Lord Duckhunter Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 45 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said: JK Rowling does but that was more in response to testing the ill-fated and ill-designed new speech laws in Scotland. The laws that a majority of Labour MS’s voted for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 2 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said: Most really don’t I’m afraid. JK Rowling does but that was more in response to testing the ill-fated and ill-designed new speech laws in Scotland. There’s the Kathleen Stock case at Sussex Uni but that’s about it. Outside of a few cultural warriors in the Tory Party who listen to too many Steve Bannon speeches and are obsessed with American Politics/Trump and the Daily Mail, it barely registers. Maybe it does if you’re transgender, a family member is, or you work in elite women’s sport but otherwise, it’s really not an important everyday issue for 99.9% of the public. If CCHQ thinks it is, it needs to sack its researchers. Top 6 issues featuring consistently and overwhelmingly in You Gov polls: - NHS - Cost of Living - Housing - Climate Change - Crime - Asylum and immigration I can see defence joining those with the threat from Putin, China and Iran maybe nearer the GE date. I think there's plenty of things you can worry about at the same time. One of them in Scotland, and the one Rowling is so involved in, relates to a party taken over by idealogical bigots, who in turn have helped a larger party go down the same route. Other parties have also helped them along their way, as incompetent and beholden to not seeming to be phobic to anything. The hate crime act was widely seen as a screen to allow one side of certain debates to be protected. The upcoming bill on women's rights is controversial as there are issues in defining what a woman is. While it's one issue, it's connected to others. For example, Kate Forbes has certain views opposed to the Green's campaigns. The SNP troughers depend on the Greens, Bute House Agreement or not. They have already said they won't support Forbes. They're essentially power brokers helping to nod through a candidate best aligned to them, never mind the majority who didn't vote for them at all. And who don't agree with their stance on a number of issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloucester Saint Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said: The laws that a majority of Labour MS’s voted for? Well, they shouldn’t have done, none of the MSPs should. Crap piece of legislation, and largely unenforceable. As for the trans stuff, I usually (not always) vote Lib Dem and I’ve no idea what Davey has said or hasn’t said on the issue. I don’t much care either, I leave it to the ‘my pronoun is x/y/z’ brigade and the culture war wallies to battle it out. I’ve got nothing against trans people whatsoever, I’d just want to focus on sorting out NHS waiting lists, the economy, public services, education, transport, armed forces, get the borders policy and asylum (NOT the same thing as migration) in better nick before anything else gets a serious look in. By all means call me old fashioned. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan The Flames Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 Starmer changing his mind on transgender women is annoying all the 'look what you'll get if you vote in Labour' mouthpieces. Sir Kier playing a blinder. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeBizzier69 Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 14 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said: Most really don’t I’m afraid. JK Rowling does but that was more in response to testing the ill-fated and ill-designed new speech laws in Scotland. There’s the Kathleen Stock case at Sussex Uni but that’s about it. Outside of a few cultural warriors in the Tory Party who listen to too many Steve Bannon speeches and are obsessed with American Politics/Trump and the Daily Mail, it barely registers. Maybe it does if you’re transgender, a family member is, or you work in elite women’s sport but otherwise, it’s really not an important everyday issue for 99.9% of the public. If CCHQ thinks it is, it needs to sack its researchers. Top 6 issues featuring consistently and overwhelmingly in You Gov polls: - NHS - Cost of Living - Housing - Climate Change - Crime - Asylum and immigration I can see defence joining those with the threat from Putin, China and Iran maybe nearer the GE date. I don't disagree with this at all - but it's a little concerning when the leader of a major political party comes out with that kind of drivel, regardless of whether he's since retracted it. For those of us with young daughters at school, it's absolutely in our minds. Veering off topic i realise, apologies. I won't be voting Tory or Labour (undecided what i'll do yet), but do people really think this Labour party will turn things around? It's going to happen so time will tell i guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallyboy Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 It's a bit like being 10 points adrift at Christmas. A new manager might not be able to change things from here, but to continue down the current path of abject failure would be insane. