Clacton is a cesspit of low aspiration, low education and anger. Let’s not look in the mirror and reflect, let’s point the fingers. Far easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings, isn’t it?
The FRITLF phenomenon at play again. The far right do not and never have done self reflection. It’s always someone else’s fault. Even what they do themselves, even when they bring disaster upon themselves or the country by their own hands, it’s someone else’s fault. “She provoked me”. The abuser’s mentality.
It’s some else’s fault is a very persuasive argument for people with both little and little aspiration.
And that is both Farage’s target audience.
Another day
Another ‘let’s sneer at the underclass’ vibe on PB.
No wonder Reform exists. These people know they and their communities are despised. They have a vote. They will use it.
The sneering is from you calling them an underclass - they aren't.
I've learnt over the decades that a lot of people are very happy in their own small world and their aspirations are really just a house, a car and enough money to do their hobbies... And the modern world has often taken that simply world away from them..
you fking need to get out more
I know billionaires and people who rarely leave the council estate they were born in (because they don't want to). Not everyone has grand desires for a great live, some people really do just want the world they knew as they grew up to still exist..
Not just that- it's an incredibly human thing to want. It is not something to despise. As animals in clothes, we're mostly not really set up to be Anywheres. (Whose theory of Brexit was that?)
Trouble is that the prosperity we crave depends on distant connectedness and mobility. And that's a really hard contradiction to resolve. (It does explain the Gold Club Bore wing of Reform; they are prosperous enough to care about higher things.)
Reform wouldnt exist if the Tories and Labour were doing their job right. They have created a huge vacuum in society and left it for Farage.
I’m not sure what your point is. That is literally democracy.
The point is quite simple. There's no point the posh parties moaning about Farage when they have been ignoring those who vote for him for years. And yes that is democracy.
Why shouldn’t they moan about Farage if they disagree with him? Posh views and opinions are still valid views and opinions.
Farage spends his every waking minute moaning about scrutiny and the “establishment”
Clacton is a cesspit of low aspiration, low education and anger. Let’s not look in the mirror and reflect, let’s point the fingers. Far easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings, isn’t it?
The FRITLF phenomenon at play again. The far right do not and never have done self reflection. It’s always someone else’s fault. Even what they do themselves, even when they bring disaster upon themselves or the country by their own hands, it’s someone else’s fault. “She provoked me”. The abuser’s mentality.
It’s some else’s fault is a very persuasive argument for people with both little and little aspiration.
And that is both Farage’s target audience.
Another day
Another ‘let’s sneer at the underclass’ vibe on PB.
No wonder Reform exists. These people know they and their communities are despised. They have a vote. They will use it.
Agreed. Put most of us in a similar situation to a struggling family in Clacton and we'd express similar sentiments to those in that vox pop.
The country doesn't work for many. And when Labour and the Conservatives seem to have no answers and/or seem to be making it worse, the rational thing to do is to look for alternatives.
It is hardly the fault of the Clacton voter that the main alternative is a corrupt bin-fighter.
The whole ridiculous circus is entirely the fault of Farage, first for getting up to some decidedly unorthodox financial shenanigans, then for a vanity by-election stunt.
Yet somehow that’s all the fault of people “sneering at the underclass? No it’s not. Honestly, I’m tired of the populist tosh that criticising the (rich, establishment) strongman leader is somehow criticising the voters.
It’s what Trump did, it’s what every fascist from Mussolini to Mao has done through history, it’s simply a trope and I can’t believe intelligent people fall for it every time.
Calling out the populist tosh isn't the issue.
Describing Clacton as a cesspit and badging the mass of Clacton voters as low aspiration is the issue here.
I'm not the person who thinks low aspirations is a disability - what many people want is just the life they imagined as a kid.
And for many people that's just a house round the corner from their mum, a couple of happy kids and job that gives them enough money to do what they want.
What are low aspirations?
Not aspiring to be Elon Musk? The Pope? The PM?
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, A Jug of Wine, A Loaf of Bread—and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness— Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
The Dems need to ditch him and bring in a candidate that can win the seat.
