Subscribe now and choose from over 30 free gifts worth up to £49 - Plus get £25 to spend in our shop
How many new candidates do the cons need to find?
Our current clown is not standing for re-election and as of yet they have not found a replacement, even the communism party have managed that.
Ib think I read in the guardian online that they are ~180 short.
30 odd are in important seats and 150 are basically already doomed.
I can def see some seats not having a tory candidate, because as insane as a lot of them are they are not that nuts
I can def see some seats not having a tory candidate, because as insane as a lot of them are they are not that nuts
There must be some in which the absence of a Tory on the ballot could give Reform enough votes to grab a seat or two? Although CCHQ have to rubber stamp the candidates, local associations should be able to rustle up some half-dead councillor to just be a name to stop this happening.
There must be some in which the absence of a Tory on the ballot could give Reform enough votes to grab a seat or two?
I cannot imagine one single parliamentary seat not being contested by the Tories. But even if it were to happen it would be in a seat where they stood absolutely no chance whatsoever - either a Labour seat or LibDem seat, not a potential Tory seat.
Reform UK are never going to win a seat that the Tories stand no chance of winning.
https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1795130756538286133?t=sl_-9EHLjOWyvMjM_l_pCw&s=19
Wonder how quickly this tweet will come back to bite him...
@martinhutch - in defence of football fans, I came back from RideLondon last night on a train full of Leeds fans and they were very pleasant. And I was obviously a cyclist too.
And as for the masterpiece that is Yes Minister / Primeminister all I can say is that to combat Brexit food shortages, Rishi is proposing to launch the Great British Sausage - nationalism and offal in one easy to swallow lump.
Over 200 short.
I imagine the tories will get a candidate of some sort in place in their empty seats
They have another 9? days to submit them all
But I think there's a good chance that more MPs will defect or quit before then, after the date when their names are submitted, they will be on the ballot come rain or shine.
Which is where it may get interesting, because even if they don't quit/defect, rushed vetting means who knows what skeletons may be in their closert and the tories (& rfm) could end up pulling support but not being able to put up a different candidate, ala Azhar Ali for labour in Rochdale.
In the 130 odd seats without candidates that the Tories expect to lose that doesn't matter, but if it's one of the 30 or so they think they can win....
But Lord ‘Frosty’ Frost is looking for a safe seat. God help whichever constituency he decides on.
@crazy-legs That’s going to age like a fine lettuce, isn’t it?
What is this infatuation with football?
As with so many things, Blair started this nonsense. Clueless politicians seem to regard it as something essential when doing their completely unconvincing’man of the people’ act
It never ends well for them, from Dave forgetting what team he said he supported (he claimed it was Villa, then said it was West Ham) to this horrific vision…
Rishi is equally as unconvincing in claiming to be a Southampton fan, but the Leeds fans, bless ‘em, had some very imaginative chants to serenade him with yesterday 😂
This is a banger from IG.
Sums the cons up perfectly.
sure it’ll get a load of support from the boomers who harp on about WW2 even though they were likely not born then.
you would be wrong this boomer and his boomer wife think its a pile of horse shit. Stop with the lazy culture war bollocks you do yourself no favours.
Stop with the lazy culture war bollocks you do yourself no favours.
The polls tend to support that claim though. Cant find any recent ones (sure there will be a couple in the next few days) but looking at 2016 the in favour is mostly the boomers and older.
There is a reason the tories have proposed it.
in defence of football fans, I came back from RideLondon last night on a train full of Leeds fans and they were very pleasant. And I was obviously a cyclist too.
Only the shouty ones on twitter, to be fair.
The polls tend to support that claim though.
I work in a small office of 6, all but one are boomers and none of us support that stuff. The only poll worth a damn is the one on 4 July, anything else is just educated guesswork.
you would be wrong this boomer and his boomer wife think its a pile of horse shit. Stop with the lazy culture war bollocks you do yourself no favours.
