Forum menu
Anyone notice how the mainstream press has gone very quiet on anything bad about the Tories but leading in Labour issues the last 25 hours or so? Very little coverage of the care home ruling, minimal about the porn viewing but plenty about the MP leaving a crash, Rayner having a drink with Starker and a Labour MP making a lewd comment. Have Tory HQ put a lot of pressure on their media chums to turn the narrative just before the local elections?
The MP that didn't stop after the crash was a Tory
I’ve self concluded that we are now a distopian banana republic with an attempted dictatorship. There is no point getting stressed about who did what, or whether “this’ll get Boris fired” becuase it’ll all just conclude a with them carrying on as normal.
Sadly, I'm thinking along the lines that Kryton is.
Except he didn't mention the press being corralled by the great leaders.
Well, as far as I know, GE's are not generally rigged enough to make a difference in the UK, so we can get rid of this shitshow in 2 years.
Unfortunately enough of the populace are thick/xenophobic/racist enough that it is unlikely to happen. This government is a reflection of 'us' I am afraid.
😟
GE’s are not generally rigged enough to make a difference in the UK, so we can get rid of this shitshow in 2 years.
Arguably FPTP is a rigged election plus havent you notice what the tories have been doing? Restricting the electoral commission and they have also got their constituency reforms in the pipeline designed to rig it in their favour (although its done by an independent body so they cant have quite the same jerrymandering that happens in some countries with weird constituency shapes they did set the basic rules to favour them).
Sadly, I’m thinking along the lines that Kryton is.
Except he didn’t mention the press being corralled by the great leaders.
+1
Jyst adds to my general feeling of despair and hopelessness
Well, as far as I know, GE’s are not generally rigged enough to make a difference in the UK, so we can get rid of this shitshow in 2 years.
I wouldn't bet on it.
Control over large parts of the media, the bits they don't control (Channel 4 for example...) they're doing their best to take over, kill off etc.
Protests are now illegal, the Electoral Commission has just been quietly brought under Government control (Gove no less...). Added to which the FPTP system is already highly rigged (there's a reason they wanted to bring it in in London, it would have give Shaun Bailey the win there as Mayor).
They've got 2 more years to carry on stitching things up in their own way, defunding Labour-run councils (to then blame further cuts on Labour and say "vote Tory, you'll get more cash").
And the Labour Party, in spite of managing to land a few decent blows still hasn't come close to a knockout punch, in spite of Boris standing there blustering about Brexit and Covid which is all the empty shell has.
...these unrepresentative activists were focussed on debating whether Churchill was a racist
THEY MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO QUESTION CHURCHILL!!! FREEE SPEEEEEECHHHHHHHHH!!!AHAHRHGHGHHGHH
I'd just like to point out that there's a real squirrel in FGF to look at. I've nothing more useful to add.
these unrepresentative activists were focussed on debating whether Churchill was a racist
Well he was and if you're going to do a history of the guy, you have to cover everything from the "he led Britain to victory!!" part to the "sadly he was a racist and white supremacist" part.
Although, back then of course, they were not unique views or regarded as massively controversial and his views on racial hierarchy were nowhere close to Hitler's views on the subject. At least with Churchill there is a degree of context in what he said, when he said it and so on whereas Johnson's comments about (for example) Muslim women wearing burkhas "looking like letterboxes" was simply crass, there was no wider context to it.
Well he was and if you’re going to do a history of the guy, you have to cover everything from the “he led Britain to victory!!” part to the “sadly he was a racist and white supremacist” part.
Yeah I was just highlighting the craven hypocrisy of the stupid tory culture war, albeit not particularly coherently, heh
I've shared that Matt cartoon round various local cycling groups, it's proving quite popular
Ahh Churchill, the thing I always found funny was that the people ditched him pretty quickly after the war.
I’ve self concluded that we are now a distopian banana republic with an attempted dictatorship. There is no point getting stressed about who did what, or whether “this’ll get Boris fired” becuase it’ll all just conclude a with them carrying on as normal.
I think your traipsing around the edges. By design or just accidental alignment of numpties.
Ahh Churchill, the thing I always found funny was that the people ditched him pretty quickly after the war.
And then he was marketed as some kind of invincible 'saviour' for his second coming. Which just sputtered out into a faux patriotic tribute act as he was hopelessly out of touch.
Context is everything. Churchill was an incredible war leader. No war, no need for him.
I think people wanted a fresh start after the war and Churchill wasn't what they wanted or needed. As above right man at the right time, much of the rest of his career was a bit of a car crash like Johnson. The only difference is when Churchills hour came he was up to the challenge and did what was needed, Boris hid in a fridge and then had a party.
