I can't decide if I'm annoyed Alister Jack won £2K but isn't under investigation or not.
On the one hand, it would be nice to see him charged with something. On the other, I like the idea of him having to explain why he's done nothing wrong to everyone who interviews him and every voter he meets for the next week or so.
SNP, btw, for all you tactical voters. Unless the most important thing for you is the Union in which case I guess you're going to have to vote Tory.
* a car has smashed through the main gates at Chequers this evening but was thwarted by the security bollards behind.
The gates to Chequers are straight on where the road does a 90 degree right, more likely someone not paying attention/drunk etc.
A fair few years ago night riding in the Chilterns we popped out from a footpath on one of our usual loops into a sunken road around the back of Chequers straight into a squad of armed 'blokes' with night-vision goggles on walking up it 🙂
Access-wise there never use to be any fencing nor signs in the woods (unsure now) and there's even a public footpath across the lawns.
Tactical vote of SNP for me where I am otherwise the Tories will be in.
I'd rather vote Labour or Lib Dem if they had a chance here, but even with SNP getting the vote I'm not thinking (hoping) ondependence will fly, though if anything would make me consider voting for it it would be the evil ****ing Tories.
Someone broke in and took a s*** in Rishi’s duck pond.
Releasing a torpoodo on command is a skill. You might have to retrain your bowels. Just saying...
But I've questions.
- who the **** has this as an idea? "I know what this government need, it needs a dirty pond protest with a week until election. That will turn the tide....'
- how did it go to broach this subject with a couple of mates in the pub? 'Hey Gaz, fancy a drive to Sunaks gaff so that you can film me pinching one off?'
Arco were actively excluded in favour of a startup company, run by a Tory peer
This is far worse than folk think, and Mone's £29m/£100m is small 'beer' compared to what's actually occurred:
The figures show £9.9bn of the £13.6bn worth of PPE that the department bought between 2020 and 2022 was unusable or its value is now less than the government paid for it. This includes defective or unsuitable equipment as well as PPE that could not be used before its expiry date.
£10BILLION!
This is far worse than folk think, and Mone’s £29m/£100m is small ‘beer’ compared to what’s actually occurred:
Totally. But Mone is the one to put pressure on. If she ends up in a court she will shop everyone else she knows about. It is in her nature.
In other news I see that the invisible Kemi Badanoch has briefly re-emerged, taking a break from her upcoming leadership campaign, to have a spat with David Tennant about trans rights on Twitter
Anyone seen any other cabinet ministers apart from Jimmy dimly (who’s stepping down anyway) recently? It’s almost like they all want to distance themselves completely from the whole campaign
I wonder how many of the remaining Tory MPs will launch their (already prepared) leadership bids on July 5th? My guess is all of them
Rats in a sack
Are their any decent ideas to look forward to in this shit show?
There's barely anything good coming out of this campaign. What a terrible state of affairs the UK is in.
We seem to have forgotten about inequality, housing, jobs, climate and infrastructure.
Well done MPs of all sides for not offering up solutions to pressing problems.
And the media for drowning in it.
There’s barely anything good coming out of this campaign. What a terrible state of affairs the UK is in.
We seem to have forgotten about inequality, housing, jobs, climate and infrastructure.
Well done MPs of all sides for not offering up solutions to pressing problems.
So what are you going to do about it (other than whine on a niche internet forum)?
DO something? Actually DO something? Are you mad?
I think you're missing some peoples raison d'etre
So what are you going to do about it
I suppose I could vote Green. What are you going to do about it?
People feeling like they are doing something by posting leaflets with Labour written on are not helping as much as they think as Labour are not planning to do anything about it either.
So what are you going to do about it (other than whine on a niche internet forum)?
At least whining on a niche Internet forum is better than what thousands of marginally engage people are thinking right now, which is "teach the establishment a lesson by voting for someone 'radical'" I.e. Farage's rabble.
Kevin Craig should be made to walk around his constituency in a pointy hat before being put in the stocks for a day next to a bin full of rancid fruit. Preferably fruit that has gone off as a result of being delayed by Brexit border checks.
The bit in the middle is called the perineum
I'm not sure if anyone on this thread is actually 'doing' anything.
As said above, posting leaflets for a party that is not showing any signs of changing anything is not really doing something in terms of changing political discourse.
If anything, if you are volunteering for the Labour party you are part of the problem as you are actively supporting not changing politics.
