UK Election!

Naomi Klein

https://x.com/i/status/1800166131787001986

Reform, still full of wrong’uns:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjmmrwexv4ko

Reform UK candidate has apologised for claiming the country would be “far better” if it had “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality” instead of fighting the Nazis in World War Two.

Ian Gribbin, the party’s candidate in Bexhill and Battle, also wrote online that women were the “sponging gender” and should be “deprived of health care”.

In posts from 2022 on the Unherd magazine website, seen by the BBC, he said Winston Churchill was “abysmal” and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That Akehurst film is a shoddy, embarrassing mess.

On a technical level (shooting shadows across a face, terrible editing and leaving DJI mic packs in full view) – it’s enough make me change career.

Naomi Klein

https://x.com/i/status/1800166131787001986

We need people like Klein to be on  screen currently.

She’s right, we’re doing – right-wing failure then centrist ‘solutions’ which gives way to more extreme right-wing parties/ideas and thus more collapse.

Naomi Klein

Yup, it would be silly not to learn the lessons from Europe. But we probably won’t.

Rishi Sunak thought that he could beat Reform UK at their own game despite all the historical evidence from Europe which shows that the far-right always wins when the debate is centred on asylum seekers/immigration.

I don’t get the impression that Keir Starmer is smart enough to pull the rug from under Reform UK. Well he has said that nothing will change very much for the foreseeable future, because the country is alledgedly in such a mess, which must be music to Reform UK’s ears.

Especially as they know that it is highly unlikely that voters will rush back to the Tories that quickly.

Naomi Klein

Dunno what muskrat has done to twitter links but they don’t open.

I have to say Rishi Sunak missed a trick by not expanding on this brilliant tactic – he could have passed laws declaring that there are no NHS queues, no inflation, etc

Given how their campaign is going, expect that by next Tuesday

That redfield poll is insane when you put the numbers in electoral calculus

Nice one on Klein to smack those brazenly stupid Labour fabricated Thatcherite fiscal-rules across the screen.

Dodds nodding along either out of embarrassment or agreement.

My Portillo moment will be if – and, hopefully, when – Saj Ahmad beats jenrick in Newark.

The polls are showing this to be absolutely neck and neck, now one of the most marginal constituencies in the country.

jenrick’s majority in 2019 was 21,000+; his campaign this time is best described as ‘low energy’.

The constituency is a ‘non-battleground’ seat for Labour which means we don’t get funding from regional office or party central; nor do we get any visits from shadow ministers so our ground game has to be – and is – strong.

jenrick has deep pockets as do his supporters; local Labour is reliant on crowd-funding and a people powered campaign.

I don’t get the impression that Keir Starmer is smart enough to pull the rug from under Reform UK.

Too much time and excitement plotting the nothingness that is the Labour party versus no one with eyes on what comes after.

It would be so nice to see that King **** out.

jenrick has deep pockets as do his supporters; local Labour is reliant on crowd-funding and a people powered campaign.

Given Newark is close by me – but not my area, curious how Jenrick performed with the floods?

Well whatever else happens, Ed Davey seems to be having a fantastic time. Are we sure he isn’t just on holiday?

I must say I find the constant stunts a bit cringey but we’re in a situation where we can release yet another painstakingly researched, fully costed policy that will genuinely improve peoples’ lives and it’ll appear at the bottom of the BBC front page for about a hour if we’re lucky.

All the whilst at the top of the page they breathlessly livestream the minutae of this morning’s reaction to whatever undeliverable fever dream Farage has belched up this morning.

So.. silly stunts to get attention it is then I guess.

Akehurst is such a colossal ****.  He genuinely is without any redeeming features or ability…..god knows how he has been so successful in the Labour party.  He is going to be an absolute liability for them.

My fav bit of the video is definitely when his tie blows across him 🤣

@kimbers It’s hard to believe the Tories will be wiped out that badly though.

@hatter Feel the same about the stunts but they do seem to be cutting through.

My 14 year old lad asked me about Reform today. He said they are all over tiktok targeting young people in videos. It is the only party he has seen online.

My targeted ads on twitter/Facebook are mainly Tory and a bit of Reform.   I’m to the left of Jeremy Corbyn!

@rone re jenrick and trent valley flooding…let’s just say his performance and input have been unimpressive.

The lead has been taken by the district council and their initiatives to develop an integrated approach/policy with the EA and Canals & Rivers trust with jenrick trying to ‘jump onto the coat tails’.

That’s great – as far as it goes – but will need chunky central gov support. Whether or not that materialises is an open question.

Are you in Worksop? Clarke-Smith will have his arse handed to him on a plate.

So.. silly stunts to get attention it is then I guess.

“Apparently” it’s all about manipulating the social media algorithms. If you pause and watch my reel where I fall on my arse 2 or 3 times, then maybe your feed will also show you my sensible post tomorrow and you’ll glimpse what we are really about.

The media team of the Lib Dems seem to be outperforming the halfwits around Rishi by substantial multiples

An interesting stay on Newsnight that the Tories are presently polling in 5th with 18-25 year olds, so I presume that Count Binface has more support

Count Binface is just behind Messi, the Pope and Paul McCartney

Check my maths but….

https://x.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1799884364018254264

That’s 100 people an hour. So about 1100 in his 8:20pm post since 9am. AIUI they’re all chucking £25 in to Nige’s pot but it’s hardly a stirring number, is it?