If he'd been a GOP candidate Planter's alleged misdeeds would barely have raised an eyebrow and he'd have easily gone on to win a Republican primary like Paxton in Texas
As with Biden, they’re going to ditch Platner now at the last minute, having spent months ignoring all of his very obvious flaws through the primary that he won, because the polling says they’ll lose if they stick with him.
It's really not as simple as that, as Sean Trende lays out here; One more thing about Platner being a butt about dropping out, dictating terms (yeah, another Platner post, but important). I'm surprised that people aren't recognizing this, given that it's such an obsession on the left and so on-the-nose here: Power. Dropping out is submitting... https://x.com/SeanTrende/status/2074890868385783853
Platner was selected by an overwhelming majority in the primary; just ditching him isn't in anyone's power.
The only thing which made a difference was undeniable evidence of his misdeeds, which got even his endorsers like Bernie abandoning him.
Clacton is a cesspit of low aspiration, low education and anger. Let’s not look in the mirror and reflect, let’s point the fingers. Far easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings, isn’t it?
The FRITLF phenomenon at play again. The far right do not and never have done self reflection. It’s always someone else’s fault. Even what they do themselves, even when they bring disaster upon themselves or the country by their own hands, it’s someone else’s fault. “She provoked me”. The abuser’s mentality.
It’s some else’s fault is a very persuasive argument for people with both little and little aspiration.
And that is both Farage’s target audience.
Another day
Another ‘let’s sneer at the underclass’ vibe on PB.
No wonder Reform exists. These people know they and their communities are despised. They have a vote. They will use it.
The sneering is from you calling them an underclass - they aren't.
I've learnt over the decades that a lot of people are very happy in their own small world and their aspirations are really just a house, a car and enough money to do their hobbies... And the modern world has often taken that simply world away from them..
you fking need to get out more
I know billionaires and people who rarely leave the council estate they were born in (because they don't want to). Not everyone has grand desires for a great live, some people really do just want the world they knew as they grew up to still exist..
Not just that- it's an incredibly human thing to want. It is not something to despise. As animals in clothes, we're mostly not really set up to be Anywheres. (Whose theory of Brexit was that?)
Trouble is that the prosperity we crave depends on distant connectedness and mobility. And that's a really hard contradiction to resolve. (It does explain the Gold Club Bore wing of Reform; they are prosperous enough to care about higher things.)
Reform wouldnt exist if the Tories and Labour were doing their job right. They have created a huge vacuum in society and left it for Farage.
I’m not sure what your point is. That is literally democracy.
The point is quite simple. There's no point the posh parties moaning about Farage when they have been ignoring those who vote for him for years. And yes that is democracy.
Labour reduced pensioner poverty from over 50% to about 15% from 1997 to 2005. Yet it’s these low income households that are now voting for Reform.
2005 is 20 years or a generation ago. I doubt there are that many people who remember their life improving that much as the youngest would be 89 nowadays..
Clacton is a cesspit of low aspiration, low education and anger. Let’s not look in the mirror and reflect, let’s point the fingers. Far easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings, isn’t it?
The FRITLF phenomenon at play again. The far right do not and never have done self reflection. It’s always someone else’s fault. Even what they do themselves, even when they bring disaster upon themselves or the country by their own hands, it’s someone else’s fault. “She provoked me”. The abuser’s mentality.
It’s some else’s fault is a very persuasive argument for people with both little and little aspiration.
And that is both Farage’s target audience.
Another day
Another ‘let’s sneer at the underclass’ vibe on PB.
No wonder Reform exists. These people know they and their communities are despised. They have a vote. They will use it.
Agreed. Put most of us in a similar situation to a struggling family in Clacton and we'd express similar sentiments to those in that vox pop.
The country doesn't work for many. And when Labour and the Conservatives seem to have no answers and/or seem to be making it worse, the rational thing to do is to look for alternatives.
It is hardly the fault of the Clacton voter that the main alternative is a corrupt bin-fighter.
OTOH, we should expect a degree of personal responsibility from grown adults to keep themselves informed, particularly if they’re going to vote.
