UK General Election 2017 - 8 June

[niko_cee]

What's the record for ministerial resignations in the course of a parliament?

[Ben]

Don't know but this is all a bit of an embarrassment for Rishi now. He ought to make himself the last one of this Government and call the GE.

Three gone tonight so far, including Lee Anderson who just got promoted by Sunak. Ouch.

[Ben]

1747338814614573475

lmao

[phonics]

What are they mad about today exactly? I've had to tune out the ongoing idiocy for my own wellbeing.

[Gray Fox]

They are mad about THE BOATS.

[Boydy]

Yeah, I'm never too sure what all these tory rebels are rebelling against with the Rwanda bill (there was one before wasn't there?). Does it not go far enough for these rebels or what?

[Ben]

Jenrick proposed an amendment to the Rwanda Bill (ffs) which Sunak doesn't support. It's to be voted on tomorrow but instead of actually rebelling (because it would effectively erase the Tory majority) those who are in favour of the amendment are resigning. Well, a few are, the rest will be put in line by the whip.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The Cash amendement is about the country not having to abide by international human rights law; the Jenrick amendent is about limiting the ability of deportees to appeal. So Anderson and the other one have resigned due to feeling they had to vote against the government by supporting those.

A strange hill to die on, but if die you must.

[randomlegend]

The Cash amendement is about the country not having to abide by international human rights law; the Jenrick amendent is about limiting the ability of deportees to appeal. So Anderson and the other one have resigned due to feeling they had to vote against the government by supporting those.

A strange hill to die on, but if die you must.

It'd be nice if they'd all actually die.

[Dquincy]

It'd be nice if they'd all actually die.

Coming from a doctor. Yikes.

[niko_cee]

All this Bill Cash amendment business, I thought he'd been chucked out of parliament. Did that not happen?

Think I might be confusing him with that Bone fossil.

[niko_cee]

Sad times when the home secretary can't even say laissez-faire correctly.

laser far

[Ben]

A lot of effort going into this Rwanda shite considering the next Government will end it immediately. Another year incoming of the country making fuck all progression.

[Kikó]

I don't think Labour would necessarily end it if in power. But it's a complete idiot policy just to appease people like Lewis who is scared of brown people.

[Don]

1747524163261047018

[Ben]

No wonder everything is shit.

[Spikey M]

Can we have a go at electing people that didn't go to Eton for a bit? I'm not saying it'll fix everything, but atleast it won't be so cringe worthy listening to them trying to be relatable.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I umpired a game at Eton a couple of years ago, it was an instructive experience. Rocked up and I didn't know which of the 5 or or so pristine grounds it was, all signposted in slang through ancient walls like some kind of medieval stronghold. Got to the right place and was greeted by someone I later discovered to be this guy (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2551070/Old-Etonian-businessman-dubbed-Mr-Toad-vicious-Facebook-hate-page-set-disgruntled-former-employee-wins-9-000-libel-damages-payout.html), who had, at 10am, already cracked open a £100 bottle of cabernet sauvignon and was chugging it from a large glass on the pavilion steps. His opening conversational gambit was about how one of his old schoolmasters - guess we're talking at least 50 years earlier here - had been a 'frightful queer'. The Old Etonians team rocked up and declared that they would bat first against the Surrey combined plebs team that was visiting. I said well, actually, I think we'll have a toss to decide that. Their captain scowled off muttering something about me not understanding tradition. They did bat first and were all called things like Marcus and Francis, scored a shitload of runs because the pitch is basically designed for posh people to stroke it around while the plebs run in and bowl at them. One of the Etonians, who looked fucking awful to me, claimed to have played county cricket (I looked it up, and he hadn't). The pleb XI then chased down the total with some mouthy midget from Croydon making a hundred. If only it were so in other walks of life.

That being said, of the posh schools I've been summoned to as a hired help official I think the thicko school, Bradfield, was worse. Just an unbearable sense of entitlement.

[Spikey M]

But just imagine the mouthy midget from Croydon at that interview instead. Woy wouldn't put up with that line of questioning.

[Yevrah]

That interview is fine. Perhaps Burley should avoid asking inane questions if serious answers are the expectation.

[niko_cee]

On the Woy front, I was struck the other day how the European Boss of Fujitsu sounded a lot like him.

[Spikey M]

That interview is fine. Perhaps Burley should avoid asking inane questions if serious answers are the expectation.

Burley is an odious hack, but they both know what's going on there. He's trying to pull David Cameron's common man, Aston Villa fan shit and she's had his pants down.

There's no need. We all know you're posh, you don't have to pretend otherwise. Just leave it at "I enjoy the cricket".

[Yevrah]

Yeah, but he's only done that because she's asked him what his football team is. I agree he should have told her to shut up, but who cares if he's watched the post office drama (if he's involved with sorting that mess out I'd rather he was looking at the actual evidence than Will Mellor) or what box sets he watches.

[Spikey M]

People like Burley (Piers Morgan, Ed Balls, etc.) Just watched too much Paxman while they honed their trade, but they lack his skill in finding the right question to dig in on, so we end up with this.

Still, atleast he isn't being schmoosed by Peston.

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/17/british-politics-chaos-red-wall-voters-world

Enjoyed this article, think everyone needs to start subverting their expectations a little.

[Ben]

1748021240009273784

Well here’s why the whole Rwanda thing has been so prevalent.

[phonics]

It’s almost like there’s been an organised push to make idiots believe that instead of concentrating on the absolute shithole this country has become because of the people pushing said ideas.

[Shindig]

They could be anywhere but we can't track 'em. Schrödinger's immigrants. <shakes fist>

Although the media loves to publicise an upturned boat in the channel more than Mr. Al Said passing his citizenship.

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://twitter.com/10DowningStreet/status/1749381224894722118

Ignoring the puerile absurdity of a government doing official comms like this, here are my top three guesses:

1) something about sending the browns to Rwanda
2) something about subsidising housing demand
3) something about a tax cut for the ancient and decrepit

[Ben]

Immediate general election. :drool:

[Spikey M]

There are a number of things I want from government, but excitement is rarely one of them.

[Boydy]

Immediate general election. :drool:
It never fucking is with all his shitty press conferences.

[Kikó]

https://twitter.com/10DowningStreet/status/1749381224894722118

Ignoring the puerile absurdity of a government doing official comms like this, here are my top three guesses:

1) something about sending the browns to Rwanda
2) something about subsidising housing demand
3) something about a tax cut for the ancient and decrepit

4) you can get updates on Whatsapp

[Spikey M]

5)but you can't recover deleted messages, sadly.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Can't wait for them to start Whatsapping me about points 1, 2 and 3.

[phonics]

"Group Text With The Government" is an excellent name for a Spoken Word LP by some spotty Oxford Grad.

