UK Politics Thread (Part 2)

“my children, wherever and whoever they may be…”

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When Blair stepped down, was Brown anointed immediately or was Harman interim PM for a bit?

Is there any candidate from the Tory party that would please most people regardless of political lean?

Ben Wallace polls the highest among Conservative voters, I believe. He seems to have escaped most of the criticism levelled at this government so he’s as good a chance as anyone.

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And I assume not many people from the other spectrum of the political leanings would hardly support any candidate from Tory? And this Ben Wallace would not be any different?

I know I am idealistic but I always cannot understand the right and left politics in many countries, its like its either you are here or the other extreme. If only it is reality that there are politicians who can take the best of left or right and make policies for people and what is the best balance rather than going all out to pander to left or to right.

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Firstly, eliminate all Conservative MPs with questionable skeletons in their closet, then choose from the 3 or 4 that remain…

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just for the name he gets my ‘vote’. i can imagine a lot of satire. lets go tommy tug…

but do we want a remainer? :wink:

father ted GIF by Pixel Bandits

Literrally means ‘Tom virtue has’ in German. I call tugend signalling.

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for questions and points like that back in the day you would have been burnt as a witch.

were not worthy waynes world GIF

The problem is that they are often very opposing policies involved. You’re used to Singapore where no one really gets a say in what the policy targets are, or the values involved.

For me, I think the main issue is the psychology involved, where people start dividing themselves into “teams” or “camps”, just like what @odin_telamon and @Lynch04 have raised about the whole “if you’re not on my side” bit. Personally, I’d rather politics focus on values, and politicians focusing on bridging competing values and priorities. While some might value absolute freedom more, while others value expansion of security of basic needs for everyone at the cost of expanded government. The politicians’ jobs would then be to figure a way to balance those competing values, and devise policies to ensure that.

I would actually love a general political philosophy thread on here, but not sure if there’s too much overlap with the other threads already here…

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Well obviously no one who supports another party will support any Tory without certain reasoning. I think Wallace has escaped with enough credit for Ukraine and managed to distance himself from Johnson that he could win back a decent proportion of the middle ground voters.

Whether he deserves the credit he has got I don’t know, I haven’t followed him closely or know what his individual politics are.

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Boris Johnson GIF by GIPHY News

I’m not sure but I do wonder if he is another liability. Someone pointed out that Ben Wallace was an MSP in the early 2000s. I honestly have no recollection of him at all - obviously he would have been an opposition MSP but you do tend to notice these names. I’m assuming that he regarded the Scottish Parliament as a stepping stone to a Westminster seat. I don’t object to politicians having ambitions but I can’t be done with those that don’t take their current positions seriously.

The problem with the Conservatives now is most of their most capable MPs were purged by Johnson. There are a few that still have integrity but they tend to be career backbenchers.

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Generally agree with what you say in the sense that a government needs to know what they want to achieve and what its people aspires toward. In Singapore, of course, what we aspire towards and what we value as priorities are generally different from probably what people in UK values. And not just priorities, but also how those priorities are achieved are also important and valued differently by different people. But precisely I think if a government can have a grasp of these, then they will be able to ask objectively what do we need to do and not do policies because I am a right government so I need to blah blah blah…It should be I make these policies because it makes my people achieve these…its idealistic yes and I am happy with what the Singapore government does for my close to 50 years of existence because while imperfect and not being able to please everyone, they have managed to keep most of us happy and contented because they know what are our priorities. Just like our Minister once told Sakur in an interview, while you all aspire to freedom of speech, we aspire to have no fear of walking home on the streets at 3am. But of course Singapore is Singapore, UK is UK…hopefully you guys get a new PM that can inspire you guys!

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If you can find a Tory who is willing to champion the cause of the weak and poor over the interests of the rich and powerful they might get my vote, but then they wouldn’t be a Tory.

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Precisely thats what I meant, when being Tory already mean certain things. (And you might be right afterall) And that means people when they see a Tory candidate means they are not going to do this and this and this because they are simply Tories…already politicians on either side are already not starting from ground zero, they are starting from ground negative twenty…there are already preset opinions because they are from a certain party whether left or right and not because of each individual. I guess I cannot speak as how the locals would feel as an outsider, but purely giving an outsider opinion.

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