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He's wasted and ruined the Labour opportunity of our lifetime. In just over 18 months too. He's totally unfit for the job and a terrible liar to boot.
That makes a him a complete disaster.
To carry on what the Tories were (negative migrant narratives, lack of investment, private sector endorsement etc) doing and to leave the gate wide open for Reform is unforgivable.
It's astonishing that you could reach that conclusion on the back of the Mandelson scandal.
(I'd have to say through gritted Teeth Gordon Brown. But there are so many things wrong with picking best out of the last few years.)
They're all messed up neoliberals chasing the wrong goals to improve society which is why everything is dysfunctional.
https://twitter.com/i/status/2020953585534763497
I honestly think the human race is doomed, we can't even collectivley globaly agree on climate change, never mind do anything about it...I just put my recycling bin out..the only one on the street. jobs ****ed, IMO.
To be fair when it comes to it Reform & the Tories will be like this too, pull out or else Green/Lib Dem/Labour/Monster Raving will get in instead - I certainly don't feel like Reform would stand down like they did in the past.
An interesting point. Could both left and right end up looking at coalition options?
We are still 3 years out, and a lot could happen in that time.
well, once a Prime Minister is talking about how 'they aren't going anywhere' they are usually out the door not long after. My hot take (to age like milk)
Starmer hangs on til May but gets a drubbing. MP's do the maths and figure out they are all doomed at the next general if nothing changes so they oust Starmer. Lammy or Streeting are next up, as the party HQ tries to keep the left of the party out of the top job. Infighting continues and nothing of any substance gets done. The malaise will continue until the polls dont improve.
Rayner finally gets in, and there is much optimism about true socialism finally fixing everything. Bond market says 'nah' to the Rayner yolo budget. Truss-esque cost of borrowing blow up ensues and bitcoin / gold / my mortgage goes to the moooooon. General election shortly after. Reform does best out of the clusterduck, but due to alot of tactial voting, doesn't have a majority either. Some kind of reform / tory confidence and supply / coalition forms a goverment. Green party boobs guy has the most seats on the left. Ed Davey is mortaly wounded attempting Red Bull Hardline, achiveing STW Saint status, along with our blessed lady Louise.
FIN.
An interesting point. Could both left and right end up looking at coalition options?
We are still 3 years out, and a lot could happen in that time.
I can see Reform and the Tories trying to form some sort of coalition if they need to after an election.
I do wonder if the Greens and LibDems will be pragmatic enough to work together before an election to avoid splitting their vote. I could see them being the largest group on the centre/left and needing to do a deal with Labour to form a government
I can see Reform and the Tories trying to form some sort of coalition if they need to after an election.
I said a year ago that would happen and I can't see it changing. Labour are too ****ed to get anyone back now. A party is never going to come back from 18 months of shit whoever they have as the new leader.
Pretty much sums up the state of labour.
Sounds about right.
The chair of the Labour Party has just been on Channel 4 news saying how Labour backbenchers are 100% behind Keir Starmer, think he’s doing an absolutely marvelous job and gave his speech a rapturous reception last night
I can see Reform and the Tories trying to form some sort of coalition if they need to after an election.
I said a year ago that would happen and I can't see it changing. Labour are too ****ed to get anyone back now. A party is never going to come back from 18 months of shit whoever they have as the new leader.
Yeah this really.
The 'brand' of Labour has been wrecked for a long long time.
But maybe that doesn't mean they shouldn't try something. Up to them that.
Requesting people to not vote Green or Reform is not a good plan.
Good end to the week for Starmer. Seems like the judiciary has higher standards for what counts as a terrorist group than he does.
Seems like the secret evidence the government had that Palestinian Action should be counted alongside ISIS etc didnt convince the judges.
Government are going for round 2 though and keeping the ban in place until then.
Government are going for round 2 though and keeping the ban in place until then.
Anything to keep those pesky pensioners behind bars. It really is a disgrace.
I made the mistake of endangering my blood pressure by watching the C4 Dispatches on the proscription. They interviewed the former government advisor on extremism Baron Walney, once known as John Woodcock, paid arms industry lobbyist, former chair of Labour Friends of Israel, and part of a group who bought the Jewish Chronicle. But oh yes, completely impartial.
The "we haven't a friggin' clue what we're doing in government" award goes to:
https://twitter.com/i/status/2023407279194681700
Not so much the U-turn. The gameplan in the first place.
