-
@Rembrandt said in British Politics:
Have politicians completely lost their marbles in the last few years or has this insanity always been there and I've just been ignoring it?
Professional politicians divorced from reality, I reckon.
I was involved in representing a group of villages impacted by a major infrastructure project about 4-6 years back - we met with Cabinet ministers, MP's, Snr Civil Servants etc on a fairly regular basis.
Apart from a few honourable exceptions, we were treated at best as a nuisance, at worst with contempt.
My take from the whole experience is the majority of MPs seem to have minimal experience of life outside of politics and many, if not most, don't have much of a clue on what people are really concerned about. Or if they do, they are often openly contemptuous of their concerns.
-
-
@TeWaio said in British Politics:
Farage stands down candidates in the 317 seats the Tory's won last time, and focuses efforts on heavily Leave leaning Labour constituencies.
Big win for the Tories and sterling rallied a big figure on it.
Terrific news, I wonder if there was an agreement behind it or just facing facts that even a poor brexit would be better than risking the horrors of the current Labour and LibDem platforms.
-
@Rembrandt said in British Politics:
@TeWaio said in British Politics:
Farage stands down candidates in the 317 seats the Tory's won last time, and focuses efforts on heavily Leave leaning Labour constituencies.
Big win for the Tories and sterling rallied a big figure on it.
Terrific news, I wonder if there was an agreement behind it or just facing facts that even a poor brexit would be better than risking the horrors of the current Labour and LibDem platforms.
Or on the advice of Trump?
Farage was adamant that Boris had to drop the deal or he would stand candidates against him everywhere. That tune changed quickly.
Would have certainly been a dumb option.The interesting thing for me is where the sensible Labour voters that don't want Jeremy go to. Corbyn got big support from the 'youth' vote last time but I can't see that happening again. How motivated are they going to be to try and spoil Boris' party?
-
@Crucial Could very well be. Farage got Trump on his show asking for an alliance after which Boris said he wasn't dropping the deal. I wonder if there is any wriggle room to modify the 'deal' in the long term once in power with a bigger majority.
Surely Labour are just done as a party, hopefully they are decimated, have a clean-out of their extremist elements and come back as something reasonable by the next election.
-
@Rembrandt said in British Politics:
@Crucial Could very well be. Farage got Trump on his show asking for an alliance after which Boris said he wasn't dropping the deal. I wonder if there is any wriggle room to modify the 'deal' in the long term once in power with a bigger majority.
Surely Labour are just done as a party, hopefully they are decimated, have a clean-out of their extremist elements and come back as something reasonable by the next election.
No 'wriggle room' available. Why would Europe change things again? A bigger majority for Boris doesn't equate to more of a 'threat' to Europe. What is he going to do? Boris is not campaigning on a no deal exit and would massively lose votes if he did.
As for Labour, have a read of this article http://www.democraticaudit.com/2019/10/28/the-empty-centre-why-the-liberal-democrats-need-to-demonstrate-competence-and-unity-to-win-votes/ . It makes that point that, yes Labour would pick up more votes with a more moderate position on economic issues based on voters positioning in a 'political spectrum' but they know that the centre majority will still either move left or right as long as there is no credible strong middle party. There will still be a temptation to continue down the polarisation route just as the Tories have done.
LibDems have really missed the boat in not searching high and low for a leader that that can project real credibility. Give the voters a valid alternative and they might just go for it. -
@Crucial I'm sure Europe won't care but if there is more support of the people he might be encouraged to try and reclaim losses from the deal, fisheries for example during the transition. Not that I know of what he could do or is likely to do but if there is mass support for something then he might try.
Totally agree about LibDems, great opportunity to become the other major party but Swinson is horrendous. Does not appear as a sensible leader.
This bloke looks like representative of old labour.
-
@Crucial said in British Politics:
No 'wriggle room' available. Why would Europe change things again? A bigger majority for Boris doesn't equate to more of a 'threat' to Europe. What is he going to do? Boris is not campaigning on a no deal exit and would massively lose votes if he did.
I assume he means during negotiations in the transition phase where all the specifics are thrashed out for the future relationship.
I've never quite understood why Farage didn't play his hand this way from the start. Providing Boris can get a majority to pass his deal after the election the UK can leave and all avenues to put the genie back in the bottle (second referendum, revoking Article 50) are no longer possible. The roundabout way he has gone to get where he is has made them look weak.
Everything he has a problem with is contained in the non-binding political decleration. BXP's role should be to use all avenues to ensure those negotiations are for Canada+ which is what ERG/Mogg etc have wanted for the last few years.
-
@rotated said in British Politics:
@Crucial said in British Politics:
No 'wriggle room' available. Why would Europe change things again? A bigger majority for Boris doesn't equate to more of a 'threat' to Europe. What is he going to do? Boris is not campaigning on a no deal exit and would massively lose votes if he did.
I assume he means during negotiations in the transition phase where all the specifics are thrashed out for the future relationship.