Coddling the electorate even when they are simply wrong about something is deeply harmful to our politics; the reason the country increasingly feels like it’s ungovernable.
I don't know any Clacton voters, so this is pure speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if plenty of them are reasonably well informed.
They know the mainstream parties are not getting the country working for them. They may diagnose the main issue wrongly (blaming immigration, say) but then I'd argue most of the electorate, and most of the political class, are likewise failing to adequately diagnose the issue right now.
Are the voters of Clacton any worse informed than the voters of Chingford and Woodford Green who will vote for anyone who promises they can keep both their two car household and the triple lock?
It suits the left on here to portray their supported as dumb, racist Fu****s It obviates the need to interrogate their thoughts and hopes and reinforced theiru h loved sense of moral superiority. It's one reason the site is so boring these days
I don't agree about the site, but I do think in the countty as a whole there has been something of a capture of the left by what I'd describe as the 'comfortable left' (of which I am very much a part).
The left badly needs an economically coherent narrative that addresses the concerns of financially insecure voters.
I suspect the narrative is there, but I don't hear anyone making it.
But the Marxist notion of the left is a very unpopular to the voter. Corbyn is the closest we had and he was eviscerated in the newspapers and at the polls twice. OK there was a moment where his star ascended briefly until we on the left all realised we were Centrist Conservatives/ Blaitites/LDs.
The Dems need to ditch him and bring in a candidate that can win the seat.
If he'd been a GOP candidate Planter's alleged misdeeds would barely have raised an eyebrow and he'd have easily gone on to win a Republican primary like Paxton in Texas
As with Biden, they’re going to ditch Platner now at the last minute, having spent months ignoring all of his very obvious flaws through the primary that he won, because the polling says they’ll lose if they stick with him.
At least they are finally doing it. What's the GOP's excuse? Paxton won the primary for fuck's sake.
If the WWC voters in struggling places like Clacton were to abandon the reactionary right wing populism that doesn't threaten financial elites in favour of its left wing 'eat the rich' equivalent, then see who starts doing the demonising of them. It'll be pretty much the same people who are complaining about it now.
Hence the hysteria in the Telegraph et al at Burnham having the temerity to win a WWC seat comfortably and then declare he'll run policy based around its needs, and finally to put a big, shiny hat on it, continue his two decades plus of living in it. Barefaced cheek of the man.
Clacton is a cesspit of low aspiration, low education and anger. Let’s not look in the mirror and reflect, let’s point the fingers. Far easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings, isn’t it?
The FRITLF phenomenon at play again. The far right do not and never have done self reflection. It’s always someone else’s fault. Even what they do themselves, even when they bring disaster upon themselves or the country by their own hands, it’s someone else’s fault. “She provoked me”. The abuser’s mentality.
It’s some else’s fault is a very persuasive argument for people with both little and little aspiration.
And that is both Farage’s target audience.
Another day
Another ‘let’s sneer at the underclass’ vibe on PB.
No wonder Reform exists. These people know they and their communities are despised. They have a vote. They will use it.
Agreed. Put most of us in a similar situation to a struggling family in Clacton and we'd express similar sentiments to those in that vox pop.
The country doesn't work for many. And when Labour and the Conservatives seem to have no answers and/or seem to be making it worse, the rational thing to do is to look for alternatives.
It is hardly the fault of the Clacton voter that the main alternative is a corrupt bin-fighter.
OTOH, we should expect a degree of personal responsibility from grown adults to keep themselves informed, particularly if they’re going to vote.
Coddling the electorate even when they are simply wrong about something is deeply harmful to our politics; the reason the country increasingly feels like it’s ungovernable.
I don't know any Clacton voters, so this is pure speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if plenty of them are reasonably well informed.
They know the mainstream parties are not getting the country working for them. They may diagnose the main issue wrongly (blaming immigration, say) but then I'd argue most of the electorate, and most of the political class, are likewise failing to adequately diagnose the issue right now.
Are the voters of Clacton any worse informed than the voters of Chingford and Woodford Green who will vote for anyone who promises they can keep both their two car household and the triple lock?
