p.s. lovely to see my friend Mishal Husain eviscerate Kemi Badenoch yesterday. About time someone took down the opportunistic little shit and that person probably needed to be a) woman and b) someone of colour.
Mishal is very bright, unlike her interviewee yesterday.
She was also not on top of her brief:
Line of questioning from Mishal Hussein on Eq Act suggests misunderstanding of the law. Clarifying sex means sex in the Eq Act does not prevent providers from providing some mixed-sex rape crisis services. It *allows* providers to provide single sex services without ambiguity....
Kemi Badenoch’s response made that clear. But the idea the law mandates service providers to provide one type of service only is completely wrong and no one should be implying that.
Love how all these lefties are waving away women's rights as "culture war".
So the debate is not about changing the Equality Act but clarifying what always was its intent. To defend women against discrimination and abuse and allow women only spaces and services. And all the noise and dismissive reactions are - probably wilfully - missing the point...
In doing so, we are seeing in plain sight just how easily women’s rights can be undermined by those who don’t understand them and care less. Just as well #Womenwontwheesht…
I won't shed any tears if the Tories get wiped out on 4th July.
That only happens if Farage wipes them out and realigns the right in his favour.
However Reform voters alone even then would not be enough to beat Labour, they would need some One Nation Tories too. If they went LD then Starmer could largely stay PM even if the economy went south by dividing the opposition between Farage and Reform on the right, the LDs and rump One Nation centrist Tories and the Greens to his left. In such a scenario FPTP would ironically be better for Starmer Labour than FPTP but PR now better for the Tories as well as ReformUK, the LDs and Greens
On the other hand PR would probably make the break up of the right wing into separate parties a permanent state of affairs.
Do you think Starmer might really do it?
He'd have the opportunity. Blair had it, and passed.
It would render a massive improvement to our political system a single costless stroke.
I think he might but you can never be sure. Politicians, eh?
In any world where Labour has 380+ seats, PR is going to be pretty unattractive to Starmer (and doubly so his MPs).
It would depend on how things look going forward.
No, it’s more fundamental than that.
Once you’re in power you tend to think you’re the only one who can get it right, and keep the “others” out.
Having achieved power, it then becomes self evident that FPTP is good for you and not the other guys, and so it becomes one of “your” assets. In addition, any move to PR would lose a chunk if your current MPs their seats, and you need them on side because there’s always a faction plotting to replace you.
PR only looks attractive to a party clinging on to power by coalition, with no prospect of its own mandate. One more coalition and the Tories might have even gone for it after 2010, but that was overtaken by events.
Mr. Ghedebrav, last session of DnD went very well. Been going almost a year with this homebrew. Helps having good players (no "I am the main character" fools).
Saw the Farage announcement yesterday. I do wonder if this *might* be worse for Labour than the Conservatives. Anyone fully Faragian was not going to return to the Conservatives, but reluctant/soft Labour voters might jump ship his way. My suspicion is the overall numbers will play that way but it'll cost the Conservatives more by letting Labour in through the middle at plenty of seats (akin to UKIP versus Ed MIliband's Labour in 2015).
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
So, to return to your post since it seems you might think you were being serious …
You know full well that Diane Abbot is not a particularly nice person. Just because she’s got black skin doesn’t mean she’s unimpeachable. She has a history of racist remarks and her previous comments were anti-semitic. She’s also a hypocrite, educating her children privately. She’s very left-wing which I don’t mind but some of her decision-making has been wayward.
The country’s about to get it’s first female Chancellor, Labour as it happens. But let’s leave the tokenism stuff please. It’s desperation. I don’t think the current Conservative Party can take the moral high ground when it comes to inclusivity which, clearly, is more than just over-promoting people who have black skin. Badenoch is a case in point. Clearly out of her depth as my friend Mishal showed yesterday.
Hopefully we move on from such tokenism. We need politicians of calibre no matter what their gender, social group, or colour background.
I really hope the genuinely decent people in the Conservative Party (of whom CR isn’t one) can wrestle back their Party.
We need them back on the centre-right.
Extremism of the Faragist-Sunak-Badenoch-Braverman-Tommy Robinson populist kind should appall all but the most nasty citizens.
Thank goodness we have FPTP in this country to help keep out such extremism.
LOL lefties have been wishing for the obliteration of the Conservaties for as long as I can remember now it seems possible you are all bricking it.
Be careful what you wish for.
It is not the responsibility of the left to direct the reconstruction of the right and we should ignore Leon, if the right take a nastier turn, shaking his tush at us going "Oo, look what you made us do".
Even if they retain a fair number of MPs they are likely to take a Badenoch, Braverman turn, so throwing Farage into the mix isn't that different.
I want a decent Tory opposition, but the left cannot influence that, they can only defeat what is put in front of them.
BJP predicted to fall short of an absolute majority on its own, will have to rely on allies.
This doesn’t feel like a great result for Modi, all things considered.
Looking like a serious polling failure. They were supposed to be winning in the way the poll last night predicts for Labour here.
My understanding is that turnout was surprisingly low in some of Modi's/BJP's heartlands. Hard to pick that up on polling I guess.
That’s the great unknown in this election. If anti-Tory voters don’t turn out I can see a lot of seats remaining Tory, if Labour can get the vote out the results could be catastrophic for the Tories
Mr. Ghedebrav, last session of DnD went very well. Been going almost a year with this homebrew. Helps having good players (no "I am the main character" fools).
Saw the Farage announcement yesterday. I do wonder if this *might* be worse for Labour than the Conservatives. Anyone fully Faragian was not going to return to the Conservatives, but reluctant/soft Labour voters might jump ship his way. My suspicion is the overall numbers will play that way but it'll cost the Conservatives more by letting Labour in through the middle at plenty of seats (akin to UKIP versus Ed MIliband's Labour in 2015).
The problem for Tories is that they have been promoting Faragist issues for some time , rather than taking him on. It won’t then be a huge surprise if Farage then hoovers up Tory votes conditioned to see Farages causes as mainstream. People who voted for Truss and Boris can vote for Farage.
I really hope the genuinely decent people in the Conservative Party (of whom CR isn’t one) can wrestle back their Party.
We need them back on the centre-right.
Extremism of the Faragist-Sunak-Badenoch-Braverman-Tommy Robinson populist kind should appall all but the most nasty citizens.
Thank goodness we have FPTP in this country to help keep out such extremism.
LOL lefties have been wishing for the obliteration of the Conservaties for as long as I can remember now it seems possible you are all bricking it.
Be careful what you wish for.
The Conservatives need a drubbing, so they can realise where they've gone wrong over the last ten years.
But the country also needs a strong opposition - and if the worst case comes to fruition, who would that voice be? The Lib Dems? The SNP? The Tories?
Also, we'll be getting a load of new MPs in. I am a little nervous that some of these MPs might not be of a suitable standard.
On current projections the country isnt going to have an opposition.
Even if the Cons come second theyll be spending most of the Parliamnent sorting their shit out and will be opposing very little. The opposition is more likely to be the awkward squad inside Labour.
Sunak is a nice guy, who loves his family, works hard and is a logical and competent administrator of government.
I know that's the image he presented as Chancellor, and he had a slick PR team behind him when all he had to do was dole out cash, but events since do not support that pretense any more.
A logical and competent administrator of government would not have ended up with Rwanda for example.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Poor old Margaret Beckett, always forgotten.
(Technically, both were permanent leaders under the Labour Party rules, but yes, you're right in the real world.)
If Ed Miliband counts, being Jewish, towards an ethnic minority, then it looks even worse because the Conservatives had a Jewish leader as long ago as 1868.
I really hope the genuinely decent people in the Conservative Party (of whom CR isn’t one) can wrestle back their Party.
We need them back on the centre-right.
Extremism of the Faragist-Sunak-Badenoch-Braverman-Tommy Robinson populist kind should appall all but the most nasty citizens.
Thank goodness we have FPTP in this country to help keep out such extremism.
LOL lefties have been wishing for the obliteration of the Conservaties for as long as I can remember now it seems possible you are all bricking it.
Be careful what you wish for.
It is not the responsibility of the left to direct the reconstruction of the right and we should ignore Leon, if the right take a nastier turn, shaking his tush at us going "Oo, look what you made us do".
Even if they retain a fair number of MPs they are likely to take a Badenoch, Braverman turn, so throwing Farage into the mix isn't that different.
I want a decent Tory opposition, but the left cannot influence that, they can only defeat what is put in front of them.
Why do you say you want a “decent opposition”? Surely if you’re in power, you want a dreadful and unelectable opposition so you get 20 years to remake the country in your image?
I won't shed any tears if the Tories get wiped out on 4th July.
Really, Andy?
May I remind you of your prediction in Benpointer's Excellent Competition? NOM and Labour 290 seats you said. How are you going to cope with the humiliation?
If I were you I'd get out there now and start canvassing for Sunak.
I went for NOM too.
I didn't think the Conservatives would be this useless nor Labour so well drilled.
I did notice, Foxy, but well done for fessing up.
It will be taken into consideration when the show trials begin.
@LOS_Fisher EXC: Trio of senior Tory donors (who’ve donated £5m+ to party) rule out funding Sunak’s election campaign
In striking move, the donors organised their own private polling, complaining they were mistrustful of Tory campaign figures’ claims that the situ was not as bad as public polling suggests
But their private survey aligned with the public polling, indicating the Tories are facing electoral rout
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Nice try but you still cant answer the question can you ?
How men are discussing proposed changes to the Equality Act:
𝘗𝘳𝘦-𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸:
@theJeremyVine: “Today…we will talk about the Equality Act and how it affects people who are trans.”
𝘋𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸:
@MForstater: “You said that this is about how the Equality Act affects trans people, but really it is about how the Equality Act affects women and girls.”
𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵-𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸:
@theJeremyVine: “Thanks, Maya and Joanne, for discussing this difficult issue of how the law treats people who are trans.”
Sorry @Big_G_NorthWales but I absolutely detest the current iteration of Conservative leaders and what they have done.
The evil they have deliberately stoked is appalling.
I hate them.
As does much of this country. As you’ll find out July 4th.
Your anger is nothing compared with the aspirational working class who are flooding to the Conservatives following the introduction of VAT on private school fees...
Sorry @Big_G_NorthWales but I absolutely detest the current iteration of Conservative leaders and what they have done.
The evil they have deliberately stoked is appalling.
I hate them.
As does much of this country. As you’ll find out July 4th.
They have not 'deliberately stoked evil'. Don't be daft.
And while I have no doubt the Tories will be wiped out (my prediction is for well under 100 to be left standing), it will be impossible to infer from that anything other than a lack of people preferring them to the alternatives. I don't think the country 'hates' the Lib Dems yet I'm fairly confident the Tories will get more votes than the Lib Dems.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
One of the lessons of recent years is that the best leaders are chosen for reasons of competence rather than attempting representation.
Do you think Labour would be in the current position if they were led by Diane Abbott?
I notice too that looking at Labour's new intake it is going to be very diverse.
I won't shed any tears if the Tories get wiped out on 4th July.
That only happens if Farage wipes them out and realigns the right in his favour.