Are you in Worksop? Clarke-Smith will have his arse handed to him on a plate.

I **** hope so. I grew up in Bassetlaw and couldn’t believe when it went Tory. Joe Ashton would be turning in his grave.

Some amazing work on TikTok from Labour and the Lib Dems. Ed Davies is rating dogs on the campaign trail, and Labour are trolling the Tories with Sylvanian families.

That this sort of nonsense https://www.tiktok.com/@labourparty/video/7377417464218422561 (Irish Labour)

is needed to appeal to people of voting age, doesn’t exactly support the argument for lowering it to 16.

Is this real? What does that photo immediately remind you of? Surely they haven’t missed that or are Reform actually putting out Nazi memes?

Join the revolt. pic.twitter.com/uIlg345rtr

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) June 10, 2024

Plausible deniability.

With a wink.

He’s ok, nothing mad about “our Nige”.

Are you in Worksop? Clarke-Smith will have his arse handed to him on a plate.

Yeah that’s what I thought but I saw a close prediction recently. No idea how much weight it carries.

BCS is truly awful and personally insulted me – not that I care, badge of honour. Think a lot see through him actually but also people don’t believe Labour are going to come to their rescue either.  It’s a difficult situation – Worksop is properly run-down these days, like lots of post-industrial towns. You can see lack of investment everywhere.

Thanks for the re-cap on the floods. Be interesting to see how the usually loyal farming community in Newark/Sherwood area are with their blue banners this time. Used to be Mark Spencer everywhere.

I worked with a farmer a few weeks ago in Caunton and he was basically relying on a county council subsidised tree/hedge planting scheme.

Ah looks like they are going full bus on the 2k tax claim.

I really hope the farming community has finally woken up that the Tories have been catastrophic for them.

Another NI cut in the offing, no wonder Starmer has been careful on the fiscal front facing that sort of populist nonsense, still give with one hand, take with the other as tax thresholds still set to be locked until 2028. Not that it really matters as nothing the say now will actually happen, they can promise anything just to try and stem the exodus knowing there is no way they have to do it.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/10/tory-right-plans-to-present-sunak-with-set-of-demands-if-manifesto-falls-flat

Also from the Brexit playbook.

If you don’t like this manifesto then don’t worry, we have others.

Looks like I’m half way between Rone and Frank!
Newark ditching the Tory’s will be a shock. As said it was always blues signs in farmers fields in the past.
We’ve had labour lelfets through the door this time, first I can recall.

that the Tories are presently polling in 5th with 18-25 year olds,

It’s almost as if spending the kast decade increasingly focusing on policies and soundbites that appeal to and benefit brexity pensioners will cost you outside of your core demographic.

The nonsense about national service was just the cherry on top.

Keep plugging away Frank, I’d love to see my home town get rid of the incumbent

Awkward.

UN agency warns of new Rwanda abuses evidence

Hardly awkward when your main election strategy seems to be appealing to the kind of folk that like performative cruelty towards foreigners – and ones that are easy targets at that.

And I don’t believe the polls either. Not to the extent that they are showing a Labour landslide in any case. It feels too good to be true.

Tax cuts especially coming from the Tories are a total distraction.

They’ve messed with tax system so much that it means nothing.

Focus on spending. Who’s putting money back into the economy that needs billions?

All eyes on the Fed for the next two days – a cut will ripple through the system. ECB has done it and Bank of Canada.

Front running the Fed is unusual.

If the Fed do cut – BoE will likely cut and Tories will have massive hard-ons for about a day.

Jury is out though on Powell still looking for evidence of monetarist madness. Consensus is they won’t.

And to be fair a .25% cut unlikely to shift much at all now!

but we’re in a situation where we can release yet another painstakingly researched, fully costed policy that will genuinely improve peoples’ lives and it’ll appear at the bottom of the BBC front page for about a hour if we’re lucky.

It was top on my BBC News feed most of yesterday.  Happy for him to do the stunts as sensible and pragmatic policies alone don’t get attention.

I get lost with politics and don’t spend a huge amoutn of time researching bits and pieces – so I’m asking this from a very naive position but…

The Tories seem to be making quite a few pledges/promises – obviously keen to win over votes – but do they need to keep these pledges/promises if they get in?

They’ve been in for 14 years – why are they making all these pledges/promises to improve the everyday for the average person now instead of doing it throughout the past 14 years?

I suspect the same could be suggested for the other parties, except they haven’t been in the position of power for the last 14 years so haven’t had to deliver on their word.

I’m in Scotland and have the same question for the SNP (athough, I think up until 2019, they did seem to do stuff for the average person, just the last 5 years have shown quite a lot of dropped plates).

That’s now two policies that Reform have suggested that I agree with. One is about stopping paying interest on top of QE to the banks, and the other is [entirely self interestedly] about reducing the tax burden on healthcare workers wages. (zero income tax for 3 years)

Populism huh, who’d have thought it..? I feel unclean.