Maybe folk should get off their high horses (unless they can show how they are actually 'doing something', of course).
People feeling like they are doing something by posting leaflets with Labour written on are not helping as much as they think as Labour are not planning to do anything about it either.
Really? You lot (and by that I mean our resident socialist revolutionaries) moan about voter apathy and then you mock the people who are getting off their arses and actually trying to do something about it?
You can't have it both ways.
I got up this morning and as it was a nice morning I went out delivering some more of what you say are my 'pointless' leaflets. I had a chat with a few people and pointed out that there will be a lot more of this sunshine under a Labour Government 😀
I may not be doing much - nothing according to you - but all I care about is traying to contribute to unseating our useless Tory MP and getting James Frith in his place who, as a man, is everything James Daly isn't. And if I stay up next Thursday and thats happened then the future for this constituency is a bit brighter. If that makes me hopelessly naive then I can live with that, thanks.
And if you say you're going to vote green, then why don't you contact your local green party candidate and see if you can make yourself useful there. Don't just sit moaning on the internet about everything being shit....
GET OFF YOUR ARSE AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
It was a lovely morning for it.... 😀
We seem to have forgotten about inequality, housing, jobs, climate and infrastructure.
Have you read the manifestos?
This campaign period is very disappointing with its lack of focus on the real work ahead... in the media, down the pub, and here. But the parties have published policies in all these areas (and for me only one party has nothing to offer at all in any of those areas, and they need kicking into touch ASAP... plus we have a once in a lifetime chance to kick them right out of the grounds... so let's grab it).
We seem to have forgotten about inequality, housing, jobs, climate and infrastructure.
Is this because the focus is on what the public *want* to hear about? Why speak about education when no-one is talking about education. Particularly for Labour anything they say above 'have to' opens them up to criticism in the campaign and being held to deliver things they cannot afford to when they take over...
I was at an event yesterday which had a graph of the public priorities. Things like NHS/health, economy and immigration were dominant. Subjects like climate & environment, or education were something like 7th and 9th on the list.
We have so many political leaders driven by populism too - so they do not set a vision of what could be, an agenda that they want to see happen. They are only reacting to what people want to hear. It is a ever narrowing spiral I would think...
Been subjected to Spotify adverts... Labours ads being served up focussed on more teachers, and access to dental health for kids... both probably high up "public priorities" when asking parents of small children, rather than retired or close to retired people. Demographics (who makes, who owns and who pays for "news") probably heavily skews our views of the campaign. It's like listening in on some campaign doorstopping, but there are only retired people in to answer their doors.
Breaking on Beeb: Man just been arrested in Westminster honey trap case.
Really? You lot (and by that I mean our resident socialist revolutionaries) moan about voter apathy and then you mock the people who are getting off their arses and actually trying to do something about it?
I have never mentioned voter apathy but don't let that stop you making it up. Again, you think you are doing something about inequality, housing, jobs and infrastructure but how exactly given that presumably your goal is to get a Labour party to replace the Tory party who are about as ambitious as the tories are just not as morally void. Kool aid anybody.
Yeah, because that is exactly what I was getting at. Okay, so you don't like someone questioning why you feel the Labour party is going to make such a difference to inequality, housing, infrastructure etc,. especially as you are kidding yourself about it all by spending your own time pointlessly pushing leaflets through doors.
Let's come back in 5 years time and see how it has panned out. You like a bet don't you, come up with some meaningful differences that the Labour will make in 5 years and I will be up for that.
Really? You lot (and by that I mean our resident socialist revolutionaries) moan about voter apathy and then you mock the people who are getting off their arses and actually trying to do something about it?
Don't see anyone mocking you. I think you're doing most of the mocking on this thread all by yourself.
Apart from unseating a Tory, what are you actually trying to achieve with your leafleting (with short breaks to berate those who don't feel enthusiastic enough about any party to actively support them)?
It seems like the beginning and end of your ambition is to get rid of a Tory. So what if you do? He'll be back with a couple a few hundred mates in 5 years time (or, even better, his Reform cousin) because Labour will have done nothing to change the system that is causing large scale voter apathy.
It's not that you are doing nothing. It's that you are actively supporting a party that is not going to change anything and that is what is going to lead to a right wing turbo-nutter government in 5 years time.
So, once again, absolutely fine if you want to drop leaflets but for the love of god get off your high horse.
It’s that you are actively supporting a party that is not going to change anything
Fight the battles you can win.