Are you one of the boomers he was specifically referring to?
No?
Then what's the problem?
@squirrelking It is lazy and does nothing for the country. Divisiveness is of no help.
Wonder how quickly this tweet will come back to bite him…
Ooh look, he's on about football again.
Ooh look, he’s on about football again.
It is funny. He clearly has about as much interest or knowledge of football as I do, probably less, but has been told he needs to pretend.
Wonder how many times he has been to see "his team" especially voluntarily rather than as a photo op.
Wonder how quickly this tweet will come back to bite him?
Doubt he’d be bothered. Once he’s on the jet to SoCal, he’ll not look back.
anything else is just
educatedguesswork.
FTFY
Doubt he’d be bothered. Once he’s on the jet to SoCal, he’ll not look back.
Or if he does want to come back it will be forgotten.
Just think about Cameron and his promise to stay before his short exile in his designer Shepherds hut.
Were in GE campaign so you can only expect culture wars to get more talked up
Tories dropping a new policy tonight.
Coporal Punishment?
Number plates for bicycles?
Bricking up the channel tunnel?
As with so many things, Blair started this nonsense. Clueless politicians seem to regard it as something essential when doing their completely unconvincing’man of the people’ act
Binners in "blame Blair!" shocker.
John Major said for years he supported Chelsea FC.
Oh it's just a quadruple lock
It is funny. He clearly has about as much interest or knowledge of football as I do, probably less, but has been told he needs to pretend.
Every time an MP - usually Tories but frankly they're all pretty shit at it - tries to be cool, sound edgy, relate to normal people, show an interest in day to day goings on or even do normal daily things like buy bread, fill a car with fuel (yes Rishi, looking at you again!), they just prove how out of touch they are.
No idea of how much things cost because everything in the House of Commons is massively subsidised and everything outside of that they're sticking on expenses. No idea about daily tasks cos they have nannies and cleaners to do all that.
And then they try and "do" football. It's just cringe. It's like watching an Apprentice candidate - someone absolutely convinced of their own genius trying to do a normal thing and being utterly shit at it.
More than 120 business chiefs sign letter backing Labour
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckvv8qwl4y4o
The good news just keeps piling up for Rishi...
They are even using the Labour election buzz word: “time for a change”.
He clearly has about as much interest or knowledge of football as I do, probably less, but has been told he needs to pretend
It would be a much better response if he just said "I'm Prime Minister, sorry, I'm a bit ****ing busy for football tbh". But no, it's always "oh I love the Lions, me, I remember watching the winning try in the Cup Final".
Sunlit uplands in British Politics has its origins in Churchill:
Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail [etc]
But it's been around for a while, there are plenty of examples from the 19th century.
Really need to re-watch Yes Prime Minister one of these days though. It's been ages since I last saw it. So good
#notallboomers
Just because you and the people in your circle personally don't hold those views doesn't mean others don't.
Had one boomer (retiree) complaining about the VFM his council tax returns because he pays over £3k on a single person discount (band G which in this part of Scotland is still a high benchmark) before trying to tell me he's not well off (in a £320-720k house) and gets no benefits! Why should he go out and work to supplement his pension or pay stamp duty and moving fees to move to a more affordable house? Cherry on the cake was when he said Poll Tax was far fairer.
****ers like that get no sympathy from me, typical entitled attitude.
Meanwhil my 72yo FIL is still working and living in a £25k flat that we helped pay off.
So yes, I know not all boomers are a homogenous lump, not all of you are intent on slamming every door behind you that you can, but enough did that unfortunately it stuck.
Stop taking it personally. It's not about you.
Dont know if this has been mentioned but very interesting Politics Joe today with Carol Vorderman regarding tactical voting. Definitely worth a watch.
You could tell she has “visceral” disgust at the current crop of Tory’s, I hope they get utterly wiped out as a party but I fear what the right wing/libertarian sect of the party will coalesce into to.