It suits the left on here to portray their supported as dumb, racist Fu****s It obviates the need to interrogate their thoughts and hopes and reinforced theiru h loved sense of moral superiority. It's one reason the site is so boring these days
I don't agree about the site, but I do think in the countty as a whole there has been something of a capture of the left by what I'd describe as the 'comfortable left' (of which I am very much a part).
The left badly needs an economically coherent narrative that addresses the concerns of financially insecure voters.
I suspect the narrative is there, but I don't hear anyone making it.
But the Marxist notion of the left is a very unpopular to the voter. Corbyn is the closest we had and he was eviscerated in the newspapers and at the polls twice. OK there was a moment where his star ascended briefly until we on the left all realised we were Centrist Conservatives/ Blaitites/LDs.
Clacton is a cesspit of low aspiration, low education and anger. Let’s not look in the mirror and reflect, let’s point the fingers. Far easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings, isn’t it?
The FRITLF phenomenon at play again. The far right do not and never have done self reflection. It’s always someone else’s fault. Even what they do themselves, even when they bring disaster upon themselves or the country by their own hands, it’s someone else’s fault. “She provoked me”. The abuser’s mentality.
It’s some else’s fault is a very persuasive argument for people with both little and little aspiration.
And that is both Farage’s target audience.
Another day
Another ‘let’s sneer at the underclass’ vibe on PB.
No wonder Reform exists. These people know they and their communities are despised. They have a vote. They will use it.
A fair point which deserves addressing.
But in return, what does Farage offer them other than grievance ? His only substantive policy - Brexit - has done nothing for them (and has very likely further impoverished poorer regions). Two third if the electorate now judge it a failure.
Immigration, his other rallying cry, rocketed post-Brexit under a government led by a Brexiteer. It's now falling substantially under a government he despises.
And his other great interest - crypto - is completely removed from the lives of those in Clacton. His constituency, which he barely deigns to visit.
The man is a charlatan.
I’m no fan of Farage.
Blaming the underclass for their position in life, when we don’t have equality of opportunity in this country, is extremely condescending.
Perhaps if people engaged with them and asked why the appeal instead of just sneering at them, then we’d find out.
The impression I get, and this is Micro not Macro, is Reform are the ones actually listening to these people and acknowledging their concerns.
That’s the first step.
And acknowledging concerns doesn’t mean agreeing with them.
Farage et al may well be listening to grievances, but they seem to prefer stoking them to resolving them.
So what’s your solution
Keep,voting the same old ?
No one resolves them. But the other main parties just refuse to even acknowledge them. But it’s PB so Reform are bad, so vote for the other parties who’ve done nothing to improve these peoples lives and their communities in decades
Clacton is a cesspit of low aspiration, low education and anger. Let’s not look in the mirror and reflect, let’s point the fingers. Far easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings, isn’t it?
The FRITLF phenomenon at play again. The far right do not and never have done self reflection. It’s always someone else’s fault. Even what they do themselves, even when they bring disaster upon themselves or the country by their own hands, it’s someone else’s fault. “She provoked me”. The abuser’s mentality.
It’s some else’s fault is a very persuasive argument for people with both little and little aspiration.
And that is both Farage’s target audience.
Another day
Another ‘let’s sneer at the underclass’ vibe on PB.
No wonder Reform exists. These people know they and their communities are despised. They have a vote. They will use it.
The sneering is from you calling them an underclass - they aren't.
I've learnt over the decades that a lot of people are very happy in their own small world and their aspirations are really just a house, a car and enough money to do their hobbies... And the modern world has often taken that simply world away from them..
you fking need to get out more
I know billionaires and people who rarely leave the council estate they were born in (because they don't want to). Not everyone has grand desires for a great live, some people really do just want the world they knew as they grew up to still exist..
Not just that- it's an incredibly human thing to want. It is not something to despise. As animals in clothes, we're mostly not really set up to be Anywheres. (Whose theory of Brexit was that?)