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weston Super Saint Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 (edited) 1 hour ago, rallyboy said: It's a bit like being 10 points adrift at Christmas. A new manager might not be able to change things from here, but to continue down the current path of abject failure would be insane. And yet, it's the Saintsy thing to do. Edited May 2 by Weston Super Saint 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kraken Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 3 hours ago, LeBizzier69 said: I won't be voting Tory or Labour (undecided what i'll do yet), but do people really think this Labour party will turn things around? It's going to happen so time will tell i guess. What's the alternative? Its all very well being ideological and voting for someone else, but with FPTP the ruling party is only ever going to be red or blue. And given the past 14 years of incompetence, corruption, greed and "party over country" we're long overdue something different. All political parties go stale after a while, we're long overdue with these lot probably due to the Brexit process stringing things out for longer than it should have. I quite like Starmer, I don't find him particularly inspiring but I do think he'll be the adult in the room. And unlike his two predecessors he'll actually be acting on a voted-for manifesto rather than going completely off piste, which is a huge improvement on what we've got. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 1 minute ago, The Kraken said: I quite like Starmer, I don't find him particularly inspiring but I do think he'll be the adult in the room. And unlike his two predecessors he'll actually be acting on a voted-for manifesto rather than going completely off piste, which is a huge improvement on what we've got. Absolutely this. I wish he had more charisma and ability to inspire - but he's competent, honest and a change from what we have currently, which is desperately needed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 3 hours ago, LeBizzier69 said: I don't disagree with this at all - but it's a little concerning when the leader of a major political party comes out with that kind of drivel, regardless of whether he's since retracted it. For those of us with young daughters at school, it's absolutely in our minds. Veering off topic i realise, apologies. I won't be voting Tory or Labour (undecided what i'll do yet), but do people really think this Labour party will turn things around? It's going to happen so time will tell i guess. There is always a balance between tolerance / acceptance and practical implementation of a policy on every issue though. Not enough thought was given to genuine concerns about safety, fairness in sport, freedom of speech and the fact a small minority of predators / criminals might want to game the system 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aintforever Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 5 hours ago, LeBizzier69 said: I don't disagree with this at all - but it's a little concerning when the leader of a major political party comes out with that kind of drivel, regardless of whether he's since retracted it. Not really, he was obviously uncomfortable answering the question and his answer was clumsy but he was clearly just trying to show some empathy towards the trans community ( I think that was the context at the time). It was a stupid question, everyone knows the biology - I really don't get what anyone has to gain from telling a trans person what they already know, unless of course, they are doing it just to insult. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloucester Saint Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 (edited) 20 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said: I think there's plenty of things you can worry about at the same time. One of them in Scotland, and the one Rowling is so involved in, relates to a party taken over by idealogical bigots, who in turn have helped a larger party go down the same route. Other parties have also helped them along their way, as incompetent and beholden to not seeming to be phobic to anything. The hate crime act was widely seen as a screen to allow one side of certain debates to be protected. The upcoming bill on women's rights is controversial as there are issues in defining what a woman is. While it's one issue, it's connected to others. For example, Kate Forbes has certain views opposed to the Green's campaigns. The SNP troughers depend on the Greens, Bute House Agreement or not. They have already said they won't support Forbes. They're essentially power brokers helping to nod through a candidate best aligned to them, never mind the majority who didn't vote for them at all. And who don't agree with their stance on a number of issues. Good cartoon about Swinney’s entry into the race for First Minster in the Guardian today https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/may/02/martin-rowson-john-swinney-entering-snp-leadership-contest-cartoon Some diverse views certain north of the border about it https://www.scottishwomensrightscentre.org.uk/news/news/a-statement-from-scottish-civil-society-organisations-on-the-uk-governments-intervention-o/ and https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7200756wz7o The SNP are a shitshow and if this is a further stick to beat them with then I’m all for it. England and the other devolved nations will run a mile from that stuff. Biological women should clearly have been covered. I had a look at the Census data from 2021 and the ONS reckoned there was what 40k transgender people declaring as women and another 18k I think it was non-binary (which is where my middle aged brain starts to fuse). Edit it’s 30k non binary and 18k ‘written in a different gender identity’ https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/genderidentity/bulletins/genderidentityenglandandwales/census2021 That’s out of 30.4m women in the UK. 0.13%. Edited May 2 by Gloucester Saint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 37 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said: Good cartoon about Swinney’s entry into the race for First Minster in the Guardian today https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/may/02/martin-rowson-john-swinney-entering-snp-leadership-contest-cartoon Some diverse views certain north of the border about it https://www.scottishwomensrightscentre.org.uk/news/news/a-statement-from-scottish-civil-society-organisations-on-the-uk-governments-intervention-o/ and https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7200756wz7o The SNP are a shitshow and if this is a further stick to beat them with then I’m all for it. England and the other devolved nations will run a mile from that stuff. Biological women should clearly have been covered. I had a look at the Census data from 2021 and the ONS reckoned there was what 40k transgender people declaring as women and another 18k I think it was non-binary (which is where my middle aged brain starts to fuse). Edit it’s 30k non binary and 18k ‘written in a different gender identity’ https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/genderidentity/bulletins/genderidentityenglandandwales/census2021 That’s out of 30.4m women in the UK. 0.13%. As Humza was, Swinney is there to keep those skeletons buried. He's a serial failure, which means nothing to any political trougher, and things can bumble along until their next election. Unlike Humza, who sent a letter to the Conservatives, asking for help, Swinney has been a bit more reluctant to do a deal. He has to keep the Greens sweet while purging the dissenting voices within his own party. Which is the sad way they operate. Plenty of stories, like all parties, of them turning on their own. Support for any minority group isn't helped by denial of concerns from professionals, by those desperate to see their policies passed regardless of the harm to that minority, and others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cat Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 Lost the Blackpool by election. Wiped out in many council areas. Boris Johnson turned up to vote and was turned away for not having any ID, rules which he introduced when he was PM. Absolutely fantastic. 5 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whelk Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 18 minutes ago, The Cat said: Lost the Blackpool by election. Wiped out in many council areas. Boris Johnson turned up to vote and was turned away for not having any ID, rules which he introduced when he was PM. Absolutely fantastic. That is part of his schtick - oh look at forgetful Boris haha. He’s rather that than be ignored. Used to deliberately get people to phone him when in press conferences so could have a laugh about how he ‘forgot’ to turn it to silent. Not like those well prepared conventional politicians. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whelk Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 Conservative Chairman banging on about people want to see ‘stop the boats’. Yes they do but it isn’t such a factor they think. Their comms people are hopeless if that is the message they want to pedal 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallyboy Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 Lining their own pockets and smugly treating the electorate with contempt is coming home to roost, but I'm sure there are good local Tory councillors who will lose their seats because of the appalling state of the national party. The last five years have seen the worst quality cabinets in living memory - blatant corruption, ministers thicker than mince, failing services, jobs for mates, peerages for failure, it's been an absolute shitshow that will hopefully just become a blip in our history. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeBizzier69 Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 18 hours ago, aintforever said: Not really, he was obviously uncomfortable answering the question and his answer was clumsy but he was clearly just trying to show some empathy towards the trans community ( I think that was the context at the time). It was a stupid question, everyone knows the biology - I really don't get what anyone has to gain from telling a trans person what they already know, unless of course, they are doing it just to insult. And there is the problem - uncomfortable answering a question that a few years ago would have been laughed off air. I don't see that as showing empathy towards the trans community - it's about not being labelled a transphobe by a certain portion of trans extremists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whelk Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 And now these pricks keep banging on about NI being an unfair double tax. Yeah just make taxes go away please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 40 minutes ago, whelk said: And now these pricks keep banging on about NI being an unfair double tax. Yeah just make taxes go away please It represents approximately 18% of all Government tax receipts, so if they are thinking of removing it they either need to find another source of £180Bn, or find a way to reduce spending significantly. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whelk Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 2 minutes ago, badgerx16 said: It represents approximately 18% of all Government tax receipts, so if they are thinking of removing it they either need to find another source of £180Bn, or find a way to reduce spending significantly. Arguably is a silly was to tax and adds confusion but as you say it isn’t a keep it or not. Needs to be replaced and then you have all the confusion to sort out stamps paid to qualify for state pension. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan The Flames Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 Higher taxed social democratic Sweden has more billionaires per head than the UK. Where's our IKEA, Spotify, Klana.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weston Super Saint Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 49 minutes ago, Fan The Flames said: Higher taxed social democratic Sweden has more billionaires per head than the UK. Where's our IKEA, Spotify, Klana.... Opposite the docks? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whelk Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 To get back on topic the bird in Baby Reindeer is pretty fit sent frm my iiphone 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeBizzier69 Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 Just now, whelk said: To get back on topic the bird in Baby Reindeer is pretty fit sent frm my iiphone My wife (biological female) and i are planning to watch that later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whelk Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 Just now, LeBizzier69 said: My wife (biological female) and i are planning to watch that later on. Enjoy! Dark doesn’t do it justice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 As of posting this, the Workers Party of Britain have won 4 councillors, Reform UK have 1. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 (edited) Rwanda is a safe country, just don't live across the border....... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgyxxlzvk4o ''The US has blamed the Rwandan army and M23 rebel group for the deadly bombing of a displacement camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At least nine people, including seven children, were killed in the strike on the Mugunga camp in the eastern city of Goma on Friday." Edited May 4 by badgerx16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan The Flames Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 53 minutes ago, badgerx16 said: Rwanda is a safe country, just don't live across the border....... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgyxxlzvk4o ''The US has blamed the Rwandan army and M23 rebel group for the deadly bombing of a displacement camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At least nine people, including seven children, were killed in the strike on the Mugunga camp in the eastern city of Goma on Friday." Aren't they the same country? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadoldgit Posted May 4 Author Share Posted May 4 Delighted for Sadiq Khan. Thank goodness that dreadful Susan Hall failed - another in a long line of god awful Tories like Braverman, Badenoch, Patel, Rees-Mogg, Truss, Gullis etc. etc. etc. He takes a lot of racist abuse for being a Muslim so fair play to him for being prepared to put up with it for an unprecedented third term. This is a victory for his clean air policy too. What a great weekend so far - we beat Leeds, Sunak gets a kicking again and enough of the electorate get off of their backsides to keep the crazies away from power (and even the successful Tory mayor has distanced himself from Sunak!). Happy days with hopefully more to come soon 🥳 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kraken Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 I particularly enjoyed the fact that Count Binface got nearly 25,000 votes. Which was more than the Britain First knuckledragger. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winnersaint Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 Looks like they’ve lost the West Midlands. Hilarious! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Kraken Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 6 minutes ago, Winnersaint said: Looks like they’ve lost the West Midlands. Hilarious! Its been an utter kicking of a weekend, yesterday they had one or two tiny little consolations to cling to (Teeside, where Tiny got in his jet again to fly up there and get his little face into the pictures). Today they’ve been utterly booted into the gutter. The public have spoken. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 (edited) Suella Braverman tells Laura Kuenssberg "I am going to fight even if it makes me unpopular". No worries on that score, all doubt went ages ago. Edited May 5 by badgerx16 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallyboy Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 Slightly worrying that the horrific excuse for a human being Susan Hall, who ran a poisonous campaign of incompetence, ignorance, misinformation and racism, managed to fool 800,000 Londoners. These must be the people who get scammed by exiled Nigerian princes and the bloke from Microsoft who needs your bank details to fix your computer. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloucester Saint Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 (edited) 3 hours ago, badgerx16 said: Suella Braverman tells Laura Kuenssberg "I am going to fight even if it makes me unpopular". No worries on that score, all doubt went ages ago. Deluded https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68961195 and inevitable Sewerella pops up. She has ratings in line with Truss and the same delusions - if they move further to the right they will shred any vestiges of economic credibility post-Truss disaster and leaving the ECHR is banana republic talk. Tice’s dream come true would be Sewerella as Tory leader after the GE, she’d finish off Boris, Truss’s and Sunak’s chaos and her own party in the process. A pound shop, plastic Enoch Powell. The fact that more moderate Conservatives held Harlow and Andy Street outperformed the national party by miles dy distancing himself from their cheap, tacky populism eludes buffoons like her. Edited May 5 by Gloucester Saint 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 3 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said: Deluded https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68961195 and inevitable Sewerella pops up. She has ratings in line with Truss and the same delusions - if they move further to the right they will shred any vestiges of economic credibility post-Truss disaster and leaving the ECHR is banana republic talk. Tice’s dream come true would be Sewerella as Tory leader after the GE, she’d finish off Boris, Truss’s and Sunak’s chaos and her own party in the process. A pound shop, plastic Enoch Powell. The fact that more moderate Conservatives held Harlow and Andy Street outperformed the national party by miles dy distancing himself from their cheap, tacky populism eludes buffoons like her. They look at the voters going to the likes of reform, as their lost voters. It gives strength to those at the top with sympathies there to want to reach out to bring them back on board. But it has to be done along with enough good things to keep others on board. They've not had a stellar record on that, and also failed to get their more extreme policies over the line either. On the other side, while it's an ongoing internal battle, Starmer has dragged his party back from the side of his party that was closer to it's extremes. While there have been lots of u turns, the approach of saying as little as possible while the other side implodes, is going to be more than enough. That also has the bonus of attracting those in the centre, making the likes of Braverman even keener to lurch to the right to establish what she considers a clear party identity to be. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 2 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said: They look at the voters going to the likes of reform, as their lost voters. They do, and agree those are the votes they are desperately chasing / trying to hold on to - but they haven't done basic maths. If you add the Tory and Reform vote share together its still 10-15% less than Labour. If you add the total vote share of left leaning parties together (Labour, SNP, Greens, LDs etc) compared with right leaning parties (Tories, Reform and a couple percent for the headbangers) they are outvoted 2:1 The swing votes, the votes every party needs to attract to win, are in the middle. It's a mystery why generation after generation the hard left and right cant grasp that. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 6 hours ago, rallyboy said: Slightly worrying that the horrific excuse for a human being Susan Hall, who ran a poisonous campaign of incompetence, ignorance, misinformation and racism, managed to fool 800,000 Londoners. These must be the people who get scammed by exiled Nigerian princes and the bloke from Microsoft who needs your bank details to fix your computer. It's not really a surprise tbf. They could have put up a used wank sock and 800,000 Tory true Blues, anti ULEZ and anti immigration voters would have voted for it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 7 hours ago, badgerx16 said: Suella Braverman tells Laura Kuenssberg "I am going to fight even if it makes me unpopular". No worries on that score, all doubt went ages ago. Yep if that's the metric for winning, its in the bag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 Rwanda won't commit to the number of deportees they will accept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 30 minutes ago, buctootim said: They do, and agree those are the votes they are desperately chasing / trying to hold on to - but they haven't done basic maths. If you add the Tory and Reform vote share together its still 10-15% less than Labour. If you add the total vote share of left leaning parties together (Labour, SNP, Greens, LDs etc) compared with right leaning parties (Tories, Reform and a couple percent for the headbangers) they are outvoted 2:1 The swing votes, the votes every party needs to attract to win, are in the middle. It's a mystery why generation after generation the hard left and right cant grasp that. Yup, the further they go to the right to get that 15% back, if they are not tied solidly into centrist territory, then the more votes they ship on the other side. People look at the obsession over some issues, look at the lack of effort on others, and make their choices. Power lies with those that can keep their group of back stabbing vermin, with their own agendas, as broad as possible, without wrecking it. When it falls apart, all those agendas think they were right and it was everyone else in the party that brought them down. Cue years of searching for an identity, which would be obvious to anyone not in the bubble. Mind you, the lack of self awareness is something you can see in a lot of things. If votes/decisions don't go their way, it's the other side full of the absolute worst of people all conspiring to overcome the "right" side. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallyboy Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 16 hours ago, badgerx16 said: Rwanda won't commit to the number of deportees they will accept. Why should they? They've banked the money, sold off the houses, sent us people escaping oppression in their country, they are literally laughing all the way to the bank. Next they'll be selling us magic beans. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whelk Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 Got to smile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmes_and_Watson Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 1 hour ago, whelk said: Got to smile More chance with "Only Rwandan Magic Beans can save us now!" 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamesaint Posted May 6 Share Posted May 6 So Rishi now expects it to be a hung parliament after the election. Bless With those sort of predictions I hope he is not predicting a Saints victory in the play off final. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloucester Saint Posted May 7 Share Posted May 7 (edited) On 06/05/2024 at 16:13, Tamesaint said: So Rishi now expects it to be a hung parliament after the election. Bless With those sort of predictions I hope he is not predicting a Saints victory in the play off final. The Rallings and Thresher analysis is quite flawed anyway, Curtis pulls it apart easily https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/rishi-sunak-wrong-hung-parliament-3042437#:~:text=It is based on an,of a majority in Parliament. Firstly, people have always voted differently in local elections, there’s more Greens, Independents etc. Secondly, Reform didn’t have much of a spread geographically as their powder is kept dry for the GE. Thirdly, it ignores the SNP implosion where Labour are likely to win seats back for the first time since 2010. People aren’t as enthusiastic about Starmer as they were about Blair, but the same is true about every Tory politician bar Thatcher, apart from a brief flicker from Boris before his laziness became more widely obvious and lack of focus led to disgrace. Those two, Thatcher and Blair, are generational figures. The key is do people prefer Starmer to Sunak and the results are pretty clear on that. Boris and to an extent Cameron outperformed the Tory brand, which has been low ever since 1997, maybe 1993. Justin Webb took Maria Caulfield apart on this yesterday https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/taking-them-for-fools-bbc-presenter-nails-the-big-flaws-in-sunaks-coalition-of-chaos-claim_uk_6638872ee4b0e44cfb124111 Its a desperate F5 button press from 2015 - vote Miliband, get SNP (at their and Sturgeon’s peak, not now) et al plus the focus on Lib Dem’s SW heartlands funded by their dodgy non doms. We lived in one of the seats turning yellow to blue in 2015 and our doormat got peppered with that stuff for several months, letters addressed to both of us etc. It worked for Cameron for that GE but May Parliament chaos, Boris scandals and resignations, Truss economic humiliation hadn’t happened at that point. Also, Cameron was toast within months as PM and the Pandora’s Box opened. Rishi limps on, a Ruben Selles following a Nathan Jones, with relegation looming by the same rock bottom margin as last season. Sunak wants to avoid losing worse than Major, get as close to 200 seats as they can. If they get under 130-140, they look ripe for Reform UK pickings and less chance of even a long-term rebuild 1997-2010. Edited May 7 by Gloucester Saint 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan The Flames Posted May 8 Share Posted May 8 Tory MP Natalie Elphicke defects to Labour. FFS she's a proper twat. First mistake Starmer has made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecuk268 Posted May 8 Share Posted May 8 2 minutes ago, Fan The Flames said: Tory MP Natalie Elphicke defects to Labour. FFS she's a proper twat. First mistake Starmer has made. He's not going to say "no" is he? The embarrassment to Sunak outweighs the fact that she's useless. It's only until the Autumn anyway, then they can select their own candidate. Personally, although I'm happy to see the Tories humiliated, I do think that there should be a by-election when this happens. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sadoldgit Posted May 8 Author Share Posted May 8 (edited) 11 minutes ago, ecuk268 said: He's not going to say "no" is he? The embarrassment to Sunak outweighs the fact that she's useless. It's only until the Autumn anyway, then they can select their own candidate. Personally, although I'm happy to see the Tories humiliated, I do think that there should be a by-election when this happens. I agree with this 100%. As much as I detest the Tories the people of Dover voted for a Tory MP and if she feels that she can no longer support the party she was elected for she should stand down and force a by-election. It is beyond bizarre that a very right wing Tory now sits on the Labour benches though and the embarrassment it has cause Sunak is priceless! For God’s sake Richi, put yourself and us out of our collective misery and call a July election. (Why didn’t she defect to Reform?) Edited May 8 by sadoldgit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now