The
onlyfunniest difference is when Churchills hour came he was up to the challenge and did what was needed, Boris hid in a fridge and then had a party.
FTFY.
During his second term in office Churchill was very realistic about Britain's place in the world (obviously not massively publicly).
He was also prescient about the threat of nuclear weapons.
He was not a one trick pony, albeit close.
But better a 1.25/1.5 trick pony than a useless walking glue pot down the knacker's yard.
When the Labour govt went into coalition with the Tories at the start of the war. Arthur Greenwood commissioned the Beveridge report on social welfare reform. They made sure a copy was sent to every serviceman in every theatre. It was wildly popular, and unsurprisingly, most returning servicemen voted for it.
Plus of course the 30's was shit and the Tories were largely responsible for that. by 1944 Rationing and the efforts around the country's overall health were starting to really show differences; rationing had provided pretty much every one with their first properly healthy diet, and weird stuff was happening to poor families like babies surviving past their first year, and not being chronically malnourished, evacuation had shown lots of folks without mobility how lots of folks lived (ie not in slums) Folk really woke up to that fact that they didn't have to live like they had done all their lives, and there was a better possible future that didn't involve tugging on forelocks.
The Tories campaigned on getting rid of all of that (cost of having to pay for the war) and Churchill in particular was incredibly ham fisted (as he always had been) about campaigning thinking that somehow showing up in the east end after it was bombed still made him popular 5 years later.
I'm just wondering what the mail, telegraph etc will be concocting up b4 the locals next week.
Last roll of the dice for their man really?
Hmm I think he’ll be with us to the election and at that point the cost of living will be a vote for anyone but Tory.
My other thoughts are we get drawn deeper into Ukraine and it does indeed become our war, that would save him but at a great cost to us.
I suppose it depends what the polling is for that but they do like to paint everything as a war so a real war would suit them 🙁
Bit dark but then enough people were absolutely positive that Putin was sabre rattling.
Well the Mail and Conservative party are both going for line that there is a “pre-election stitch up” between opposition parties. Anyone think that the newly government directed Electoral Commission will be told to crack down on parties coming to arrangements (like the Conservatives & Brexit parties did in 2019) to avoid splitting the vote? That anything like a “Progressive Alliance” to oust the Tories will be stopped before it is allowed to form?
Well the Mail and Conservative party are both going for line that there is a “pre-election stitch up” between opposition parties. Anyone think that the newly government directed
It’s already happening at local level. My next door neighbour is standing for the Lib Dems as a ‘paper candidate’.
They know these local council seats are a purely two-way battle between the Tories and Labour, so they’re putting up candidates but doing no campaigning at all. The plan is purely to split the Tory vote and deliver a non-Tory local council.
There are plenty of usual Tory voters who are not happy with Johnson and Co’s antics, to say the least, but still will not vote Labour.
The Lib dems are putting up candidates purely to mop up these votes and offer a more ‘acceptable’ vote for disillusioned Tory voters
I don’t care how it happens. I just want the Tories out. I hope this kind of thing is going on all round the country
The Tories complaining about other politicians being good at politics? They could just, I dunno, be better than they are and win things properly. Oh, I forgot. That's not n option for this lot.
I've just had a YouGov survey through asking about my views on Johnson's non-apology, safe to say it won't be any positive news from me!
There are plenty of usual Tory voters who are not happy with Johnson and Co’s antics, to say the least, but still will not vote Labour.
The Lib dems are putting up candidates purely to mop up these votes and offer a more ‘acceptable’ vote for disillusioned Tory voters
Though in reality, these people probably just won’t bother voting at all…
Good. If the result is a Labour council, I don’t care how we get there, as long as we get there
What’s promising is that at a local level Labour and the Lib Dems are clearly cooperating to get the Tories out. There may be hope yet
Sunak has suggested that the poorest, who will be most affected by inflation, should use their savings to make up the difference.
What’s promising is that at a local level Labour and the Lib Dems are clearly cooperating to get the Tories out. There may be hope yet
The problem is that the LD policies are often just Tory-lite. They've gone for the populist option, no matter the wider ramifications. Case in point is anywhere there are new(ish) Low Traffic Neighbourhoods put in post-Covid, where the LD policy is basically "we will rip them all out and return the roads to the rightful drivers then have a big consultation where we listen to the people".
Bollocks to pollution, cost of fuel, cost of owning a car and all that, it's straight for the populist driver vote.
Sunak has suggested that the poorest, who will be most affected by inflation, should use their savings to make up the difference.
In touch with ordinary are folk then🤬
Sunak has suggested that the poorest, who will be most affected by inflation, should use their savings to make up the difference.
