UK Politics Thread (Part 1)

Surely the answer to that is dependent on how much money they donate to the Conservative Party?

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Unfortunately the answer lies with inadequate corporate manslaughter laws. Only ever been one successful prosecution but they have recently been reviewed so hopefully there will be some further successful prosecutions in the future, including for issues surrounding Grenfell.

I did wonder if people voted for her because they thought they were voting for Joe Anderson…!

Great news though. Hope she’s the first of many.

https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/nigel-boardman-no-evidence-of-favouritism-covid-contracts_uk_609562d4e4b012351600b542/?__twitter_impression=true

Review of government procurement spending

So is using shot guns, chainsaws, axes … against members of the public but that never stopped you from proposing, suggesting … it.

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Depends how far you’ve progressed breaking into my shop.

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I haven’t been near your town let alone your shop! :wink: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

This ā€˜who cares’ stuff should be such a big worry. I mean what becomes of society when noone cares?
I suppose as long as you have money you can pay for some kind of service whether they care or not!

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Nailed it, that’s Liverpool City Council.

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Maybe, they should introduce top-up seats for House of Commons too.

I’m not sure they actually are. At least not at the levels implied by the media. It’s the older votes, particularly those owning their own homes, that they appear to have been losing

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What I would ask is, Does anyone concider themselves working class any more?
I mean does working class exist as any sort of political force? It beggars belief that the media keep plugging this working class fallacy, they are now the under class and aren’t represtented by anyone!

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I think they have lost a % of the white Northern and Midlands traditional labour voters that they have taken for granted. I heard John Curtice saying much the same thing this morning. They are popular with younger graduates and ethnic minorities hence their strength in London. He said their traditional voters are seeing them more and more as a party that no longer shares their values.

For me, the Labour party has not wanted to confront the uncomfortable truth that their core voters in those areas wanted Brexit because they wanted controls on immigration.

Emily Thornberry summed up how the metro centric wing of the party regard these voters by allegedly calling them ā€œstupidā€.

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Drawing conclusions from a by-election with nothing at stake for the most deprived in society is rediculous.
When you take into account only 40% voted that’s means over 10000 didn’t even bother and we know where their votes would have gone if they had bothered getting out of bed.
I agree there’s a big problem for labour particularly in the midlands (then if I were labour that’s not where I’d be looking).
Then again who cares? Let’s just fit the narrative to our preconcieved ideas!

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Except it is a continuation of the trends from the last election. NE red wall crumbling.

It was taking the p… putting up a candidate who had voted against every Brexit bill and had lost his adjacent seat in 2019 for that reason. Hartlepool voted over 70% leave. As Curtice says, Brexit divisions are still raw and Labour don’t want to acknowledge it or they would have chosen a different candidate.

You don’t lose a seat you have held for 60+ years if there isn’t a serious disengagement from your traditional voters.

As McClusky said yesterday. People don’t know what Labour stand for any more.

That’s not true if you look at the numbers.
I agree labour have massive problems. That’s been the case since the 80’s if you ask me when they started fighting for the middle ground (which of course worked and Starmer is another attempt at that).

You do if 16% of voters don’t get out of bed and they vote Labour!

All I’m saying is all this analysis is jumping to conclusions that don’t add up.
Labour has always had these problems they are not new and discarding principles isn’t going to help them.

Nice addition, they stand against the Tories! :wink:
Since it’s conception you could say that. It was people like Bevan and Benn that caught the imagination of the people. You know those that the party liked throwing under buses. It’s far from simple.

And here’s me in France wondering what will happen to socialistes over here, was Macron a godsend? those left at least are half decent people and politicians!

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I think there are multiple elements in this.

The party is massively fractured, the press interviewing Corbyn and his merry men highlights this. A look on twitter and those on the left of the party seem to be gleefully celebrating as Tories. Labour MPs on TV saying that those in Hartlepool don’t want to talk about wallpaper. Which is basically parroting a Tory narrative. Shameful. Its downplaying the seriousness and relevance of corruption.

Saw on twitter videos from ITN/Joe/C4 interviewing those in Hartlepool. Sadly its supports the view of a disinterested, uneducated public. Unaware of the issues, waste or scandal. Zero-knowledge of the PPE scandal, or Brexit issues. Joe one was enlightening has you had those that said they regularly watched BBC news. It shows the power in the manipulation of press and news media, coupled with a public that have been dumbed down, and spoon-fed. The numbers that said they are voting for change, and could not answer when the interview replied why do you think they are the Tories are the party of change when they have been in power a decade.

Finally, we talk about working class. As if the north are still coal miners, ship builders and we wear flat caps. The most powerful unions represent doctors, nurses and teachers. We no longer live in a society where a large proportion of people perform manual work. You are more likely to work in a call centre than a factory. Over 50% of the population now go to university. Its a changing demographic. An ageing demographic. Older generations have always supported Tories. Too many people wishing to improve their own personal circumstances than society as a whole.

Lots of blame for Starmer, some of that is internal politics, some of the criticism valid. However the party is invisible. Most people could not name those in the shadow cabinet. There is a real lack of strength and depth. If you want policies, simply take inspiration from the SNP.

However its all too predictable. Before next election Johnson will step down and Rishi Sunak will win by another land slide. I dispair for the UK.

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Maybe Labour could win back these northern seats next general election by having a northern leader, say Andy Burnham. He feels way more relatable and charismatic than the current incumbent

There seems to be an underlying feeling that Labour is ā€œkeeping it’s powder dryā€ for an all out assault on the Tories.

When Saddam Hussein was accused of having and hiding WMDs, the thought struck me that if he did have them, then why not use them? What was he waiting for? A bigger military force than the USA to attack?

If Starmer is ā€œkeeping his powder dryā€, what major event is he waiting for? He was toothless when it came to Dominic Cummings, Inept when it came to PPE and practically invisible when questioning 150,000 deaths from the biggest pandemic in 100 years. Undoubtedly he will let the Tory corruption issue slide into obscurity.

What exactly is he waiting for? Loose the cannons man.

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