However Reform voters alone even then would not be enough to beat Labour, they would need some One Nation Tories too. If they went LD then Starmer could largely stay PM even if the economy went south by dividing the opposition between Farage and Reform on the right, the LDs and rump One Nation centrist Tories and the Greens to his left. In such a scenario FPTP would ironically be better for Starmer Labour than FPTP but PR now better for the Tories as well as ReformUK, the LDs and Greens
On the other hand PR would probably make the break up of the right wing into separate parties a permanent state of affairs.
Do you think Starmer might really do it?
He'd have the opportunity. Blair had it, and passed.
It would render a massive improvement to our political system a single costless stroke.
I think he might but you can never be sure. Politicians, eh?
I was listening to an interview with the Chief Exec of the CBI this morning and after digesting it, being more and more angry about the state of the UK for a long time under all parties, I came to a conclusion that maybe only a good big majority for Starmer will have a chance of solving this.
It’s not because I think Starmer is particularly good or Labour are particularly talented but I will explain.
The Chief Exec of the CBI spent her whole interview discussing needing to bring in migrants to do jobs and to protect universities bringing in foreign students. This was effectively her solution to growth and all things. Now there might not have been the time but the interviewer never said “ hang on, where will they live, where will their dependents go to school, which hospitals and doctors will they use?”
It said so much about this country that there are so many loud groups who demand their particular needs are answered without considering, or at least with out owning up to the other costs of this. If she acknowledged this would require huge infrastructure development and then taxes raised to cover this then fine but as usual no.
So back to Starmer. Blair had a golden opportunity to change the country, not necessarily to my liking, but maybe that would work better for the way the country is. He wasted a huge majority because he was purely concerned with getting re-elected so didn’t want to scare the horses.
Starmer could walk away with such a huge majority that he can not only ignore the opposition but also the fringe groups in his own party.
Now this relies on Starmer being fairly sensible and centrist but he can set Wes Streeting loose on the NHS in a way the Tories never could argent away with, he can make it clear that if you want cheap care for you and your parents when old and decrepit we need to build dormitories for imported care workers, sorry NIMBys and people who reflexively think T’s unfair for immigrants to live in less than perfect conditions.
He can make a better Rwanda with the power to ignore the wing of his party who will block runways to stop deportations and can stand down civil service unions who refuse to process.
He can take a big punt on wealth taxes, he can say we aren’t going to have an adventurist defence policy so the military will focus, and therefore kit buying, on defending ourselves and Europe from Russia and terrorists.
The thing is if he does these radical things then the country will be very different long term, it won’t be my sort of country as I’m a small gov low tax kinda guy, but at least it stops the schizophrenic state we are in where everyone wants everything a high tax state does but everyone wants someone else to pay, everyone wants all their services but they want someone else to do it and they want them to live safely but they don’t want them living in their lovely town.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
The farcical national service policy sums up his lack of interest in people.
The idea that 18 year olds can give up a weekend a month to get an experience might work for people who can live off mummy and daddy's millions and have a gap year.
It doesn't work for normal people, who have a weekend job to pay the bills while they put themselves through university etc.
Or aren't in education but have instead already entered the world of work, many jobs suitable for 18 year old without qualifications of course including significant shift work at weekends.
It is an absurd and offensive policy that sums up just how out of touch Sunak and those who surround him are to have come up with such lunacy.
I won't shed any tears if the Tories get wiped out on 4th July.
That only happens if Farage wipes them out and realigns the right in his favour.
However Reform voters alone even then would not be enough to beat Labour, they would need some One Nation Tories too. If they went LD then Starmer could largely stay PM even if the economy went south by dividing the opposition between Farage and Reform on the right, the LDs and rump One Nation centrist Tories and the Greens to his left. In such a scenario FPTP would ironically be better for Starmer Labour than FPTP but PR now better for the Tories as well as ReformUK, the LDs and Greens
On the other hand PR would probably make the break up of the right wing into separate parties a permanent state of affairs.
Do you think Starmer might really do it?
He'd have the opportunity. Blair had it, and passed.
It would render a massive improvement to our political system a single costless stroke.
I think he might but you can never be sure. Politicians, eh?
In any world where Labour has 380+ seats, PR is going to be pretty unattractive to Starmer (and doubly so his MPs).
It would depend on how things look going forward.
If we had the Single Transferable Vote system in Multi-Member constiuencies, then Starmer would not have to spend all his time removing candidates of whom he did not approve. The electorate could do that for him. Unless they liked the extreme Socialist candidates, of course.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
One of the lessons of recent years is that the best leaders are chosen for reasons of competence rather than attempting representation.
Do you think Labour would be in the current position if they were led by Diane Abbott?
I notice too that looking at Labour's new intake it is going to be very diverse.
I totally agree with you on getting rid of the "isms" People should get to where the get to on merit.
As for where Labour are, they have done little to get there, the Tories have pissed off the electorate and Labour have just kept their heads down. Credit to them for doing so but the current polling has little to do with what Starmer has actively done, As of today nobody has a clue what Starmers agenda will be,
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Nice try but you still cant answer the question can you ?
Are you saying that Truss is somehow a model to follow and chalking up a load of failed leaders is somehow a good thing.
It’s easy to score more female leaders if you’re as incompetent as this government.
The Tories have had as many leaders since 2015 as Labour have had since 1994.
I won't shed any tears if the Tories get wiped out on 4th July.
That only happens if Farage wipes them out and realigns the right in his favour.
However Reform voters alone even then would not be enough to beat Labour, they would need some One Nation Tories too. If they went LD then Starmer could largely stay PM even if the economy went south by dividing the opposition between Farage and Reform on the right, the LDs and rump One Nation centrist Tories and the Greens to his left. In such a scenario FPTP would ironically be better for Starmer Labour than FPTP but PR now better for the Tories as well as ReformUK, the LDs and Greens
On the other hand PR would probably make the break up of the right wing into separate parties a permanent state of affairs.
Do you think Starmer might really do it?
He'd have the opportunity. Blair had it, and passed.
It would render a massive improvement to our political system a single costless stroke.
I think he might but you can never be sure. Politicians, eh?
I was listening to an interview with the Chief Exec of the CBI this morning and after digesting it, being more and more angry about the state of the UK for a long time under all parties, I came to a conclusion that maybe only a good big majority for Starmer will have a chance of solving this.
It’s not because I think Starmer is particularly good or Labour are particularly talented but I will explain.
The Chief Exec of the CBI spent her whole interview discussing needing to bring in migrants to do jobs and to protect universities bringing in foreign students. This was effectively her solution to growth and all things. Now there might not have been the time but the interviewer never said “ hang on, where will they live, where will their dependents go to school, which hospitals and doctors will they use?”
It said so much about this country that there are so many loud groups who demand their particular needs are answered without considering, or at least with out owning up to the other costs of this. If she acknowledged this would require huge infrastructure development and then taxes raised to cover this then fine but as usual no.
So back to Starmer. Blair had a golden opportunity to change the country, not necessarily to my liking, but maybe that would work better for the way the country is. He wasted a huge majority because he was purely concerned with getting re-elected so didn’t want to scare the horses.
Starmer could walk away with such a huge majority that he can not only ignore the opposition but also the fringe groups in his own party.
Now this relies on Starmer being fairly sensible and centrist but he can set Wes Streeting loose on the NHS in a way the Tories never could argent away with, he can make it clear that if you want cheap care for you and your parents when old and decrepit we need to build dormitories for imported care workers, sorry NIMBys and people who reflexively think T’s unfair for immigrants to live in less than perfect conditions.
He can make a better Rwanda with the power to ignore the wing of his party who will block runways to stop deportations and can stand down civil service unions who refuse to process.
He can take a big punt on wealth taxes, he can say we aren’t going to have an adventurist defence policy so the military will focus, and therefore kit buying, on defending ourselves and Europe from Russia and terrorists.
The thing is if he does these radical things then the country will be very different long term, it won’t be my sort of country as I’m a small gov low tax kinda guy, but at least it stops the schizophrenic state we are in where everyone wants everything a high tax state does but everyone wants someone else to pay, everyone wants all their services but they want someone else to do it and they want them to live safely but they don’t want them living in their lovely town.
I mentioned this the other day (and I can't find the exact stat), but basically the UK has very few medium sized companies. The problem with this is basically a small number of massive multi-nationals employ a lot of people and can act as a pressure group and then we have loads and loads of one man bands / micro-businesses which aren't able to pressure government at all.
I really hope the genuinely decent people in the Conservative Party (of whom CR isn’t one) can wrestle back their Party.
We need them back on the centre-right.
Extremism of the Faragist-Sunak-Badenoch-Braverman-Tommy Robinson populist kind should appall all but the most nasty citizens.
Thank goodness we have FPTP in this country to help keep out such extremism.
LOL lefties have been wishing for the obliteration of the Conservaties for as long as I can remember now it seems possible you are all bricking it.
Be careful what you wish for.
It is not the responsibility of the left to direct the reconstruction of the right and we should ignore Leon, if the right take a nastier turn, shaking his tush at us going "Oo, look what you made us do".
Even if they retain a fair number of MPs they are likely to take a Badenoch, Braverman turn, so throwing Farage into the mix isn't that different.
I want a decent Tory opposition, but the left cannot influence that, they can only defeat what is put in front of them.
Why do you say you want a “decent opposition”? Surely if you’re in power, you want a dreadful and unelectable opposition so you get 20 years to remake the country in your image?
If, instead of Corbyn, Labour had provided higher quality opposition during the period 2015-20, many things could have happened differently, from no Brexit in the first place, to better coordination of the opposition to any one given deal, to possibly no fag packet Boris deal.
It's less crucial to the course of events if the government have a stonking majority, but I wouldn't wish poor opposition (which is not quite the same thing as the opposition looking like a credible government in waiting).
To add on...I was thinking about all the failing upwards and sideways in large UK organisations.
I am sure there is always a lot of who you know. But if you don't have any medium organisations, who do you pick from? You aren't going to hire as your new CEO of a FTSE 100 company, a bloke who ran a 20 man company. So limited pool and of course the good ones don't come on the market very often because they aren't getting the heave ho. So instead there is a cycle of failing sideways of the useless ones, as they have the experience for the job, but they got booted from the last one and the one before that and the one before that because they weren't very good.
I won't shed any tears if the Tories get wiped out on 4th July.
That only happens if Farage wipes them out and realigns the right in his favour.
However Reform voters alone even then would not be enough to beat Labour, they would need some One Nation Tories too. If they went LD then Starmer could largely stay PM even if the economy went south by dividing the opposition between Farage and Reform on the right, the LDs and rump One Nation centrist Tories and the Greens to his left. In such a scenario FPTP would ironically be better for Starmer Labour than FPTP but PR now better for the Tories as well as ReformUK, the LDs and Greens
On the other hand PR would probably make the break up of the right wing into separate parties a permanent state of affairs.
Do you think Starmer might really do it?
He'd have the opportunity. Blair had it, and passed.
It would render a massive improvement to our political system a single costless stroke.
I think he might but you can never be sure. Politicians, eh?
In any world where Labour has 380+ seats, PR is going to be pretty unattractive to Starmer (and doubly so his MPs).
It would depend on how things look going forward.
