UK Politics Thread

[Frickin_idiot]

2 hours ago, 910Esprit said:

I'm not convinced there will be a Labour landslide at the next election, certainly the most recent by-elections do not suggest that.   There was little swing to Labour and a lot of pissed of Tories seemed to veer towards the Libdems.   (Speaking of which, I can't understand why the Libdems are pretty much absent from the media these days, If I was them, I'd also be sticking the boot in and coming up with some sort of compelling offering....).

Unlike Andy, I'll wager Starmer will lead Labour into the next election.   He may be dull as ditchwater, but he was the architect and successfully steered the party from left wing obscurity back to the central ground with a real shot of election victory.  Not sure that has been a demonstration of scruples, but it was an achievement against much internal opposition. 

 

The polls will tighten but I’m confident of a Labour landslide. The by elections were held before the cost of living crisis began to  bite, just wait until people come off their fixed rate deals and are forced to pay hundreds extra per year. All the good work done with the energy support for consumers will be long forgotten.

 

The press have finally turned on the Tories. They simply don’t have the time to get things back on an even keel before the next election. Had we been four years away from a GE they may have had an outside chance.

 

People are fed up.

[TdM]

At least it's made labour change their rhetoric on their financial policies.

Previously, they've always said "we'll spend loads on welfare and state and raise taxes on the wealthy but lower taxes for the poor normal folk"

Which, essentially would mean uncosted spending as it totally wouldn't balance, which they knew full well, but it sounded nice.

They appear to have walked back from that as people are focusing more on a balanced budget and now they are not committing to spending or tax cuts, they are sitting on the fence and saying they would need the OBR to cost any plans before they can commit to them.

I do have to say that Labour seem to just flip flop around whatever seems to be forefront of mass popularity at the time.

[C8RKH]

Agreed, They have no real new ideas, just buzz around like a bee looking for the next flower with a ton of nectar to pillage...

[PaulCP]

^^^^^^with Starmer and Barbie generally continually repeating the same old rhetoric 

[andydclements]

So, Truss is currently 104 days short of the holder of the record shortest serving PM (excluding Canning who died in office), it's looking as though that previous PM is about to loose that record after nearly 2 centuries,

[scotty435]

[exeterjeep]

Hunt makes his mark on UK history, massive reset to budget decisions etc.

Truss must be for the axe shortly???? Tories would need to find 1 candidate that they would want , so save all the rounds and torture we had just a few weeks ago. 

Bring back the .....Boris........

 

[PaulCP]

I would like to have seen him reverse the removal of the cap on bankers bonuses.

Not doing so gives the overriding impression that the rich are still being supported when the general rank & file of the working public have to suffer from the remainder of the reversals and still gives the high street banks the benefit of increased windfall profits by keeping, or increasing, the ever widening disparity between BOE interest rates, mortgage rates & savings rates

[march]

 

[Frickin_idiot]

On 16/10/2022 at 10:53, TdM said:

At least it's made labour change their rhetoric on their financial policies.

Previously, they've always said "we'll spend loads on welfare and state and raise taxes on the wealthy but lower taxes for the poor normal folk"

Which, essentially would mean uncosted spending as it totally wouldn't balance, which they knew full well, but it sounded nice.

They appear to have walked back from that as people are focusing more on a balanced budget and now they are not committing to spending or tax cuts, they are sitting on the fence and saying they would need the OBR to cost any plans before they can commit to them.

I do have to say that Labour seem to just flip flop around whatever seems to be forefront of mass popularity at the time.

I am looking forward to April when, I suspect that the Conservatives will target energy price support to exclude middle and higher earners. Attacking and destroying their core support. A 73% increase coupled with a withdrawal of support, and increasing mortgage payments will be highly destructive and hopefully consign this toxic bunch of clowns to a generation on the sidelines. Even better, to third place obscurity. 
 

