben]

Kind of funny/sad how the media (including BBC) are scrambling to tell us Labour did shite outside of London. Absolutely obsessed. The Tories got the expected hiding, simple as that.

[Mellberg]

They'll be giving Starmer the Corbyn treatment soon. Watch the Saville stuff get hammered come the general election. The fuckers need regulating.

[Ben]

Only the British media could make a comparison between Corbyn and Starmer ffs. And only the British public would fucking buy it.

[Mellberg]

They'll lap it up. I was raised in Northfield, Birmingham. As working class a shithole as you're likely to find. During the general election all any of the fuckers would talk about was Corbyn's allegiance with the IRA der der der der. It's currently Tory (!!!) and in complete poverty. Oil prices and energy price hikes in the process of finishing everyone off. Well done, all.

[Spikey M]

Tory hold here, but Jimmy Savile could have been their MP and gone door to door raping all the old cunts grandkids and they'd still vote Tory.

The general sentiment seems to be "This government is terrible, but Labour would have been worse". I don't know how they could possibly be worse - and neither do they - but yeah.

Edit: upon closer inspection - the Tory cunts did lose 6 Councillors. We now have +4 Residents Association and +2 Lib Dems. To echo Jimmy, fuck the Lib Dems.

There's only 13 Councillors here, so the Tories have lost half of them. Not bad. Still zero Labour though :happycry:

[Mellberg]

Corbyn would've been better on COVID. Less parties and Cheltenham festivals, I reckon. Would probably have spent the Ukraine conflict cosying up to Putin like he was a certified member of H Block, the blood thirsty hippy. So 1-1.

[Jimmy Floyd]

There's no denying that the results show Labour to be what it now is, the party of the educated urban middle class, rather than what so many wish it was.

Similarly they show the Tories to be the party of every twat, rich and poor, who rants about 'them lot' to no one in pubs. Results from my area due later and I expect the Tories to get absolutely bummed by the Lib Dems, possibly literally at the after-party too.

[niko_cee]

When the BBC says:


The Liberal Democrats have gained a net 57 council seats so far - the most of any party

That makes it seem like very little is happening. There must be thousands of Councillors up for election, no?

[Spikey M]

Well the Tories Lost 6 here, which is half of what they had and Tory Seats don't come much safer than round here.

It's just a shame the votes are flowing to the Lib Dems, who are the worst of the Conservatives and Labour in a smug little cunt box.

[Ben]

When the BBC says:



That makes it seem like very little is happening. There must be thousands of Councillors up for election, no?

It's only about a third of the country going to the polls and only half of those have reported so far.

[John Arne]

Do local elections in the UK still have about 5% turnout?

[Spikey M]

Do local elections in the UK still have about 5% turnout?

I went at about 6pm, which you would expect to be peak time and there was 1 other person there. It's a small village, with alot of pensioners, so many of them will have gone during the day, but the turnout amongst the young / working people remains pathetic by the look of it.

[Lewis]

Labour lost control of Hull to the Liberal Democrats. Based on that alone, this is basically about incumbents getting a booting rather than anybody going back to their constituencies and preparing for government. I wouldn't read too much into any of it.

[Lewis]

Turnouts in Portsmouth ranged from eighteen(!) per cent to the low-forties in the bits filled with pensioners and twats still seething about that power cable business.

[Yevrah]

Corbyn would've been better on COVID. Less parties and Cheltenham festivals, I reckon. Would probably have spent the Ukraine conflict cosying up to Putin like he was a certified member of H Block, the blood thirsty hippy. So 1-1.

Corbyn would have been a nightmare on COVID, the man doesn't have a clue how to get things done and wouldn't have been able to get past the colossal sums involved to sign anything off.

[Jimmy Floyd]

My ward result is in, Tory held on by five votes over the pervert Lib Dem. This was the only Tory hold within about ten miles, otherwise Lib Dems running riot across the whole council. Raab will lose his seat next time.

[Lewis]

Wasn't Corbyn himself breaking the rules with abandon (and is probably a low-level anti-vax mook)? Like everything else, John McDonnell would have been running it, which would have meant longer lockdowns and an NHS vaccine due some time in 2024.

[Jimmy Floyd]

None of this will matter once Starmer is hanged for having had two mouthfuls of lamb bhuna and a swig of Kingfisher two years ago. Tory dominance for 20 more years.

[Ben]

"They're all the same!"

[Shindig]

Boris Johnson is one of a kind. A political cartoon horrifically brought to life.

[Lewis]

It would be peak Boris Johnson if the only resignation over all of this is a seething Starmer.

[Lofty]

I actually think that would result in the best chance Labour have of winning the next GE.

[Spikey M]

We all want The Ginger Growler in charge anyway.

[Lofty]

As Jim noted some time back, shrill women are poison at the ballot box. I don't know who would be the right leader to offer a better manifesto whilst being more electable but Starmer is uninspiring at the best of times, not accounting for the growing negatives sticking to him.

[Spikey M]

The phwoar factor outweighs any negatives.

[Boydy]

It would be peak Boris Johnson if the only resignation over all of this is a seething Starmer.

I will laugh my arse off if this happens.

[Lewis]

'Why Starmer's resignation increases the pressure on Boris Johnson.'
*nothing happens*

[Shindig]

"There's no more worlds to conquer." <Boris returns to his home planet>

[Boydy]

Lazy bastards here have stopped for the night to resume counting again tomorrow morning. They only started this morning too as they don't do it on the night after the polls close here.

