UK Election!

First thing I thought with the doctors being engaged with next week is that the Tories wouldn’t have done that. They’d have been on X calling them unreasonable or woke or some other balls. So sick of the culture war.

The Tory (ex) health secretary literally told the junior doctor negotiator “I can’t agree a deal with you even if it was cheaper than continuing the dispute, just think how it would look on the front of the daily mail”!

I am using fuel price to track the new govt progress  :-)

If the fuel price does not come down then I am afraid nothing will change and worst case tax will increase.

Short Money

General funding for Opposition Parties – the amount payable to qualifying parties is £21,438.33 for every seat won at the last General Election plus £42.82 [corrected on 8 Jan 24, previously reported as £38.75] for every 200 votes gained by the party.

…

The funding available to parties with five or fewer Members is subject to a floor and ceiling, set at 50% and 150%, respectively, of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority’s (IPSA) staffing budget for non-London area MPs. For 2023/24, the staffing budget for non-London MPs is £236,170:

The floor is set at £118,085
The ceiling is set at £354,255

4 seats x 21,438 = 85,752

4,114,287 votes x 42.82 per 200 = 880,868

total 966,620 so they get the ceiling amount £354k. Per financial year.

I think. Figures for last financial year, and that west Highlands seat yet to declare (not that it makes a difference due to the cap).

David Lammy, appointed foreign secretary, called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

No surprise there, it was in the manifesto.

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-election-what-are-labours-foreign-policy-plans-2024-07-03/

Tories

121 seats x 21,438 = 2,593,998

6,824,809 votes x 42.82 per 200 = 1,461,191

Leader of the opposition’s office 998,817

Total £5,054,006

David Lammy, appointed foreign secretary, called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

No surprise there, it was in the manifesto.

LOL! It is just for show.  Someone is playing good cop bad cop.  The puppet master is very powerful.

That was me I was slightly wrong

Reform will get a few hundred k due to their vote share but because they have b less than 6mps it is capped

If course refuk being a plc 53% owned by farage all that money is his

Yeah that’s disturbing, but, to be frank, the conservatives have been robbing the UK blind for 14 years, and now Farage is head of a political party and an MP, I’d expect much more of a focus on what his nasty game is, and he is MP for Clacton, so it will also be intersting to see if he bothers to do his day-job, or simpy abandons his constituents now he’s finally go what he wants.

No surprise there, it was in the manifesto.

So what stoped the tories making it policy? It would have been a vote winner…. oh that’s right, they are taking money from the Russians, how nieve of me.

chewkw
Free Member
I am using fuel price to track the new govt progress ?

If the fuel price does not come down then I am afraid nothing will change and worst case tax will increase.

That’s one bloody strange metric to choose. Anyway, taxes are going to go up anyway, it’s just case of how much and where they are targeted.

LOL! It is just for show. Someone is playing good cop bad cop. The puppet master is very powerful.

chewkw, you get an unwarranted bad press on here sometimes but you are as mad as a march hare on occasion. I still think the forum would be a lesser place without you though buddy.

(Im as mad as a march hare too, on occasion!)

Yes let’s use global market prices on one particular thing to determine the success of a newly formed goverment in one very small and isolated country!

Sound logic.

You are batshit crazy, chewkw, but somehow endearing.

No the Labour manifesto does not call for an immediate ceasefire. The exact wording is:

“Labour will continue to push for an immediate ceasefire”

To push for a ceasefire is no different than to urge a ceasefire. It can mean no more than pushing/urging Netanyahu for a ceasefire just as soon as he thinks he is ready for one.

It’s just weasel words with no substantial meaning. If Labour had wanted to be clear and unequivocal they would have been so, Starmer is after all a highly qualified lawyer.

They would have very clearly and simply said:

“Labour demands an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the full protection of civilians under international law”

It’s not difficult and I’m not even a lawyer. “Pushing” means nothing.

I am well impressed by the appointment of the new Attorney General though. I can’t fault that.

No the Labour manifesto does not call for an immediate ceasefire. The exact wording is:

“Labour will continue to push for an immediate ceasefire”

Semantics, maybe, to me there is no difference between:

A) “push for an immediate ceasefire”

B) “call for an immediate ceasefire”

It’s the same sentiment.

“I will do all I can diplomatically to support Joe Biden in bringing about that ceasefire”

Someone needs to tell the Foreign Secretary that Joe Biden isn’t the Israeli Prime Minister.

It is Netanyahu who should be put under pressure. It is his troops who are killing civilians. It is his government which is committing war crimes on a daily basis.

Leaving it all to Joe Biden is a copout and another way of saying that he won’t be putting any pressure on Israel’s far-right government and following exactly the same policy as the previous Tory government.

Edit: To be fair I suspect that they had a wake-up call yesterday. Starmer halving his vote since 2019 and one of his top right-hand men very nearly losing his seat over the issue was probably unexpected and a bit scary.

I am well impressed by the appointment of the new Attorney General though. I can’t fault that.

Is he a good cop or a bad cop?  AG is a very influential position with power of invisible hands.

That clip of David Lammy is so insignificant it is meaningless.

Richard Hermer KC seems to be a good cop chewkw

Richard Hermer KC seems to be a good cop chewkw

I suspect he is just part of the script. You only have to listen to the tone of PM, who I am sure sought advice from him on matters related to laws.  If the tone of the PM remains vague you know you are watching an act.