Literal daily farce with these Muppets.
And while we're at it. Good. Authoritarian jerks.
What is about making the country work better the government just don't get that they'd spend time on all manner of irrelevant shit?
The gameplan in the first place.
False premise, surely.
I don't understand why they didn't stick to it - Reform pushing this has cost about £65,000,000 to change things - but no papers leave with that.
because theyve been told by their lawyers they would lose a legal challenge and that would cost even more.
The whole thing is a giant gift to reform, ironically though the reorganisations mean there will probably have to be even more elections coming up within a year anyway
To be fair to Reform, getting a load of councillors elected to seats that won't exist in a year is well worth them chasing... their candidates tend to get bored and frustrated within a few months of having to do actual councillor work rather than ranting anyway. If they can bankrupt a few Tory and Labour held councils at the same time by forcing elections to be held that aren't really needed, it's a double win for them.
You’re not going to have to worry about Reform for much longer, they’re about to start bleeding support.
Rupert Lowe has finally made his move. I’m sure people will mock and scoff at yet another little right wing party but I think this guy is the real deal, this is going to be massive.
If anyone wants to understand why go watch his announcement video from Friday, I’ll warn you now that you’ll hate it.
Im just gonna put this here:
You’re not going to have to worry about Reform for much longer, they’re about to start bleeding support.
im sure theres a market for 'even more racist than reform ' but farage is pretty good at what he does
i expect lowe's party will have a similar trajectory to Your Party
im sure theres a market for 'even more racist than reform ' but farage is pretty good at what he does
I dont know. There is a chance the press might stop mollycoddling him and decide Lowe is their pet right winger instead.
Farage got rather irate today as he often does with question he cant answer. I would say its amazing how the press let him off and keep repeating the lies about him being a straight talker vs someone who just goes for insults vs waffling when faced with awkward questions.
His comments about the FT and Epstein were especially nuts. They were basically the only paper who reported on Mandelson/Epstein last year.
I’m sure people will mock and scoff at yet another little right wing party but I think this guy is the real deal, this is going to be massive.
The real deal? What is it you’re hoping for?
Im just gonna put this here:
As the odds quoted in the first 30 seconds or so were all miles out from today’s odds, which have Labour most likely to win the most seats, not Reform… I stopped watching. And that was only four months ago… years to go yet. Sentiment and bets will move all over the place, and in all directions, in that time.
That Rupert Lowe wins a landslide victory and does all the things he says he’s going to do. It’s hard to have hope after decades of madness but I really think this is the guy.
Reform ultimately have the same problem as Labour and the Tories, and it's starting show. They are offering no real solutions to actual problems.
Coming into Councils and claiming they're going to cut Council tax when your central governments have reduced grants for the last 10-15 years is economically a non starter.
The 'cut taxes' idea - is 'good' for the economy needs to die. It's causing utter deprivation.
The country costs money to make it function. A lot of money and that's just to stand still.
The public and government seems to have no understanding of how to correct this and so the circle continues until a party like the Greens can step up with a solid understanding of what's going wrong.
Then be proper grown-ups and fix the fundamentals instead of trying to be the least bad party option.
(Reform have also exhausted themselves to a tiring public. People want the right sort of change.)
I've managed to convince my conspiracy-theorist neighbour that Reform is actually a plot by hardline Muslamic invaders to enforce Sharia law in the UK through the backdoor. His little brain almost exploded when I told him that Zia Yusuf's actual name is Muhammad Yusuf.
Hopefully he'll spread it to the rest of the nut jobs out there.
I stopped watching.
Gary has some interesting thoughts on economics, but as a political pundit, he's no better than the average dude. It's just he has a platform and name recognition, there's no expertise hidden in there, or research or anything...Just the "thoughts of Gary"
That Rupert Lowe wins a landslide victory and does all the things he says he’s going to do.
Okay... of "all the things", give us your top 3 things.
We managed to do just that during Covid .
We managed to do just that during Covid .
And National Insurance thresholds have been frozen ever since.
That Rupert Lowe wins a landslide victory and does all the things he says he’s going to do.
Okay... of "all the things", give us your top 3 things.
I’ll give you the top one thing that it all boils down to. You’re either ok with the native people of this land becoming a minority in their own country or you’re not.
The people that are ok with that have a plethora of options to choose from, all they’re doing is arguing about the speed at which it’s going to happen.