[Shindig]

Heh. The footage doesn't half make Starmer look like a spare prick at a wedding.

[Mellberg]

Starter’s a complete square. Get the growler in.

[Yevrah]

The sheer levels of incompetence to get backed into a corner like this are breathtaking.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61383091


Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he will quit if given a fine by Durham police for breaking lockdown rules.

[Ian]

We'd be better off without him. Labour aren't doing shit any time soon anyway but he's been largely hopeless from the get-go. Occasionally looks and talks like an actual opposition leader should but very infrequently and he immediately goes back to being shit anyway.

[Shindig]

To be fair, he hasn't had much to oppose during Covid. I've no idea who's waiting in the wings, though. Tony Blair should do another stint.

[Ben]

Clearly he’s not getting fined then.

[Boydy]

BBC News - Queen hands over to Charles for State Opening of Parliament
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61384527


She's dead.

[Yevrah]

It does appear to be coming.

[Shindig]

Good job we already got that extra bank holiday.

[Boydy]

It does appear to be coming.

They're gonna weekend at Bernie's the 2nd - 5th June then announce it a week later.

[Manc]

Operation LONDON BRIDGE seeking volunteers. 100% dead.

[niko_cee]

Clearly he’s not getting fined then.

Seeing as they have already said that they don't 'prosecute' old offences in these sort of circumstances [I don't know what the technical term would be] isn't it theoretically impossible for him to be fined? Hence the promise to resign, presumably?

[Yevrah]

They're gonna weekend at Bernie's the 2nd - 5th June then announce it a week later.

:D

[Shindig]

"Don't look behind that curtain!"

Turns out Jim Henson faked his death to puppeteer a monarch.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiTPlr07ujQ

I used to really appreciate how news used to deliver us the serious business.

[Lewis]

It's a pretty disgraceful attempt to put pressure on the police if you ask me. What I like is all the divs trying to tactic it. His resignation will put pressure on the Prime Mini... Do you still not know who you're dealing with here? He'd just piss himself and never mention it again.

[niko_cee]

That clip/interview of Michael Gove and his comedy accents is a bit :cab:

Breaks into full Harry Enfield CALM DOWN at one point.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Either he did it for a bet or he's in full mid-life crisis mode. Possibly both.

[Waffdon]

He’ll have been on the finest Colombian powder as per

[Spikey M]

He loves a hot chocolate.

[Shindig]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61432498


Boris Johnson has demanded his cabinet comes up with a plan to cut about 90,000 civil service jobs to free up cash to tackle the cost of living.

How's making that many people unemployed going to help? "Shit, lads. There's been a surge in jobseekers claims and we appear to be understaffed."


A civil service union said the "ill thought-out" plan could affect services such as passport processing.

Which is currently already stretched.

[Ben]

Entirely ideological.

Daily Mail saying it will save £3.5bn a year so between the 35m ish tax payers, that's an astonishing £100 each. Well done Boris!

[Spikey M]

The Civil Service would be just as effective with zero staff.

[Ben]

Tories: Starmer should resign if fined.

Also Tories: But Boris shouldn't.

https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/zkds9xqpr5/TheTimes_Partgate_Beergate_Monarchy_220511_W.pdf

[Ben]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61557064

Unsurprisingly more pictures have been leaked. For context, this was a party that the Met knew about and handed out fines for already. Boris was not on that list…

It will be interesting how the Daily Mail report this one tomorrow after being seething about Starmer’s lamb bhuna.

[Shindig]

This ends with all the fines being reimbursed. All of them. As a goodwill ;) guesture.

[Kikó]

There's a war on. Move on.

[Manc]

One-off payments for UC claimants and over 65s to be announced in the coming days. #ITK

[Lewis]

I was worried the pensioners weren't going to get anything. Phew.

[Spikey M]

Lads, they're working on closing the gap between the poor and the middle class. I'm sure they will get round to closing the gap between the rich and the rest of us once they're finished.

[phonics]

I just got on UC. Am I about to make double money?

[Manc]

Scum.

[Boydy]

I just got on UC. Am I about to make double money?

Why did you leave Switzerland for the UK?

[Shindig]

Lower standard of living. I mean cost. I mean both.

[phonics]

Why did you leave Switzerland for the UK?

An ever spiralling coke addiction, the people suck and I missed my family after 2 years of lockdown. Think I did the math once and I was up to 1200 a week on coke alone, never mind the booze and hookers. I would have been dead, bankrupt or in jail within a year or two.

[phonics]

To note I’m only on UC because to extract my pension from Switzerland you need to prove residence in another country and I tried several other ways before this.

[Magic]

An ever spiralling coke addiction, the people suck and I missed my family after 2 years of lockdown. Think I did the math once and I was up to 1200 a week on coke alone, never mind the booze and hookers. I would have been dead, bankrupt or in jail within a year or two.

So near yet so far.

[phonics]

So near yet so far.
Much like your ex-wife. I got out early.

[niko_cee]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61653909

:uhoh:

[Lofty]

An ever spiralling coke addiction, the people suck and I missed my family after 2 years of lockdown. Think I did the math once and I was up to 1200 a week on coke alone, never mind the booze and hookers. I would have been dead, bankrupt or in jail within a year or two.

Using the Wolf of Wall Street grading system, what level of hookers were you hiring?