Trouble is that the prosperity we crave depends on distant connectedness and mobility. And that's a really hard contradiction to resolve. (It does explain the Gold Club Bore wing of Reform; they are prosperous enough to care about higher things.)
Reform wouldnt exist if the Tories and Labour were doing their job right. They have created a huge vacuum in society and left it for Farage.
I’m not sure what your point is. That is literally democracy.
The point is quite simple. There's no point the posh parties moaning about Farage when they have been ignoring those who vote for him for years. And yes that is democracy.
Why shouldn’t they moan about Farage if they disagree with him? Posh views and opinions are still valid views and opinions.
Yes, that’s very PB. It’s the residents of Clacton and other Reform area whose views are not valid 👍
Clacton is a cesspit of low aspiration, low education and anger. Let’s not look in the mirror and reflect, let’s point the fingers. Far easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings, isn’t it?
The FRITLF phenomenon at play again. The far right do not and never have done self reflection. It’s always someone else’s fault. Even what they do themselves, even when they bring disaster upon themselves or the country by their own hands, it’s someone else’s fault. “She provoked me”. The abuser’s mentality.
It’s some else’s fault is a very persuasive argument for people with both little and little aspiration.
And that is both Farage’s target audience.
Another day
Another ‘let’s sneer at the underclass’ vibe on PB.
No wonder Reform exists. These people know they and their communities are despised. They have a vote. They will use it.
The sneering is from you calling them an underclass - they aren't.
I've learnt over the decades that a lot of people are very happy in their own small world and their aspirations are really just a house, a car and enough money to do their hobbies... And the modern world has often taken that simply world away from them..
you fking need to get out more
I know billionaires and people who rarely leave the council estate they were born in (because they don't want to). Not everyone has grand desires for a great live, some people really do just want the world they knew as they grew up to still exist..
Not just that- it's an incredibly human thing to want. It is not something to despise. As animals in clothes, we're mostly not really set up to be Anywheres. (Whose theory of Brexit was that?)
Trouble is that the prosperity we crave depends on distant connectedness and mobility. And that's a really hard contradiction to resolve. (It does explain the Gold Club Bore wing of Reform; they are prosperous enough to care about higher things.)
Reform wouldnt exist if the Tories and Labour were doing their job right. They have created a huge vacuum in society and left it for Farage.
I’m not sure what your point is. That is literally democracy.
The point is quite simple. There's no point the posh parties moaning about Farage when they have been ignoring those who vote for him for years. And yes that is democracy.
Labour reduced pensioner poverty from over 50% to about 15% from 1997 to 2005. Yet it’s these low income households that are now voting for Reform.
Reducing poverty by just moving a line on a graph.
People need to feel it and that was over 20 years ago. Low income is still low income.
Clacton is a cesspit of low aspiration, low education and anger. Let’s not look in the mirror and reflect, let’s point the fingers. Far easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings, isn’t it?
The FRITLF phenomenon at play again. The far right do not and never have done self reflection. It’s always someone else’s fault. Even what they do themselves, even when they bring disaster upon themselves or the country by their own hands, it’s someone else’s fault. “She provoked me”. The abuser’s mentality.
It’s some else’s fault is a very persuasive argument for people with both little and little aspiration.
And that is both Farage’s target audience.
Another day
Another ‘let’s sneer at the underclass’ vibe on PB.
No wonder Reform exists. These people know they and their communities are despised. They have a vote. They will use it.
The sneering is from you calling them an underclass - they aren't.
I've learnt over the decades that a lot of people are very happy in their own small world and their aspirations are really just a house, a car and enough money to do their hobbies... And the modern world has often taken that simply world away from them..
you fking need to get out more
I know billionaires and people who rarely leave the council estate they were born in (because they don't want to). Not everyone has grand desires for a great live, some people really do just want the world they knew as they grew up to still exist..
Not just that- it's an incredibly human thing to want. It is not something to despise. As animals in clothes, we're mostly not really set up to be Anywheres. (Whose theory of Brexit was that?)
Trouble is that the prosperity we crave depends on distant connectedness and mobility. And that's a really hard contradiction to resolve. (It does explain the Gold Club Bore wing of Reform; they are prosperous enough to care about higher things.)