If we had the Single Transferable Vote system in Multi-Member constiuencies, then Starmer would not have to spend all his time removing candidates of whom he did not approve. The electorate could do that for him. Unless they liked the extreme Socialist candidates, of course.
Except that isn’t how those constituencies work nowadays. Look at Ireland as an example a 5 seat constituency will have 3 sin rein candidates max to ensure hey all get elected. 2 many candidates and you run the risk that all your candidates get eliminated before the 2nd/3rd choice votes start to pile up and you win the seat…
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Nice try but you still cant answer the question can you ?
Are you saying that Truss is somehow a model to follow and chalking up a load of failed leaders is somehow a good thing.
It’s easy to score more female leaders if you’re as incompetent as this government.
The Tories have had as many leaders since 2015 as Labour have had since 1994.
Of course, putting a woman or non-white in the top job is no guarantee of success. However the Cons arent the people running around criticising everyone else for not promoting women to the top job. Labour are just thoroughly hypocritical on the issue.
And since Labour refuse to lead by example maybe they should just keep quiet about it and enjoy their shame in private.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
If you are discounting stop gaps as being leader in name only then Liz Truss should also be discounted.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Nice try but you still cant answer the question can you ?
Are you saying that Truss is somehow a model to follow and chalking up a load of failed leaders is somehow a good thing.
It’s easy to score more female leaders if you’re as incompetent as this government.
The Tories have had as many leaders since 2015 as Labour have had since 1994.
Of course, putting a woman or non-white in the top job is no guarantee of success. However the Cons arent the people running around criticising everyone else for not promoting women to the top job. Labour are just thoroughly hypocritical on the issue.
And since Labour refuse to lead by example maybe they should just keep quiet about it and enjoy their shame in private.
Not sure I see much in the experience of Truss, May, Sunak or Boris that I would advise any political party to copy.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
If you are discounting stop gaps as being leader in name only then Liz Truss should also be discounted.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
One of the lessons of recent years is that the best leaders are chosen for reasons of competence rather than attempting representation.
Do you think Labour would be in the current position if they were led by Diane Abbott?
I notice too that looking at Labour's new intake it is going to be very diverse.
I totally agree with you on getting rid of the "isms" People should get to where the get to on merit.
As for where Labour are, they have done little to get there, the Tories have pissed off the electorate and Labour have just kept their heads down. Credit to them for doing so but the current polling has little to do with what Starmer has actively done, As of today nobody has a clue what Starmers agenda will be,
I would disagree. While the Tories shooting themselves regularly in the feet has unquestionably helped Labour, that isn't the whole story.
Starmer has managed in a little over 3 years a turnaround in his own party comparable to Liverpool coming back from 3 nil down to win the Champions League final. That requires both grit and talent.
I am no Starmer fan. He is wooden, has far too much instinct for centralisation and very limited vision, but what he excels at is organisational management.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Nice try but you still cant answer the question can you ?
Are you saying that Truss is somehow a model to follow and chalking up a load of failed leaders is somehow a good thing.
It’s easy to score more female leaders if you’re as incompetent as this government.
The Tories have had as many leaders since 2015 as Labour have had since 1994.
Of course, putting a woman or non-white in the top job is no guarantee of success. However the Cons arent the people running around criticising everyone else for not promoting women to the top job. Labour are just thoroughly hypocritical on the issue.
And since Labour refuse to lead by example maybe they should just keep quiet about it and enjoy their shame in private.
Not sure I see much in the experience of Truss, May, Sunak or Boris that I would advise any political party to copy.
Maybe not, but you still cant name a Labour female leader can you ?
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
So, to return to your post since it seems you might think you were being serious …
You know full well that Diane Abbot is not a particularly nice person. Just because she’s got black skin doesn’t mean she’s unimpeachable. She has a history of racist remarks and her previous comments were anti-semitic. She’s also a hypocrite, educating her children privately. She’s very left-wing which I don’t mind but some of her decision-making has been wayward.
The country’s about to get it’s first female Chancellor, Labour as it happens. But let’s leave the tokenism stuff please. It’s desperation. I don’t think the current Conservative Party can take the moral high ground when it comes to inclusivity which, clearly, is more than just over-promoting people who have black skin. Badenoch is a case in point. Clearly out of her depth as my friend Mishal showed yesterday.
Hopefully we move on from such tokenism. We need politicians of calibre no matter what their gender, social group, or colour background.
So it's important for Lab to have the country's first female Chancellor but any Cons woman or minority person holding high office is just tokenism.
Farage on Today this morning. Now I know I’m not his target market but it all seemed a bit old hat - a UKIP and Brexit tribute act with nothing particularly interesting to say. Is that really going to be the game changer the Tories seem petrified of?
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
The farcical national service policy sums up his lack of interest in people.
The idea that 18 year olds can give up a weekend a month to get an experience might work for people who can live off mummy and daddy's millions and have a gap year.
It doesn't work for normal people, who have a weekend job to pay the bills while they put themselves through university etc.
Or aren't in education but have instead already entered the world of work, many jobs suitable for 18 year old without qualifications of course including significant shift work at weekends.
It is an absurd and offensive policy that sums up just how out of touch Sunak and those who surround him are to have come up with such lunacy.
As I have noted previously, it is an immensely useful policy because it allows those who were a bit will I/won't I about voting Cons now unambiguously to commit to not voting for them under any circumstances.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Nice try but you still cant answer the question can you ?
Are you saying that Truss is somehow a model to follow and chalking up a load of failed leaders is somehow a good thing.
It’s easy to score more female leaders if you’re as incompetent as this government.
The Tories have had as many leaders since 2015 as Labour have had since 1994.
Of course, putting a woman or non-white in the top job is no guarantee of success. However the Cons arent the people running around criticising everyone else for not promoting women to the top job. Labour are just thoroughly hypocritical on the issue.
And since Labour refuse to lead by example maybe they should just keep quiet about it and enjoy their shame in private.
Not sure I see much in the experience of Truss, May, Sunak or Boris that I would advise any political party to copy.
Maybe not, but you still cant name a Labour female leader can you ?
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Nice try but you still cant answer the question can you ?
Are you saying that Truss is somehow a model to follow and chalking up a load of failed leaders is somehow a good thing.
It’s easy to score more female leaders if you’re as incompetent as this government.
The Tories have had as many leaders since 2015 as Labour have had since 1994.
Of course, putting a woman or non-white in the top job is no guarantee of success. However the Cons arent the people running around criticising everyone else for not promoting women to the top job. Labour are just thoroughly hypocritical on the issue.
And since Labour refuse to lead by example maybe they should just keep quiet about it and enjoy their shame in private.
Not sure I see much in the experience of Truss, May, Sunak or Boris that I would advise any political party to copy.
Maybe not, but you still cant name a Labour female leader can you ?
Well, this is an edifying and riveting conversation.
Sally Smith. You wouldn’t know her, she goes to a different Houses of Parliament.
Mr. Ghedebrav, last session of DnD went very well. Been going almost a year with this homebrew. Helps having good players (no "I am the main character" fools).
Saw the Farage announcement yesterday. I do wonder if this *might* be worse for Labour than the Conservatives. Anyone fully Faragian was not going to return to the Conservatives, but reluctant/soft Labour voters might jump ship his way. My suspicion is the overall numbers will play that way but it'll cost the Conservatives more by letting Labour in through the middle at plenty of seats (akin to UKIP versus Ed MIliband's Labour in 2015).
Morning! I can only reference a small number of seats which I saw directly, but in 2019 the damage done by the Brexit Party was heavily onto the Tories. Seat after seat after seat where Labour clung on with BXP having more votes than the Tory majority.
John Curtice was interviewed yesterday and said that the polls and the local election results suggest this time about the threat is - once again - predominantly to the Tories.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
One of the lessons of recent years is that the best leaders are chosen for reasons of competence rather than attempting representation.
Do you think Labour would be in the current position if they were led by Diane Abbott?
I notice too that looking at Labour's new intake it is going to be very diverse.
I totally agree with you on getting rid of the "isms" People should get to where the get to on merit.
As for where Labour are, they have done little to get there, the Tories have pissed off the electorate and Labour have just kept their heads down. Credit to them for doing so but the current polling has little to do with what Starmer has actively done, As of today nobody has a clue what Starmers agenda will be,
I would disagree. While the Tories shooting themselves regularly in the feet has unquestionably helped Labour, that isn't the whole story.
Starmer has managed in a little over 3 years a turnaround in his own party comparable to Liverpool coming back from 3 nil down to win the Champions League final. That requires both grit and talent.
I am no Starmer fan. He is wooden, has far too much instinct for centralisation and very limited vision, but what he excels at is organisational management.
I'm afraid I dont see that, the skills needed to run a country when "events" are forcing you in several different directions at once are different from moving a few people about in an organisation you head.
What we have seen of Starmer was he would have pushed lockdown much harder and longer so we would be paying bigger price now. And his party management was looking fragile this week with Abbott. He's asking us to interpret silence as ability, I suspect it isnt - but I would say that.
I won't shed any tears if the Tories get wiped out on 4th July.
That only happens if Farage wipes them out and realigns the right in his favour.
However Reform voters alone even then would not be enough to beat Labour, they would need some One Nation Tories too. If they went LD then Starmer could largely stay PM even if the economy went south by dividing the opposition between Farage and Reform on the right, the LDs and rump One Nation centrist Tories and the Greens to his left. In such a scenario FPTP would ironically be better for Starmer Labour than FPTP but PR now better for the Tories as well as ReformUK, the LDs and Greens
On the other hand PR would probably make the break up of the right wing into separate parties a permanent state of affairs.
Do you think Starmer might really do it?
He'd have the opportunity. Blair had it, and passed.
It would render a massive improvement to our political system a single costless stroke.
I think he might but you can never be sure. Politicians, eh?
In any world where Labour has 380+ seats, PR is going to be pretty unattractive to Starmer (and doubly so his MPs).
It would depend on how things look going forward.
If we had the Single Transferable Vote system in Multi-Member constiuencies, then Starmer would not have to spend all his time removing candidates of whom he did not approve. The electorate could do that for him. Unless they liked the extreme Socialist candidates, of course.
Except that isn’t how those constituencies work nowadays. Look at Ireland as an example a 5 seat constituency will have 3 sin rein candidates max to ensure hey all get elected. 2 many candidates and you run the risk that all your candidates get eliminated before the 2nd/3rd choice votes start to pile up and you win the seat…
I just do not believe you, Mr Eek. Sorry.
If people want to elect SF candidates, then they will vote for them all and rank them in order of preference. SF would start to lose out only if the electorate found candidates of other parties more attractive than the other SF ones.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Nice try but you still cant answer the question can you ?
Are you saying that Truss is somehow a model to follow and chalking up a load of failed leaders is somehow a good thing.
It’s easy to score more female leaders if you’re as incompetent as this government.
The Tories have had as many leaders since 2015 as Labour have had since 1994.
Of course, putting a woman or non-white in the top job is no guarantee of success. However the Cons arent the people running around criticising everyone else for not promoting women to the top job. Labour are just thoroughly hypocritical on the issue.
And since Labour refuse to lead by example maybe they should just keep quiet about it and enjoy their shame in private.
Not sure I see much in the experience of Truss, May, Sunak or Boris that I would advise any political party to copy.