[Spikey M]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61653909

:uhoh:

I stand with The Ginger Growler <3

[Yevrah]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61653909

:uhoh:


They both attended a gathering in Durham on 30 April last year, at which people drank beer and ate curry.

Sounds like a gathering and against the rules to me. That he went in so hard on Boris, even evoking the dead and their grieving families, is so lol.

[Shindig]

Durham's becoming some kind of cursed place for politicians. Don't drink or take an eye test there.

[Lewis]

Sadly the sort of behaviour we've come to expect from Sir Beer Korma.

[Shindig]

I've also just discovered Durham lost the UK City of Culture bid to Bradford. :D

[Lewis]

Why was 'County Durham' nominated? It's to bung money to shitholes. Southampton is a bit too lively for it as well.

[Shindig]

Yeah, I didn't like how they nicked Picard's catchphrase. Durham was definitely chucked out on:

a) not being a city.
b) Having the county on the bid, further establishing that they are not a city.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The confidence vote is here. Praying, for the sake of not having to vote fucking Lib Dem at the next election, that he loses and some me-friendly wetwipe replaces him.

[Giggles]

What’s he done now? Surely if he’s brassnecked his way through everything previously then he’s pretty much untouchable at this stage.

[Ben]

He will win it but that's besides the point. Always the beginning of the end.

[Spikey M]

What’s he done now? Surely if he’s brassnecked his way through everything previously then he’s pretty much untouchable at this stage.

He has survived politically but he has completely lost the public. He would lose the next election to Skeletor at this point. Luckily for the Tory cunts, he seems to be being held responsible entirely, so one of his underlings will slither in shortly before the next election and probably win regardless.

When Jimmy is considering voting Lib Dem you know it's done.

[Ben]

What’s he done now? Surely if he’s brassnecked his way through everything previously then he’s pretty much untouchable at this stage.

The Royalists booed him.

[Luke Emia]

It's madness that he supposedly has said even if he only wins by one vote he would still carry on. Surely if he loses though the MP's who want him out could just ignore the whips and vote against everything he brings before parliament that would make his position pretty untenable.

[Jimmy Floyd]

He will carry on for as long as physically possible at any cost to his dignity/legacy. Does he even have to resign if he loses the vote? I don't know the rules.

I think he's been quite ill upstairs for a while, probably since his wife left him.

[Ben]

That's the worst case scenario for them, really. A complete demolition (which won't happen) will at least pave the way for a new PM with a relatively blank slate. Carrying a wounded dog will destroy the entire Government in time.

[Ben]

Does he even have to resign if he loses the vote? I don't know the rules.

Yeah he does. But I can't see 180 going against him. The risk is there being far more than the minimum 54 that triggered it. Triple figures will be absolute scenes for a few weeks until he's forced out.

[Spikey M]

He will cling on until the next election campaign starts. Then they will kick him out and say "look lads, Boris is gone, it's a clean slate".

[Jimmy Floyd]

I wouldn't see any risk in opposing him as a Tory MP. What's he going to do, not promote me to minister of state for gay porn and biscuits? The much bigger danger is him staying in post and my seat going red or yellow at the next election as a result.

[Ben]

Just a reminder that when all these brown-noses like Truss and Shapps say that no-one should vote against him because of the Ukraine situation, we changed Prime Minister twice during World War II, to great effect.

[Spikey M]

While the SNP are in fashion it is going to be hugely difficult to get the Conservatives out. Boris MIGHT manage it, but I think the second he goes every estranged Tory voter goes back to being a Tory voter. I think alot of the MP's will realise this and see the value in letting him take the blame for everything at the right time, and being able to say "I wanted Boris gone the second I heard about the Parties and I'm glad we've managed to force him out" right before the election. The gammons would eat that up.

[Ben]

You'd think so, as there's a lot of lapsed voters that can be regained overnight. But the cult is real. We're finally about to see how widespread that is. The local elections last month will have got a lot of the 2019 intake twitchy.

[Spikey M]

Just a reminder that when all these brown-noses like Truss and Shapps say that no-one should vote against him because of the Ukraine situation, we changed Prime Minister twice during World War II, to great effect.

I think the public are going to stop giving a fuck about Ukraine pretty soon. Paying 80 quid to get to Southampton and back has me about ready to chuck The Donbas under the bus.

[Jimmy Floyd]

You could get the right honourable sir keir starmer kcb qc in as PM with a confidence and supply from the tartan y-fronts lot pretty easily, I think, numbers wise. The hard part is that that is the SNP's worst nightmare, so they'd probably make it really awkward.

[Spikey M]

You could get the right honourable sir keir starmer kcb qc in as PM with a confidence and supply from the tartan y-fronts lot pretty easily, I think, numbers wise. The hard part is that that is the SNP's worst nightmare, so they'd probably make it really awkward.

He could potentially manage it with the guarantee of another referendum, but I think they'd probably vote to leave this time and we'd never see another Labour government again.

[Ben]

Alastair Campbell on Sky News saying the Tories need to lay off the drugs. :D

[Ben]

Mark The Saj as a vote against Boris. His interview on GMB was a complete non-defence.

[niko_cee]

All the pieces are finally falling into place for my long term prediction of Prime Minister Jeremy Hunt to become reality.

[Ben]

Supposedly he's been hosting "secret" dinners with prospective Cabinet members recently so he's definitely favourite if it gets to that. Kind of strange that he has support from non-Tories given he was absolute poison after his run as Health Sec. That was only four years ago.

