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.
Standard pattern - people in charge don't improve people's lives or deliver anything significantly better, far-right (or more generically, someone with apparently easy answers) make big gains.
The question is, why don't the people in charge improve people's lives and deliver anything significantly better?
Simple answer in my opinion: Because they are either stupid, obsessed idealogues, in the pockets of big business, cloistered from something approaching real life, or some combination of these.
I am open to other reasons, I may have missed something.
I will almost be certainly voting Lib Dem in the next election, even though they cannot win in my location, because they, to me, are the least worst. Should I not bother?
You should not. One could make honorable exceptions for people like David Steel (who when young introduced the private members' bill to legalise abortion), Paddy Ashdown, Charles Kennedy up to a point (the point being reached when he took the screwtop off a fresh bottle) and Ming Campbell, but basically it will always be the party of Jeremy Thorpe, Cyril Smith and Clement Freud, it attracts people like that and there is always a hell of a lot of weird **** going on in it under the surface.
There are often, in any given constituency, decent local civic single-issue campaigners who stand as candidates, and it may be better to vote for one of these, even though they'll only poll in the hundreds, than to encourage one of the usual big-party weirdos who want to be on TV and tell the rest of us what to do and fiddle their expenses.
What a lovely bunch.
"Samuel Corner attacked them, going so far as to strike a female officer, Sgt Kate Evans, across the back with his sledgehammer while she was on the floor, facing away from him."
"Having hit her once, he raised the sledgehammer again and hit her with it a second time,"
This feels pretty significant. You can only assume that on average these people are taking a significant amount of either skills or financial capital with them
"the ONS now thinks that 257,000 British nationals left the UK in 2024 while 143,000 Britons living abroad returned. That means net emigration of Britons - the difference between departures and arrivals - is 114,000 people"
You’d have to assume that they're leaving because, as educated professionals with skills that are needed elsewhere, they can, whereas other people are stuck here in the increasingly toxic environment created by you and your cohort of 5am rage posting unstable extremists.
Looks like he didn't racially abuse any Jews this morning, so he's clearly having withdrawal symptoms.
Conflating Israelis with Jews is textbook antisemitism, so you can add that to your bulging portfolio of bigotry which includes immigrants, Muslims, feminists and women.
On another though related note, Reforms representatives are mainly public school educated.
I don't know why a respected left wing constituency MP would give up his seat for centre right Burnham. It's a bit strange. Maybe he's just had enough of being in such a horrid right wing government.
Labour MP Clive Lewis has offered to give up his seat to allow Andy Burnham to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership.
There has been ongoing speculation that Greater Manchester Mayor Burnham wants to take on Sir Keir for the top job, but he would need to be an MP to do so.
Lewis told the BBC's Politics Live that he was willing to step down from his Norwich South seat to allow Burnham to return to the Commons and put "country before party, party before personal ambition".
Burnham was contacted for comment. Number 10 declined to comment.
Lewis, who has been an MP for 10 years, said he had spoken to Burnham, and when asked if he would give up his seat for him, he said it was "a question I've asked myself".
You know what is anti-Semitic? Spending half your life writing literally thousands of posts attacking "Israel".
You know what’s a sign of someone unhappy with their life? Repeatedly waking at 4am in a rage and going online to seethe post incel takes on immigrants, Muslims and how feminism ruined your chances of finding a life partner.
lol Elracist. Look within.
Ignore him. It's been 20 hours since he attacked some Jews, sorry, correction "Israel", so he must be having severe withdrawal symptoms at this point.
Ex leader of Reform in Wales given a 10.5 year jail sentence after admitting eight counts of bribery that included giving pro-Russia interviews and speeches in the EU Parliament where he was an MEP for six years.
Ex leader of Reform in Wales given a 10.5 year jail sentence after admitting eight counts of bribery that included giving pro-Russia interviews and speeches in the EU Parliament where he was an MEP for six years.
Reform has this huge poll lead, and you wonder if and when people are going to cotton on that Reform is... basically like that.
Boris Johnson took four days off as NHS warned Covid could ‘overwhelm’ system
Boris Johnson took four days off from official government business during a key period in the UK’s Covid preparation when the NHS was bracing to be “overwhelmed” by the virus.
Official disclosure for the period in February 2020 – described by the Covid inquiry as a “lost month” in the country’s crisis response – reveal Johnson enjoyed an extended break during the half-term holidays at Chevening, a governmental estate in Kent, where he spent time walking his dog and taking motorcycle rides.
The former prime minister was questioned on his activities between 14 and 24 February 2020 when he appeared at the inquiry in December 2023. He said: “There wasn’t a long holiday that I took. I was working throughout the period and the tempo did increase.”
Boris Johnson reacts while leading a press conference inside 10 Downing Street on the Covid pandemic
‘Too little, too late’: damning report condemns UK’s Covid response
Read more
But official activity logs appear to undermine evidence that Johnson gave under oath.
The files suggest that Johnson did not conduct any official government business on 15, 16, 17 and 21 February. Instead, he appears to have spent time walking his jack russell dog, Dilyn, in Chevening’s 1,416 hectare (3,500 acre) grounds, riding a motorbike given to him by his now wife, Carrie, and hosting friends and family for lunches, dinners and overnight stays.
Seems like I've hit a raw nerve with incElracist.
Well done on holding off posting for almost two hours this morning after waking in a furious rage again.
Seek help.
You know what is anti-Semitic? Spending half your life writing literally thousands of posts attacking "Israel".
Certainly isn't. You need to grow up