The problem is that there is a big chunk of voters who are equally as detached from reality and will think 'yes, why don't they just dip into their savings?' and go out and vote for the Tories who they think are proposing 'common sense' solutions.
After all, 'the poor' all have big telly's, Sky Sports subscriptions, smoke and drink and go to Benidorm twice a year, don't they?
Sunak has suggested that the poorest, who will be most affected by inflation, should use their savings to make up the difference
Economically illiterate twit in charge of the UK's finances.
Self-defeating fool. You can't have a consumer led market economy when nobody can afford anything.
Sunak has suggested that the poorest, who will be most affected by inflation, should use their savings to make up the difference
Not far off those stories that pop up occasionally of "how I owned my own home by the age of 25" etc and it always turns out that their parents loaned them £1m while also employing them in Daddy's company where they saved every penny by living with parents and renting out the place they'd bought until the mortgage was paid off on it.
Thanks Rishi, I should have remembered to just dip into the trust fund after I'd been made redundant. Silly me.
Well that’s a bawhair away from “let them eat cake”
I can't remember who it was just now but there's an american politician who explained in an interview that he knows what it's like to be poor, because when he and his wife left university, they couldn't immediately find good work and were living paycheck to paycheck and barely making the rent. So they sold some of the shares they were given by their parents and bought a house.
Iain Duncan Smith has a similar story about when he left the army and they had to move in with his wife's parents, times were hard. Oh, it was a cottage on his wife's parents' estate?
IIRC that was around the time that Iain Duncan Smith was flagging this up as proof that he could easily live on benefits.
I think it was the Daily Mirror who did a bit of digging and published that he’d just claimed more on expenses for his breakfast that day than someone on Universal Credit would receive in benefits to cover all their living costs for the week
They inhabit a different universe to the rest of us, yet seem blissfully unaware of that fact
Not far off those stories that pop up occasionally of “how I owned my own home by the age of 25” etc and it always turns out that their parents loaned them £1m while also employing them in Daddy’s company where they saved every penny by living with parents and renting out the place they’d bought until the mortgage was paid off on it.
While these stories are ridiculous, I do know a couple of 19 year olds who bought their first house here in Ilkeston. No rich parents or inheritance, both work for the Police, both have worked at least one job since they were 14.
They are obviously the exceptions to the norm
Hmm I think he’ll be with us to the election and at that point the cost of living will be a vote for anyone but Tory.
I think this is the key thing. Electricity will be ~50p/kWh come November, coupled with a similar hike in gas prices.
Inflation will put even greater pressure on top of this. If you rely on electricity to heat your home I don't think that you'll be able to afford it unless you're in the top 5% of earners.
On a cold day you'll be paying upwards of £35 to heat a small house and produce hot water. It's not a case of "people won't vote Tory" - if this winter is cold I wouldn't be surprised if they kill off more pensioners than COVID.
Yep, it'll be back to the 70s with houses and families going up with paraffin heaters. When this shower got elected it was clear that wages would be pushed down, new legislation would come in to restrict strikes and protests, the NHS would be privatised, the source of profit would no longer be production but rather from rent-seeking and taxpayers' money, create more landlords because they vote Tory, money could always be found for a bit of a Falklands war, whip up a bit of race war etc etc. It's completely transparent and despicable in equal measure.
Like Francis Maude saying about some fuel crisis 10 odd years ago "People can just keep a jerry can of fuel in their garage" LOL
For those who love to hate British voters for voting incorrectly:
The Guardian: Four in five people in the UK believe in being ‘woke’ to race and social justice.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/may/01/four-in-five-people-in-the-uk-believe-in-being-woke-to-race-and-social-justice
Well, considering all the anti-“woke” nonsense being pushed by Johnson’s ministers (their term, used by them) then they’re turning voters away. Or perhaps they understand how Johnson became PM, and are doubling down.
Most people in Britain are decent people who want an inclusive society that embraces people no matter what their gender, sexuality, race, religion or nationality. Most people don’t vote Tory. Most people didn’t voted for Brexit. Most people think Johnson should resign as PM.
If we look at the YouGov polling (do you have link) and how it breaks down based on voting intention and how people voted in 2016, I suspect you’ll find that Johnson and his team understand his support perfectly well.
Can’t find it on the YouGov site… but some interesting tit bits on there…
Starmer most popular politician [Johnson is in there somewhere as well… #8]
Channel4 the most popular TV “Channel” [but this government thinks it’s desperately in need of transforming from something their minister doesn’t understand into something else their minister doesn’t understand… we know who’s opinion of Channel4 really matters… Johnson’s]