Mother ****ers better start worrying about conscripting Tory candidates, not eighteen year olds.
I think all this "boomer" shit is a total waste of time, absolute bobbins that's been lifted from American social media and probably planted by Russian bots.
Had one boomer (retiree) complaining about the VFM his council tax returns because he pays over £3k on a single person discount (band G which in this part of Scotland is still a high benchmark) before trying to tell me he’s not well off (in a £320-720k house) and gets no benefits! Why should he go out and work to supplement his pension or pay stamp duty and moving fees to move to a more affordable house?
I see what you're getting it, and it might be true that the guy's house is valuable, but if he's been living in it for a while then that's not income - it's just an increase in the paper value of the house, and he's living where he has always lived, nothings changed for him. £3000 tax on a pension is a lot of money.
Tories dropping a new policy tonight.
Coporal Punishment?
Number plates for bicycles?
I think we need an ongoing game of batshit Tory policy bingo.
I was going to suggest number plates for cyclists too...... but will instead raise it to "road tax for cyclists".
Also, I'll go for something like: "real/whole-life sentences for paedos". That'll really get people frothed-up.
Also, on the "national service" angle: how long before somebody suggests these young "volunteers" could be put to work fixing potholes?
I see what you’re getting it, and it might be true that the guy’s house is valuable, but if he’s been living in it for a while then that’s not income – it’s just an increase in the paper value of the house, and he’s living where he has always lived, nothings changed for him. £3000 tax on a pension is a lot of money.
The point is they/I have done nothing to get the valuable house, we were just around at the right time so you can't blame us for just being alive long enough. An old woman down the road from me is selling her modest bungalow that she bought with her husband (who died a couple of years ago) around 60 years ago for not much money. That bungalow is now worth £850k.
If she buys say a cheaper £400K property, or even rent somewhere for rest of her life (she is over 80) then she is very well off isn't she. Until that point she is fairly poor paying a relatively high amount on council tax and the like.
That is not the point though, she realises all that and knows she has been very lucky to end up with a valuable house and doesn't support the typical older generation nonsense that the tories court and that is the difference between someone like her and a lot of people who don't realise that.
That Pension headline, what he forgets to say is "Your private pension will be taxed, and sooner because we didn't raise the tax threshold last year."
Really pisses me off, you're encouraged to save all your working life and the b'stards penalise you.
As for the National Service stuff, all he's done is getting the youth to vote Labour.
121 business chiefs sign a letter backing Starmer.
163 economists signed a letter backing Corbyn.
Spot the difference.
NB, On this occasion the answer isn't 42
Also, on the “national service” angle: how long before somebody suggests these young “volunteers” could be put to work fixing potholes?
I remember one of the reasons for Brexit being that the EU was going to create a European Army and "your kids will be forced to do National Service". Vote Leave to avoid this.
Now the sunlit uplands apparently have a conscription clause included.
Had one boomer (retiree) complaining
We've neighbours in a similar position..£650k + house, two final salary local authority pensions (one of which is as much as mrs_oab earns as a 0.6 teacher). Still yesterday one of them was telling me that Labour were out to 'do them over', that life was too expensive, and they hoped one party would up the pension and reduce council tax to enable pensioners to stay in large properties....
I see what you’re getting it, and it might be true that the guy’s house is valuable, but if he’s been living in it for a while then that’s not income – it’s just an increase in the paper value of the house, and he’s living where he has always lived, nothings changed for him. £3000 tax on a pension is a lot of money.
Except council tax is based on what you paid when you bought it (inflation adjusted to 1991) so appreciating or not he's never been rebanded since he bought it.
As for the Russian bot thing, nah. Maybe there's some truth in recent years but the meme came from somewhere. Who mostly voted for student grants to end and then increase tuition fees to an entire degrees worth per year? For the constant erosion of our education and health system? Do I even have to ask about the B word? Who constantly beat down on my generation with their ladders safely pulled up behind them?