[Spikey M]

All the pieces are finally falling into place for my long term prediction of Prime Minister Jeremy Hunt to become reality.

Don't be ridiculous.

I want this man running up and down every street in Britain trailing a banner that just reads "VINDICATION".

https://unherd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Matt-Hancock-e1634217552222.jpg

He will also rebrand to "Mate" Hancock.

[Boydy]

He will carry on for as long as physically possible at any cost to his dignity/legacy. Does he even have to resign if he loses the vote? I don't know the rules.

I think he's been quite ill upstairs for a while, probably since his wife left him.
Has she actually left him then?

[Lewis]

I think Boris Johnson would fare better under general election conditions than people currently think, particularly when the alternatives liable to be provided by the Conservative Party are zombie Thatcherism or a more contemptuous reversion back to 2018 (the Jesse Norman letter that people are getting excited over being its manifesto). With that in mind, a leadership scare getting him to sort himself out a bit might be the best outcome.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Has she actually left him then?

I meant his last wife, but who knows.

[Ben]

She will if he gets pottered later.

[Spikey M]

Didn't he (somehow)try to blame the parties on her? I dare say this would be her fault too.

[Lofty]

I meant his last wife, but who knows.

I thought he cheated on her with the new one then divorced her whilst she was fighting cancer?

[Ben]

Tory Civil War playing out in the media today. :drool:

[Jimmy Floyd]

In my mind she slung him out in the end, but, again, who knows.

[Ben]

Nadine Dorries, amongst her tirade at Jeremy Hunt, has literally just said "the donors have spoken today". At least they're not pretending we live in a democracy anymore.

EDIT: Also she said we're at war with Ukraine. Which she actually means we're at war with Ukraine against Russia. Which is dangerous as fuck considering everyone has bent over backwards so far to not call it what it is: a proxy war between NATO and Russia.

[Ben]

Tracker (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dKQnAE3y-aQ--tgHvKEdKg9jyG-zwEsilRqgEFNbCt8/htmlview?pru=AAABgV0pjM0*gtsd6Tx_pd01Rmr1DRM0hw#gi d=0) for the boring cunts like myself.

[Spikey M]

My local MP is still a bell end then.

[Ben]

All the tweets from the supporters are the same: "got the big calls right". :D

Like bots come to life.

[Ben]

Nadine Dorries is just comedy gold.

"I'm not going to talk about numbers" literally ten seconds later "14 million people voted for the Prime Minster!" :D

She's also pretty much confirmed that this Government can be bought for £18m, in the same no-numbers interview.

[Lewis]

Nadine Dorries, amongst her tirade at Jeremy Hunt, has literally just said "the donors have spoken today". At least they're not pretending we live in a democracy anymore.

EDIT: Also she said we're at war with Ukraine. Which she actually means we're at war with Ukraine against Russia. Which is dangerous as fuck considering everyone has bent over backwards so far to not call it what it is: a proxy war between NATO and Russia.

The worrying thing is that the freaks seem to think that Ukraine really is some massive priority for the country.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I think it is a long term strategic turning point in the sense that it binds us indelibly into the western alliance, and has in some respects given us a blueprint for foreign policy decision-making post EU membership. It also ends the hopes of those on the Tory right who might have wanted us to go more isolationist/Trumpish.

A priority in terms of this government's policy-making, no.

[Lewis]

The best endorsement of him is that pretty much anybody else would have merrily locked us down over Christmas. If we get into genuine concerns it doesn't really matter who is nominally in charge.

[Ben]

That's a bit revisionist. He literally had to make concessions to the 1922 lot for them to support his semi-restrictions. If he hadn't been caught red-handed boozing it up he would have gone harder. He didn't want to do anything at the beginning of Lockdown OG but that was mainly because he was fucking clueless to it; he'd done a virtual 180 on restrictions by the first Christmas.

Poor Boris just wants to get on with the job but has no fucking clue what it is outside of cronyism. Someone who can string a sentence together would be a nice start.

[Jimmy Floyd]

His central problem has always been that he absolutely does not care about anyone other than himself. He can entertain people but he can't empathise with them. As court jester or even London Mayor this is ok, but as PM you're finished.

He was VERY lucky in the 2019 election to come up against Corbyn who is the worst major party leader there ever has been or could be. Against Starmer, a Boris-led Tory party is heading for opposition, and that's not because Starmer's good, it's because he won't do anything to warrant being hated in the way that Boris does.

[Boydy]

Won't upset the right-wing press and establishment, you mean.

[Jimmy Floyd]

How many people actually read the right wing press? Couple of million? Makes zero difference to anything.

[Lewis]

The 'right-wing press and establishment' sounds like a two front war.

[Shindig]

Probably less now the 'personalities' are all wandering off to start podcasts and youtube channels.

[Yevrah]

We're in this situation because Boris was mad/brave/lusting for power enough to go for leadership when all the other Tories with a chance of winning were legging it in the opposite direction of Brexit (shame on them) and he found himself up against the most incompetent leader of a major political party in my lifetime (well done everyone who supported him).

[Guybrush]

How many people actually read the right wing press? Couple of million? Makes zero difference to anything.

People may not buy newspapers anymore, but lots will still use the Daily Mail website on their dinner breaks in work. Also, found this quite interesting:

1532041219601223682

[Lewis]

I'm sure once people realise that a million people moved here last year opposition will pick back up.

[Ben]

Are more immigrants white now though?