[C8RKH]

1 hour ago, Frickin_idiot said:

consign this toxic bunch of clowns to a generation on the sidelines

To allow in the last bunch of toxic clowns who will come back in from a generation on the sidelines. Honestly, they are all as bad as each other.

Have we forgotten about Milliband, Corbyn et al all ready?  

[Frickin_idiot]

23 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

To allow in the last bunch of toxic clowns who will come back in from a generation on the sidelines. Honestly, they are all as bad as each other.

Have we forgotten about Milliband, Corbyn et al all ready?  

I have absolutely no doubt that the “red party” will screw the country over. That said, the Tories need complete devastation. Their arrogance and negligence has cost millions of people thousands, if not, tens of thousands of pounds. 

 

We have debt exceeding two trillion, after twelve years in power they never once balanced the books. We are broke and all they seem intent on doing is throwing around money at whoever shouts. If, in my professional life, I acted with an ounce of the gross incompetence that the Government have shown I’d be out of a job within a week.

 

These cretins need consequences to their lies, deceit and gross negligence. Some mag be forgiven for thinking that we elected Corbyn, a massive public sector deficit, a ballooning benefits bill, a loss of trust In our Government and economy by financial institutions, an economy hurtling toward free fall.  Don’t even get me started on the ever increasing nanny state.

 

[Rambo]

@C8RKH Let's not also forget our former labour PM. A complete and utter lying megalomaniac who had blood on his hands and should have been tried for multiple war crimes in Iraq 🙁

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by Rambo

[Frickin_idiot]

1 minute ago, Rambo said:

@C8RKH Let's not also forget our former labour PM. A complete and utter lying megalomaniac who had blood on his hands and should have been tried for multiple war crimes in Iraq 🙁

 

The man who single handed ended my faith in the political system. In my opinion he should be in The Hague answering for his “acts”.

[C8RKH]

6 minutes ago, Frickin_idiot said:

I have absolutely no doubt that the “red party” will screw the country over. That said, the Tories need complete devastation. Their arrogance and negligence has cost millions of people thousands, if not, tens of thousands of pounds. 

And how much did it cost people when Brown screwed up the gold reserve sell offs. Or when he f@@ked over every private pension in the UK?  The hit has been measured in billions making the current lot look like amateurs! By the way, the recent near pension firm collapses were in a large part down to what that reckless idiot did 20 years ago and the impact was predicted to happen, oh, in around 20 years! Sure someone posted a great article on it on here a few days ago.

Not disagreeing with you Frickin re the current crop, but let's not also build our hopes too much that the others will fair any better.

 

[Rambo]

On 15/10/2022 at 14:01, Rambo said:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11317867/Growing-fears-Gordon-Browns-pensions-timebomb-finally-explode.html?ito=native_share_article-masthead

 

It was me. Here is the link again.

[PaulCP]

@Frickin_idiotwhilst I agree with a great deal of what you mentioned in you post, let’s not forget the pressure that Covid put on the economy, not just the direst costs of the vaccine and furlough payments (which incidentally the “reds” across the table thought were pityfull) but the indirect costs to the economy afterwards when people decided that they enjoyed being furloughed so much that they didn’t want to go back to work.

One thing I am sure of, no PM in the past, present or future would ever want to deal with what suddenly landed in Boris’ lap. God help us if it had landed in Corbyn’s lap.

[Frickin_idiot]

2 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

And how much did it cost people when Brown screwed up the gold reserve sell offs. Or when he f@@ked over every private pension in the UK?  The hit has been measured in billions making the current lot look like amateurs! By the way, the recent near pension firm collapses were in a large part down to what that reckless idiot did 20 years ago and the impact was predicted to happen, oh, in around 20 years! Sure someone posted a great article on it on here a few days ago.

Not disagreeing with you Frickin re the current crop, but let's not also build our hopes too much that the others will fair any better.

 

Maybe I haven’t been clear, I have absolutely no doubt that the next lot will be disastrous. I can forgive a government for a mistake, I can forgive them for being at the mercy of geopolitical events. What I will never forgive a political party for is selling our on their core principles. 