Reform wouldnt exist if the Tories and Labour were doing their job right. They have created a huge vacuum in society and left it for Farage.
I’m not sure what your point is. That is literally democracy.
The point is quite simple. There's no point the posh parties moaning about Farage when they have been ignoring those who vote for him for years. And yes that is democracy.
Why shouldn’t they moan about Farage if they disagree with him? Posh views and opinions are still valid views and opinions.
Farage spends his every waking minute moaning about scrutiny and the “establishment”
And people here spend their every moment here moaning about him. It’s like a circular human centipede. Farage at the front and the centrist dads all feeding.
Clacton is a cesspit of low aspiration, low education and anger. Let’s not look in the mirror and reflect, let’s point the fingers. Far easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings, isn’t it?
The FRITLF phenomenon at play again. The far right do not and never have done self reflection. It’s always someone else’s fault. Even what they do themselves, even when they bring disaster upon themselves or the country by their own hands, it’s someone else’s fault. “She provoked me”. The abuser’s mentality.
It’s some else’s fault is a very persuasive argument for people with both little and little aspiration.
And that is both Farage’s target audience.
Another day
Another ‘let’s sneer at the underclass’ vibe on PB.
No wonder Reform exists. These people know they and their communities are despised. They have a vote. They will use it.
A fair point which deserves addressing.
But in return, what does Farage offer them other than grievance ? His only substantive policy - Brexit - has done nothing for them (and has very likely further impoverished poorer regions). Two third if the electorate now judge it a failure.
Immigration, his other rallying cry, rocketed post-Brexit under a government led by a Brexiteer. It's now falling substantially under a government he despises.
And his other great interest - crypto - is completely removed from the lives of those in Clacton. His constituency, which he barely deigns to visit.
The man is a charlatan.
I’m no fan of Farage.
Blaming the underclass for their position in life, when we don’t have equality of opportunity in this country, is extremely condescending.
Perhaps if people engaged with them and asked why the appeal instead of just sneering at them, then we’d find out.
The impression I get, and this is Micro not Macro, is Reform are the ones actually listening to these people and acknowledging their concerns.
That’s the first step.
And acknowledging concerns doesn’t mean agreeing with them.
You can also observe the vacuum on the the posh middle classes, who have the benefit of university education to look down on people not as gifted or as articulate as themselves and who have no experience of the tougher end of life.
The left have become the class snobs they used to criticise.
This is hardly a new development, Orwell was writing about this in the 1940s (and sounding quite sneering himself in the process, as is always the risk with these sorts of things of course). I've probably come across a broader range of people than many have, I've done menial jobs for sub minimum wage, I've lived on a council estate, I've spent 8 years living abroad, I've lived in Scotland, the North East and London, I know billionaires and people on benefits. It takes all sorts, everyone has lived a different life and brings those experiences to bear when they look at the world. I try not to judge people but I do value certain things like being kind and interested in other people and I am bored by ignorance. Unkindness and ignorance can be found everywhere and I won't apologise for calling it out wherever I see it. I don't consider myself so far removed from anyone else in this country that I can't criticise them for fear of being perceived as a snob.
Well I could let this descend into the 4 Yorkshiremen but I'll simply say that you appear to have lost any empathy for those you have left behind. The sign of a successful society is it lifts everyone one up rather than a handful of snobs.
Clacton is a cesspit of low aspiration, low education and anger. Let’s not look in the mirror and reflect, let’s point the fingers. Far easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings, isn’t it?
The FRITLF phenomenon at play again. The far right do not and never have done self reflection. It’s always someone else’s fault. Even what they do themselves, even when they bring disaster upon themselves or the country by their own hands, it’s someone else’s fault. “She provoked me”. The abuser’s mentality.
It’s some else’s fault is a very persuasive argument for people with both little and little aspiration.
And that is both Farage’s target audience.
Another day
Another ‘let’s sneer at the underclass’ vibe on PB.
No wonder Reform exists. These people know they and their communities are despised. They have a vote. They will use it.