[Yevrah]

The major opposition was due to the EU's perceived encroachment on our sovereignty and not immigration, despite how much all sides of the media might claim otherwise.

[Lewis]

The BBC are leaning right in to 'Even if he does win mathematically...' as if half of the party haven't been seething since 2019 (and always will be). Unless it's 52/48 then he is lolling. What are they going to do, vote the budget down?

[niko_cee]

It's not worth it mate.

It was all about going back to the imperial system, being a racist and not knowing what was best for yourself.

@Yev.

[Ben]

The major opposition was due to the EU's perceived encroachment on our sovereignty and not immigration, despite how much all sides of the media might claim otherwise.

Give over. Plenty of Red Wall voters thought leaving the EU would stop brown people coming in. The problem for those voters now is that the hardest thing in life is not the act of being conned, but admitting you’ve been conned.

[Giggles]

i hope he wins. The last thing we need is someone competent over there.

[niko_cee]

There's not much chance of that either way.

Administrative competence is probably the biggest obstacle to ever getting elected.

[Ben]

The BBC are leaning right in to 'Even if he does win mathematically...' as if half of the party haven't been seething since 2019 (and always will be). Unless it's 52/48 then he is lolling. What are they going to do, vote the budget down?

Theresa May survived her vote too. More than 100 rebels and he’s on borrowed time. You can’t limp on without a de facto majority in the Commons for long. Unless there’s only the bare minimum (54) then these things are normally the beginning of the end, whatever the result. It’s impossible to shake the stink.

[Lewis]

Theresa May led a minority government and had Brexit and electoral oblivion looming over her. Wor Boris has a sizeable majority and two years until the next election to turn things around. Whether he can or not, who knows (he won't); but the circumstances couldn't be any different.

[Boydy]

How many people actually read the right wing press? Couple of million? Makes zero difference to anything.

Maybe should have said "the right-wing press and the establishment" to make it clearer I consider them two different things. The Guardian can be included in the establishment, for instance. They all pose as being progressive and everything but when there was a whiff of mild wealth redistribution they collectively shat themselves at their zone 2 dinner parties.

[Luke Emia]

Theresa May led a minority government and had Brexit and electoral oblivion looming over her. Wor Boris has a sizeable majority and two years until the next election to turn things around. Whether he can or not, who knows (he won't); but the circumstances couldn't be any different.

She didn’t really lead though did she? She stumbled on until they could apply the final blow.

[Ben]

Theresa May led a minority government and had Brexit and electoral oblivion looming over her. Wor Boris has a sizeable majority and two years until the next election to turn things around. Whether he can or not, who knows (he won't); but the circumstances couldn't be any different.

May was just an example. There’s Major as well. The stink of it will always be there even if the number of rebels is only mildly large. Just 80 rebels (which is a given going by reports) completely swings the majority the other way.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Once 140 odd of your own MPs have voted against you, you're no longer a serious figure. If he staggers on he'll turn it into a 1997 style landslide as opposed to a close election.

[Lewis]

Theresa May's 'Dementia Tax' was the best policy proposal of the last twenty years until the wealthy establishment boomers at the Guardian killed it. Should have just given the country its last rites there and then.

[Boydy]

Once 140 odd of your own MPs have voted against you, you're no longer a serious figure. If he staggers on he'll turn it into a 1997 style landslide as opposed to a close election.
It's okay, the Labour right will piss away a landslide (although can't see that happening anyway with the SNP around these days) on stuff that's easily reversible and then probably start a stupid war somewhere.

[Yevrah]

Give over. Plenty of Red Wall voters thought leaving the EU would stop brown people coming in. The problem for those voters now is that the hardest thing in life is not the act of being conned, but admitting you’ve been conned.

And it seems the problem for your type of voter remains getting over the result. Such a shitfest, with either side finding it impossible to see anything that doesn't fit their narrative. I mean, your response doesn't even address my point.

[Jimmy Floyd]

In seats with hummus sales above a certain threshold they need to pull the Labour candidate and endorse the Lib Dems, and vice versa in seats where the chickea gloop does less well. If they do that they could knock out a lot of Tories.

They need to run the Greens everywhere though as a surprising amount of Tories will defect to the Greens under certain circumstances which I think are currently being met.

[Spikey M]

The Labour right and left are as bad as each other. "Come together to get in power and we can sort the rest out in the wash" was the correct approach, but no, let's have a load of infighting and refusal to vote instead. Fucking idiots.

The Lib Dems could well become the opposition if Labour don't sort their shit out.

[Lewis]

The 'Labour right' is the current government.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

148 against :drool:

[Manc]

No coming back from that.

[Luke Emia]

Surely all the people who voted against him with that many votes is just not allow him to pass anything in parliament?

[7om]

All we need now is for some of the backbencher plebs to start a new “Independent Group for Change” and really get the ball rolling on a general election.

[Waffdon]

Good outcome, that. He needs to keep clinging on.

[Lewis]

Two years to go for broke and bring back hanging. Come on.

[7om]

Tony Blair first?

[Lewis]

Obviously. The young Cambridges kicking the stool away.

[Ben]

He's going to have to do something dramatic. By-elections in three weeks and they won't go well.

[Jimmy Floyd]

He's a zombie PM now if he lasts the week. Won't have the political strength to do anything.

[phonics]

I really don’t care because the world is fucked whatever but have any of these strategists thought about how awful it looks like when everyone copy/pastes their reaction. It’s not talking points. It’s saying the exact same thing over and over again.

