UK Election!

 What is this infatuation with football?

The Venn Diagram of ranting football fans overlaps neatly with his target demographic, hence the anti-cyclist rhetoric as well.

As for mandatory volunteering, Yes Prime Minister was as prescient as always – also didn’t realise this was the source of the term ‘sunlit uplands’!

https://x.com/YesPMQuoter/status/1794560983379177615

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://x.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?

I’m not sure there are any safe tory seats at the moment!

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.

Dont know if this has been mentioned but very interesting Politics Joe today with Carol Vorderman regarding tactical voting. Definitely worth a watch.

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 educated guesswork.

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 **** 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.

**** 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 **** 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.