Yeah, but this is once again the deluded bit. Once they leave the UK will have even less bargaining power than the already piss poor position they were in to start with.
While the UK has tangled itself into a massive mess and not progressed Europe has continued shoring up its trading with a raft of countries including deals with Canada, Japan, Vietnam and Singapore.
Europe held a massive advantage here as they could continue ratifying deals while the UK was stuck not knowing what deals they could negotiate. The impact of the UK leaving has been reduced already leaving the UK to knock on the door and ask nicely if they can still play. -
It's getting nasty.
Boris cocks up and the BBC show footage from 2016.
Corbyn then fucked over by the Sun
I live in a dead set Plaid Cymru seat and I'm seeing more and more Labour posters in windows.
This election will be won or lost on social media.
-
@MiketheSnow What the hell do these journos think they're achieving here? Maybe try and make someone look bad/good for a day but the cost is less and less faith in these awful media institutions.
-
@Rembrandt said in British Politics:
@MiketheSnow What the hell do these journos think they're achieving here? Maybe try and make someone look bad/good for a day but the cost is less and less faith in these awful media institutions.
100%
Out of touch old white men telling their subordinates how to fight the campaign.
Hopefully the undoing of them.
-
@Rembrandt said in British Politics:
@MiketheSnow What the hell do these journos think they're achieving here? Maybe try and make someone look bad/good for a day but the cost is less and less faith in these awful media institutions.
That would be the logical viewpoint but the Sun in particular hasn't had any credibility for decades, they can just print shite like that and laugh it off when it comes out as complete bollocks. They have nothing whatsoever to lose.
-
@Rembrandt said in British Politics:
@Crucial I'm sure Europe won't care but if there is more support of the people he might be encouraged to try and reclaim losses from the deal, fisheries for example during the transition. Not that I know of what he could do or is likely to do but if there is mass support for something then he might try.
Totally agree about LibDems, great opportunity to become the other major party but Swinson is horrendous. Does not appear as a sensible leader.
This bloke looks like representative of old labour.
That was a tough watch, the guy is clearly very emotional about what has become of Labour.
-
@Crucial said in British Politics:
K will have even less bargaining power than the already piss poor position they were in to start with.
While the UK has tangled itself into a massive mess and not progreDisagree (except on the weak negotiating position).
Once they agreed to the EU's timetable where the divorce (and settlement) needed to be sorted before any future trade relationship would be discussed they were always in a weak position. By this agreement they get their freedom (taking revoke and second referendum off the table) for the 38 billion. This moves a bunch of issues that were previously part of the divorce into the transition period where they can negotiate and trade them off as part of a free trade agreement.
The UK can also begin negotiating other FTAs during the transition period which could be waiting to be ratified once that period ends. If you listen to experts in this space while the US FTA is a bohemeth smaller ones with NZ, Singapore and potentially Australia could be done within a year.
I'm not even sure that it is much of a negotiation, the EU has offered Canada plus before and there is no reason (other than punitive) to offer it again.
-
So Corbyn looks to be targetting the Tories management of the NHS in the upcoming election and tweeted the following:
This inspired Mr Benjamin to release a pretty passionate video (complete with data sourcing in the description) outlining why this is a blatant lie and why on its current trajectory the NHS is doomed.
My experience with the NHS was mixed, when I lived near Beckenham it didn't feel 1st world at all, took days (week?) to get an appointment and the GPs clinic was packed, clinic was messy wait time was long and the doctor didn't exactly fill me with confidence, was very much in and out as fast as possible.
When I lived in Balham it was a different story, it was still impossible to get an appointment on the same day however I was pretty much guaranteed the next day or at worst the day after that. The clinic was clean and tidy and the doctors seemed far less rushed and were generally quite good and wait times at the clinic were generally short.
I had a few ankle and knee (dislocations/sprains) while in Balham and although I got referrals to physios I was advised that the wait time would be at least a month or 2 so ended up paying for that privately. I did have one doctor who misdiagnosed a skin problem which resulted in a minor issue becoming a major issue lasting months before on a visit to NZ I saw a New Zealand GP who correctly diagnosed the issue and resolved it from there. I also had a good mate who was mis-diagnosed 4 times for a stomach issue, they got it right on the 5th however by then the cancer was near terminal and he passed within a year of the correct diagnosis. Obviously accidents occur wherever you are in the world regardless of health plans so these examples may not necessarily be indicative of what the NHS provides, for me it was pretty good considering I didn't have to pay a dime and the service generally very good when I lived in a nicer neighbourhood.
Also one other related story, one of my best mates in London was involved in a project with the NHS where they were digitising patient records, this ran for a good few years or so before they scrapped it and from what I understand the cost went in to the 10's of £1,000,000's wasted. His stories about what was going on was pretty mind-blowing at the time.
I know the NHS is a sacrosanct institution in the UK but I do wonder how long before its future is looked at very seriously. Happy to look at any data that shows these fears are unfounded.
British Politics