It’s that you are actively supporting a party that is not going to change anything
Irony overload.
@kerley
I do appreciate what you have said in this thread, you want "better" as do we all.
We all have a wish list for government policy, every single person in this thread. However, the reality is we have one of two choices here.
1) 5 more years of Tory, minimum.
2) A Labour government.
It's one of those two choices, everything else is pie in the sky at this point. That might change in future elections but not this one.
Can you honestly say you'd prefer to wake up to a Tory victory on the 5th July? It's a yes or no situation.
It’s that you are actively supporting a party that is not going to change anything and that is what is going to lead to a right wing turbo-nutter government in 5 years time.
Other opinions are avilable
Is he an advert for Labour in any way? Or just someone (one of many) that's had enough of our government, the utterly shit MP he has, and is accepting of the fact that they only get into power because of those who do not vote to stop the Tories, not just those that actively enable them with their votes.
Other opinions are avilable
Feel free to make them public.
Or do you feel safer communicating by the medium of memes mocking those who don't agree with you?
Let’s come back in 5 years time and see how it has panned out. You like a bet don’t you, come up with some meaningful differences that the Labour will make in 5 years and I will be up for that.
Now imagine 5 more years of the Tories, worse or better than at present?
That's what you should be comparing to.
Maybe heed your own advice and knock it back a bit?
Yeah, I'm being a dick but sometimes that's what happens when someone decides they want to push their weight around a bit too much.
Anyway, I'm not trying to get anyone to vote for anyone.
I think people should express their opinion by voting for the party that most closely aligns with their values regardless of outcomes but since that's something that can't really be measured in any kind of 'win' I guess I'm not as invested in others who have a 'team' they are playing for.
I suppose I could vote Green. What are you going to do about it?
I'm a member of the political party I support. If I wanted to, I could be much more involved locally and try to influence the party's policies from within. It might not have much impact, but at least I'd be trying.
Or I could just whine on a niche internet forum.
I guess I’m not as invested in others who have a ‘team’ they are playing for.
It's not that - it's a calculated vote based on the system. We can only play the hand we're dealt. I would encourage everyone in my constituency to vote Labour, but they aren't my favourite party here.
It’s not that – it’s a calculated vote based on the system. We can only play the hand we’re dealt. I would encourage everyone in my constituency to vote Labour, but they aren’t my favourite party here.
Unfortunately UKIP voters didn't heed your advice prior to 2016.
I guess I’m not as invested in others who have a ‘team’ they are playing for.
That's what we've got. You may wish for it to be different, but right now, that's what we're offered. There's no point in being idealistic about your vote, because: Maths. Get on the bus that's going in your direction as some-one said further up-thread. The need to compromise, the curse of democracy
The need to compromise, the curse of democracy
Again, UKIP voters never compromised. They never won a single seat and yet the government is now UKIP in all but name.
Reform voters are not going to compromise either and Labour will spend 5 years chasing their votes and then, we finally get PM Farage because all the 'smart' people vote tactically instead of for what they agree with.
This is one of those cases where the 'smart' people are, in real terms, getting beaten by the 'stupid' people because the 'smart' people are thinking in terms of winning and losing elections.
You can win a battle and lose the war.
The right are facing what the rest of us have had for decades... a split vote that could keep their politicians out of power for 15 or more years... let's learn to play the FPTP system against them and kick and keep the ****ers out. Ideally for me towards the end of that period we should build a consensus for a more proportional voting system for the UK as whole (as well as at other levels) and marginalise them for further decades.
Haven't we done everything on this page multiple times and it goes nowhere - vote for the party in your constituency that will GTTO - that's all the matters this time.......
And once Labour are in government we'll have to push them to take a look at this - cos otherwise their numbers won't make any sense. I know the consensus is it won't happen - but I'd like to think it'll become an issue much quicker than we believe
The right are facing what the rest of us have had for decades… a split vote that could keep them out of power for 15 or more years… let’s learn and kick and keep the **** out.
I hope you're right about that but I don't think you are.
I think this is the election where any remnants of One Nation Tories are finally buried. A Tory/Reform pact (assuming they haven't merged) at the next election with an electorate fed up of no change under Labour (who have been running scared of Reform the whole time) will run the board.
And with no mechanism's to put a limit on what they can do who knows what can happen. This Tory government killed the last vestiges of the 'good chap' principle of government.
I really hope I'm wrong.