Maybe not, but you still cant name a Labour female leader can you ?
The Lib Dems of course have 9 women MPs out of 15. Our female leader last time round wasn’t perhaps the most triumphant debut but our next leader will also be a woman.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Nice try but you still cant answer the question can you ?
Are you saying that Truss is somehow a model to follow and chalking up a load of failed leaders is somehow a good thing.
It’s easy to score more female leaders if you’re as incompetent as this government.
The Tories have had as many leaders since 2015 as Labour have had since 1994.
Of course, putting a woman or non-white in the top job is no guarantee of success. However the Cons arent the people running around criticising everyone else for not promoting women to the top job. Labour are just thoroughly hypocritical on the issue.
And since Labour refuse to lead by example maybe they should just keep quiet about it and enjoy their shame in private.
Not sure I see much in the experience of Truss, May, Sunak or Boris that I would advise any political party to copy.
There’s a lot in Boris, presentationally, that all politicians would love to copy. And Farage. And Corbyn. And Galloway. Blair, Cameron, and people like Ken Clarke too.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
One of the lessons of recent years is that the best leaders are chosen for reasons of competence rather than attempting representation.
Do you think Labour would be in the current position if they were led by Diane Abbott?
I notice too that looking at Labour's new intake it is going to be very diverse.
I totally agree with you on getting rid of the "isms" People should get to where the get to on merit.
As for where Labour are, they have done little to get there, the Tories have pissed off the electorate and Labour have just kept their heads down. Credit to them for doing so but the current polling has little to do with what Starmer has actively done, As of today nobody has a clue what Starmers agenda will be,
I would disagree. While the Tories shooting themselves regularly in the feet has unquestionably helped Labour, that isn't the whole story.
Starmer has managed in a little over 3 years a turnaround in his own party comparable to Liverpool coming back from 3 nil down to win the Champions League final. That requires both grit and talent.
I am no Starmer fan. He is wooden, has far too much instinct for centralisation and very limited vision, but what he excels at is organisational management.
I'm afraid I dont see that, the skills needed to run a country when "events" are forcing you in several different directions at once are different from moving a few people about in an organisation you head.
What we have seen of Starmer was he would have pushed lockdown much harder and longer so we would be paying bigger price now. And his party management was looking fragile this week with Abbott. He's asking us to interpret silence as ability, I suspect it isnt - but I would say that.
We might well have locked down earlier and therefore, by the consequence of exponential growth, far shorter. Certainly far less political blathering around and party vibes than Boris.
I really hope the genuinely decent people in the Conservative Party (of whom CR isn’t one) can wrestle back their Party.
We need them back on the centre-right.
Extremism of the Faragist-Sunak-Badenoch-Braverman-Tommy Robinson populist kind should appall all but the most nasty citizens.
Thank goodness we have FPTP in this country to help keep out such extremism.
LOL lefties have been wishing for the obliteration of the Conservaties for as long as I can remember now it seems possible you are all bricking it.
Be careful what you wish for.
It is not the responsibility of the left to direct the reconstruction of the right and we should ignore Leon, if the right take a nastier turn, shaking his tush at us going "Oo, look what you made us do".
Even if they retain a fair number of MPs they are likely to take a Badenoch, Braverman turn, so throwing Farage into the mix isn't that different.
I want a decent Tory opposition, but the left cannot influence that, they can only defeat what is put in front of them.
Why do you say you want a “decent opposition”? Surely if you’re in power, you want a dreadful and unelectable opposition so you get 20 years to remake the country in your image?
If, instead of Corbyn, Labour had provided higher quality opposition during the period 2015-20, many things could have happened differently, from no Brexit in the first place, to better coordination of the opposition to any one given deal, to possibly no fag packet Boris deal.
It's less crucial to the course of events if the government have a stonking majority, but I wouldn't wish poor opposition (which is not quite the same thing as the opposition looking like a credible government in waiting).
This is a line I have touting for a long time, PR. Good Opposition helps with Good Government. It is for that reason I would have preferred to see the Conservatives in opposition to a Labour Government with a small majority.
It's not use wishing for this now. It ain't gonna happen. Next best scenario is that the Conservatives are reduced to such a small rump that they go off and think seriously about what their purpose is, how they managed to be the most successful political party in western democracy for hundreds of years, and figure how to rebuild on a more secure base so that they can be a reasonable alternative to whatever hegemony has estabished itself in their absence.
Following yesterday's Farageness, it sems they may be starting out on that path now,
He said the "growing range of pressures on the next education secretary's to-do list" also included school building repair backlogs and the rising number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
The number of children with the highest levels of Send has increased by more than 60% since 2015 - driving a £3.5bn increase in the high-needs budget, the report says. That has used up nearly half of the £7.6bn increase in school spending in the same time period.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Nice try but you still cant answer the question can you ?
Are you saying that Truss is somehow a model to follow and chalking up a load of failed leaders is somehow a good thing.
It’s easy to score more female leaders if you’re as incompetent as this government.
The Tories have had as many leaders since 2015 as Labour have had since 1994.
Of course, putting a woman or non-white in the top job is no guarantee of success. However the Cons arent the people running around criticising everyone else for not promoting women to the top job. Labour are just thoroughly hypocritical on the issue.
And since Labour refuse to lead by example maybe they should just keep quiet about it and enjoy their shame in private.
Not sure I see much in the experience of Truss, May, Sunak or Boris that I would advise any political party to copy.
Maybe not, but you still cant name a Labour female leader can you ?
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
So, to return to your post since it seems you might think you were being serious …
You know full well that Diane Abbot is not a particularly nice person. Just because she’s got black skin doesn’t mean she’s unimpeachable. She has a history of racist remarks and her previous comments were anti-semitic. She’s also a hypocrite, educating her children privately. She’s very left-wing which I don’t mind but some of her decision-making has been wayward.
The country’s about to get it’s first female Chancellor, Labour as it happens. But let’s leave the tokenism stuff please. It’s desperation. I don’t think the current Conservative Party can take the moral high ground when it comes to inclusivity which, clearly, is more than just over-promoting people who have black skin. Badenoch is a case in point. Clearly out of her depth as my friend Mishal showed yesterday.
Hopefully we move on from such tokenism. We need politicians of calibre no matter what their gender, social group, or colour background.
So it's important for Lab to have the country's first female Chancellor but any Cons woman or minority person holding high office is just tokenism.
Have I got that right.
Yes.
You still get people claiming that Thatcher didn’t count a female PM, because she didn’t identify with the correct politics.
A while back, the Guardian had an opinion column on the problem of Hindu Indians - too successful and voting for the wrong things to be considered “real” minorities.
I won't shed any tears if the Tories get wiped out on 4th July.
That only happens if Farage wipes them out and realigns the right in his favour.
However Reform voters alone even then would not be enough to beat Labour, they would need some One Nation Tories too. If they went LD then Starmer could largely stay PM even if the economy went south by dividing the opposition between Farage and Reform on the right, the LDs and rump One Nation centrist Tories and the Greens to his left. In such a scenario FPTP would ironically be better for Starmer Labour than FPTP but PR now better for the Tories as well as ReformUK, the LDs and Greens
On the other hand PR would probably make the break up of the right wing into separate parties a permanent state of affairs.
Do you think Starmer might really do it?
He'd have the opportunity. Blair had it, and passed.
It would render a massive improvement to our political system a single costless stroke.
I think he might but you can never be sure. Politicians, eh?
In any world where Labour has 380+ seats, PR is going to be pretty unattractive to Starmer (and doubly so his MPs).
It would depend on how things look going forward.
If we had the Single Transferable Vote system in Multi-Member constiuencies, then Starmer would not have to spend all his time removing candidates of whom he did not approve. The electorate could do that for him. Unless they liked the extreme Socialist candidates, of course.
Except that isn’t how those constituencies work nowadays. Look at Ireland as an example a 5 seat constituency will have 3 sin rein candidates max to ensure hey all get elected. 2 many candidates and you run the risk that all your candidates get eliminated before the 2nd/3rd choice votes start to pile up and you win the seat…
I just do not believe you, Mr Eek. Sorry.
If people want to elect SF candidates, then they will vote for them all and rank them in order of preference. SF would start to lose out only if the electorate found candidates of other parties more attractive than the other SF ones.
Go and look at how those elections work, simply put every party will put up the number of candidates they expect to win. that miscalculation is why SF haven’t been in power in Dublin for the past 3 years, they could have won 20 more seats but didn’t put the candidates it.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
One of the lessons of recent years is that the best leaders are chosen for reasons of competence rather than attempting representation.
Do you think Labour would be in the current position if they were led by Diane Abbott?
I notice too that looking at Labour's new intake it is going to be very diverse.
I totally agree with you on getting rid of the "isms" People should get to where the get to on merit.
As for where Labour are, they have done little to get there, the Tories have pissed off the electorate and Labour have just kept their heads down. Credit to them for doing so but the current polling has little to do with what Starmer has actively done, As of today nobody has a clue what Starmers agenda will be,
I would disagree. While the Tories shooting themselves regularly in the feet has unquestionably helped Labour, that isn't the whole story.
Starmer has managed in a little over 3 years a turnaround in his own party comparable to Liverpool coming back from 3 nil down to win the Champions League final. That requires both grit and talent.
I am no Starmer fan. He is wooden, has far too much instinct for centralisation and very limited vision, but what he excels at is organisational management.
Don’t forget Sue Grey, and presumably the likes of Mandelson behind the scenes. He’s had access to the A-team.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
The farcical national service policy sums up his lack of interest in people.
The idea that 18 year olds can give up a weekend a month to get an experience might work for people who can live off mummy and daddy's millions and have a gap year.
It doesn't work for normal people, who have a weekend job to pay the bills while they put themselves through university etc.
Or aren't in education but have instead already entered the world of work, many jobs suitable for 18 year old without qualifications of course including significant shift work at weekends.
It is an absurd and offensive policy that sums up just how out of touch Sunak and those who surround him are to have come up with such lunacy.
Have the Tories not come up with some provision making it illegal for employers to discriminate/sack the conscripts? That used to be the case with the TA, IIRC.
If they haven't, then that just adds to the impression that the proffered porridge is lacking in salt, and in oatmeal too - thin gruel.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
The farcical national service policy sums up his lack of interest in people.
The idea that 18 year olds can give up a weekend a month to get an experience might work for people who can live off mummy and daddy's millions and have a gap year.
It doesn't work for normal people, who have a weekend job to pay the bills while they put themselves through university etc.
Or aren't in education but have instead already entered the world of work, many jobs suitable for 18 year old without qualifications of course including significant shift work at weekends.
It is an absurd and offensive policy that sums up just how out of touch Sunak and those who surround him are to have come up with such lunacy.
FT this morning reports the critical lack of a workforce in the construction industry. Practically everyone bar the bloody Tories agrees that our infrastructure is crumbling or absent, but even if the next government pushes the Go button and funds it, we just don't have the people or the skills. The company who built the Co-op Live Arena points out that a chunk of the delays at the end was that they couldn't hire people at any cost on any wage.
Instead of idiotic dogwhistle national service proposals, we need to focus on how we invest in young people to become the workforce this country needs to build its way out of the mess we are in.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
Nice try but you still cant answer the question can you ?
