British Politics
Been on holiday for a few weeks, surprised to find no general discussion of British politics so though I'd kick one off.
Tory leadership contest is quickly turning into farce. Trump has backed Boris, which should be reason enough for anyone with half a brain to exclude him.
Of the other candidates Rory Stewart looks the best of the outsiders. Surprised to see Cleverly and Javid not further up the betting, but not sure the Tory membership are ready for a brown PM.
https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/bri...
Regarding the LD leadership contest, Jo Swinson is miles ahead of any other candidate (and indeed any of the Tory lot). Should be a shoe in.
Finally, it's Groundhog Day in Labour - the more serious the anti-Semitism claims get, the more Corbyn's cronies write their own obituary by blaming it on outlandish conspiracy theories - this week, it's apparently the Jewish Embassy's fault...
Farage says he's aiming to be credible candidate to take over as PM at next general election
...
Asked if he was committed to leading “a centre-right coalition” taking on Labour at the time of the next election, Farage replied: ‘That’s absolutely right. That’s our ambition and we believe it is achievable.”
Many commentators would query whether any movement led by Farage would be described as “centre-right”. For reasons explained here, the terms radical right or far right might be more accurate.
Some Tories would like see Farage playing this role as Conservative party leader (assuming he would be allowed to join). Some of his Reform UK colleagues just want to replace the Conservative party. Farage himself has suggested the two parties could merge in what he has called a reverse takeover. In the Today interview he was not asked about the exact mechanism by which he envisaged leading a rightwing opposition in five years’ time.
This is going to be Starmers real legacy. By failing to offer a choice between right wing and left wing policies he’s enabled a fascist like Farage to correctly point at the two main parties and declare they’re all the same.
the more that Angela Rayner argued with Penny Mordaunt, the more they sounded the same. There are no real, fundamental differences between these two parties.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/art...
Both a sign of the danger we're in and a ray of hope
Sadly we are still a long, long way off from enough people rejecting the uniparty
it's so funny to see the radical ultra left calling the actual left "no choice vs the right", these things are what gives me a glimmer of hope we can actually avoid leftism destroying the west if we properly ally against it
lol I just read Reform wrote a "contract with you" and I got reminded of Berlusconi doing the same in may 2001 ("contratto con gli italiani") on National television (when that mattered a lot)
apparently Gringich invented the meme in 1994 in the USA
All entirely predictable. His obviously endgame is to capture the Tory party, and I don't see how this doesn't happen. The only thing that surprises me is that the Tories are going to be so badly beaten that he will be able to accomplish it very quickly post-election, particularly if he gets in in Clacton.
Starmer will beat the Tories in spite of his political offering, not because of it. Either the Tories will quickly regroup under someone like Badenoch, or they will flounder for a couple of years allowing Farage to sneak in through the back door and take over. I think either Badenoch or Farage beat Starmer in 5 years, as his flagship policy is to maintain the same policies that have got the Tories kicked out.
The small hope we have of any real change appears to be that Starmer turns out as radical as Thatcher when she got in (but not in a Wicked Witch of the West kind of way) and all this vacuity is a front for a radical...
small, small, small hope obvs.
I only wish we had someone really dedicated to the environment (pushing renewable resources and research), and pushing better public transport, renationalised water and rail system, that kind of thing.
No there’s absolutely zero hope of that I’m afraid. You don’t get to be DPP if you’re a free thinking radical.
And anyway, just look at him and listen to his voice.
There is a small hope of that
He may need our votes to win multiple terms and he may realise it. The first part is up to us.
I'm afraid I agree with the Faragists - if Labour don't fix at least some of the problems that people are experiencing and which Tory voters on their doorsteps talk about, they might well not get another chance.
I think you're right. People's patience are really at an end with useless politicians. Next step, those with the easy answers eg demagogues :(
I'd expect to see Farage given a fairly easy ride by journalists who feel unable to raise very obvious points (or as client journalists who have an interest in not raising them).
Brexit is done now for a long time, but Farage must be challenged for all the lies he's told to people along the way.
I think we will probably avoid king farage but it's just buying time unless the main parties do something. Like truss and others it's always going to be:
"Things have to change. Here's change"
The first is true and if we dont answer it then we're dodging bullets all the time
I'm afraid I agree with the Faragists - if Labour don't fix at least some of the problems that people are experiencing and which Tory voters on their doorsteps talk about, they might well not get another chance.
It's obviously true. We've been banging on about it for years.
Brexit is done now for a long time, but Farage must be challenged for all the lies he's told to people along the way.
Dont agree with that at all. Farage & co wins the gutter stuff at a canter. Offer a good alternative, do serious stuff and bang on about it as much as possible.
If called out on Brexit, Farage can just respond that the Tories screwed Brexit up. I don’t think it’s a good attack line against him in practice.
and there will be moments in time when our economy looks good compared to europe. Arguing nonsense about economics is just setting oursleves up.
It's obviously true. We've been banging on about it for years.
Dont agree with that at all. Farage & co wins the gutter stuff at a canter. Offer a good alternative, do serious stuff and bang on about it as much as possible.
A good alternative involves closer ties with the EU, which highlights what a load of **** was talked by Farage, Johnson, Rees-Mogg, Davis etc whether you bang on about that or not. It's a totally unavoidable conclusion.
A good alternative needs to address the real issues such as housing, health, inequality etc. Seriously doung stuff about them. Sure closer ties with the EU but that's not the headlines.
If we don't do that we're ****ed. If instead we argue about the lies of brexit we're doubly ****ed.
I don't know where you think the money is coming from to fix those problems without re-establishing closer ties with our closest neighbours and/or raising taxes a lot.
labor is already fixing inequality in the UK! and they aren't even governing yet
Great, can we take their houses?
How do they know these people are going to leave anyway? Because they threaten to? lol
Seriously, if these people feel threatened by a total wash out like Starmer the UK is a better place without them.