Boris could have got away with it if he wasn’t surrounded by absolute drones treating the average person like a fucking mong.

[Ben]

He's definitely been on the packet this evening. :D

[Ben]

Actually they all have. Jesus, some of them aren't as experienced at hiding it as Boris is. Simon Hart might as well have had a bit left on the end of his nose.

[niko_cee]

Surely all the people who voted against him with that many votes is just not allow him to pass anything in parliament?

Aye, but voting for a new leader is a bit different to bringing down the government. In the latter scenario you have to fight for your job in the near future [in many cases it will be a losing fight] so the rebels have more 'skin in the game' to use the dreadful parlance of our times.

[Spikey M]

That's the best possible result. Still in power, but utterly powerless. Take the whole ship down with you Bozza.

[Jimmy Floyd]

His sniffy interview reminded me of that bloke in House of Cards. The proper one, not the paedo remake.

[Ben]

...the last confidence vote which Theresa May faced on December 12, 2018. Jacob Rees-Mogg declared that her 200 to 117 victory was a “very bad result … a third of the parliamentary party, the overwhelming majority of backbenchers have voted against her” and that she should quit … while Nadine Dorries was reported to have sent an “aggressively partisan” (anti -May) message on the Tory MPs’ WhatsApp group

But Boris won decisively.

[Shindig]

His sniffy interview reminded me of that bloke in House of Cards. The proper one, not the paedo remake.

I hope that means he's getting offed by the chief whip.

[Boydy]

1534452779460206592

:sherlock:

Interesting thread about Yougov in the 2017 election.

[Ben]

Well YouGov was founded by a couple of Tories (including current minister Zahawi) so I can't say I'm shocked.

[Jimmy Floyd]

That story's the same as every polling failure story ever - i.e. an unexpected movement happens and everyone believes bar room conventional wisdom instead of the data.

See also Brexit, 2010, 1992 etc.

[Spikey M]

So these polling organisations are as bobbins as I thought. Jimmy, I'm claiming the e-victory.

[Shindig]

7 people on that Rwanda flight. What a spectacular waste of fuel and money. At least stack them up so you get a full flight out of it.

[Luke Emia]

Absolute fucking madness. That’s the only thing that can be said for it, even if it’s what you want to happen with the brown people.

[Yevrah]

I'm not convinced it's that much of a shit idea. Why would you pay thousands to get yourself into England if you know you're going to end up on a plane to Rwanda?

Whether we should be doing it or not is a different question entirely.

[Ben]

It’s mission accomplished in terms of getting it all over the front pages. Choosing now to break the NI Protocol is also a well timed move.

Else it’ll be cost of living discontent and a ton of bricks on Boris after the no confidence vote.

See the bigger picture.

[Lewis]

The scheme will only work if these planes are full, which might become the case once you get through rejecting all of the spurious appeals that will have got the first passengers off, and you end up with a steady stream of definites. If they're still bussing a dozen at a time out after a few months then it will have failed. That said, the scheme represents failure insofar as they won't just shitcan the laws that allow these people to avoid swift deportation, which an actual conservative government committed to 'taking back control' would have done by now.

[Yevrah]

Indeed, if this plane should have been full but only seven could be put on it legally then the whole thing is a complete waste of time, before you even get to the morally suspect side of it.

[Kikó]

If only they opened up safe routes instead of dehumanising asylum seekers. Still, this is better to look like you're doing something meaningful.

[Lewis]

Putting aside the fact that they travel through numerous safe countries to get here, what does a 'safe route' look like, and how many would you let in through them?

[Kikó]

There's no such thing as 'safe countries' for seeking asylum. You provide the ability to get to the destination you wish to seek asylum in without blocking any ability to get in, you know like airplanes.

[Lewis]

Would we be expected to lay these flights on for them (and would they be from Calais or directly from persecution hotspots), or just not have any entry controls whatsoever at all times in case somebody wants to come here and claim asylum?

[Kikó]

No, they're called flights and they run commercially. The entry controls are called "passport control".

[Spikey M]

Alright Phonics.

[randomlegend]

I really don't understand Kiko's position. Isn't he saying it should be how it currently already is?

[Kikó]

It's incredibly difficult to fly/train/ferry into the UK as an asylum seeker which is why criminal gangs can make loads of money through boat crossings in the channel.

[Yevrah]

I really don't understand Kiko's position. Isn't he saying it should be how it currently already is?

I'm reading it as him saying we should let anyone in who wants to come (which is an option), if it isn't that then I'm lost.

[Lewis]

Yeah, no border controls. The minute you introduce the possibility of claims being rejected then the route isn't a safe one from the point of those claiming asylum. Do you think if the border force wasn't there to meet them the dinghy people would hand themselves in and still do it all properly?

[randomlegend]

It's incredibly difficult to fly/train/ferry into the UK as an asylum seeker which is why criminal gangs can make loads of money through boat crossings in the channel.

(This is a genuine question). What stops someone just buying a plane ticket and claiming asylum once they get here (other than cost, but presumably it's a lot lower than what they pay to get on the dodgy boats)?

[Yevrah]

It's incredibly difficult to fly/train/ferry into the UK as an asylum seeker which is why criminal gangs can make loads of money through boat crossings in the channel.

Why, because you get stopped and refused entry at passport control?