[niko_cee]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68077142

Whilst I agree with Sir Simon, seriously who gave him that Truss or the trolley, is there an alternative reality where the Conservatives aren't largely wiped out at the next election? Does he want Boris back? Prime Minister Lord Cameron is going to have to replace my long held hope for the Jeremy Cunt premiership lolz. The most likely scenario I can think of would be if Keir Starmer jumped ship and became their leader, which also wouldn't work as nobody actually likes him, so, yeah. Tony Blair?

[Jimmy Floyd]

That Truss lot creep me out. I never believed all the paranoid stuff about the Russians having engineered Brexit, but I'm pretty certain that Vlad must be running some kind of asset in Team Truss.

Completely delusional about what motivates voters to the point that you wonder if they are not just pushing some other agenda.

[niko_cee]

I think there's a better than evens chance that they're mostly just actual morons. Extremely self-serving morons, natch, but morons nonetheless.

[Spikey M]

That and / or they're just completely out of ideas. They know the ship is going down and they can't bail quick enough to stop it, so they're looking for magic beans waterpumps down the back of the sofa.

They just need to call an election / it a day. Hanging on to power is only making them look worse.

[Jimmy Floyd]

To answer your original question, the only hope they would hypothetically have would be if a Boris Johnson figure, but without the baggage and unpopularity of the actual Boris Johnson, were to swoop in and take the helm. So none at all.

I'm currently torn on whether they are going to go down to ~150, or sub 100 seats. Probably the former, but the latter is in play.

[phonics]

I can't wait to see the back of these absolute incompetents. If we were still a real country they'd be rounded up and we'd flog them in the streets and throw rotten vegetables at them for a week after the election.

[Spikey M]

To answer your original question, the only hope they would hypothetically have would be if a Boris Johnson figure, but without the baggage and unpopularity of the actual Boris Johnson, were to swoop in and take the helm. So none at all.

I'm currently torn on whether they are going to go down to ~150, or sub 100 seats. Probably the former, but the latter is in play.

They should just put Simon Whistler in front of the Camera and have Deadly Dom tell him what to say.

[Lewis]

If they hang on to about 150 seats those seats will be predominantly occupied by the sort of Cameron-era twats who will interpret their hammering as the electorate punishing them for being 'too right wing', which will prevent any actual right wing Conservative Party emerging from the wreckage. With that in mind, the best result is the fewest seats possible and the brand tarnished forever.

[Ben]

If they hang on to about 150 seats those seats will be predominantly occupied by the sort of Cameron-era twats who will interpret their hammering as the electorate punishing them for being 'too right wing', which will prevent any actual right wing Conservative Party emerging from the wreckage. With that in mind, the best result is the fewest seats possible and the brand tarnished forever.

That circles us back to the conversation the other day about this country never going extreme and always electing either left or right centrists. If the Conservatives pivoted further right, they'd be out for the long term.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If you want a 'proper right wing' Conservative party in power then you either need to shift the population decisively in that direction - sabotage from inside the NHS, or allowing Russia to bomb coastal towns, would be the sort of thing required - or bypass them by abandoning democracy. It's not happening otherwise. Same for a 'proper left wing' Labour party.

You can have one out of power, mind, if that makes you feel good.

[Lewis]

That circles us back to the conversation the other day about this country never going extreme and always electing either left or right centrists. If the Conservatives pivoted further right, they'd be out for the long term.

When you say 'further right', does this mean you think that the highest tax/spending burden ever and record immigration are normal right wing things that a normal right wing party would over-see? I don't think most people do, which is what makes me think there is scope for a more right wing - not necessarily small state right wing - Conservative Party.

[Luke Emia]

When you say 'further right', does this mean you think that the highest tax/spending burden ever and record immigration are normal right wing things that a normal right wing party would over-see? I don't think most people do, which is what makes me think there is scope for a more right wing - not necessarily small state right wing - Conservative Party.

The stuff coming out of their mouths is right wing. It’s just their rank incompetence that stops them getting stuff done.

[Lewis]

Do you think that they really want to reduce immigration but somehow haven't been able to figure out how? Or - alternatively - do you think that they actually don't?

[Lofty]

If they could reduce immigration and have concrete figures to back it up the tory PM would be god emperor and free to do whatever they wanted, so I suspect it's just there isn't a mandate to implement your suggested measures.

[Lewis]

Simply getting it back to pre-Blair levels, and amending the Blair-era laws that prevent us deporting foreign criminals, would go down as a massive immigration win for the vast majority of voters, and, as you say, probably lead to them winning elections however and whenever they like. They just don't want to do that. You can see this across lots of areas. If you can't build in nice Conservative-voting areas, why not stuff cities full of development and potentially get some more young people voting for you? Why not build new prisons and reservoirs in Liberal Democrat seats? Other than a brief period in 2019, which secured them a massive majority, they've spent fourteen years chasing people who will never vote for them under any circumstances.

[Jimmy Floyd]

They want both things simultaneously. They want immigrants out a) to get elected and b) because they instinctively want to keep Britain white, but they also want immigrants in because c) they, and/or their advisors from business, are addicted to a low wage economy and this superdrug controls pretty much everything they do. Add in the fact that they are all complacent public school fuckwits who have never done anything and have no real experiences, and you end up with this cold soup of inertia.

Your more right wing Conservative party would have to choose whether to define itself on the basis of b) or c) - because these are contradictory positions - and in so doing would have to sacrifice the other and the swathes of public opinion that would go with it, putting a) in serious doubt. It would be fun to see someone try, tbh, but that person would have to be a serious person. A Milei, if you like, and not a Farage.

[Lofty]

The other problem is the rise of social media has got all the traditional low wage demographic convinced they can make their millions without those jobs.

[Lewis]

You think that reducing immigration as part of a deliberate move to transition away from a low wage economy would make them less likely to win elections? As in elections where normal people get to vote?

[Boydy]

The man who talks to his dead dog is a serious person?

[Jimmy Floyd]

You think that reducing immigration as part of a deliberate move to transition away from a low wage economy would make them less likely to win elections? As in elections where normal people get to vote?

If they went that way they'd lose the support of every CEO and CFO in the country, a group they have hitherto enjoyed the support of pretty much through thick and thin - not uniformly, of course, but overall. These guys just hate paying out. That is not an insignificant gamble when it comes to bringing the country with you.

I mean, if it's such an easy win, why don't they just do it from government? It's not because they like curry.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The man who talks to his dead dog is a serious person?

Wacky but there's an intellectual basis to what he's doing. Not true of Farage or other leading right wing UK figures of recent times.

[Lewis]

If they went that way they'd lose the support of every CEO and CFO in the country, a group they have hitherto enjoyed the support of pretty much through thick and thin - not uniformly, of course, but overall. These guys just hate paying out. That is not an insignificant gamble when it comes to bringing the country with you.

I mean, if it's such an easy win, why don't they just do it from government? It's not because they like curry.

An absolute majority of people voted to leave the European Union despite practically every CEO, CFO, and every other combination of letters warning against it. You could easily win an election with - for lack of a better term - 'populist' proposals that moved the Times letter-writing brigade to tears. They don't because they don't want to. They want to govern like Blairite melts because most of them are.

