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@Catogrande said in British Politics:
You’re on a roll tonight. Pure gold!
I particularly like the time that Corbyn’s lesson has.
He knows how to pad things out!
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@MajorRage said in British Politics:
Text from a mate who loves to wind me up ...
"Your buddy Owen Jones is using the US Capitol break-in to play the victim again ...."
Sure enough,
Weird how something of significance happens on the other side of Atlantic and Owen Jones (and a few others) think it's all about them.
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So it seems Education secretary Gavin Williamson went on GMB this morning and got his arse completely handed to him. Couple of points of view here.
I've given a fair bit of leeway to many a minister during the last year, but undoubtedly GW has been completely out of his depth. It's one thing to u-turn on a lockdown due to a changing situation, but better foresight could have been handled for education where lives are not at stake. Out of his depth, incompetent must go.
SEcond point is I see quite a few Labour MP's jumping on the bandwagon. Question to Labour - where the fuck have you been? Why are you jumping on loudmouth journalists to make your point instead of making your own fucking point?
Make not mistake, the real issue is with Gavin. But if Labour were doing their job properly, he'd have been toast ages ago.
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@MajorRage Your last is a good point. We need a strong opposition (whoever they are) to keep the Government more accountable. Weak opposition allows too many excesses.
See Thatcher.
See Blair. -
@Catogrande said in British Politics:
@MajorRage Your last is a good point. We need a strong opposition (whoever they are) to keep the Government more accountable. Weak opposition allows too many excesses.
See Thatcher.
See Blair.Labour won’t be strong til they completely purge the internal opposition. See corbyn, long Bailey etc
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@MajorRage I agree. I see parallels with the early to mid 80's with Michael Foot and the Militant Tendency. Serial losers (usually by a large margin) until they got a strong leader in John Smith and eventually got rid of the loony left. This left the door open for Thatcher to push through a lot of stuff that might not (and in some cases should not) have seen the light of day with a strong opposition.
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@Catogrande said in British Politics:
We need a strong opposition (whoever they are) to keep the Government more accountable
There's a sizable section of Labour MPs more interested in banging on about BLM, identity politics and virtue-signally rather that do their job.
You end up with fuckwits like Dawn Foster accusing Priti Patel of not knowing what racism is and getting rightly schooled in return. (I'm no fan of Patel, but her response was absolutely bang-on).
As as for Captain Hindsight...tells the government keep the schools open in the morning and when they announce they are going to close, asks why they weren't closed earlier. I have some sympathy with the bloke inheriting Corbyn's mess, but he really isn't helping himself.
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Spot on. He's not really having to make the tough decisions that Hancock has to make against a constantly shifting situation. He's had reasonable time to sort things out but buggers it up.
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@MajorRage said in British Politics:
@Catogrande said in British Politics:
@MajorRage Your last is a good point. We need a strong opposition (whoever they are) to keep the Government more accountable. Weak opposition allows too many excesses.
See Thatcher.
See Blair.Labour won’t be strong til they completely purge the internal opposition. See corbyn, long Bailey etc
Starmer is NOT the answer.
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@MiketheSnow said in British Politics:
Starmer is NOT the answer.
To what question? Is there anyone better to lead Labor?
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@rotated said in British Politics:
s there anyone better to lead Labor?
In hindsight, probably not.
(I'll get my coat)
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@MiketheSnow said in British Politics:
@MajorRage said in British Politics:
@Catogrande said in British Politics:
@MajorRage Your last is a good point. We need a strong opposition (whoever they are) to keep the Government more accountable. Weak opposition allows too many excesses.
See Thatcher.
See Blair.Labour won’t be strong til they completely purge the internal opposition. See corbyn, long Bailey etc
Starmer is NOT the answer.
He’s not even the question IMO. Only thing going for him is he’s not Corbyn.
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@Bones said in British Politics:
@Daffy-Jaffy said in British Politics:
Yeah...ahhh... about that.
It’s fair enough. We are the 51st state after all.
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@Catogrande said in British Politics:
He’s not even the question IMO. Only thing going for him is he’s not Corbyn.
Started off well then faded badly - swings with the wind and flip-flops everywhere. Have nagging doubts about his ability to make a decision and stick to it. BoJo's Captain Hindsight jibe has a lot of truth in it
Perhaps he'll sort out his party and provide the space for some decent leader to emerge. If so, that's not a bad legacy IMHO.
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@Victor-Meldrew said in British Politics:
Perhaps he'll sort out his party and provide the space for some decent leader to emerge. If so, that's not a bad legacy IMHO.
That is pretty much all you can ask for. A lot of the media love to underestimate Boris but the guy is special and with those kinds of characters all you can really do is wait for them to run out of steam or blow up.
Like you say he seems best placed to put some space between Corbyn and the future and might even an unforced error or two out of Boris. The ability to dress himself is an obvious plus.
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@rotated said in British Politics:
@Victor-Meldrew said in British Politics:
Perhaps he'll sort out his party and provide the space for some decent leader to emerge. If so, that's not a bad legacy IMHO.
That is pretty much all you can ask for. A lot of the media love to underestimate Boris but the guy is special and with those kinds of characters all you can really do is wait for them to run out of steam or blow up.
Like you say he seems best placed to put some space between Corbyn and the future and might even an unforced error or two out of Boris. The ability to dress himself is an obvious plus.
He's a good speaker too. Although not the most authoritative voice, but is very clear and easy to understand. When Boris had to give bad news press conferences and was trying to give our positivity and energy, a much more clear firm staunch delivery would have been better.
I actually think He needs to split his party to try and get the UK into a better situation. There are parallels with the US in the distance between right and left, and therefore the hostility between the two.camps is marked. I know I bang on and on about this, but ultimately it all comes down to, that's right, Twitter. People take their position then read / follow/ learn more and more about their position and do nothing other than trash the opposite. It's just not healthy at all.
Blair was hated for his ability to relate to the right / conservatives but ultimately thats what won elections, It also made for a much more harmonious UK with the exception of the far left who (and they still bang on about this ad bloody nauseum)thought Blair was a traitor to the Labour party etc.
Boris tried to do something similar on election day end of 2019. clearly reaching out to the other side first and foremost offering an olive branch. However, the pandemic has kind of killed that for him. Biden sort of did the same ... but then made it unequivocal for men to say "I'm a bird" and be able to compete in womans sports; a very very far left position.
As others have alluded to, I'm not entirely sure Starmer gets this. His tactic at the moment seems to be sit there, lets the Tories implode and say "I told you so". Not sure that is a good approach myself, although it is one Boris & co are allowing him to do at the moment.
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@MajorRage said in British Politics:
Blair was hated for his ability to relate to the right / conservatives but ultimately thats what won elections, It also made for a much more harmonious UK with the exception of the far left who (and they still bang on about this ad bloody nauseum)thought Blair was a traitor to the Labour party etc.
Even if Stamer had all the talents of Blair, how many people are really up for grabs at the moment? After four elections, two referendums (and another one in the offing) in the past decade the electorate has to be totally fatigued with no space for a groundswell behind anyone or anything.
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