Are you saying that Truss is somehow a model to follow and chalking up a load of failed leaders is somehow a good thing.
It’s easy to score more female leaders if you’re as incompetent as this government.
The Tories have had as many leaders since 2015 as Labour have had since 1994.
Of course, putting a woman or non-white in the top job is no guarantee of success. However the Cons arent the people running around criticising everyone else for not promoting women to the top job. Labour are just thoroughly hypocritical on the issue.
And since Labour refuse to lead by example maybe they should just keep quiet about it and enjoy their shame in private.
Not sure I see much in the experience of Truss, May, Sunak or Boris that I would advise any political party to copy.
Maybe not, but you still cant name a Labour female leader can you ?
Well, this is an edifying and riveting conversation.
Sally Smith. You wouldn’t know her, she goes to a different Houses of Parliament.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
The farcical national service policy sums up his lack of interest in people.
The idea that 18 year olds can give up a weekend a month to get an experience might work for people who can live off mummy and daddy's millions and have a gap year.
It doesn't work for normal people, who have a weekend job to pay the bills while they put themselves through university etc.
Or aren't in education but have instead already entered the world of work, many jobs suitable for 18 year old without qualifications of course including significant shift work at weekends.
It is an absurd and offensive policy that sums up just how out of touch Sunak and those who surround him are to have come up with such lunacy.
FT this morning reports the critical lack of a workforce in the construction industry. Practically everyone bar the bloody Tories agrees that our infrastructure is crumbling or absent, but even if the next government pushes the Go button and funds it, we just don't have the people or the skills. The company who built the Co-op Live Arena points out that a chunk of the delays at the end was that they couldn't hire people at any cost on any wage.
Instead of idiotic dogwhistle national service proposals, we need to focus on how we invest in young people to become the workforce this country needs to build its way out of the mess we are in.
Agreed, it's one of the reasons Starmer has no chance of a housebuilding scheme.
Mr. Ghedebrav, last session of DnD went very well. Been going almost a year with this homebrew. Helps having good players (no "I am the main character" fools).
Saw the Farage announcement yesterday. I do wonder if this *might* be worse for Labour than the Conservatives. Anyone fully Faragian was not going to return to the Conservatives, but reluctant/soft Labour voters might jump ship his way. My suspicion is the overall numbers will play that way but it'll cost the Conservatives more by letting Labour in through the middle at plenty of seats (akin to UKIP versus Ed MIliband's Labour in 2015).
Morning! I can only reference a small number of seats which I saw directly, but in 2019 the damage done by the Brexit Party was heavily onto the Tories. Seat after seat after seat where Labour clung on with BXP having more votes than the Tory majority.
John Curtice was interviewed yesterday and said that the polls and the local election results suggest this time about the threat is - once again - predominantly to the Tories.
We’ll never know, but I’m not sure about that. I don’t think those residual Brexit Party voters were ever going to vote Tory, but by not voting Labour they helped the Tories in many places.
I can see an argument that maybe, at 20-25% in the polls the Tories have leaked all they can to Reform anyway, and Farage is now fishing in the Labour pond. Starmer wins 36/26 and we get some really odd results.
He said the "growing range of pressures on the next education secretary's to-do list" also included school building repair backlogs and the rising number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
The number of children with the highest levels of Send has increased by more than 60% since 2015 - driving a £3.5bn increase in the high-needs budget, the report says. That has used up nearly half of the £7.6bn increase in school spending in the same time period.
I won't shed any tears if the Tories get wiped out on 4th July.
That only happens if Farage wipes them out and realigns the right in his favour.
However Reform voters alone even then would not be enough to beat Labour, they would need some One Nation Tories too. If they went LD then Starmer could largely stay PM even if the economy went south by dividing the opposition between Farage and Reform on the right, the LDs and rump One Nation centrist Tories and the Greens to his left. In such a scenario FPTP would ironically be better for Starmer Labour than FPTP but PR now better for the Tories as well as ReformUK, the LDs and Greens
On the other hand PR would probably make the break up of the right wing into separate parties a permanent state of affairs.
Do you think Starmer might really do it?
He'd have the opportunity. Blair had it, and passed.
It would render a massive improvement to our political system a single costless stroke.
I think he might but you can never be sure. Politicians, eh?
I was listening to an interview with the Chief Exec of the CBI this morning and after digesting it, being more and more angry about the state of the UK for a long time under all parties, I came to a conclusion that maybe only a good big majority for Starmer will have a chance of solving this.
It’s not because I think Starmer is particularly good or Labour are particularly talented but I will explain.
The Chief Exec of the CBI spent her whole interview discussing needing to bring in migrants to do jobs and to protect universities bringing in foreign students. This was effectively her solution to growth and all things. Now there might not have been the time but the interviewer never said “ hang on, where will they live, where will their dependents go to school, which hospitals and doctors will they use?”
It said so much about this country that there are so many loud groups who demand their particular needs are answered without considering, or at least with out owning up to the other costs of this. If she acknowledged this would require huge infrastructure development and then taxes raised to cover this then fine but as usual no.
So back to Starmer. Blair had a golden opportunity to change the country, not necessarily to my liking, but maybe that would work better for the way the country is. He wasted a huge majority because he was purely concerned with getting re-elected so didn’t want to scare the horses.
Starmer could walk away with such a huge majority that he can not only ignore the opposition but also the fringe groups in his own party.
Now this relies on Starmer being fairly sensible and centrist but he can set Wes Streeting loose on the NHS in a way the Tories never could argent away with, he can make it clear that if you want cheap care for you and your parents when old and decrepit we need to build dormitories for imported care workers, sorry NIMBys and people who reflexively think T’s unfair for immigrants to live in less than perfect conditions.
He can make a better Rwanda with the power to ignore the wing of his party who will block runways to stop deportations and can stand down civil service unions who refuse to process.
He can take a big punt on wealth taxes, he can say we aren’t going to have an adventurist defence policy so the military will focus, and therefore kit buying, on defending ourselves and Europe from Russia and terrorists.
The thing is if he does these radical things then the country will be very different long term, it won’t be my sort of country as I’m a small gov low tax kinda guy, but at least it stops the schizophrenic state we are in where everyone wants everything a high tax state does but everyone wants someone else to pay, everyone wants all their services but they want someone else to do it and they want them to live safely but they don’t want them living in their lovely town.
Yes, I can recommend your post to anyone who wants reasons to be cheerful this morning.
Like you, I am sceptical this will happen, but I can toss in another couple of reasons for hope.
Starmer isn't a socialist, and he's not ideological. He is in essence a pragmatist.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Oh lord …
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
I don't care who delivers the budget as long as they are competent and do a good job.
He said the "growing range of pressures on the next education secretary's to-do list" also included school building repair backlogs and the rising number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
The number of children with the highest levels of Send has increased by more than 60% since 2015 - driving a £3.5bn increase in the high-needs budget, the report says. That has used up nearly half of the £7.6bn increase in school spending in the same time period.
Mr. Ghedebrav, last session of DnD went very well. Been going almost a year with this homebrew. Helps having good players (no "I am the main character" fools).
Saw the Farage announcement yesterday. I do wonder if this *might* be worse for Labour than the Conservatives. Anyone fully Faragian was not going to return to the Conservatives, but reluctant/soft Labour voters might jump ship his way. My suspicion is the overall numbers will play that way but it'll cost the Conservatives more by letting Labour in through the middle at plenty of seats (akin to UKIP versus Ed MIliband's Labour in 2015).
Morning! I can only reference a small number of seats which I saw directly, but in 2019 the damage done by the Brexit Party was heavily onto the Tories. Seat after seat after seat where Labour clung on with BXP having more votes than the Tory majority.
John Curtice was interviewed yesterday and said that the polls and the local election results suggest this time about the threat is - once again - predominantly to the Tories.
We’ll never know, but I’m not sure about that. I don’t think those residual Brexit Party voters were ever going to vote Tory, but by not voting Labour they helped the Tories in many places.
I can see an argument that maybe, at 20-25% in the polls the Tories have leaked all they can to Reform anyway, and Farage is now fishing in the Labour pond. Starmer wins 36/26 and we get some really odd results.
Local elections results this year suggested that Reform UK takes mostly from the Conservative vote, and they were when the Tory vote was already low. So I think the evidence disputes that argument.
Mr. Ghedebrav, last session of DnD went very well. Been going almost a year with this homebrew. Helps having good players (no "I am the main character" fools).
Saw the Farage announcement yesterday. I do wonder if this *might* be worse for Labour than the Conservatives. Anyone fully Faragian was not going to return to the Conservatives, but reluctant/soft Labour voters might jump ship his way. My suspicion is the overall numbers will play that way but it'll cost the Conservatives more by letting Labour in through the middle at plenty of seats (akin to UKIP versus Ed MIliband's Labour in 2015).
Morning! I can only reference a small number of seats which I saw directly, but in 2019 the damage done by the Brexit Party was heavily onto the Tories. Seat after seat after seat where Labour clung on with BXP having more votes than the Tory majority.
John Curtice was interviewed yesterday and said that the polls and the local election results suggest this time about the threat is - once again - predominantly to the Tories.
The other problem is how it affects the Conservative campaign.
The theory, and it's been mentioned here by people plugged into the Conservative party, was to spend weeks 1 and 2 winning back Reform voters and shoring up the right flank. Then move the focus to winning voters back from Labour.
That wasn't particularly working, but the Farage explosion has completely put that strategy through the shredder.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
The farcical national service policy sums up his lack of interest in people.
The idea that 18 year olds can give up a weekend a month to get an experience might work for people who can live off mummy and daddy's millions and have a gap year.
It doesn't work for normal people, who have a weekend job to pay the bills while they put themselves through university etc.
Or aren't in education but have instead already entered the world of work, many jobs suitable for 18 year old without qualifications of course including significant shift work at weekends.
It is an absurd and offensive policy that sums up just how out of touch Sunak and those who surround him are to have come up with such lunacy.
Have the Tories not come up with some provision making it illegal for employers to discriminate/sack the conscripts? That used to be the case with the TA, IIRC.
If they haven't, then that just adds to the impression that the proffered porridge is lacking in salt, and in oatmeal too - thin gruel.
They might do, but in general it would put off some employers from employing 18 year olds at all, or those who would be 18 in the future, in anticipation of the government purloining the time of those people.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
The farcical national service policy sums up his lack of interest in people.
The idea that 18 year olds can give up a weekend a month to get an experience might work for people who can live off mummy and daddy's millions and have a gap year.
It doesn't work for normal people, who have a weekend job to pay the bills while they put themselves through university etc.
Or aren't in education but have instead already entered the world of work, many jobs suitable for 18 year old without qualifications of course including significant shift work at weekends.
It is an absurd and offensive policy that sums up just how out of touch Sunak and those who surround him are to have come up with such lunacy.
FT this morning reports the critical lack of a workforce in the construction industry. Practically everyone bar the bloody Tories agrees that our infrastructure is crumbling or absent, but even if the next government pushes the Go button and funds it, we just don't have the people or the skills. The company who built the Co-op Live Arena points out that a chunk of the delays at the end was that they couldn't hire people at any cost on any wage.