[Luke Emia]

Although the opportunity to stick two fingers up to the establishment played a part let’s not pretend that stopping brown people getting into the country(Farage’s poster) and £350 million a week for the NHS(The Bus) didn’t play a huge part in the vote as well.

[Dquincy]

1750486431871480106

Nothing to apologise for tbf.

[Manc]

They (politicians) really need to stop fucking around on WhatsApp.

[Spikey M]

1750486431871480106

Nothing to apologise for tbf.

It's nothing to apologise for if you're a retard on Twitter. It's a bit embarrassing if you're running a country.

I have no doubt BoJo's messages would have been 10 times worse, mind.

[Jimmy Floyd]

She also didn't say any of those, it being a parody account. She just called Boris Johnson a clown.

[Luke Emia]

She also didn't say any of those, it being a parody account. She just called Boris Johnson a clown.

I mean even if she had said them she wouldn't be wrong.

[randomlegend]

Tories bealing about low turnout etc for the BMA Consultant vote and acting like it's few mm militants holding everyone hostage when it's virtually identical to the mandate they forced through a hard Brexit on is lol.

[phonics]

To speak to the whole low wages thing.


https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/astronaut

You need to be between 27 and 37 years old and able to speak English fluently. It'll be helpful if you can also speak basic Russian because it's spoken with English on the International Space Station.

You'll have an advantage if you're a pilot with at least 1,000 hours of flying experience in a high performance aircraft like a fighter jet.


You'll also need a degree and a postgraduate qualification in a relevant subject like:



biology, chemistry or physics
engineering
medicine
aeronautics
mathematics


2 languages, a competitive degree, 1000 hours as a pilot.

Starting salary: 41k a year and if you stay you might make 85k.

[niko_cee]

Astronaut

Astronauts fly spacecraft and do experiments in space.

:D

Probably an automatic disbarring from the job if you don't know what it is in the first place.

[Shindig]

So any commercial pilot will be taking a substantial pay cut. Although the appeal to being an astronaut is probably more the going to space part.

[Lofty]

Commerical pilots aren't on that much now are they? Wasn't that the lament of Sully, that they had a big talent drain of military from commercial due to the salary? Astronaut of course still has the prestige.

[Lewis]

I would have thought the general drain from military to commercial would have increased wages seeing as militaries train fewer pilots these days and airlines haven't picked up the slack. I think the Royal Air Force had something like three times as many active aircraft thirty years ago.

[Lofty]

It was more that military were draining away from commercial due to the salary so you ended up with less experienced pilots, starting commercial salary is around 24k meanwhile you can drive trains and be on the best part of 60k within 3 years.

[Manc]

Good to see top Ireland forming a government (of sorts) again.

[Boydy]

It's about time, the place is falling apart.

[Spikey M]

So is Bottom Britain and we have a functioning Government.

[Boydy]

Nah, here is even worse.

Highest NHS waiting lists: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/14/which-uk-nation-has-got-the-longest-nhs-waiting-list

A&E departments are barely functioning too:
1750180837209919840

It's impossible to get an NHS dentist any more.*

Public sector workers haven't had any pay rises with there being no executive to administer money. They were all out on strike the other week. All public transport workers are striking again this week.

We pay more for gas as well:

1729597501513113732

The roads are fucked too.* I was out driving quite a bit today and I must have hit about five potholes that had me loudly swearing. I'm surprised there was no damage.


*I appreciate these things might be the same everywhere but they add to the feeling that the place really is on its last legs.

[Lewis]

And that's with immense and disproportionate financial support from the mainland as well. Gutted.

[Ben]

We should release them into the arms of Giggles.

[Ben]

Looks like Theresa May's backstop is back.

[Giggles]

We should release them into the arms of Giggles.

Our arms are quite full enough of spongers thank you very much.

[Spikey M]

If you take them we'll stop saying Ireland is part of the British Isles. Deal?

[Giggles]

I'd near rather we became part of Britain, let alone isles, rather than take on those nutjobs.

[Boydy]

Nobody wants us. :(

[phonics]

1753366577305583813

[niko_cee]

It's all over lefties, the PopCons have Holly Valance on their side!


Asked who her favourite speakers were, she said: “The speakers were fantastic. I thought Liz [Truss] was really interesting to listen to, Jacob [Rees-Mogg] for prime minister, the MP for Ashfield [Lee Anderson] was awesome, love a northerner, straight to the point and very sensible.”

:face:

[Boydy]

She's married to a billionaire.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If the popcons end up taking over the party it will fully die by 2030. They are really enthused by the idea of there being a massive US-style market for this kind of guff (and market is the operative word, as they are really looking for a nice earner rather than political power) but there just isn't that market in this country.

[wullie]

Natalie Imbruglia asks why it's cold in winter if we have global warming.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.bloggerheads.com/images/page3-04feb2004.jpg

[Spikey M]

I wonder if Alanis Morissette considers any of this ironic.

[Don]

First the bet and now the Trans shit today, Rishi is on one :D

[Spikey M]

If he goes full troll he could probably still win my vote tbh

[Dark Soldier]

Lads I don't come in here ever but is this real and what is her name for research purposes thanks

https://i.ibb.co/MGhd8Vd/20240208-124420.jpg

[Don]

Melissa Purdy. She's the minister of state for 6-fingered people.

[niko_cee]

I'm going to guess not real.

[Dark Soldier]

Thanks Taz I will now relinquish my right to call you a faggot for the next seven days.

Edit: fuck you Taz then

Doubt Edit: I have ceased edging.

[phonics]

I'm going to guess her name is Dame Chat of GPT.

[Spikey M]

I don't know how evil she'd have to be for me to not vote for her. I'd probably make allowances for genocide.

[Lofty]

Only if she was commiting it by suffocating her victims one at a time.

[Dark Soldier]

She could absolutely be drop kicking immigrants and kids into the sea all day long and I'd be eating that ass like it's the finest Sunday roast.

[Spikey M]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68237826

:D

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

She could absolutely be drop kicking immigrants and kids into the sea all day long and I'd be eating that ass like it's the finest Sunday roast.

Chicken, beef, lamb or pork?

Also, what side dishes? Yorkshire puddings?

[Yevrah]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68237826

:D

Fair play to him, he’s absolutely right in that he clearly wasn’t referring to anything to do with Ghey and fuck this apologising for nothing culture. It’s moronic and needs to stop.

[Spikey M]

If he was a normal person, I'd agree. As it is, he's just being a politician trying to walk a fine line that keeps both the LGBTQ+ community and Tory Back Benchers happy at the same time.

He'll manage neither, obviously.

[Dark Soldier]

Chicken, beef, lamb or pork?

Also, what side dishes? Yorkshire puddings?

