General Election ...

[bytholwyn]

Funniest thing today was Mel Stride trying to hoodwink voters in to staying at home by saying that a Tory wipeout was a foregone conclusion - don’t fall for it folks, VOTE!

Yesterday it was Boris wheeled out with loads of brown faces behind him to reel out lies and whip up hateful rhetoric.

Angela Rayner came closest to summing up these Tories. Simply put, SCUM.

Do you honestly think Labour will be a significant improvement on the Tories? People seem to be backing Labour merely on the assumption they can do no worse than the Tories, which is a very low bar to clear. Staggering to think Labour could quite conceivably have the biggest majority ever on the back of the most underwhelming programme for government I can ever recall. It's a sign of how utterly bankrupt financially and politically the UK is.

 

[Itchysphincter]

Do you honestly think Labour will be a significant improvement on the Tories? People seem to be backing Labour merely on the assumption they can do no worse than the Tories, which is a very low bar to clear. Staggering to think Labour could quite conceivably have the biggest majority ever on the back of the most underwhelming programme for government I can ever recall. It's a sign of how utterly bankrupt financially and politically the UK is.

After 14 years of stealing money out of the public pocket, poisoning our water, wrecking the NHS, taking us out of Europe, etc, etc, etc, etc, I can’t see how you think there’s any other choice. What did you say about Labour and tax? I let it go because I if people are stupid enough to bring that argument when this Tory government have imposed the highest tax burden in a generation there is isn’t really much point in engaging. If you didn’t know by now that any change is better than more of the same there is nothing anyone could ever say to you.

Tory scum.

 

[bytholwyn]

After 14 years of stealing money out of the public pocket, poisoning our water, wrecking the NHS, taking us out of Europe, etc, etc, etc, etc, I can’t see how you think there’s any other choice. What did you say about Labour and tax? I let it go because I if people are stupid enough to bring that argument when this Tory government have imposed the highest tax burden in a generation there is isn’t really much point in engaging. If you didn’t know by now that any change is better than more of the same there is nothing anyone could ever say to you.

Tory scum.

We can agree that the Tories are terrible, but Labour offer virtually no change, which should have been their campaign slogan, if they were honest. Starmer has gone down in my estimation a lot over the course of this campaign. I started out with a fairly neutral view of him, but he's ditched pretty much his entire platform from his party leadership campaign. If a leader is that unprincipled before even getting power what will he be like once he's in 10 Downing Street?

To be fair Labour will be inheriting the worst set of circumstances of any government since the second world war. However what matters is the set of principles that a government applies to tackling the problems. All the signs are that Labour will be a non-progressive government in the pocket of big business.

 

[Glyn1]

All of what you say is probably true, which is why a lot of ex Tory MPs are happy to endorse Labour and feel that it's safe for them to do so. And at the moment I don't care, I just want this current group of ***** out, and I've never despised a government so much. Starmer's government will make things better for this country - not by as much as we'd like and he isn't going to introduce any socialist policies that I can see but he'll make some things better to some degree, and that's good enough for me at the moment. Small gains.

Here in London the Evening Standard has just endorsed Labour on their front page. That won't mean anything to non-Londoners but it's the free newspaper that commuters pick up on their way home, and it's influential. And today we also had the Sun endorsing Labour as well as the Financial Times.

Call me a ridiculous optimist, but I'm beginning to think that there won't be a hung parliament after all.

 

[Itchysphincter]

Lol

 

[bytholwyn]

All of what you say is probably true, which is why a lot of ex Tory MPs are happy to endorse Labour and feel that it's safe for them to do so. And at the moment I don't care, I just want this current group of ***** out, and I've never despised a government so much. Starmer's government will make things better for this country - not by as much as we'd like and he isn't going to introduce any socialist policies that I can see but he'll make some things better to some degree, and that's good enough for me at the moment. Small gains.

Here in London the Evening Standard has just endorsed Labour on their front page. That won't mean anything to non-Londoners but it's the free newspaper that commuters pick up on their way home, and it's influential. And today we also had the Sun endorsing Labour as well as the Financial Times.

Call me a ridiculous optimist, but I'm beginning to think that there won't be a hung parliament after all.

There's zero chance of a hung parliament. Labour will get a majority of at least a 100, quite possibly over 200. Even if something totally bizarre were to happen and Labour got a majority of only 30, that would still give them carte blanche to do whatever they want. Possibly on 40% of the vote. There's the UKs quasi-democracy for you.

 

[K23]

Do you honestly think Labour will be a significant improvement on the Tories?

It depends on the time frame. There is no possibility that Labour will be a significant improvement immediately, that is simply not possible but they have their list of immediate priorities https://labour.org.uk/change/first-steps-for-change/

It must be remembered that they are inheriting the worst set of circumstances any incoming government will have ever faced in my lifetime and it will take time to right all the wrongs and it will take patience and hopefully, within a few years, there will be measurable improvement for those that need it most. It's all about small steps of measurable improvement and anyone expecting anything else is being unrealistic.

First step, let's get this absolute shower of shyte out.