[Waffdon]

1536817000542003207

What a government

[Spikey M]

(This is a genuine question). What stops someone just buying a plane ticket and claiming asylum once they get here (other than cost, but presumably it's a lot lower than what they pay to get on the dodgy boats)?

The people smugglers often make you pay for your travel once you're in the country. Usually via prostitution / looking after a drug farm / "donating" a kidney / some other kind of organised crime. They essentially arrive as slaves to the gang.

I imagine the difficulty with getting a normal flight, is that someone fleeing a country is unlikely to have a passport

[Guybrush]

1536817000542003207

What a government

Great news.

[Boydy]

1536816792160591878

Coming over here, taking our hand jobs...

[randomlegend]

Hahaha the Tories are absolute fucking morons. How can anyone vote for these people.

[Giggles]

How do human rights apply post Brexit?

[Lewis]

The same as before, so there is an election-winning fight to be picked with it all.

[Spikey M]

How do human rights apply post Brexit?

Same as before but we're allowed bent cucumbers now.

[niko_cee]

The ECHR stepping in with injuctive relief after the Court of Appeal has rejected it and deined appeal to the Supreme Court probably strengthens the nutter position further, politically speaking.

[niko_cee]

How do human rights apply post Brexit?

They're not an EU thing.

[Giggles]

They're not an EU thing.

I thought that was the whole idea of brexit, so the EU couldn’t stop you dumping forrrins in the sea (or Rwanda). Well that and keeping all the pork pies or something.

[Lofty]

I thought that was the whole idea of brexit, so the EU couldn’t stop you dumping forrrins in the sea (or Rwanda). Well that and keeping all the pork pies or something.

That was just a smoke screen to fool the idiots, as if Brexit Britain wont be handing out visas to foriegners willy nily for trade deals.

[niko_cee]

I thought that was the whole idea of brexit, so the EU couldn’t stop you dumping forrrins in the sea (or Rwanda). Well that and keeping all the pork pies or something.

The ECHR is to do with the Council of Europe and [I think] predates the EU, and is broadly nothing to do with it. It has sway in the UK due to the Human Rights Act essentially incorporating the Convention into UK law and giving the Court final say on matters brought under the HRA. The 'parliamentary sovereignty' answer is to repeal the HRA, which is probably what quite a lot of the Brexit folk want anyway, so this might be a bit of a red rag to a bull type thing. It also gives the government the opposite get out of saying this is what they wanted to do [despite it being a manifestly mental idea] but those buggers over there in wherever have only gone and stopped us, the buggers.

[Yevrah]

To not have understood the legality of a plan that you knew would be unpopular before announcing it is some going. The levels of incompetence are something else.

[niko_cee]

This isn't really a determination of that.

[Yevrah]

What, that the plane's been grounded, for legal reasons?

[Queenslander]

Peter Dutton's the man to sort this mess out for you blokes

[Kikó]

(This is a genuine question). What stops someone just buying a plane ticket and claiming asylum once they get here (other than cost, but presumably it's a lot lower than what they pay to get on the dodgy boats)?

From what I understand, an airline (for example) will refuse travel if you don't have a visa in the first instance as they're at risk of being fined (or some similar punishment).

[Ben]

I thought that was the whole idea of brexit, so the EU couldn’t stop you dumping forrrins in the sea (or Rwanda). Well that and keeping all the pork pies or something.

I've said it before: the hardest thing for a person is not the act of being fooled, but admitting that you've been fooled. So we'll have various fallacies for years yet in an attempt to validate Brexit.

[Luke Emia]

I think the biggest issue around anything Brexit related for me is that it doesn't have to be the absolute disaster that a lot of people think it is it could be a good opportunity to modernise the country and economy . I voted remain solely based on the fact that I felt the EU was the 'least bad' option. The issue is that the absolute spastics we have in charge are more interested in things like chucking 10 people on a plane to make themselves look good or returning to weights and measures scales that 95% of the country don't understand.

[Ben]

Their voter base is predominantly white, retired people. Tropes like this appeal to them.

[niko_cee]

What, that the plane's been grounded, for legal reasons?

Aye, but not technically as a determination that the policy itself is illegal:


The Strasbourg human rights court - which is not a European Union body but is part of the Council of Europe, which still has the UK as a member - said an Iraqi man known as KN faced "a real risk of irreversible harm" if he remained on the flight.

The court said he should not be sent to Rwanda until the full decision on whether the government's policy is legal is made by the Supreme Court, which is due in July.

It will be interesting to see what happens if the Supreme Court sides with the government at the full hearing.

[Spikey M]

Can't wait for the "it's not illegal, just a really shitty, evil, immoral thing to do" verdict.

[Lewis]

As a sovereignty person I would have voted Brexit regardless, but it's been a bit of a mixed bag up to now. The European laws (not necessarily Brexit-related) need to go, and the protocol needs to be binned or at the very least watered down to the point where hard line Unionists can wear it. This was (unfortunately) always going to be a process - the freedom to achieve freedom, to coin a phrase - so I can wait for that. On a more practical level, the appeal of the vote was that it had the potential to shock the country into taking its decline seriously. This has been the major disappointment, as the reverse seems to have happened from all angles. Maybe an openly pro-Brexit Corbyn government would have been the best bet, but they BOTTLED it as well.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If only we had a Progressive Alliance in place to make the existing divisions even more entrenched.

[Ben]

Maybe an openly pro-Brexit Corbyn government would have been the best bet, but they BOTTLED it as well.