Beef > Chicken > Pork > Lamb. Yorkshire, two types of spuds (mash + roast preferably), fuckton of gravy, stuffing balls if chicken. Veg if forced to.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Lamb at the bottom? Monster.

[Spikey M]

Lamb is second only to Duck. What a shambles.

[Ben]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68237826

:D


But to use that tragedy to detract from the very separate and clear point I was making about Keir Starmer's proven track record of multiple U-turns on major policies

The neck on this cunt. :D

[Dark Soldier]

Lamb is second only to Duck. What a shambles.

Fucking duck on a sunday roast get the JCB out to swivel your substantial nut dickhead

[Spikey M]

Fucking duck on a sunday roast get the JCB out to swivel your substantial nut dickhead

Not as part of a roast you saggy flange.

[Dark Soldier]

We were talking about sunday roasts and eating arse ya fucking funkopop

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've got into one of my reading moods recently and the more I read, the fewer Conservative seats I think will hold at the election. Could be truly spectacular if things go a certain way. Anyway, while reading I keep running into whole armadas of articles in which various sections of the economic establishment shill hard and with an air of slight desperation for wage suppression. Take just this week:

Tuesday, Capita: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/06/uk-real-living-wage-capita-brewdog-pay
Thursday, the Bank of England: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/07/pay-rises-and-profits-must-be-curtailed-to-get-uk-inflation-back-under-control-bank-warns
Thursday, the Agriculture Development Board: https://ahdb.org.uk/news/economic-outlook-february-2024

Average salary here is 65% of what it is in the US, or about £16,000 a year lower. OK, workers here have more holiday and job security but that's still a startling difference. Meanwhile JRM, Truss and co are out there launching 'PopCon' trying to deregulate business, and in two weeks we'll be relaxing travel visa restrictions for half the Arab world (https://sstoday.com.pk/lifestyle/uk-offers-visa-relaxation-for-citizens-from-these-islamic-countries/) so that they can all come in, get job interviews, and keep those wages nice and low. Think there's a lot of wishful thinking going on behind the purse strings and I can't quite work out what's behind it. It's not going to win them any more votes, let's put it that way.

[Spikey M]

Ageing society, unaffordable state pensions, taxes already high.

The only solution is an increase in population. Particularly of working age people. It's not going away, either. Because - again - none of you cunts are having kids.

[Lewis]

The pension Ponzi scheme argument doesn't work on its own terms, let alone when certain ethnicities are massively more likely to be economically inactive than white British people (even accounting for skewed age profiles). Half of all Bangladeshis don't work, and most of the ones that do are in low skilled, low wage occupations that are liable to represent an on-going net drain on the taxpayer. Who is going to pay for their pensions?

People aren't having kids because of wage stagnation and spiralling housing costs, caused in large part by... *drumroll*

[Spikey M]

The Conservative Party.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Ageing pop is caused by feminism and medical advances, you can't change ageing pop. Except with housing supply reform targeted in white areas, which is almost the entire country by the way.

[Lewis]

The Conservative Party.

Unbelievably, the numbers of younger people owning their own homes has actually increased over the last decade having undergone a massive collapse during the 2000s. It was around 2000/2001 that net migration exceeded the number of houses built annually for the first time, and it has done every year since except for 2020.

[Spikey M]

I wonder what happens when the Boomers start dying. I'd have thought the wealth would trickle down to their kids / grandkids, but it seems like too easy a money grab to be passed up, so I can see them cranking up the inheritance taxes over the next decade or so. Especially if Labour get a second term. They'll sell it as addressing inequality.

[Shindig]

There’s normally no Inheritance Tax to pay if either:

the value of your estate is below the £325,000 threshold
you leave everything above the £325,000 threshold to your spouse, civil partner, a charity or a community amateur sports club

Boom. Launder that shit all through the bowls club.

[Jimmy Floyd]

A fairly interesting test case for Labour as it emerges that their candidate for the Rochdale by-election, Azhar Ali, claimed that Oct 7 was an Israeli false flag attack. Aside from it being a pretty enormous failure of vetting, and a huge opportunity for George Galloway (who is a traitor and should be deported), what it does is force Keir Starmer to actively piss off Muslims, most of whom fervently believe such things. He can't even be stood down now as it's too late, so the election has to go ahead with him in it.

[Spikey M]

I think pretty much everyone is just a wingnut of some description these days.

I was laughing my arse off at this the other day:


https://youtu.be/UKeXjOUUvLE?si=M84e-y6jGdEoBP50

Gammon McGammonface there is Taz's wet dream.

[Ian]

He's really running through a greatest hits of conspiracy theories there isn't he.

[Lofty]

I feel like the interviewer thought he struck gold there until he was stood for ages having to politely agree with him to get the content.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Mr 'The Normans invaded? Yeah?' is obviously the highlight, but pretty much everyone featured is some kind of moron. Full marks to the elderly Indian lady pronouncing the British government as 'number one in the world' and Rishi Sunak as 'great, a second Modi', sounds like we might have slipped to number two then but a nice preview of when Leicester gets burned to the ground in an Indo-Pak race war in a few years' time.

[Spikey M]

A fairly interesting test case for Labour as it emerges that their candidate for the Rochdale by-election, Azhar Ali, claimed that Oct 7 was an Israeli false flag attack. Aside from it being a pretty enormous failure of vetting, and a huge opportunity for George Galloway (who is a traitor and should be deported), what it does is force Keir Starmer to actively piss off Muslims, most of whom fervently believe such things. He can't even be stood down now as it's too late, so the election has to go ahead with him in it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68280098

"Withdrawn support", apparently.

[Lewis]

At least it gave us a day of people who took anti-Semitism immensely seriously under Wor Jezza making excuses for him. Oh well he's apologised so... So he didn't believe what he said then, or he doesn't believe it anymore?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Pretty amazing lack of vetting really, especially for a by-election in which George Galloway is going around with goons trying to whip some jihad into the uncles.

[Lewis]

I would imagine that most Muslim politicians active in shithole town 'community politics' share those views, so he's just unlucky enough to have been exposed prior to winning his seat. If he was already in he could have sat down with a friendly rabbi and then gone back to lobbying for various soft Islamist causes.

[Boydy]

1757145066248835197

:lol:

[Shindig]

Ferryhill's best and brightest. Are you bursting for a piss, mate?

[Lewis]

I would love to see Gorgeous George Galloway back in politics. The best promo in the business. Dislikes the SNP, the European Union, and America; likes Manchester United, Bashar al-Assad, and saucy young Asian wives. I would lend him my vote.

[Jimmy Floyd]

His canvassing vibe in this campaign has been very weird. Keeps turning up in car parks flanked by a load of minders who look like they've flown straight in from South Waziristan, gassing on about Palestine. Nothing to do with Rochdale whatsoever. He won't win, the whites will keep him out.