The party of financial competence - that ship sailed a long time ago.

The party of law and order? Do me a favour!

The party of business? No longer!

I am completely against the political system. It is thoroughly useless. Politicians are too concerned over self interest to make the long, hard and tough decisions. 
 

I’ll never vote again, and I know that Labour will target me with their politics of envy. That said, I’ll be watching with anticipation for the “Portillo” or “Clegg” moment for the Tory front bench.

 

[Frickin_idiot]

3 minutes ago, PaulCP said:

@Frickin_idiotwhilst I agree with a great deal of what you mentioned in you post, let’s not forget the pressure that Covid put on the economy, not just the direst costs of the vaccine and furlough payments (which incidentally the “reds” across the table thought were pityfull) but the indirect costs to the economy afterwards when people decided that they enjoyed being furloughed so much that they didn’t want to go back to work.

One thing I am sure of, no PM in the past, present or future would ever want to deal with what suddenly landed in Boris’ lap. God help us if it had landed in Corbyn’s lap.

Covid threw a curve ball for sure, and I think that Boris dealt with some of it well. Their handling of Cummings, Hancock and that Professor Ferguson character however was a disgrace. They all should have been unceremoniously ditched, publicly and immediately.

I have long since given up on the “well the other party would’ve done this”. I absolutely know that whatever party gets into power my taxes will go up, my living standards will be destroyed, public services will become even more unusable, no long term policy planning that will bite us, and ever more encroaching into my life by those that have no concern.

 

I have no time for any of them. 

[C8RKH]

@Frickin_idiot fancy starting up a political party? 

I'd have to be PM though as my math is shite! 

You can be the Chancellor as that seems to be where the real power is.

But despite you then being the puppet master, don't you think for a minute you'll be putting your hand, or anything else, up my arse!

Our manifesto will be progressive. You can do what you want, when you want. No state intervention. No state services. No laws. No handouts. Simples. But even with such a well thought out manifesto I still think we will need to be more inventive to ensure we beat the Tory's, Labour, the SNP, and the Greens as they are even more progressive and will find even more to give away.  Don't worry about the Libs. Everyone's forgotten they exist, who they are, or what they ever stood for.

So come on chaps, vote for the TLF Party. The Lunatic Fringe Party. Just need to get that Lotus SUV launched so we can daub "free stuff for everyone" on the sides of it and drive it around the country. 

 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

I think the public overestimates politicians. Why should they know how to run the economy of a country, if they’ve never run even a small business? It’s crazy really.

[andydclements]

The hope is that they don't go with their feelings / intuition/ideas, they listen to their advisors and choose from the options laid out, and when it comes to budgets also listen to the predictions on effect. Unfortunately LT seems to be more of a "gut feel" person.

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Do you remember when Sergei Lavrov met Liz Truss in a Foreign Secretary capacity prior to the invasion of Ukraine, he said it was “like talking to a deaf person”. Probably the only truthful thing he’s said all year!

[Chillidoggy]

It always amazes me that ministers (and indeed politicians) appear not to have any qualifications that make them suited to the task. I mean, if I were to apply for a job, then there's a reasonable expectation by any prospective employer that I (a) have the necessary qualifications, (b) that I have half an idea of what the job entails and (c) would be reasonably competent at it. Yet, clueless ministers are handed portfolios willy-nilly. As a result they can cock up one portfolio, and get shuffled round to another one to do, well, pretty much the same all over again. History is littered with disastrous ministers, and I seem to recall Jeremy Hunt was not that brilliant when he was health secretary.

As for the new PM, she needs to do the decent thing and resign, putting the country before her career and reputation (which, in case she hasn't noticed, has just gone over Beachy Head). 

[mdw]

I have recently become one of the PM's constituents.   With her antics she has pretty much stopped about 30 to £35,000 worth of work going to  local tradesmans  pockets over the next two years.    Won't really stop our plans just delay them as I will have to do most of the work myself.