Instead of idiotic dogwhistle national service proposals, we need to focus on how we invest in young people to become the workforce this country needs to build its way out of the mess we are in.
Easily solved, National Service (Building) Regiment. 30,000 18 year olds spend a year learning building skills and get posted off to far flung outposts of the realm to knock up ore-fabricated houses. They can traine at the Unis that go bust which will be turned into Building Camps where they will be fed and housed for the duration of their service.
He said the "growing range of pressures on the next education secretary's to-do list" also included school building repair backlogs and the rising number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
The number of children with the highest levels of Send has increased by more than 60% since 2015 - driving a £3.5bn increase in the high-needs budget, the report says. That has used up nearly half of the £7.6bn increase in school spending in the same time period.
He said the "growing range of pressures on the next education secretary's to-do list" also included school building repair backlogs and the rising number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
The number of children with the highest levels of Send has increased by more than 60% since 2015 - driving a £3.5bn increase in the high-needs budget, the report says. That has used up nearly half of the £7.6bn increase in school spending in the same time period.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
To be pedantic, Harriet Harman.
But I get your point.
Stopgaps dont count.
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
Poor old Margaret Beckett, always forgotten.
(Technically, both were permanent leaders under the Labour Party rules, but yes, you're right in the real world.)
If Ed Miliband counts, being Jewish, towards an ethnic minority, then it looks even worse because the Conservatives had a Jewish leader as long ago as 1868.
Mr. Ghedebrav, last session of DnD went very well. Been going almost a year with this homebrew. Helps having good players (no "I am the main character" fools).
Saw the Farage announcement yesterday. I do wonder if this *might* be worse for Labour than the Conservatives. Anyone fully Faragian was not going to return to the Conservatives, but reluctant/soft Labour voters might jump ship his way. My suspicion is the overall numbers will play that way but it'll cost the Conservatives more by letting Labour in through the middle at plenty of seats (akin to UKIP versus Ed MIliband's Labour in 2015).
Morning! I can only reference a small number of seats which I saw directly, but in 2019 the damage done by the Brexit Party was heavily onto the Tories. Seat after seat after seat where Labour clung on with BXP having more votes than the Tory majority.
John Curtice was interviewed yesterday and said that the polls and the local election results suggest this time about the threat is - once again - predominantly to the Tories.
We’ll never know, but I’m not sure about that. I don’t think those residual Brexit Party voters were ever going to vote Tory, but by not voting Labour they helped the Tories in many places.
I can see an argument that maybe, at 20-25% in the polls the Tories have leaked all they can to Reform anyway, and Farage is now fishing in the Labour pond. Starmer wins 36/26 and we get some really odd results.
Local elections results this year suggested that Reform UK takes mostly from the Conservative vote, and they were when the Tory vote was already low. So I think the evidence disputes that argument.
Yes but I am saying that could be priced in, and anything extra Farage might get on top comes from Labour. Just a possibility.
He said the "growing range of pressures on the next education secretary's to-do list" also included school building repair backlogs and the rising number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
The number of children with the highest levels of Send has increased by more than 60% since 2015 - driving a £3.5bn increase in the high-needs budget, the report says. That has used up nearly half of the £7.6bn increase in school spending in the same time period.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
One of the lessons of recent years is that the best leaders are chosen for reasons of competence rather than attempting representation.
Do you think Labour would be in the current position if they were led by Diane Abbott?
I notice too that looking at Labour's new intake it is going to be very diverse.
I totally agree with you on getting rid of the "isms" People should get to where the get to on merit.
As for where Labour are, they have done little to get there, the Tories have pissed off the electorate and Labour have just kept their heads down. Credit to them for doing so but the current polling has little to do with what Starmer has actively done, As of today nobody has a clue what Starmers agenda will be,
I would disagree. While the Tories shooting themselves regularly in the feet has unquestionably helped Labour, that isn't the whole story.
Starmer has managed in a little over 3 years a turnaround in his own party comparable to Liverpool coming back from 3 nil down to win the Champions League final. That requires both grit and talent.
I am no Starmer fan. He is wooden, has far too much instinct for centralisation and very limited vision, but what he excels at is organisational management.
Don’t forget Sue Grey, and presumably the likes of Mandelson behind the scenes. He’s had access to the A-team.
One of the most important leadership skills is surrounding yourself with quality people who can do things for you.
Big leadership jobs really don't suit micromanagers like Brown and May. I think Sunak is in that set too.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Y The farcical national service policy sums up his lack of interest in people.
The idea that 18 year olds can give up a weekend a month to get an experience might work for people who can live off mummy and daddy's millions and have a gap year.
It doesn't work for normal people, who have a weekend job to pay the bills while they put themselves through university etc.
Or aren't in education but have instead already entered the world of work, many jobs suitable for 18 year old without qualifications of course including significant shift work at weekends.
It is an absurd and offensive policy that sums up just how out of touch Sunak and those who surround him are to have come up with such lunacy.
As I have noted previously, it is an immensely useful policy because it allows those who were a bit will I/won't I about voting Cons now unambiguously to commit to not voting for them under any circumstances.
So there is that.
They shoulda gone full-on “You’re in the army now”
12 months of learning to shoot Jonny Russian, and droning people in dusty lands. No ifs no buts, the army, or deportation to the South Sandwich Islands to look after albatross eggs
Hopefully, Prime Minister Farage will bring this in, alongside his new bessies President Le Pen, Prime Minister Meloni and Dutch Premier Wilders
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Y The farcical national service policy sums up his lack of interest in people.
The idea that 18 year olds can give up a weekend a month to get an experience might work for people who can live off mummy and daddy's millions and have a gap year.
It doesn't work for normal people, who have a weekend job to pay the bills while they put themselves through university etc.
Or aren't in education but have instead already entered the world of work, many jobs suitable for 18 year old without qualifications of course including significant shift work at weekends.
It is an absurd and offensive policy that sums up just how out of touch Sunak and those who surround him are to have come up with such lunacy.
As I have noted previously, it is an immensely useful policy because it allows those who were a bit will I/won't I about voting Cons now unambiguously to commit to not voting for them under any circumstances.
So there is that.
They shoulda gone full-on “You’re in the army now”
12 months of learning to shoot Jonny Russian, and droning people in dusty lands. No ifs no buts, the army, or deportation to the South Sandwich Islands to look after albatross eggs
Hopefully, Prime Minister Farage will bring this in, alongside his new bessies President Le Pen, Prime Minister Meloni and Dutch Premier Wilders
A New Order Arises. Rejoice
Heh. PM Farage super-charges European collaboration. It’s just the “wrong” sort of European collaboration for those who’ve been dreaming about it. Would be amusing.
Mr. Ghedebrav, last session of DnD went very well. Been going almost a year with this homebrew. Helps having good players (no "I am the main character" fools).
Saw the Farage announcement yesterday. I do wonder if this *might* be worse for Labour than the Conservatives. Anyone fully Faragian was not going to return to the Conservatives, but reluctant/soft Labour voters might jump ship his way. My suspicion is the overall numbers will play that way but it'll cost the Conservatives more by letting Labour in through the middle at plenty of seats (akin to UKIP versus Ed MIliband's Labour in 2015).
Morning! I can only reference a small number of seats which I saw directly, but in 2019 the damage done by the Brexit Party was heavily onto the Tories. Seat after seat after seat where Labour clung on with BXP having more votes than the Tory majority.
John Curtice was interviewed yesterday and said that the polls and the local election results suggest this time about the threat is - once again - predominantly to the Tories.
The other problem is how it affects the Conservative campaign.
The theory, and it's been mentioned here by people plugged into the Conservative party, was to spend weeks 1 and 2 winning back Reform voters and shoring up the right flank. Then move the focus to winning voters back from Labour.
That wasn't particularly working, but the Farage explosion has completely put that strategy through the shredder.
Now the Tories will tack very hard to the hard right to try and see off Farage. Which will drive non-mad voters away for the LibDems to pick off.
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
Sunak is a nice guy,.
No he isn’t.
No one who deliberately inflames culture wars, promotes sending boat people to a corrupt dangerous African country, attacks people with disabilities including mental ill-health, attacks LGBGTQ minorities, attacks young people on their smart phones and wants to march them off to war, flies everywhere in a helicopter to block out the appalling public service decline over which he has presided … can be described as a ‘nice guy.’
I’d love it if he lost his seat. He’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Only a tory campaigner a long, long, way down their rabbit hole could think otherwise.
Well so you say but the only nastiness Ive noticed in this campaign is Starmer bullying a woman because she's elderly and black.
And probably because she's a woman too, Labour dont do women.
You know, as well as I do, that in the words of Luke Skywalker not one single word of what you’ve just put is true.
Naughty boy.
Ok
name me a female leader of Labour
name me a non-white Labour leader
So, to return to your post since it seems you might think you were being serious …
You know full well that Diane Abbot is not a particularly nice person. Just because she’s got black skin doesn’t mean she’s unimpeachable. She has a history of racist remarks and her previous comments were anti-semitic. She’s also a hypocrite, educating her children privately. She’s very left-wing which I don’t mind but some of her decision-making has been wayward.
The country’s about to get it’s first female Chancellor, Labour as it happens. But let’s leave the tokenism stuff please. It’s desperation. I don’t think the current Conservative Party can take the moral high ground when it comes to inclusivity which, clearly, is more than just over-promoting people who have black skin. Badenoch is a case in point. Clearly out of her depth as my friend Mishal showed yesterday.
Hopefully we move on from such tokenism. We need politicians of calibre no matter what their gender, social group, or colour background.
So it's important for Lab to have the country's first female Chancellor but any Cons woman or minority person holding high office is just tokenism.
Have I got that right.
Yes.
You still get people claiming that Thatcher didn’t count a female PM, because she didn’t identify with the correct politics.
A while back, the Guardian had an opinion column on the problem of Hindu Indians - too successful and voting for the wrong things to be considered “real” minorities.
Of course she counts - but as with everything else about her legacy, that as female role model is a mix of the good and the bad.
Unlike most who are interested in politics, I neither worship nor despise her.
He said the "growing range of pressures on the next education secretary's to-do list" also included school building repair backlogs and the rising number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
The number of children with the highest levels of Send has increased by more than 60% since 2015 - driving a £3.5bn increase in the high-needs budget, the report says. That has used up nearly half of the £7.6bn increase in school spending in the same time period.
Mr. Ghedebrav, last session of DnD went very well. Been going almost a year with this homebrew. Helps having good players (no "I am the main character" fools).
Saw the Farage announcement yesterday. I do wonder if this *might* be worse for Labour than the Conservatives. Anyone fully Faragian was not going to return to the Conservatives, but reluctant/soft Labour voters might jump ship his way. My suspicion is the overall numbers will play that way but it'll cost the Conservatives more by letting Labour in through the middle at plenty of seats (akin to UKIP versus Ed MIliband's Labour in 2015).
Morning! I can only reference a small number of seats which I saw directly, but in 2019 the damage done by the Brexit Party was heavily onto the Tories. Seat after seat after seat where Labour clung on with BXP having more votes than the Tory majority.
John Curtice was interviewed yesterday and said that the polls and the local election results suggest this time about the threat is - once again - predominantly to the Tories.
The other problem is how it affects the Conservative campaign.