[Lofty]

1757145066248835197

:lol:

In the comments they have an article reckoning the same guy is a former butler in the buff spared jail after attacking his lover over her letting people fondle her breast implants :D

[Ben]

I actually had a pretty bad adverse reaction to the first vaccine so called it a day after that. But of all the things I'm furious with Sunak/this Conservative cycle about, the vaccine isn't one of them. Why in God's name would his advisors allow Sunak to be exposed to that nutjob channel?

[Jimmy Floyd]

If there's one thing we've learned in recent weeks it's that his advisors are massive idiots. What's the best that could happen from a spot on GB News? The only people that watch it are the most likely to vote Tory anyway.

I guess he calculated that by appearing tough on there he could claw back some support from Reform, which is loser thinking.

[Kikó]

His canvassing vibe in this campaign has been very weird. Keeps turning up in car parks flanked by a load of minders who look like they've flown straight in from South Waziristan, gassing on about Palestine. Nothing to do with Rochdale whatsoever. He won't win, the whites will keep him out.

My dad's wife's brother (stay with me) is one of those minders. He's been in his circle for a while now turning up by his side on Sputnik and all these other random news channels as well as loads of random c list celebrity appearances (like Michael Knighton).

Anyway, long story short, I think he's a bit thick.

[Lofty]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68289460

[Don]

Lol at these cunts allowing the zionists to ruin them again. Buttfucked by both sides of this now, thanks to their disgraceful stance.

The comments from this second bloke seem very reasonable too.

[Jimmy Floyd]

This will be a rich seam for the Tories all year, possibly the only one they have. Starmer has some hard decisions to make. White Brits have increasing sympathy with the Palestinian cause but it's about number thirty on their list of priorities. For Muslim voters it is priority number one, two, three four and five. Very hard situation to play, especially if the war drags on towards election time.

[Lewis]

There is a discussion to be had about dual nationality, particularly in terms of politicians and anybody in a government job requiring any sort of security clearance, so the idea that dual nationals are allowed to fight for 'recognised' armed forces is a weird one. Would we be responsible for prosecuting them if they did anything illegal when doing so?

[Jimmy Floyd]

If it was down to me anyone going to fight for the IDF, or any other foreign army, just wouldn't be allowed back into the country ever again. If you fight for a foreign force you are by definition not British. Same goes for the weirdo SAS types going to Ukraine, and anyone who is a mercenary anywhere in the world.

[Don]

It may be difficult now but it wasn't so at the outset. All of this would have been prevented had they just decided to condemn a genocide a few months back.

[Spikey M]

I only get the choice of Labour or Conservatives where I live. Not even any zany independents. It's pretty depressing, but I'm either not voting or spoiling my ballot as things stand. I can't vote for any of these cunts.

[Manc]

I voted Green LTO. I've moved since and haven't really seen any local representation outside of Labour. Perhaps everyone else has given up.

[Boydy]

1757398661657420194

Polling done before all this Rochdale fallout. They could still very well fuck this up. :harold:

[Spikey M]

It's legitimately tragic. I've been "pOlItIcAlLy HoMeLeSs" since I turned old enough to vote. Labour are generally less evil, so they tend to get my vote, but it's just much of muchness now.

What do Labour even stand for now? I have no idea.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Look at Surrey turning Lib Dem. Genuinely embarrassing and I owe you all an apology for this shameful behaviour.

[Lewis]

The next government will be almost exactly like the current one, except probably cooking up some wacky America-brained 'Windrush' laws to boost racial discrimination and legalise stabbings. With that in mind, the only thing to fear from Labour is them letting Gordon Brown have another go at making devolution an even bigger pile of shit.

[Lofty]

There is a discussion to be had about dual nationality, particularly in terms of politicians and anybody in a government job requiring any sort of security clearance, so the idea that dual nationals are allowed to fight for 'recognised' armed forces is a weird one. Would we be responsible for prosecuting them if they did anything illegal when doing so?

You can't have dual nationality and pass security for that stuff can you? My mate is dual British Italian and was told by BAE after a successful interview that he had to renounce his Italian citizenship. He declined.

[Boydy]

1757486582028710197

[Spikey M]

That would stop me from wanting to come over tbf.

[Boydy]

1757749855642898577

[Boydy]

1757677855633265150

Graham Jones isn't a corbynite? As if to imply Azhar Ali is? Come on, he's their guy too. They picked him. There's no corbynites getting selected for seats now.

1757527128478810460

The media doing some of their work for them too though. "The new labour leader", fucking lol, he's been in the job for four years now.

Happy to see this coming back to bite them on the arse though, fucking cunts.

[Ben]

The Corbyn obsession is absolutely laughable at this point.

Although every time he's brought back up, I can't help but think of this (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/02/tie-mark-ambition-jeremy-corbyn-alarmed-wearing-one-showed-craved/). The hit pieces were incredible as toffs all around the country were shitting themselves at the prospect.

[Boydy]

They have to make sure he (and his politics) remains completely discredited though. God forbid we have some mild wealth redistribution and properly funded public services in this country after 40 years of the rich making out like bandits.

The whole establishment needs guillotined.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Corbyn was wishful thinking on all of your part, he was fucking useless and a very bad guy. If you want the policies great but get a leader who can deliver them.

The reason Tories and their outriders are amping up Corbyn now is because he was tried and tested electoral poison, so the more they can link this Labour party to him the better. Even though he's literally suspended from it.

[Yevrah]

It staggers me that people still think Corbyn was/is a force for good. It’d be similar to people still thinking the same about Johnson.

[Boydy]

Very bad guy, yeah, good job we didn't elect the guy who cheated on his wife when she was having cancer treatment, forced one of his mistresses to have an abortion, had the police called to his girlfriend's flat by concerned neighbours after a blazing row, fabricated quotes when he worked as a journalist and conspired to have another journalist beaten up.

[Ben]

It staggers me that people still think Corbyn was/is a force for good. It’d be similar to people still thinking the same about Johnson.

There's a difference between thinking someone is a force for good, and calling out the blatant hypocrisy from the media. Like Boydy posted, Johnson has said things a lot more anti-Semitic than anyone in the Labour Party, for example.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Very bad guy, yeah, good job we didn't elect the guy who cheated on his wife when she was having cancer treatment, forced one of his mistresses to have an abortion, had the police called to his girlfriend's flat by concerned neighbours after a blazing row, fabricated quotes when he worked as a journalist and conspired to have another journalist beaten up.

Another bad guy, I've been saying he was a bad guy since he was London mayor. Didn't stop people voting for him though and even now having a hard on for him. Boris, yeah, loves a drink, loves a shag, bit like me innit. Jezza's just a weirdo left over from the Cold War, no one identifies with that. Policies, lovely, needed a different messenger and different political operator.

[Boydy]

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/06/06/12/jeremy-corbyn-labour-rallies.jpg

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/election-2017-jeremy-corbyn-attracts-bigger-crowds-labour-party-1997-john-prescott-tony-blair-a7775316.html

Do you think those lovely policies got a fair hearing in the media? Particularly after 2017, in the run-up to 2019? Or did we hear nonsense about "broadband communism" and "would you nationalise sausages?" and have mocked-up images of Corbyn making him look like some Soviet-era figure on Newsnight?

