Nail. Head.
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I think everyone has self interest, and has the capacity to step outside of their self interest, or not, regardless of age.
So let the over 65s vote, and yes, by all means bring more people into the voting tent by lowering the age (although I’m not fully sure on that, as there are different ages that imply adulthood, and while some 16 year olds are well informed and seem mature, it is fair to say that many are not. Still, it should at least be debated).
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How nice.
Laura doing her part to turn around that Tory poll deficit:
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It’s his only good policy, but the timing is incredibly suspect and beyond cowardly. He brings this forth now, knowing they are in for defeat so they don’t have to pay the political cost. That might be for Labour, since conscription is probably necessary further down the line. They know this, but nobody dares to pay the political cost because it is unpopular to introduce to a population not accustomed to it. Also, where is the money for it ? It’s not free.
From January:
Then right after, Tories swear they won’t introduce it. Now when electoral defeat is staring them in the eye and it is 100 percent certain, oh now they found the ball for necessary unpopular decisions. Fucking cowards. Undoubtedly Labour will avoid this for some time due to the very high political cost no matter how urgent, but it will probably be enacted in a few years when it becomes absolutely necessary in the short term.
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Sunak is not thinking about Putin. There is nothing necessary about this. It’s a bit of meat thrown to the right wing gammons who have had a hard on for national service for decades, and are now peeling off to Reform because their base instincts have been indulged since Brexit.
If they want to stand up to Putin, a good start would have been to not let him destabilise Europe by pouring money into the leave campaign and the Tory party. The Government we’re willing accomplices to that.
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But if you can work, pay tax, and vote…you can fight as well.
Poor reasoning.
Yes exactly what happened, caused a bidding war with US finance institutions next thing you know the interest rate is at ground level and people are self certifying mortgages and over paying for property on the strength of it and here we are. Not only did the pair of dullards lead us to a deficit and crash, they also are an indirect cause of the inflated property prices which we saw rising rapidly in 2002-08.
It pearls to swine next post.
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Can fight and must join the army are not the same thing.
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Its not my reasoning - paying taxes and voting are not the same thing either.
I am not against National Service per say, as long as it is not a hidden tunnel into compolsury military conscription.
National Service can cover a large number of areas, not just military service. But if it is a way to stealthily bring in miltary service then they can do one
They are very much interlinked. If the government can take 25% of your money, you should be entitled to a say in who spends it.
Its a reasonable argument, but it also works for serving in the army! Which was my point, do you see, when you introduce a widening duty of civic engagement, where does it stop.
I am struggling to understand how I feel about this election. On the one hand I’m physically and emotionally detached from ground zero but on the other hand retain a somewhat cursory, zoo- / theatre-type, interest.
My initial take on Starmer, upon his arrival, was meh and that as long as he stayed out of the popular spotlight, he would become PM. There was just too much damage being taken by HMS Tory to save it from anything but a Titanic-esque outcome. However, the poison chalice that Starmer and co will partake from is so toxic that only a Lourdes type miracle will likely save them. I cannot help but feel that there is very little an in coming government (Tory or Labour) can do over 5 years to significantly change possible outcomes (beyond making it slightly less worse), so deep seemingly is the malady.
The only hope would be for there to be such a global economic swell that all economies, whatever shape they are in, are able to ride the wave.
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Labour should have regulated the financial sector, rather than allow it to run amok, but let’s not pretend that the Tories would have done any different.
The cause of the 2008 crash was derivatives trading, and specifically credit default swaps. The global financial sector could have coped with sub prime mortgages going under, and even the knock on effects of that.
What it couldn’t cope with was the obligations owed to third parties who had bet against sub prime mortgages. Then then the third parties who had bet against the financial institutions themselves. The whole system went down because of a culture of speculating on failure, which still exists today.
When Gordon Brown put £300bn into the economy, that money went somewhere. People always forget that. The banks needed that money because they owed it to already incredibly rich people. A small number of people made a killing in 2008.
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Not sure it does.
Pearls to swine.