UK Politics Thread (Part 4)

Steve Bannon is one common link between these two. Who else i wonder and how far back? Trump is too thick to go full fascist on his own.

1 Like

One thing is certain. He doesnā€™t give a shit about ordinary people. Even the stuff about immigrants is just a front to con people out if their votes.

The real meat of the reform agenda is hidden behind the headline grabbing racism. Hyper liberalisation if the economy. Bonfire of regulations. Tax cuts for the wealthy. Sell off public services.

Basically Farage is in this for himself and his peers - a small cabal of people who think they should have all the money and there should be no barriers to their greed and corruption.

1 Like

The neoliberal agenda in a nutshell.

1 Like

Elon Musk tipped to give $100m to Nigel Farage in move to shake up British politics

Story by William Mata

image
Nigel Farage could be getting a huge advertising budget if reports are true - PA Wire

Elon Musk is reportedly planning to donate $100 million to Nigel Farage in a bid to shake up British politics ahead of the next election.

The Tesla and X (formerly Twitter) boss, who has openly supported Donald Trump in recent months and spoke at a Republican rally, is said to be considering backing the far-right Reform UK party.

Acording to the Times, Muskā€™s goal could be to help Farage become prime minister.

The billionaire may be able to sidestep overseas donation laws by funneling the Ā£78 million through the UK branch of X, which he owns.

Mr Farage told the Times: ā€œAll I can say is that Iā€™m in touch with him and he is very supportive of my policy positions.

ā€œWe both share a friendship with Donald Trump and Trump has said good things about me in front of Musk. Weā€™ve got a good relationship with him.ā€

Mr Musk gleefully responded to news that Dame Andrea Jenkyns has defected to Reform and tweeted an enthusiastic ā€œyesā€ to the prospect of a Farage government.

Reform won more than four million votes in Julyā€™s election and has five MPs to show for it, including Mr Farage and party deputy Richard Tice.

The Conservative Party has just elected the right leaning Kemi Badenoch as its leader and will be under pressure to hold onto voters - especially if Reform have such a huge budget to spend on advertising.

Mr Farage has stopped short of confirming the donation.

The reporter has sent an email to Twitterā€™s press office. However, one of Mr Muskā€™s first moves as boss was to install a bounceback with all requests for comment being greeted with a poo emoji

7 Likes

The scope for overseas political donations is very limited. Of course, Musk has a track record of being completely ignorant of the law.

5 Likes

Maybe thisā€¦

The billionaire may be able to sidestep overseas donation laws by funneling the Ā£78 million through the UK branch of X, which he owns.

4 Likes

Musk getting involved in multiple elections is completely OKā€¦ he landed a rocket ship dont ya know?

4 Likes

Dolts are easily distracted by loud noises and shiny things.

I saw this posted on Bluesky:

The BBC was regarded as a major source of UK soft power for decades. Itā€™s bad enough that the countryā€™s voice is not heard. It is a tragedy that itā€™s voice is replaced with a propaganda network.

7 Likes

:joy: you make a good point. :+1:t2:

1 Like

I know it is not quite UK politics, but felt it is relevant to the thread. May also be a distraction from the current state of British politics.

Looks like trouble brewing across the Channel.

https://x.com/PeterStefanovi2/status/1864019386303988086?t=IefLWJlAi6prWirck0ouaQ&s=09

This is so sad and it makes me upset that in 2024, so many people are relying on food banks, not just the poor and vulnerable, but young professionals, carers for their relatives who are finding rising costs of living, higher rents just impossible to manage.

9 Likes

I am glad Labour are showing intent in following through with their suggestions, in the manifesto of renationalising the Rail service.
I am sure there are economic pros and cons, but the logic appeals to me. I will be interested in seeing how they go about this and will most definitely be wanting them to succeed.

6 Likes

Whilst I think renationalising train services is a good idea in general, I am not sure about the options picked.

I have no idea how good C2C and Greater Anglia are, but I use South Western every day, and they are for the most part pretty good.

Personally I think Southern and South Eastern are services which are in more need of direct government action and control as their services are notorious for being shite on a good day, and at worst non-existent.

Edit: And that is just the London centric services, I donā€™t know what services are like for trains not going into/out of London are like

My guess is this is due to existing contracts coming to an end. Others will follow.

3 Likes

On Southeastern, I use it 3 days a week from West Wickham to London Bridge and back, very rarely are there issues.

Admittedly, this is a tiny line that shuttles between Hayes and Charing Cross. If they couldnā€™t make it work youā€™d start to wonder why the fuck they were in the locomotive game.

1 Like

My main beef about trains is the cost.

Hundreds of pounds to go from the North to London etc.

WTAF?

2 Likes

Yes, the Grauniadā€™s article makes it clearer in that regard:


Source: South Western Railway to become first train operator nationalised under Labour | Rail industry | The Guardian

2 Likes

See Northern Fail in recent years as well as Southern Fail in I think 2016-2018? I canā€™t quite remember the dates of the latterā€™s terrible unreliabilityā€¦

I recently travelled to Stoke to pick up a van.
One way - Leuchars (my local station) to Stoke - Ā£140

Broke it down
Leuchars to Edinburgh - Ā£15
Edinburgh to Crewe - Ā£45
Crewe to Stoke - Ā£9

Ā£69 - Simple.

People are too lazy or dumb to look at alternatives