The theory, and it's been mentioned here by people plugged into the Conservative party, was to spend weeks 1 and 2 winning back Reform voters and shoring up the right flank. Then move the focus to winning voters back from Labour.
That wasn't particularly working, but the Farage explosion has completely put that strategy through the shredder.
The solution, as I’ve said, is for the Tories to act - for once - in the national interest, henceforth known as the “Nashy Ince”, and withdraw from the election entirely, dissolving themselves as a party and giving Reform a free run. Then the voters will have a clear choice between Left and Right, not Left and also “completely Left but pretend pathetically to be a bit Right but then do Left again, and again, and again”
Mr. Ghedebrav, last session of DnD went very well. Been going almost a year with this homebrew. Helps having good players (no "I am the main character" fools).
Saw the Farage announcement yesterday. I do wonder if this *might* be worse for Labour than the Conservatives. Anyone fully Faragian was not going to return to the Conservatives, but reluctant/soft Labour voters might jump ship his way. My suspicion is the overall numbers will play that way but it'll cost the Conservatives more by letting Labour in through the middle at plenty of seats (akin to UKIP versus Ed MIliband's Labour in 2015).
Morning! I can only reference a small number of seats which I saw directly, but in 2019 the damage done by the Brexit Party was heavily onto the Tories. Seat after seat after seat where Labour clung on with BXP having more votes than the Tory majority.
John Curtice was interviewed yesterday and said that the polls and the local election results suggest this time about the threat is - once again - predominantly to the Tories.
We’ll never know, but I’m not sure about that. I don’t think those residual Brexit Party voters were ever going to vote Tory, but by not voting Labour they helped the Tories in many places.
I can see an argument that maybe, at 20-25% in the polls the Tories have leaked all they can to Reform anyway, and Farage is now fishing in the Labour pond. Starmer wins 36/26 and we get some really odd results.
Local elections results this year suggested that Reform UK takes mostly from the Conservative vote, and they were when the Tory vote was already low. So I think the evidence disputes that argument.
Yes but I am saying that could be priced in, and anything extra Farage might get on top comes from Labour. Just a possibility.
The Tories are polling now about the same as during the local elections. During the local elections, it was still the case that the RefUK vote came mainly from the Tories. What do you think will be different such that this will change?
Sunak’s basic problem is that most people hate him. But, he’s really carrying the can for the incompetence of May, Johnson, and Truss.
Do most (real world) people hate him? Really? PB is not the real world.
When something went really badly wrong at work today someone quipped "that was a bit of a Sunak". It got a lot of knowing smiles.
Yes, people in the real world seem to genuinely dislike Sunak. To a much more universal extent that seemed to be the case with Boris or Truss. Of course, that might just be his misfortune to be a fag-end PM. Possibly anyone in his situation would be regarded the same. But I don't recall the same level of opprobrium towards Major. Possibly towards Brown. Like Brown, Sunak unfortunately just ooozes insincerity.
Unfair but yes. Sunak is neither as dishonest as Johnson nor as deluded as Truss but isn't appreciated for it.
I think there is some substance to the public's dislike of Sunak. A billionaire with a very right wing ideology, thinks government should be "small" ie favour rich people liked himself, has clearly no interest in people and how they live. This doesn't sit well.
The farcical national service policy sums up his lack of interest in people.
The idea that 18 year olds can give up a weekend a month to get an experience might work for people who can live off mummy and daddy's millions and have a gap year.
It doesn't work for normal people, who have a weekend job to pay the bills while they put themselves through university etc.
Or aren't in education but have instead already entered the world of work, many jobs suitable for 18 year old without qualifications of course including significant shift work at weekends.
It is an absurd and offensive policy that sums up just how out of touch Sunak and those who surround him are to have come up with such lunacy.
FT this morning reports the critical lack of a workforce in the construction industry. Practically everyone bar the bloody Tories agrees that our infrastructure is crumbling or absent, but even if the next government pushes the Go button and funds it, we just don't have the people or the skills. The company who built the Co-op Live Arena points out that a chunk of the delays at the end was that they couldn't hire people at any cost on any wage.
Instead of idiotic dogwhistle national service proposals, we need to focus on how we invest in young people to become the workforce this country needs to build its way out of the mess we are in.
As usual, in the bunfight over tertiary education, the actual results have been ignored.
1) half the population is going to university. 2) the ones who go to highly regarded university and get a good degree (subject fairly irrelevant in a first degree) get good jobs. 3) progressing down the scale, you get people paying for a degree that gets them a job that a few years back would have been non degree. 4) many of those at 3) feel they were promised 2) 5) the world of work has changed. The days of the “white collar gets all the money” are gone. You can make six figures running a small plumbing business. Despite some dumb predictions, the world of work was never going to turn into all-high-status-white-collar. There are some rather well paid jobs in the combined manual & intellectual space. 6) so you get from (3) a bunch of people in jobs that ceiling in their twenties - dull office work. I used to help run a communal workshop - place was full of frustrated pen pushers who wanted to *make* something. 7) throw in the limits on medical degrees
My answer? Degrees for *everyone*. Give the plumbers PhDs in Plumbing. That’ll solve the status gap.
And make manual/physicals skills mandatory. Remember the shouting when getting an English GCSE was made a condition of a university place? Well, no degree in Literature for you, at Cambridge, unless you do Welding or CNC Operation.
He said the "growing range of pressures on the next education secretary's to-do list" also included school building repair backlogs and the rising number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).
The number of children with the highest levels of Send has increased by more than 60% since 2015 - driving a £3.5bn increase in the high-needs budget, the report says. That has used up nearly half of the £7.6bn increase in school spending in the same time period.
I'd call him a poor, or even terrible, politician. He has never been elected to parliament in many tries, even whilst leading a significant party. He falls out with everyone, and it's always about him, not the party. Once he leaves the party, it disintegrates.
I'd also call him a brilliant campaigner. He knows how to develop a simple message - truthful or not - and get many people, both significant and not, fully behind that message. He's truly brilliant at that.
"Around 1.5 million men have registered for conscription in Ukraine, the defence ministry has said today. The ministry added that 14,000 men living abroad across 124 countries had updated their credentials. "
I won't shed any tears if the Tories get wiped out on 4th July.
That only happens if Farage wipes them out and realigns the right in his favour.
However Reform voters alone even then would not be enough to beat Labour, they would need some One Nation Tories too. If they went LD then Starmer could largely stay PM even if the economy went south by dividing the opposition between Farage and Reform on the right, the LDs and rump One Nation centrist Tories and the Greens to his left. In such a scenario FPTP would ironically be better for Starmer Labour than FPTP but PR now better for the Tories as well as ReformUK, the LDs and Greens
On the other hand PR would probably make the break up of the right wing into separate parties a permanent state of affairs.
Do you think Starmer might really do it?
He'd have the opportunity. Blair had it, and passed.
It would render a massive improvement to our political system a single costless stroke.
I think he might but you can never be sure. Politicians, eh?
In any world where Labour has 380+ seats, PR is going to be pretty unattractive to Starmer (and doubly so his MPs).
It would depend on how things look going forward.
If we had the Single Transferable Vote system in Multi-Member constiuencies, then Starmer would not have to spend all his time removing candidates of whom he did not approve. The electorate could do that for him. Unless they liked the extreme Socialist candidates, of course.
Except that isn’t how those constituencies work nowadays. Look at Ireland as an example a 5 seat constituency will have 3 sin rein candidates max to ensure hey all get elected. 2 many candidates and you run the risk that all your candidates get eliminated before the 2nd/3rd choice votes start to pile up and you win the seat…
I just do not believe you, Mr Eek. Sorry.
If people want to elect SF candidates, then they will vote for them all and rank them in order of preference. SF would start to lose out only if the electorate found candidates of other parties more attractive than the other SF ones.
People don't vote in that simplistic way. The parties in Ireland definitely do make those sorts of tradeoffs, and so the voters often don't have the choice of candidate and party that should be one of the main plus points of STV.
Sinn Fein missed out on a lot of seats at the last general election because they put on a lot of votes during the campaign, but hadn't put forward enough candidates to take advantage.
You also see this with the Scottish local elections, where a lot of the time the seat allocation was largely decided by the number of candidates nominated, because the parties were very parsimonious about the number of candidates they put forward.
Comments
But the country also needs a strong opposition - and if the worst case comes to fruition, who would that voice be? The Lib Dems? The SNP? The Tories?
Also, we'll be getting a load of new MPs in. I am a little nervous that some of these MPs might not be of a suitable standard.
Line of questioning from Mishal Hussein on Eq Act suggests misunderstanding of the law. Clarifying sex means sex in the Eq Act does not prevent providers from providing some mixed-sex rape crisis services. It *allows* providers to provide single sex services without ambiguity....
Kemi Badenoch’s response made that clear. But the idea the law mandates service providers to provide one type of service only is completely wrong and no one should be implying that.
https://x.com/soniasodha/status/1797530045252256024
Love how all these lefties are waving away women's rights as "culture war".
So the debate is not about changing the Equality Act but clarifying what always was its intent. To defend women against discrimination and abuse and allow women only
spaces and services. And all the noise and dismissive reactions are - probably wilfully - missing the point...
In doing so, we are seeing in plain sight just how easily women’s rights can be undermined by those who don’t understand them and care less. Just as well #Womenwontwheesht…
https://x.com/JohannLamont/status/1797634098841972753
Once you’re in power you tend to think you’re the only one who can get it right, and keep the “others” out.
Having achieved power, it then becomes self evident that FPTP is good for you and not the other guys, and so it becomes one of “your” assets. In addition, any move to PR would lose a chunk if your current MPs their seats, and you need them on side because there’s always a faction plotting to replace you.
PR only looks attractive to a party clinging on to power by coalition, with no prospect of its own mandate. One more coalition and the Tories might have even gone for it after 2010, but that was overtaken by events.
Mr. Ghedebrav, last session of DnD went very well. Been going almost a year with this homebrew. Helps having good players (no "I am the main character" fools).
Saw the Farage announcement yesterday. I do wonder if this *might* be worse for Labour than the Conservatives. Anyone fully Faragian was not going to return to the Conservatives, but reluctant/soft Labour voters might jump ship his way. My suspicion is the overall numbers will play that way but it'll cost the Conservatives more by letting Labour in through the middle at plenty of seats (akin to UKIP versus Ed MIliband's Labour in 2015).
And there still isnt a female leader.
The Conservatives had had 3, LSd one, Greems lots, SNP one, shit even the neanthedrals of Sinn Fein and the DUP have had female leaders,
But Labout ? Here luv go get the tea, the men are at work.
You know full well that Diane Abbot is not a particularly nice person. Just because she’s got black skin doesn’t mean she’s unimpeachable. She has a history of racist remarks and her previous comments were anti-semitic. She’s also a hypocrite, educating her children privately. She’s very left-wing which I don’t mind but some of her decision-making has been wayward.
The country’s about to get it’s first female Chancellor, Labour as it happens. But let’s leave the tokenism stuff please. It’s desperation. I don’t think the current Conservative Party can take the moral high ground when it comes to inclusivity which, clearly, is more than just over-promoting people who have black skin. Badenoch is a case in point. Clearly out of her depth as my friend Mishal showed yesterday.