Those who are not ok with it, have been consistently voting against it and been shafted time and time again now have a viable option to vote for. Hopefully.
Genuine question - when does someone become a native? I assume you're ruling out any process whereby someone born abroad qualifies, but how about the child of an immigrant, or grandchild and so on?
What about someone born abroad, with both parents British, and then living here since the age of 5?
Is that a "Native"? As that's me. What does that make my children?
Is it easier to answer the question if I tell you my skin colour or religion?
I’ll give you the top one thing that it all boils down to. You’re either ok with the native people of this land becoming a minority in their own country or you’re not.
oh give over with this nonsense, populations & culture are dynamic, humanity's history is one of migration, interbreeding and cross fertilisation of ideas, genes, language, technology etc our language is a mixture of celtic, saxon, norman, latin, greek, the backwash of empire bringing even more
I understand that you dont like change billabong, it can be scary, but you wont stop it, the best thing you can do is roll with it, instead of screaming at hotels or voting for grifting racists backed by dodgy millionaires that were desweperate to play on epstein island.... perhaps get involed in your community, volunteer as a youth worker.
I understand all the things you guys are saying, what’s a native, these things have always happened etc etc. It all gets messy pretty quickly.
I’m perfectly happy to try and answer all this as best as I can if it’s in good faith, I think it probably needs its own thread though.
Okay, my wife is Belgian born but lived in UK from 2 years old (1966). She has worked her whole life and last 20 years for NHS. What are the exact reasons you would not want her in 'your' country?
And if it comes down to choosing who can be in 'my' country I would guess you wouldn't pass based on what you appear to be like...
I've managed to convince my conspiracy-theorist neighbour that Reform is actually a plot by hardline Muslamic invaders to enforce Sharia law in the UK through the backdoor. His little brain almost exploded when I told him that Zia Yusuf's actual name is Muhammad Yusuf.
Hopefully he'll spread it to the rest of the nut jobs out there.
Wait till he finds out that Richard Tice chooses to live in Dubai under sharia law. That will send him apoplectic
We managed to do just that during Covid .
Hence why the debt mountain is huge and the amount we have to spend servicing that debt is eye watering
I’ll give you the top one thing that it all boils down to. You’re either ok with the native people of this land becoming a minority in their own country or you’re not.
Define "native". Time lived here? Where they're born? Religion? Skin colour? Lets have some clarity so we know what we're working with.
(Lets say someone was born to British parents overseas, is white but isn't Christian and has lived in the UK for 42 of their 44 years. The 2 years was spent living and working in another country (not the one they were born in). Native? Not native?).
Hence why the debt mountain is huge and the amount we have to spend servicing that debt is eye watering
FFS here we go again for the nth time. Until people break out of this doom-spiral thinking we're all f---ed. There is not a finite amount of money, there hasn't been since 1971. Whichever way you want to think about it, either MMT or Keynes, the only way to break out of recessions, depressions and economic stagnation is to spend money to invest in the economy, create jobs and stimulate production and consumption. Taking money from services to service debt does the opposite.
If we really are worried about 'paying back' the debt then there is only one way to resolve that, and that's to tax those who can most afford to pay and remove all the loopholes and tax-breaks handed out to corporations and the billionaire elite.
You’re either ok with the native people of this land becoming a minority in their own country or you’re not.
Not going to happen for a very long time if at all. Its nowhere near a majority of immigrants (assuming the last 100 or so years incomers as immigrants) Stop listening to the far right and their lies
The foreign-born population increased from about 5.3 million in 2004 to 10.7 million in 2021.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign-born_population_of_the_United_Kingdom
If we really are worried about 'paying back' the debt then there is only one way to resolve that, and that's to tax those who can most afford to pay and remove all the loopholes and tax-breaks handed out to corporations and the billionaire elite.
Could also pay it off in a few months by taxing the hell out of everyone. So the country would then have no debt to pay back, be in a complete mess and be absolutely no better off other than being able to say "look, no debt". No, I didn't think anyone wanted that so happen to people should just shut up about it.
Money needs to be spent as you say if we want to see any positive change for most peoples lives.
"As the nation was organised for war and death, so it can be organised for peace and life if we have the will for it" Will being the operative word
From memory in 1991 white British in England and Wales were about 90% of the population. In 2021 they were around 75%. You can fact check me on that but I don’t think it’s a million miles off. I’d consider that a significant change and it shows no sign of stopping.