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[exiledclaseboy]

This election may well end up being the straw that breaks the camel’s back for the ridiculous FPTP system. Ironically those calls will be loudest from the simple minded right who up to now have always said FPTP offers “change” and guarantees “strong government” (lolz). What it’s always guaranteed is a one party demagoguery on always no more 40-45% of the votes cast. The old adage goes that you get the government you deserve but that’s rarely, if ever, true, at least in Britain. We usually get a government contrary to the votes of the majority of the population. It’s an affront to democracy and always has been.

My hope and expectation for tomorrow is for a Labour government but I don’t want to see the Tories’ wiped out, as fun as that will be in the short term. If that happens the future is Farage and whatever his next “party” ends up being called. We’ve seen where that leads to in France and other parts of the world. Five to 10 years of sensible, responsible and non dramatic, non corrupt government will go along way towards heading that off. But I yearn for an electoral system where a percentage of votes cast equates to a similar or same percentage of seats in Parliament. Because that, after all, is democracy.

 

[exiledclaseboy]

Do you honestly think Labour will be a significant improvement on the Tories?

Hell yes. I respect everything you’ve written today while not agreeing with a lot of it. But I dint see how this is even a question unless you’ve not been watching for the last 14 years, and especially since 2016.

 

[bytholwyn]

This election may well end up being the straw that breaks the camel’s back for the ridiculous FPTP system. Ironically those calls will be loudest from the simple minded right who up to now have always said FPTP offers “change” and guarantees “strong government” (lolz). What it’s always guaranteed is a one party demagoguery on always no more 40-45% of the votes cast. The old adage goes that you get the government you deserve but that’s rarely, if ever, true, at least in Britain. We usually get a government contrary to the votes of the majority of the population. It’s an affront to democracy and always has been.

My hope and expectation for tomorrow is for a Labour government but I don’t want to see the Tories’ wiped out, as fun as that will be in the short term. If that happens the future is Farage and whatever his next “party” ends up being called. We’ve seen where that leads to in France and other parts of the world. Five to 10 years of sensible, responsible and non dramatic, non corrupt government will go along way towards heading that off. But I yearn for an electoral system where a percentage of votes cast equates to a similar or same percentage of seats in Parliament. Because that, after all, is democracy.

Couldn't agree more. Coalition politics is politics for grown ups. No party or section of the population has a monopoly on wisdom.

The most invidious consequences of FPTP is that we get governments of whatever colour that aim to please one very narrow demographic - Middle England. Essentially conservative with a small c and middle class.

One of the biggest problems facing the UK is the huge disparity in regional prosperity created by Thatcher taking a wrecking ball to manufacturing industry. The most depressing aspect of the current campaign is the continuing complete failure to acknowledge the existence of this profound structural failure. There is nothing inevitable about this, but the starting point is acknowledging this is a problem. For all his fraudulent implementation Johnson at least acknowledged the problem with his levelling up agenda. That this talk has vanished from the current campaign speaks volumes about both Labour and the Tories.

 

[bytholwyn]

This, off X, brilliantly sums up the rationale for voting Labour: "When your’re in a sinking ship, you don’t stop to inspect the lifeboat".

 

[bytholwyn]

Hell yes. I respect everything you’ve written today while not agreeing with a lot of it. But I dint see how this is even a question unless you’ve not been watching for the last 14 years, and especially since 2016.

My biggest concern is around Starmer. He has lurched massively to the right since becoming leader of the Labour Party. His desperation to get the keys to 10 Downing Street is so obvious.

The most shameful comment made by Starmer is his remark only yesterday supporting the transphobic position that trans women should be excluded from women only spaces. I thought Sunak was a semi decent individual until he threw the trans community under the bus with his mocking Conference comments about penises. Then Starmer does exactly the same thing just to garner a few sordid votes.

A society is best judged by how it treats its minorities. Sunak and Starmer have both proved they are unfit to lead through the way they have pandered to right wing populist sentiment at the expense of a miniscule, marginalised community.

 

[jack_lord]

My biggest concern is around Starmer. He has lurched massively to the right since becoming leader of the Labour Party. His desperation to get the keys to 10 Downing Street is so obvious.

The most shameful comment made by Starmer is his remark only yesterday supporting the transphobic position that trans women should be excluded from women only spaces. I thought Sunak was a semi decent individual until he threw the trans community under the bus with his mocking Conference comments about penises. Then Starmer does exactly the same thing just to garner a few sordid votes.

A society is best judged by how it treats its minorities. Sunak and Starmer have both proved they are unfit to lead through the way they have pandered to right wing populist sentiment at the expense of a miniscule, marginalised community.

So you don't like Starmer then

 

[Swanjaxs]

My biggest concern is around Starmer. He has lurched massively to the right since becoming leader of the Labour Party. His desperation to get the keys to 10 Downing Street is so obvious.

The most shameful comment made by Starmer is his remark only yesterday supporting the transphobic position that trans women should be excluded from women only spaces. I thought Sunak was a semi decent individual until he threw the trans community under the bus with his mocking Conference comments about penises. Then Starmer does exactly the same thing just to garner a few sordid votes.

A society is best judged by how it treats its minorities. Sunak and Starmer have both proved they are unfit to lead through the way they have pandered to right wing populist sentiment at the expense of a miniscule, marginalised community.

Sacking a member of his own shadow cabinet for standing on a picket line went against everything the Labour Party is ment to stand for in my opinion, and always will.

 

[bytholwyn]

So you don't like Starmer then

That's a fair summary...