Hopefully we move on from such tokenism. We need politicians of calibre no matter what their gender, social group, or colour background.
Even if they retain a fair number of MPs they are likely to take a Badenoch, Braverman turn, so throwing Farage into the mix isn't that different.
I want a decent Tory opposition, but the left cannot influence that, they can only defeat what is put in front of them.
Even if the Cons come second theyll be spending most of the Parliamnent sorting their shit out and will be opposing very little. The opposition is more likely to be the awkward squad inside Labour.
The evil they have deliberately stoked is appalling.
I hate them.
As does much of this country. As you’ll find out July 4th.
A logical and competent administrator of government would not have ended up with Rwanda for example.
(Technically, both were permanent leaders under the Labour Party rules, but yes, you're right in the real world.)
If Ed Miliband counts, being Jewish, towards an ethnic minority, then it looks even worse because the Conservatives had a Jewish leader as long ago as 1868.
It will be taken into consideration when the show trials begin.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5115e7k2eno
EXC: Trio of senior Tory donors (who’ve donated £5m+ to party) rule out funding Sunak’s election campaign
In striking move, the donors organised their own private polling, complaining they were mistrustful of Tory campaign figures’ claims that the situ was not as bad as public polling suggests
But their private survey aligned with the public polling, indicating the Tories are facing electoral rout
https://x.com/LOS_Fisher/status/1797873772340338815
That’s all the Conservatives are now left with after 14 years …
I’m looking forward to the budget to be delivered by Britain’s first female Chancellor. But, hey ho, I don’t need to join tokenism.
𝘗𝘳𝘦-𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸:
@theJeremyVine: “Today…we will talk about the Equality Act and how it affects people who are trans.”
𝘋𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸:
@MForstater: “You said that this is about how the Equality Act affects trans people, but really it is about how the Equality Act affects women and girls.”
𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵-𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸:
@theJeremyVine: “Thanks, Maya and Joanne, for discussing this difficult issue of how the law treats people who are trans.”
https://x.com/soppystern/status/1797593977744474583
And while I have no doubt the Tories will be wiped out (my prediction is for well under 100 to be left standing), it will be impossible to infer from that anything other than a lack of people preferring them to the alternatives. I don't think the country 'hates' the Lib Dems yet I'm fairly confident the Tories will get more votes than the Lib Dems.
Do you think Labour would be in the current position if they were led by Diane Abbott?
I notice too that looking at Labour's new intake it is going to be very diverse.
I just say again your attitude and hate is dangerous to the safety of public figures and we have seen two mps killed already through hate
It’s not because I think Starmer is particularly good or Labour are particularly talented but I will explain.
The Chief Exec of the CBI spent her whole interview discussing needing to bring in migrants to do jobs and to protect universities bringing in foreign students. This was effectively her solution to growth and all things. Now there might not have been the time but the interviewer never said “ hang on, where will they live, where will their dependents go to school, which hospitals and doctors will they use?”
It said so much about this country that there are so many loud groups who demand their particular needs are answered without considering, or at least with out owning up to the other costs of this. If she acknowledged this would require huge infrastructure development and then taxes raised to cover this then fine but as usual no.
So back to Starmer. Blair had a golden opportunity to change the country, not necessarily to my liking, but maybe that would work better for the way the country is. He wasted a huge majority because he was purely concerned with getting re-elected so didn’t want to scare the horses.
Starmer could walk away with such a huge majority that he can not only ignore the opposition but also the fringe groups in his own party.
Now this relies on Starmer being fairly sensible and centrist but he can set Wes Streeting loose on the NHS in a way the Tories never could argent away with, he can make it clear that if you want cheap care for you and your parents when old and decrepit we need to build dormitories for imported care workers, sorry NIMBys and people who reflexively think T’s unfair for immigrants to live in less than perfect conditions.
He can make a better Rwanda with the power to ignore the wing of his party who will block runways to stop deportations and can stand down civil service unions who refuse to process.
He can take a big punt on wealth taxes, he can say we aren’t going to have an adventurist defence policy so the military will focus, and therefore kit buying, on defending ourselves and Europe from Russia and terrorists.
The thing is if he does these radical things then the country will be very different long term, it won’t be my sort of country as I’m a small gov low tax kinda guy, but at least it stops the schizophrenic state we are in where everyone wants everything a high tax state does but everyone wants someone else to pay, everyone wants all their services but they want someone else to do it and they want them to live safely but they don’t want them living in their lovely town.
The idea that 18 year olds can give up a weekend a month to get an experience might work for people who can live off mummy and daddy's millions and have a gap year.
It doesn't work for normal people, who have a weekend job to pay the bills while they put themselves through university etc.
Or aren't in education but have instead already entered the world of work, many jobs suitable for 18 year old without qualifications of course including significant shift work at weekends.
It is an absurd and offensive policy that sums up just how out of touch Sunak and those who surround him are to have come up with such lunacy.
As for where Labour are, they have done little to get there, the Tories have pissed off the electorate and Labour have just kept their heads down. Credit to them for doing so but the current polling has little to do with what Starmer has actively done, As of today nobody has a clue what Starmers agenda will be,
It’s easy to score more female leaders if you’re as incompetent as this government.
The Tories have had as many leaders since 2015 as Labour have had since 1994.
This isn't true in places like Germany, US, etc.
https://x.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1573278502790791168?t=IVwyCU93lwqpkEuP9xwMjA&s=19
"Today was the best Conservative budget since 1986."
Dated 23rd Sept 2022
It's less crucial to the course of events if the government have a stonking majority, but I wouldn't wish poor opposition (which is not quite the same thing as the opposition looking like a credible government in waiting).
I am sure there is always a lot of who you know. But if you don't have any medium organisations, who do you pick from? You aren't going to hire as your new CEO of a FTSE 100 company, a bloke who ran a 20 man company. So limited pool and of course the good ones don't come on the market very often because they aren't getting the heave ho. So instead there is a cycle of failing sideways of the useless ones, as they have the experience for the job, but they got booted from the last one and the one before that and the one before that because they weren't very good.
And since Labour refuse to lead by example maybe they should just keep quiet about it and enjoy their shame in private.
Now tell me the Labour Female leader.
Starmer has managed in a little over 3 years a turnaround in his own party comparable to Liverpool coming back from 3 nil down to win the Champions League final. That requires both grit and talent.
I am no Starmer fan. He is wooden, has far too much instinct for centralisation and very limited vision, but what he excels at is organisational management.
Have I got that right.
So there is that.
Sally Smith. You wouldn’t know her, she goes to a different Houses of Parliament.
John Curtice was interviewed yesterday and said that the polls and the local election results suggest this time about the threat is - once again - predominantly to the Tories.
What we have seen of Starmer was he would have pushed lockdown much harder and longer so we would be paying bigger price now. And his party management was looking fragile this week with Abbott. He's asking us to interpret silence as ability, I suspect it isnt - but I would say that.
If people want to elect SF candidates, then they will vote for them all and rank them in order of preference. SF would start to lose out only if the electorate found candidates of other parties more attractive than the other SF ones.
Not many politics have IT, whatever IT is.
It's not use wishing for this now. It ain't gonna happen. Next best scenario is that the Conservatives are reduced to such a small rump that they go off and think seriously about what their purpose is, how they managed to be the most successful political party in western democracy for hundreds of years, and figure how to rebuild on a more secure base so that they can be a reasonable alternative to whatever hegemony has estabished itself in their absence.
Following yesterday's Farageness, it sems they may be starting out on that path now,
Name a female leader.
You still get people claiming that Thatcher didn’t count a female PM, because she didn’t identify with the correct politics.
A while back, the Guardian had an opinion column on the problem of Hindu Indians - too successful and voting for the wrong things to be considered “real” minorities.
If they haven't, then that just adds to the impression that the proffered porridge is lacking in salt, and in oatmeal too - thin gruel.
Instead of idiotic dogwhistle national service proposals, we need to focus on how we invest in young people to become the workforce this country needs to build its way out of the mess we are in.
I can see an argument that maybe, at 20-25% in the polls the Tories have leaked all they can to Reform anyway, and Farage is now fishing in the Labour pond. Starmer wins 36/26 and we get some really odd results.
Like you, I am sceptical this will happen, but I can toss in another couple of reasons for hope.
Starmer isn't a socialist, and he's not ideological. He is in essence a pragmatist.
Let's wish him good luck. He's going to need it.
you wont get better quality trolling on other websites you know.
The theory, and it's been mentioned here by people plugged into the Conservative party, was to spend weeks 1 and 2 winning back Reform voters and shoring up the right flank. Then move the focus to winning voters back from Labour.
That wasn't particularly working, but the Farage explosion has completely put that strategy through the shredder.
Big leadership jobs really don't suit micromanagers like Brown and May. I think Sunak is in that set too.
12 months of learning to shoot Jonny Russian, and droning people in dusty lands. No ifs no buts, the army, or deportation to the South Sandwich Islands to look after albatross eggs
Hopefully, Prime Minister Farage will bring this in, alongside his new bessies President Le Pen, Prime Minister Meloni and Dutch Premier Wilders
A New Order Arises. Rejoice
A great day for E.L.E. yesterday!
Unlike most who are interested in politics, I neither worship nor despise her.
1) half the population is going to university.
2) the ones who go to highly regarded university and get a good degree (subject fairly irrelevant in a first degree) get good jobs.
3) progressing down the scale, you get people paying for a degree that gets them a job that a few years back would have been non degree.
4) many of those at 3) feel they were promised 2)
5) the world of work has changed. The days of the “white collar gets all the money” are gone. You can make six figures running a small plumbing business. Despite some dumb predictions, the world of work was never going to turn into all-high-status-white-collar. There are some rather well paid jobs in the combined manual & intellectual space.
6) so you get from (3) a bunch of people in jobs that ceiling in their twenties - dull office work. I used to help run a communal workshop - place was full of frustrated pen pushers who wanted to *make* something.
7) throw in the limits on medical degrees
My answer? Degrees for *everyone*. Give the plumbers PhDs in Plumbing. That’ll solve the status gap.
And make manual/physicals skills mandatory. Remember the shouting when getting an English GCSE was made a condition of a university place? Well, no degree in Literature for you, at Cambridge, unless you do Welding or CNC Operation.
I'd call him a poor, or even terrible, politician. He has never been elected to parliament in many tries, even whilst leading a significant party. He falls out with everyone, and it's always about him, not the party. Once he leaves the party, it disintegrates.
I'd also call him a brilliant campaigner. He knows how to develop a simple message - truthful or not - and get many people, both significant and not, fully behind that message. He's truly brilliant at that.
No Farage, no Brexit. It is that simple
Imagine what he could achieve if he wasn’t a charlatan!
"Around 1.5 million men have registered for conscription in Ukraine, the defence ministry has said today. The ministry added that 14,000 men living abroad across 124 countries had updated their credentials. "
https://x.com/GlasnostGone/status/1797656055226458386
Sinn Fein missed out on a lot of seats at the last general election because they put on a lot of votes during the campaign, but hadn't put forward enough candidates to take advantage.
You also see this with the Scottish local elections, where a lot of the time the seat allocation was largely decided by the number of candidates nominated, because the parties were very parsimonious about the number of candidates they put forward.