[Jimmy Floyd]

2017 saw Corbyn win a load of votes (though not enough for victory) with those policies, was there some magical gun to the electorate's head in 2019 that stopped them from increasing his support again with the same policies? No, they just thought he was a useless twat and didn't think the same about Boris.

Every losing politician whines that the media didn't treat them fairly, it's exactly what half the Tory party are doing now and trying to kneecap BBC and Channel 4 budgets as a result. If you're doing that you're just shit at politics.

[Yevrah]

Not sure I realise the significance of that picture and article Boyd. I'd take an electoral landslide over 10,000 people turning up in Gateshead and a 'winning' of the argument any day of the week.

Alastair Campbell, while an absolute lunatic, had Corbyn right when painting him as a lazy politician with a very poor grasp on what it took to win, let alone win against the incumbent while in opposition.

[Lewis]

You can't have dual nationality and pass security for that stuff can you? My mate is dual British Italian and was told by BAE after a successful interview that he had to renounce his Italian citizenship. He declined.

There doesn't seem to be any consistency in it (surprisingly). My job can only be done by a British citizen, and somebody in my office doing a different role took twice as long to be cleared because their mother is Irish; but then we have MPs with all sorts of foreign nationalities, and we have Commonwealth nationals all around the Armed Forces. I doubt there is any single policy so everyone just makes it up.

[randomlegend]

Another bad guy, I've been saying he was a bad guy since he was London mayor. Didn't stop people voting for him though

Didn't you vote for him?

[Boydy]

Not sure I realise the significance of that picture and article Boyd. I'd take an electoral landslide over 10,000 people turning up in Gateshead and a 'winning' of the argument any day of the week.

Alastair Campbell, while an absolute lunatic, had Corbyn right when painting him as a lazy politician with a very poor grasp on what it took to win, let alone win against the incumbent while in opposition.
The picture was in response to Jim saying he was a "weirdo left over from the Cold war" who "no one identifies with".

Poor grasp on what it took to win is a fair charge though - he should have ruthlessly purged Campbell and his Labour right cronies from the party (who actively sabotaged him - they've admitted this) when he had the chance and the left was in control. Same as they've been doing since 2020.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Didn't you vote for him?

I voted for Dominic Raab, which is probably even worse. That's voting though, 'rainbows and kittens' is rarely an option on the ballot paper.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The picture was in response to Jim saying he was a "weirdo left over from the Cold war" who "no one identifies with".

Getting those people behind you is a good way of winning an election for student union committee positions, PM requires a much broader church. Also requires you to win the votes of people who hate your policies and/or think you are a twat.

[Yevrah]

Poor grasp on what it took to win is a fair charge though - he should have ruthlessly purged Campbell and his Labour right cronies from the party (who actively sabotaged him - they've admitted this) when he had the chance and the left was in control. Same as they've been doing since 2020.

And on the flipside they were actively sabotaging themselves by disowning New Labour when they really should have just left it alone and focused on the here and now.

[randomlegend]

I voted for Dominic Raab, which is probably even worse. That's voting though, 'rainbows and kittens' is rarely an option on the ballot paper.

I meant in the general election.

[Lewis]

Wor Jezza nearly won in 2017 because they pretended to support the Brexit (helped by Theresa May being awful), and then lost in 2019 because everybody realised that they didn't.

I'm not sure that you can project much more onto it than that seeing as 1) he still got ten million votes in 2019; and 2) the government currently spends more on health than the 2019 Labour manifesto was projecting to by this point.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The best/only demographic predictor of 2019 election results was home ownership. If Labour really want to rule for a while they should bulldoze Milton Keynes and build a national park where it used to be.

[Yevrah]

I meant in the general election.

So did Jim.

[Boydy]

Wor Jezza nearly won in 2017 because they pretended to support the Brexit (helped by Theresa May being awful), and then lost in 2019 because everybody realised that they didn't.

I'm not sure that you can project much more onto it than that seeing as 1) he still got ten million votes in 2019; and 2) the government currently spends more on health than the 2019 Labour manifesto was projecting to by this point.

It was Starmer and the right of the party that came out with unofficial second referendum shite in 2019. Funny how that all disappeared once he took over the party.

And all the fbpe remain ultras claimed Corbyn was pro-Brexit and secretly voted Brexit etc.

[Ben]

And all the fbpe remain ultras claimed Corbyn was pro-Brexit and secretly voted Brexit etc.

It's no secret that Corbyn was anti-EU. In hindsight he'd have been a working class hero if he stuck to those guns and didn't kneecap himself over Salisbury.

[Boydy]

It's no secret that Corbyn was anti-EU. In hindsight he'd have been a working class hero if he stuck to those guns and didn't kneecap himself over Salisbury.
No, I know, but all those lot (including people within the party and others with substantial media influence) used it as a stick to beat him with as if anyone who might be forming the next government could possibly just ignore the referendum result. Or hold another one or whatever.

[Boydy]

Starmer saying Labour should back a second referendum in early 2019: https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/keir-starmer-labour-must-not-rule-out-backing-second-eu-referendum

[niko_cee]

Corbyn's moment was when he should have come out as pro-Brexit, as that was his actual view, before the referendum. You'd quite possibly be living in a people's republic right now if he'd had the courage of his convictions on that front. But, as with every political decision, he fucked it.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Starmer loves Europe. Should he get in with a big enough majority I'd expect him to start making overtures to his old pals in Brussels about rejoining the single market.

[Ben]

It doesn't even need Starmer to be honest. Financial Times and the like have ran several articles in recent months about how we're stealthily cosying up again.

[Lewis]

It was Starmer and the right of the party that came out with unofficial second referendum shite in 2019. Funny how that all disappeared once he took over the party.

And all the fbpe remain ultras claimed Corbyn was pro-Brexit and secretly voted Brexit etc.

I liked that Starmer has subsequently come out and said that he wasn't trying to get Corbyn into Downing Street, because he has integrity and Corbyn was divisive. He was merely using him to try and undivisively reverse a referendum result.

[niko_cee]

Starmer loves Europe. Should he get in with a big enough majority I'd expect him to start making overtures to his old pals in Brussels about rejoining the single market.

This is probably quite a good election attack point for the Tories.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Probably only with real Brexit true believers, I'm not sure the population at large want to hear about the EU ever again.

[randomlegend]

So did Jim.

Oh yeah, he does that thing where he pretends the Prime Minister is irrelevant and he's only voting for his local candidate.

[niko_cee]

They need to galvanise as much of the small c seethe as possible, even if it is realistically a lost cause.

Sort of has the feeling of it not being the landslide it really ought to be though.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Oh yeah, he does that thing where he pretends the Prime Minister is irrelevant and he's only voting for his local candidate.