A fair point which deserves addressing.
But in return, what does Farage offer them other than grievance ? His only substantive policy - Brexit - has done nothing for them (and has very likely further impoverished poorer regions). Two third if the electorate now judge it a failure.
Immigration, his other rallying cry, rocketed post-Brexit under a government led by a Brexiteer. It's now falling substantially under a government he despises.
And his other great interest - crypto - is completely removed from the lives of those in Clacton. His constituency, which he barely deigns to visit.
The man is a charlatan.
I’m no fan of Farage.
Blaming the underclass for their position in life, when we don’t have equality of opportunity in this country, is extremely condescending.
Perhaps if people engaged with them and asked why the appeal instead of just sneering at them, then we’d find out.
The impression I get, and this is Micro not Macro, is Reform are the ones actually listening to these people and acknowledging their concerns.
That’s the first step.
And acknowledging concerns doesn’t mean agreeing with them.
Farage et al may well be listening to grievances, but they seem to prefer stoking them to resolving them.
So what’s your solution
Keep,voting the same old ?
No one resolves them. But the other main parties just refuse to even acknowledge them. But it’s PB so Reform are bad, so vote for the other parties who’ve done nothing to improve these peoples lives and their communities in decades
I think it's a little more nuanced than that.
The main parties are not doing nothing, I just think they sit on the wrong side of the incremental change Vs radical break with current orthodoxy.
This is for good reason - any radical change is high risk, whether it is closing our borders to cheap labour and different cultures, or 'refusing to be in hock to the bond markets'.
Those with a lot invested in the current system (which includes all of us) are understandably cautious about messing with it. But that goes down like a cup of cold sick for those who perceive (rightly or wrongly) that the current system works against them.
Or, to put it another way, the Greens are a full three points ahead of Restore.
Speaking seriously, MRPs have been consistently worse for Green than VI polls, which is why I don't believe the wilder extrapolations. I can see them getting double figures perhaps, but not much more and possibly less.
Reform really haven't worked out how to deal with a comedian posing as a bin. I would gently suggest that opposition research probably isn't going to help them.
The satirical candidate known as Count Binface is comedian and BBC comedy writer Jonathan David Harvey. He is a Remain voter who strongly opposes Brexit, Trump, and right-wing politics. It has also been reported he said Britain should welcome all migrants.
His costume may bring laughter, and visible fun to by elections but he is asset of the deep state to undermine democracy and right-wing politics. Bottom line: Voting for Count Binface isn’t supporting some harmless novelty act.
Has Platner actually dropped out ? It's still slightly unclear whether he's done that, or just announced that he intends to do so.
Inside the tense final hours of Graham Platner’s campaign https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/09/graham-platner-campaign-final-hours-00991485 Graham Platner went down swinging — even as some of his political confidants urged him not to. Several of the embattled Maine Democrat’s closest advisers pleaded with him Wednesday to strike a “conciliatory” tone in the announcement terminating his Senate campaign, according to two people close to Platner’s team with knowledge of the internal discussions. But the progressive bucked their advice and made it a condition of dropping out of the race that he get free rein to assail establishment Democrats and blame them for the ignominious end to his rapid political rise. And so, shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday — just two days after POLITICO reported that a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021 — the oysterman released a defiant, emotional social media video. He continued to deny the allegations against him. He blasted the “corporate media system and the political establishment” for acting as “judge, jury and executioner.” And he railed against Washington Democrats for ripping the rug out from under him. “Those in power, who have the ability to do so, are using these allegations as an excuse to take away all of the things that we need to run a campaign,” Platner said. “They would rather see Susan Collins win than have me be the next senator from Maine.”..
I'm shocked, shocked that Trump would suggest such a thing.
"Elected mayors to be ineligible for Parliament until after their term of office."
A silly discussion of course, but doesn't the term of office finish on resignation as well as what is called the full term of office if there is no resignation or similar?
Comments
"Matt Goodwin
@GoodwinMJ
Nigel Farage just called a by-election in Clacton so that the People can take on the Rotten Establishment and take back their country.