Someone needs to tell the Foreign Secretary that Joe Biden isn’t the Israeli Prime Minister.

That’s a very valid point, now we have an independent UK then we Need to ensure that we are not using our arms industry or in any other way financing this through the back door, as that makes a mockery of anything any politictian says.

Likewise with Ukraine, we need to take action, hoping Biden will help is all well and good, but if Trump gets back in then we can kiss all that good will from the USA goodbye.

All of this wil cost the UK hugely, so I hope the electorate are prepared for that big pill to swallow.

As I said before, Starmer has inherited a huge train crash, so we shall see.

All I can say is at least our new government seem to be making the right noises, rather than banging on about domestic issues that, IMO are mostly self constructed.

Some really good strong first steps, very happy (and yep I’ll be honest, a little surprised!) to see it. Felt pretty damn good waking up in the early days of a better nation and going for a ride.

Ian Murray as scottish secretary is an absolute own goal but maybe they can afford it. Anas Sarwar’ll be raging though.

Some really good strong first steps

Yeh but, apart from pushing/calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, stopping the Rwanda idiocy and restarting negotiations with the Doctors, putting a new cabinet in place and a few other trivial irrelevant things like speaking to the guy with the silly hat… they’re not doing anything are they, and they’ve nearly had a full day to do all the things ever. Losers.

How we all feeling this morning?

+

Happier than I have in a while, looking forward to a sense of stability in our government and (for the first time in a decade) a sense that the country is going to start improving sometime soon.

The last 24 hours have been a game-changer!

Has Keir not sorted the situation in Gaza yet?

What’s he been doing, for gods sake?!

(and yep I’ll be honest, a little surprised!)

That’s the crazy thing Labour haven’t done anything earth shatteringly amazing, pretty dull stuff, infact, but it just seems weird to have a government do something that’s not completely batshit, that sensible seems revolutionary.

I’m sure they’re will be plenty of disappointment and balls ups to come but for now it’s just nice.

Have many of us read or seen the Lord of the Rings? Remember the bit in Return of the King (spoiler alert) where, unbeknowst to the warring armies, the ring falls into Orodruin precipitating the fall of Sauron and all the people of Gondor feel their spirits leap as the Dark Shadow is lifted?

That’s how I felt yesterday. :)

Hope this changes things. Getting a proper integrated regional transport system would be fantastic

Labour promises to allow every community to take back control of local bus services

One of my lad’s uni mates apparently

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c16jpl6707eo

Has Keir not sorted the situation in Gaza yet?

Weather’s still shit as well. This is not what I voted for. They are all the same.

Hope this changes things. Getting a proper integrated regional transport system would be fantastic

After some initial teething problems, we seem to be getting there in Greater Manchester and it seems loads more people are using public transport as a result.

To borrow a phrase from Esther McVey you’d think having an affordable, integrated transport network rather than a free-for-all, with private providers only interested in cherrypicking the most profitable routes, would just be ‘common sense’ wouldn’t you?

FTSE went down yesterday. Proof Labour has already crashed the economy according to some.

Felt pretty damn good waking up in the early days of a better nation and going for a ride.

Same, it feels like a weight has been lifted, the appointments look like as I suspected “business like” almost as though Kier going to actually run a country properly for us.  Let’s hope it proceeds how it’s started and gets some success.

Does anyone else find it strange that the AV Referendum of 2011 has been almost entirely forgotten about? I dont engage much on social media these days, but found myself drawn into a YT comments section decrying FPTP, and demanding PR. Mostly Reform voters who’d switched from Cons.

I drew their attention to this, and got told I was spreading fake news, and something about 1946 and enfranchisement. The commonality of the responses tells me that someone has got their talking points out there early.

(Yes, I know that it was only for AV and not full PR….)

Just been to the supermarket and I had a brief browse of the headlines on the newspaper stand. Daily Mail promising to hold him to account right from the get go and that he MUST deliver.

Yes, like you did so well when it was the Tories…

Edit: why do emojis no longer work and why does that David Lammy video ^^ auto-play? Is that a new website settings thing or something unique to that video platform? Cos autoplay is unbelievably annoying.

I am using fuel price to track the new govt progress  ?

If the fuel price does not come down then I am afraid nothing will change and worst case tax will increase.

A commodity reliant on the global market….that’s as dog shit a metric as I could imagine. You might as well measure success by the smell of your farts.

You might as well measure success by the smell of your farts.

Labour are doing incredibly well right now, stronger than  you could imagine.  This is the one time I hope they don’t follow through on their promises

In that case, my bottom gas smells good today.

Steady, stable and no scent of batshit.

Edit :  22 seconds too slow

You might as well measure success by the smell of your farts.

Had a chicken jalfrezi and some youngs ordinary yesterday evening, and I am pleased to confirm the Starmer govt is going to be highly successful, as is my local libdem MP

So that’s what, 15 years out of the last 35 that we’ve had objectively incompetent government whichever side you support. That’s the real problem for the UK.

The real problem is that the Conservatives have a far more capable election machine than anyone else. Labour has only managed 33 years in power since 1900, the Conservatives had achieved that between 1900 and 1955 (sometimes with Liberal support).

Labour didn’t achieve three consecutive terms until 1997-2010

“purile” “Peurile (sp)”

Puerile

You might as well measure success by the smell of your farts.

explains all the cheese eating on election night!