Read the ballot paper to know exactly what you're voting for. Something which the headbangers should have remembered for all those years moaning about 'this isn't the Brexit we voted for'.

[randomlegend]

Read the ballot paper to know exactly what you're voting for.

Sure mate if it makes you feel better.

[Spikey M]

Entered recession. Lol.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Unemployment at an all-time low, but the economy completely stagnant. The number of absolutely worthless jobs we have (e.g. deliveroo riders) must be at an all-time high. No innovation, no development, no investment.

[Spikey M]

A nation that collects benefits, disabilities and victim statuses. It's a race to the bottom across the west.

[Luke Emia]

The Tories and the Bank of England really do deserve a special medal to achieve the triple whammy of high inflation, higher interest rates and no growth is something really something.

[Ben]

Can't wait to see how this is the next Labour Government's fault, after Hunt took all the credit for the falling inflation before Christmas.

[Don]

I'm not sure the investment in the AI revolution will be done boldly enough to bring about the good times quickly enough for Labour to be able to take credit, what's more likely is a period of even lower lows for which they will be blamed.

On the plus side the West's response to the Ukraine war has been good.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The Bank are going around telling companies to accept lower margins, growth to them is probably something they feel at night when they wake up and think about suppressing wages.

[niko_cee]

Thing I can't get my head around is that the GDP per head figure for the UK is £8250. That seems incredibly low, even accounting for half of the employed population being in the public sector and therefore not contributing, depending on how you calculate it. Every lawyer at every major law firm in the UK must bill that on a weekly, if not daily basis. Is that broadly in line with international averages? Seems very low, although worldometer has the UK at $54,603* in 27th place just behind France, which seems more sensible. Where has the BBC got that first number from?

*This number may actually be $45k, but then on that basis France is $43k.

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://www.worldcoffeeportal.com/Latest/News/2024/February/Costa-Coffee-to-raise-UK-barista-wages-by-average#:~:text=Costa%20Coffee%20is%20investing%20 %C2%A3,above%20the%20National%20Living%20Wage.

Now this is the better stuff. Fight the good fight, Costa Coffee. Maybe they could offer central banker tears as an non-vegan alternative to soya milk.

[Ben]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68285833

It's our fault we went into recession folks. The gaslighting is ridiculous.

[Spikey M]

£12 an hour is still absolute scam money, mind. Minimum wage should be about £15.

[Boydy]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68285833

It's our fault we went into recession folks. The gaslighting is ridiculous.

It's insane, isn't it? British gas profits up from about 70 million to 700 million in a year announced today. In the meantime everyone's mortgages or rent have gone up because of interest rate rises that were supposed to bring inflation down. What have we got left to spend?

This pretty much sums it up:

1757762909843665297

[Jimmy Floyd]

What is retail as a percentage of the economy? I'm not convinced that me opting for the own brand tortilla chips rather than Doritos has caused a recession.

EDIT: Google suggests 5%, lol. Absolute clowns out there in the media.

[niko_cee]

https://www.worldcoffeeportal.com/Latest/News/2024/February/Costa-Coffee-to-raise-UK-barista-wages-by-average#:~:text=Costa%20Coffee%20is%20investing%20 %C2%A3,above%20the%20National%20Living%20Wage.

Now this is the better stuff. Fight the good fight, Costa Coffee. Maybe they could offer central banker tears as an non-vegan alternative to soya milk.

In alternative Costa Coffee in the zeitgeist news:

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/24118451.villagers-celebrate-controversial-rottingdean-costa-closes/

[Jimmy Floyd]

In alternative Costa Coffee in the zeitgeist news:

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/24118451.villagers-celebrate-controversial-rottingdean-costa-closes/

I didn't know successful businesses were getting nimbied now. Should really be across the small town paid-off-your-mortgage League of Gentlemen cunts better than I am.

[Yevrah]

What is retail as a percentage of the economy? I'm not convinced that me opting for the own brand tortilla chips rather than Doritos has caused a recession.

EDIT: Google suggests 5%, lol. Absolute clowns out there in the media.

It'd be good to see the actual numbers rather than that fluff the BBC presents, but if retail spend goes down by 10% then that's a 0.5% hit overall and we're talking a 0.3% contraction, so that could well be a contributing factor.

The reality is as well that growth was so low before that it makes little difference that we're technically in a recession now, it's just a much scarier phrase than "UK growth at 0.1%", which is still arse water.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's really a stagnation rather than a recession. Just as bad, if not worse.

[Ben]

I'm surprised people have only 10% less disposable income to spend on retail after being bummed from all angles for the last couple of years, so you have to chalk that one up as a small win really.

[Yevrah]

I should add, I plucked the 10% out of my arse to illustrate a point. No idea whether that's the number or not.

[niko_cee]

I believe that's pretty much how all economics statistics are generated.

[Spikey M]

I watched this earlier and found it interesting:

https://youtu.be/DVvoyRpxG-A?si=ldHbMAsMhW4EChIz

He's pretty scathing on Economists.

Disclaimer 1: yes, he looks like Smiffy.
Disclaimer 2: yes, he's a cunt.
Disclaimer 3: He could be talking a load of bollocks. It's interesting though.

[niko_cee]

Interesting but he does still somewhat suffer from the sort of god complex most traders and economists seem to have, and short of violent revolution is there a way to effect the sort of wholesale redistribution of wealth needed? No government would have the stomach, will, competence or capability to do it.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Building three million houses would be a good start.

[niko_cee]

Yeah, until Jeff Bezos buys them all.

[phonics]

Building three million houses would be a good start.

Can we wait till my parents die and I sell their house before this.

I've had to live through this shithole long enough thatI'm owed a cheque.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Yeah, until Jeff Bezos buys them all.

Where me and the communists probably agree is that Jeff Bezos is going to have to be dragged out and murdered at some point. Same goes for Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and John Google.

[niko_cee]

So violent revolution it is then.

[Spikey M]

Let me sell my Meta stock first please.

[Boydy]

Where me and the communists probably agree is that Jeff Bezos is going to have to be dragged out and murdered at some point. Same goes for Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and John Google.

While I wouldn't be against it, surely you could solve not selling houses to him easier than that. Only sell them to owner occupiers or whatever.

[Jimmy Floyd]

By-elections tonight in Kingswood and Wellingborough. Kingswood is quite hard to read (Labour should probably win), but Wellingborough is a big signal post for the GE I think. This is the type of seat which is open for Labour in terms of profile and they will need to sweep them with ease to win a good majority. If the Tories get within about 10% of them then Starmer should be concerned. If Labour get over 50% of the vote and Tories sub 30%, it's a sign that they're heading for doom.

[John Arne]

I've been out of the UK for a while... Why aren't people rioting over these gas profits? Does no one really care?

[Lofty]

Because the UK population on the whole is not pre-disposed to civil unrest.

[Spikey M]

It is if the police kill a scumbag.