As I said, I know that's not every boomer but I'm afraid the demographics don't lie. Like I said, don't take it personally, I'm not talking about the decent ones.
I remember one of the reasons for Brexit being that the EU was going to create a European Army and “your kids will be forced to do National Service”. Vote Leave to avoid this.
I remember one of the reasons for voting against Independence was that if we stayed in the UK we wouldn't lose our place in the EU. Vote No to avoid this.
If it was the middle of the night and a Tory told me it was dark outside I'd still have to go out and check to be sure.
Just heard this era's shameless media round whore du jour Mel Stride on R4. Zero substance, just soundbites and vague lies.
I think he must be under the impression he will be knighted for services to brown-nosing or similar.
🤦
If it was the middle of the night and a Tory told me it was dark outside I’d still have to go out and check to be sure.
You can tell when a Tory is lying.
Their lips are moving.
If it was the middle of the night and a Tory told me it was dark outside I’d still have to go out and check to be sure.
To be fair with all the cuts to local council funding under the tories it is quite likely there wont be any street lights on.
As I said, I know that’s not every boomer
Then please stop using language that suggests it is. This government has thrived on sowing division and othering people. We can either play their game and let them win, or accept that there is more that unites us than divides us and join together to defeat them.
Then please stop using language that suggests it is.
Unfortunately the entire concept of elections forces us to consider people as groups rather than individuals. I'm sorry, but your group is the absolute worst in terms of what it's been voting for.
If I were you I would take it as a compliment. As a millennial I'm statistically on the correct side of pretty much all arguments. If I was on the wrong side then I would have to be an uber-****.
As a boomer, statistically, you're on the wrong side of pretty much all arguments. The fact that despite that you're on the right side means you are fundamentally better than me.
I'm par for the course but you're better than your cohort.
As a millennial I’m statistically on the correct side of pretty much all arguments
No you're not, you might be a statistic but you are also an individual. No one can claim to be correct on the basis of their demographic profile.
Then please stop using language that suggests it is.
It is accurate though when talking about the group. There is a reason why the tories are trotting out the policies they are and thats to appeal to the boomer demographic.
The same way that saying younger people are less likely to vote is.
"The same way that saying younger people are less likely to vote is."
Not the same at all! It is akin to saying "young people don't vote".
Drawing conclusions based on a few percentage points for a demographic seems unnecessarily divisive and is doing the Tories' job for them.
The last two pages of this thread seem to boil down to "stop over generalising because this anecdote of one proves you wrong".
There is a reason why the tories are trotting out the policies they are and thats to appeal to the boomer demographic.
Yes. The big parties election / polling / stats / demographic / analysis information is extremely good and accurate at a macro level.
Unfortunately (from a Tory point of view) it is their policies of the last 8 years that have led them to the point where, to stand a chance of getting as many votes as possible in the right configuration, appealing to the over 70s* is the only course of action open to them.
It is either that, or row back from the nationalistic, punching down, culture war populism. They've painted themselves into this corner and it is going to cost them. But they've had long enough to get the loot into the 'right' pockets anyway.
*And, sorry to say it, but - statistically the boomers do have a gilded existence compared to the rest of us. Umpteen times more likely to be sat on a nice nest egg with a hugely appreciated property value and often final salary pensions too - and wanting to hold on to that wealth at all costs. They are easily scared. They also grew up in an era prior to large scale immigration, so it is easy to convince them any perceived decline correlates with that. How many otherwise 'nice' older folk do you hear say things like "the couple next door are Polish, but they are a lovely couple"? The personal relationship is fine, but the preconception is that they won't be nice because they are foreign.
The election strategists aren't stupid. Their masters are.
