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...
Italy's in the EU, so it doesn't have an altogether independent immigration policy, not that Britain's theoretically independent policy is working out well. And one curious side-effect of Brexit is that it's put Continental right-wing and populist parties off the idea of leaving the EU. It's not seen as a beneficial move. After all, Britain's now reduced to trying to export immature strawberries to Japan (assuming they'll be ripe on arrival) because the red tape involved in exports to the Contin
Yes Brexit has been so disastrous even from a rightwing point of view, even the most extremist movements stopped asking for exit in other countries.
The irony of kicking away white christian polish and rumenian people to get more coloured Muslims isn't lost on them.
For technocratic neo liberals, trade disasters proved they were right that exiting was nonsense.
Not really feasible. Bit like deciding to do without the weather, of which Oscar Wilde once said, 'Everyone complains about it, but no one actually does anything.'
It's feasible anyway. Not funny but feasible.
You just need to give up on poor elders, and you are done. They can't do much against you if you reduce their pensions and healthcare can they?
If poor elders lose 5 or 10 years of life expectancy vs counterfactual 30, years from now, they live as people did in 2010, is that a nightmare?
Imma vote lib dem
starmer calling the tory document a corbyn-style manifesto is tremendous, A+ trolling. bravo
Sunk citing the absence of Sky TV from his family home when he was growing up as deprivation.
I've unblocked Jalfrezi, just till the elections over. Or until he annoys me too much
idk why people think anyone's interested in who they've blocked or haven't blocked. Weird.
Could've sung it to me instead.
Never voting for this lying ****.
I've found a socialist standing as an independent who'll get my vote. He's far from perfect but he'll do.
♥
I literally don't know who to vote for. I want someone who will actually seriously address environmental issues, but even the greens don't seem to be suggesting serious solutions.
All I know is it won't be tory or Reform
👍
I think that's the main thing really - starve those two awful parties of votes - but the lack of genuine alternative ideas is appalling in his generation of politicians, making it fertile ground for the far right.
I still think the idea of replacing income tax with a land/property tax would appeal to most people and would trap the elite into having to contribute more.
I literally don't know who to vote for. I want someone who will actually seriously address environmental issues, but even the greens don't seem to be suggesting serious solutions.
All I know is it won't be tory or Reform
I'm still voting green, although I agree it's more a case of voting for the least worst (and the optics of it).
incidentally, I just got back from Eastern Europe with the missus after we went to celebrate her birthday with her family. People over there couldn't give a flying **** about the environment. There are 10 EV charge points across the whole city (pop. 400k). Okay, I get that EVs are primarily a middle class status symbol, but even in the wealthy areas no one is bothering with them, or solar, and they even have to pay people to recycle.
It's probably going to be a case of vote for green because you know they won't get in, but maybe a decent chunk of green votes will make labour think about reversing it's abandonment of green policies.
I'm still voting green, although I agree it's more a case of voting for the least worst (and the optics of it).
incidentally, I just got back from Eastern Europe with the missus after we went to celebrate her birthday with her family. People over there couldn't give a flying **** about the environment. There are 10 EV charge points across the whole city (pop. 400k). Okay, I get that EVs are primarily a middle class status symbol, but even in the wealthy areas no one is bothering with them, or so
That's normal in Italy outside a few elite in a few progressive cities, and in France as well. EVs aren't middle class status symbol here at all.
people installed solar in rural settings when it was close to free to do so but eastern europe, italy and france have many more condos than the UK, normal "houses" (where you alone own the building from the ground to the roof) are extremely rare in urban settings.
Never voting for this lying ****.
I've found a socialist standing as an independent who'll get my vote. He's far from perfect but he'll do.
edited becasue I was happily wrong and I do have someone to vote for
Emma Dent Coad is standing as independent (or proper labour as we might call it) in Kensington and Bayswater
Yes I'd vote for her too.
LOL
I literally don't know who to vote for. I want someone who will actually seriously address environmental issues, but even the greens don't seem to be suggesting serious solutions.
All I know is it won't be tory or Reform
It seems like quite a lot of people are in that fix, but, overall, Labour are likely to win anyway because of the degree of disappointment with the Conservatives in England (and with the SNP in Scotland, it being a usual rule that Labour can't win without Scotland and they are now likely to poll quite well there -- though Labour gains in England may make this less important than it used to be).
I literally don't know who to vote for. I want someone who will actually seriously address environmental issues, but even the greens don't seem to be suggesting serious solutions.
All I know is it won't be tory or Reform
Good luck finding anyone that will tell China and India to **** off building new fossil powered energy any time soon
As an aside, can you still get mortgages in, say, the Netherlands?
As we predicted, officially the laughing stock of Europe:
france desperately needs better as well. As does much of europe
Macron's hubris may be the undoing of France
Trust and confidence in the UK’s politics and election system has never been worse, according to analysis by the electoral expert, Sir John Curtice.
His report for the National Centre for Social Research finds record numbers of voters saying they “almost never” trust governments to put country before party or politicians to tell the truth when in a tight corner.
“The public is as doubtful as it has ever been about the trustworthiness and efficacy of the country’s system of government and the people who comprise it,” Sir John says.
The report, external suggests disillusionment over Brexit among leave voters is one of the main reasons for the collapse in trust.
Brexit had not necessarily turned out as many had hoped, Sir John told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"Leave supporters in particular have just basically gone back to being extremely doubtful about our politicians, about our system of government," he said.