[Ben]

By-elections tonight in Kingswood and Wellingborough. Kingswood is quite hard to read (Labour should probably win), but Wellingborough is a big signal post for the GE I think. This is the type of seat which is open for Labour in terms of profile and they will need to sweep them with ease to win a good majority. If the Tories get within about 10% of them then Starmer should be concerned. If Labour get over 50% of the vote and Tories sub 30%, it's a sign that they're heading for doom.

45-24.

A British-Pakistani running for Reform won 13%. :cab:

[Jimmy Floyd]

That qualifies for Tory doom but I also sense there's not vast appetite for Starmer in the way there was for Blair in 1997.

[Yevrah]

I’m old enough to remember it reasonably well and to have been relatively interested and you’re right, there absolutely isn’t.

Back then people were sick of the Tories and had a hard on for Blair, now they’re just sick of the Tories.

[phonics]

Can't believe the campaign message "We're the Tories but competent" isn't resonating with people.

[Shindig]

Tony Blair sold himself really well. It's a right place, right time thing but he really played into Cool Britannia. Kier's not got that. At best he could gatecrash a Famileigh Tik Tok but that'd just look insane.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's hard to envisage what a popular politician would look like at this point. I think every single politician is unpopular by default. YouGov have not a single one above 32% popularity. Keir is 2nd, Farage 4th and Boris 5th. David Blunkett is top. How weird.

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/entertainment/explore/tv_personality/Dale_Winton

I'm going to coin the Winton Test. If you don't have a YouGov popularity score above the dead presenter Dale Winton, you're not a popular politician.

[Yevrah]

A British-Pakistani running for Reform won 13%. :cab:

Why does this get a :cab: ? Genuine question as I’m curious to understand how the left think the minds of non white people in Britain work.

[Yevrah]

It's hard to envisage what a popular politician would look like at this point. I think every single politician is unpopular by default. YouGov have not a single one above 32% popularity. Keir is 2nd, Farage 4th and Boris 5th. David Blunkett is top. How weird.

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/entertainment/explore/tv_personality/Dale_Winton

I'm going to coin the Winton Test. If you don't have a YouGov popularity score above the dead presenter Dale Winton, you're not a popular politician.

That list is amazing. Good to see Bruce Willis getting a spike. JK Rowling at 19th though, some people clearly haven’t got the message. :nono:

[Clunge]

What a cross section here.

https://i.imgur.com/owXKvzp.png

[Don]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGXpcO9XEAAtYRr?format=png&name=900x900

Pretty chart.

[Jimmy Floyd]

So having debated in the last 50 posts where the 24% went, the next question is where did that 7% go.

[Don]

Giggles.

[Spikey M]

So having debated in the last 50 posts where the 24% went, the next question is where did that 7% go.

The video posted yesterday answers that question, and the answer is essentially house price and stock price inflation. I really would recommend watching it (if you can get past his working classery).

[Ben]

GDP equal to 2019 should consign any ruling party to a long spell on the sidelines. The Yanks are up over 20% in the same period.

[Yevrah]

GDP equal to 2019 should consign any ruling party to a long spell on the sidelines. The Yanks are up over 20% in the same period.

While I don't have any issue with the sentiment around this, this comparison is so far from being like for like as to be meaningless.

[Ben]

The first sentence makes my point. I put in the Yank comparison solely to demonstrate you can't blame COVID for the five years of nothing.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Average house is 7% more expensive in the USA and average salary is 42% higher in the USA. 'Go figure', as they say in one of the countries.

[Lofty]

You get more house for your money in the US too.

[phonics]

They also have 40 times the space with only 10 times the population.

[Spikey M]

And they make them out of plywood, PVA and freedom.

[Gray Fox]

These by-elections do feel like a mix of some increased Labour support, but a healthy mix of anyone but the Tories.

We had some propaganda through the door the other week and the message on it was just to assure that we are not in any way the Labour party that had Jeremy Corbyn in it, please vote for us.

It's a big cycle this time for Labour though. The country(and most others) are leaning more to the right as time goes on, but they have a relatively easy in it seems. Starmer hasn't had to do much of anything or really nail his banners to any particular cause. This will change if/when he gets into number 10. Assuming the Tories take 5-10 years to get their shit together, then they could well end up in power for a long old time after.

[Ben]

I'd say it's all the latter, at least where I am. The disdain for our local Labour candidate is pretty widespread, but she will probably get back in anyway.

[Clunge]

Not 100% sure about it being a poisoned chalice for Labour, so to speak. I think the ability to legislate consistently for a five-year period will make a big difference, if they make good/strong decisions, ofc. The Tory regime has been pillar-to-post since the Brexit vote. That was coming up for eight years ago. We've been in political stasis since then from a lawmaking perspective.

[Spikey M]

The left has been a disjointed mess for too long, with Labour, The Greens, SNP and whoever the Welsh lot are. Meanwhile, The Tozzers have had basically no competition right of centre. If Reform UK actually manage to stick the landing, it could change the dynamics of many a future election.

Hopefully that doesn't just mean Hung Parliaments forever.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If Reform even poll 8% nationally in this election, and crucially if they field a full slate of candidates, that will nobble the Tories in the white working class seats, which are also the ones Labour need to get hold of if they're to win. 8% nationally would translate into 15-20% in those seats which loses them for the Tories. There is a whole slate of northern seats - Barnsley North and Barnsley South being the clearest examples - where Brexit Party stood last time and allowed Labour to hold on against what was otherwise a Tory tide in those seats.

FPTP, the unfair system stopping Reform getting meatheads into parliament since, I dunno, 1215.

[niko_cee]

And yet ironically Magna Carta is one of those things the nutbars on the right of politics, albeit usually outside of the UK, seem to be absolutely obsessed with.

[Lofty]

I'd say it's all the latter, at least where I am. The disdain for our local Labour candidate is pretty widespread, but she will probably get back in anyway.

Reverse situation here, successive Tory MPs widely reviled as it's a safe seat they parachute outsiders into who are never seen again (except once when they randomly popped up with Boris round the corner from my house for a photo op :D) but they'll still defeat whatever local issues for local people salt of the earth candidate Labour put up.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'm actually in favour of parachuting outsiders into seats. MPs shouldn't give a fuck about local potholes and whether someone's fence has blown over. They should be the best quality candidates to deliberate on big picture national issues on behalf of the constituents.

[Lofty]

Except in this consituency and my old one the parachuted in outsider Tory MPs are all backbench puppets purely there to vote whatever way the hand up their arse directs them, doing nothing of note the rest of the time.

[Ben]

That's down to lack of quality. 650 seats, not that many good MPs.

I'm with Jim here, outsiders aren't objectively a bad thing.

[Luke Emia]

That's down to lack of quality. 650 seats, not that many good MPs.

I'm with Jim here, outsiders aren't objectively a bad thing.

Yeah but your outsider isn’t Liz Truss. Or in the next constituency Matt Hancock.