I reckon the use of the term ‘boomer’ is probably getting backs up a little, but the sentiment isn’t far off. Let’s be honest here, older folks are far more likely to vote Tory, for many of the reasons stated by fender above
stw may well consider itself the pinnacle of enlightenment, but I think the vast majority of the rest of the population will be voting in their own self interests this election. If the tables were turned, and the youth of today were prosperous and had any kind of perceived future under the tories whilst the pensioners were all penniless, I suspect the Tory vote demographic would be very very different
I’m sorry, but your group is the absolute worst in terms of what it’s been voting for.
If I were you I would take it as a compliment
You're whole point fails spectacularly because I'm too young to be a boomer.
Division and othering encourages us to group people together based on very little information and make ill-judged assumptions, judgements and decisions. This is why a lot of us get upset about these throwaway terms, especially if they are intended to be derogatory and wrong.
My parents on the other hand, absolute ****ing nightmares!
It looks like Sunaks electoral strategy ( if you could call it that) is to completely abandon the middle ground and any pretence of representing the interests of their more socially liberal former ‘one nation’ moderate Tory voters.
They've now been led by the nose by Farage and Braverman to the far right outer fringes, to the stuff advocated by red-faced, drunk, angry and bitter retired colonels, sat in a wing-backed armchair in a private members club, waving a daily Telegraph about.
The Labour Party must be laughing their tits off. To go into a general election with your main (possibly even only) policy being ‘bring back national service’ is absolutely hatstand!
They may get a few hang’em and flog’em racist pensioners back from Reform but they’re surely repelling anyone who still has their own teeth?
Farage is to make a speech later today. He’ll probably suggest bombing the French coastline to stop the boats, at which point the hang’em and flog’em racist pensioners go straight back to Reform
It looks like Sunaks electoral strategy ( if you could call it that) is to completely abandon the middle ground and any pretence of representing the interests of their more socially liberal former ‘one nation’ moderate Tory voters.
I'm beginning to wonder whether this is deliberate. Many labour MPs desperately wanted to lose the 2019 election to extinguish the resurgence of the progressive left and I suspect the tory power brokers want the same to happen to the tory right. The only difference this time is that the leader is a willing participant rather than the opposite.
at which point the hang’em and flog’em racist pensioners go straight back to Reform
Are they just stuck in a loop of chasing a majority of their current voter base, not realising that a majority of a majority of a majority could be quite a small minority? I.e. they start with 50% of votes from the previous election, then Labour or Reform come after their voters so they do something that appeals to a majority (60%) of their current voters and puts off the rest, leaving them with 30% of votes. Do the same again and they've got 18% , and again and they've got 11%, but each time they've 'secured' a majority of their voter base from a rival party.
I’m beginning to wonder whether this is deliberate. Many labour MPs desperately wanted to lose the 2019 election to extinguish the resurgence of the progressive left and I suspect the tory power brokers want the same to happen to the tory right. The only difference this time is that the leader is a willing participant rather than the opposite.
I think it's deliberate but not for the reasons stated.
There's nothing left. The rivers are full of shit, the youth have no prospects (thanks to losing opportunities like Erasmus and now being faced with National Service), the country has been absolutely gutted. There's nothing left to turn a profit off, to sell to their mates or to privatise.
Everything is crumbling - Victoria infrastructure on railways is being washed away routinely, the roads are in a state not seen since before the days of tarmac, public buildings made from aerated concrete are falling to bits, councils / the NHS / public services are all on their knees, none of the Brexit freedoms have come true (or more accurately, all the Brexit lies are coming home to roost) and they've pretty much run out of people to blame for it all.
The fact that so many Tory MPs are standing down shows they have no interest in democracy. They don't want to be in opposition holding the Government to account, they want to be the ones in power. It's all they've ever cared about.
This is now full on rats / sinking ship. They'll do what Cameron did the first time around; sod off somewhere on multimillion ££ "non-exec director" roles, consultancies etc and leave the mess to everyone else. Absolute scum.
Well listening to Farage, as predicted, he’s gone full Enoch Powell. Or maybe Tommy Robinson. He’s spouting out and out racist rabble-rousing
I expect the Tory party will now willingly follow him yet further right
???????