In hindsight, he would have been the working class hero had he not toed the party line on that one.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Wouldn't he have had to get that voted through some arcane democratic mechanism within the party? Would never have got away with it.

[Lewis]

He might have lost half his existing MPs to The Independent Group (lmao) or the Liberal Democrats, but I reckon he could have carried the weird little committees and recruited enough new stiffs to stand for election.

[Spikey M]

1534552329789251586?t=6fWLV8gLEuQh-fHsMYmBxw&s=19

[Shindig]

Front bench is the fuck bench.

[Spikey M]

Phwoar bench.

[Waffdon]

1534552329789251586?t=6fWLV8gLEuQh-fHsMYmBxw&s=19

He’s pretending to play the piano on her stupidly large amount of bookmarks sticking out her folders

[Lewis]

I was worried the pensioners weren't going to get their triple lock back in time for the next election. What a relief, and completely non-inflationary, unlike general wage rises.

[Lofty]

I voted Remain purely because I don't think there is a goverment of any stripe capable of delivering a Brexit that notably improved what we already had.

[Ben]

The old notion that you get more conservative (right-wing, if you will) as you get older will really be tested in the next decade. Anyone under 50 is being completely alienated by this Government in the name of keeping this shower propped up in Westminster for another term, to the point that they'll probably never bring themselves to vote for them. The next lot of pensioners will be furious they've missed the gravy train by a handful of years whilst everyone of all ages will be stumbling through another once-in-a-lifetime recession.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I think a lot of it is powered by something more powerful than politics, i.e. straight nostalgia and feeling unsettled at the world being different to the one you grew up in. That is pretty timeless.

[Shindig]

Ah, the 'back in my day.' bullshit. Where the day very much shifts depending on what point you're trying to make.

[Luke Emia]

The old notion that you get more conservative (right-wing, if you will) as you get older will really be tested in the next decade. Anyone under 50 is being completely alienated by this Government in the name of keeping this shower propped up in Westminster for another term, to the point that they'll probably never bring themselves to vote for them.

This is right. I always voted Tory but I’m getting progressively more liberal in my outlook and it’s being put in place by this government veering harder and harder to the right wing.

I’m no fan of unions but I saw something earlier that a minister said they will be putting in place things to stop rail workers striking in the future, the anti protest laws, going after the BBC constantly and the immigration stuff is all just putting me to a place where I can’t see myself voting Tory again but at the same point I refuse to vote Labour out of principal.

[Lewis]

The only 'right wing' thing this government is doing is Rwanda and selling Channel 4, and they haven't done either of them yet. Literally everything else is what Ed Miliband would have done.

EDIT: Actually I suppose the fact we haven't immediately folded and aligned with every European regulation is something, but there is still time.

[Spikey M]

Brexit and the Immigration bollocks are both very right wing, but they're not what have alienated most people. The alienation has come from the widespread corruption on every front.

I see today there's talk of Bozza trying to loophole his Mrs into a cushy job before he became PM. All the makings of a SCANDAL and yet, most can barely muster a shrug because its just what's expected of the cunt at this point.

[phonics]

Corruption is very conservative. Bringing us back to the old times.

[Shindig]

Sleaze and Quangos?

[Kikó]

Spikes, she wasn't his official missus at the time tbf. He was still married to someone else.

[Lewis]

We had record immigration in 2021 (and by some amount as well). You have to wonder what reality people live in when they talk about us having a 'far right' government. If only.

[Ben]

Some of them are far right ideologically but fortunately for us, also fucking useless.

[Spikey M]

Let's not forget granting themselves the right to criminalise any protest they want at a moments notice. Although the far right and the far left share that one.

[Lewis]

They could already do that. I don't agree with it, but it's not evidence of creeping fascism like some professional idiots think.

[niko_cee]

Brexit and the Immigration bollocks are both very right wing, but they're not what have alienated most people. The alienation has come from the widespread corruption on every front.


Brexit is a fairly radical concept and so is quite difficult to square with traditional conservatism, and as evidenced by subsequent elections it cut across the established political divide [and established a new political divide] between the alienated and the enlightened.

The governments of the post-Thatcher years have all variously driven the 'alienation' [Thatcher also did it but in a different way] which manifested itself in the EU referendum.

[Yevrah]

Biggest issue for me is the rank incompetence. Things were just about being held together when Cummings was kicking around and whatever one thinks of him he does appear to work hard and get shit done. Since then, it's just been one lazy fuck up after another, 'covered' by incredibly bad lies.

If Starmer doesn't get his shit (and most importantly his own ticket) together and win the next election then fuck me.

[niko_cee]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODc5MDQ1ODEtNDBmZS00ZjQ4LThlNDQtMWU2N2JkMzZjMj E5XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjgwMDM3MzI@._V1_.jpg

[Boydy]

Nothing will change under Starmer.

[Don]

His fucking handling of these rail strikes has almost been a bigger shambles than anything Boris has done. The fucking government/country is on its knees and instead of going balls deep on it he's busy sending passive aggressive messages to the party group chat.

[Lofty]

Starmer's Labour are diet Tory.

I don't think they will lose as many votes as you think. My in laws are absolutely being affected negatively by the last ten years of tory government but when it comes to voting they just out the cross in the box. Like that guy on the Hartlepool by election blaming Labour for the recent closure of the police station and hospital facilities, there is no reasoning with some people. The only way the true blue lot will be shaken out is if Boris' successor isn't white, that will put the cat amongst the pigeons.