This is 4D chess."
https://x.com/GoodwinMJ/status/2074486311595937925
Not aspiring to be Elon Musk? The Pope? The PM?
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, A Loaf of Bread—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
One more thing about Platner being a butt about dropping out, dictating terms (yeah, another Platner post, but important). I'm surprised that people aren't recognizing this, given that it's such an obsession on the left and so on-the-nose here: Power. Dropping out is submitting...
https://x.com/SeanTrende/status/2074890868385783853
Platner was selected by an overwhelming majority in the primary; just ditching him isn't in anyone's power.
The only thing which made a difference was undeniable evidence of his misdeeds, which got even his endorsers like Bernie abandoning him.
He finally stepped down last night.
NEW THREAD
With liberals viewing Platner as 'authentic' wwc and MAGA viewing Walker as 'authentic' southern black ?
Barefaced cheek of the man.
So what’s your solution
Keep,voting the same old ?
No one resolves them. But the other main parties just refuse to even acknowledge them. But it’s PB so Reform are bad, so vote for the other parties who’ve done nothing to improve these peoples lives and their communities in decades
People need to feel it and that was over 20 years ago. Low income is still low income.
The main parties are not doing nothing, I just think they sit on the wrong side of the incremental change Vs radical break with current orthodoxy.
This is for good reason - any radical change is high risk, whether it is closing our borders to cheap labour and different cultures, or 'refusing to be in hock to the bond markets'.
Those with a lot invested in the current system (which includes all of us) are understandably cautious about messing with it. But that goes down like a cup of cold sick for those who perceive (rightly or wrongly) that the current system works against them.
Speaking seriously, MRPs have been consistently worse for Green than VI polls, which is why I don't believe the wilder extrapolations. I can see them getting double figures perhaps, but not much more and possibly less.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/blogs/ec_vipoll_20260708.html
I would gently suggest that opposition research probably isn't going to help them.
"Asset of the deep state" is proper bonkers.
Reform are questioning who funds Count Binface.
This is better than anyone could have imagined
https://x.com/JimCognito2016/status/2074841356757840081
REVEALED: The Man Behind Count Binface
The satirical candidate known as Count Binface is comedian and BBC comedy writer Jonathan David Harvey.
He is a Remain voter who strongly opposes Brexit, Trump, and right-wing politics. It has also been reported he said Britain should welcome all migrants.
His costume may bring laughter, and visible fun to by elections but he is asset of the deep state to undermine democracy and right-wing politics.
Bottom line: Voting for Count Binface isn’t supporting some harmless novelty act.
It’s a vote for Labour.
https://x.com/TheBritLad/status/2074987420370768009
"Elected mayors to be ineligible for Parliament until after their term of office."
It's still slightly unclear whether he's done that, or just announced that he intends to do so.
Inside the tense final hours of Graham Platner’s campaign
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/09/graham-platner-campaign-final-hours-00991485
Graham Platner went down swinging — even as some of his political confidants urged him not to.
Several of the embattled Maine Democrat’s closest advisers pleaded with him Wednesday to strike a “conciliatory” tone in the announcement terminating his Senate campaign, according to two people close to Platner’s team with knowledge of the internal discussions. But the progressive bucked their advice and made it a condition of dropping out of the race that he get free rein to assail establishment Democrats and blame them for the ignominious end to his rapid political rise.
And so, shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday — just two days after POLITICO reported that a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2021 — the oysterman released a defiant, emotional social media video. He continued to deny the allegations against him. He blasted the “corporate media system and the political establishment” for acting as “judge, jury and executioner.” And he railed against Washington Democrats for ripping the rug out from under him.
“Those in power, who have the ability to do so, are using these allegations as an excuse to take away all of the things that we need to run a campaign,” Platner said. “They would rather see Susan Collins win than have me be the next senator from Maine.”..
I'm shocked, shocked that Trump would suggest such a thing.
Trump on Platner Allegations: It’s really a question of whether or not you believe the woman. A lot of people say big falsehoods.
https://x.com/Acyn/status/2075007465650004339