A quick Google turned up three MPs urging people to vote Tory. There may have been more.
Your private pension will be taxed
And so it should be, like all income over the threashold whether earned or unearned. I would argue it should be taxed more than earned income because there is no cost to earning it.
Pensioners get taxed too little IMO (I'm a pensioner in one country and soon to be in another). Those who are taxed too hard are the young workers who have no savings, no property, pay a fortune in transport to get to work... .
I would argue it should be taxed more than earned income because there is no cost to earning it.
?? Apart from the money I put into my private pension, agreed it should be taxed especially as it didn't get taxed at time of input but extra because I didn't pay for it is completely bonkers.
Pensioners do have other costs that workers don't have though so pitting one group against another is not a good idea.
"Pensioners do have other costs that workers don’t have though so pitting one group against another is not a good idea."
such as? I'll be a pensioner in a couple of years, and I'd hate to see any unexpected costs coming my way...
I am sick of the amount of age related predudice and sterotyping on this thread.
I am a "boomer", and seem to be responsible for all the problems of society. I don't think terms such as boomer, milenials, mamil, etc are helpful terms and only sterotype people.
For the record I helped with minor parts of the first Rock against Racism, took part in demos and other oppostion to the NF,BNP and other racist scum, Have supported other groups of workers by picketing etc.
I voted against Brexit.
I have never voted Tory ever and would saw my own head off before I did.
I will probably vote labour to make sure we keep the Tory scum out but will have top bite my tongue voting for a party led by Starmer.
That's great Bruce but really it's a bit silly to be so oversensitive about generalisations that are obviously meant as statistically relevant summaries rather than a precise description of every single person in that group. It's just pointless pedantry and derailing to insist on adding "not every ..." to every single statement.
Ok, "not every single statement". But a lot of them 🙂
I'm retired myself but have no qualms about blaming retirees for a large part of the country's problems. They (we!) voted for brexit, they voted tory, time after time over the last 14 years. Not me, but most of this group.
"Starmer: I’m a socialist and progressive who will always put country first"
https://twitter.com/GdnPolitics/status/1795152888018370959?t=Y4BWSdYMCocskZOrT7HDjg&s=19
Man sure knows how to just say anything at all without any remotely cohesive meaning.
Add me to the list that gets bored with the constant ageist stereotyping on here. Dress it up how you like, but it's exactly the kind of divisive othering the right wing popularists you would claim to despise revel in. Even if the target group to be othered is different from theirs, the tactic is straight out of their playbook and deserves imo, equal contempt.
That’s great Bruce but really it’s a bit silly to be so oversensitive about generalisations that are obviously meant as statistically relevant summaries rather than a precise description of every single person in that group. It’s just pointless pedantry and derailing to insist on adding “not every …” to every single statement.
I think words are important - if you're using a catch-all term like "boomer", you're including everyone who falls within that definition whether they're guilty of what you accuse them or not. It's just another form of bigotry.
Hopefully we have done the boomer thing to death and they now see the error of their ways.
Following up on Farages' speech, he is 100% aiming at the tories now. Even suggesting that why bother voting for them as it is a lost cause.
I'm a boomer too, born 60. I left school into the Winter of discontent, graduated into 3 million unemployed, worked on temporary contracts for the first five years of my "career" then moved abroad.
As a boomer I recognised how my generation, especially those a few years older did an exceptional job of accumulating wealth which they are now and always have been very reluctant to share. I'm all right Jack prevails even to the detriment of their own kids. I hope I've learned from the mistakes of those a little older than me and been much more supportive of my son in both time and money because like me he's entering active life at a time the odds are stacked against him but with less help from the state than I got, and that's in a country the Americans call "socialist land" in a derisory tone.
As a pensioner, I resent the stereotypers, reductionists, centrists and reactionaries you find amongst the young, all of them!
Ffs we did all this with "not all men", get over it. We're not talking about YOU, stop making it about YOU.