Westminster Politics

This has been happening for years:

From 2024:

Coroner criticises benefits rules after vulnerable claimant’s death

DWP missed many chances to act as woman’s mental health declined while under overpayment investigation

https://www.theguardian.com/society...nefits-rules-after-vulnerable-claimants-death

From 2018:

Family of man who starved to death after benefits cut lose case against DWP

Family may appeal in case of mentally ill 57-year-old whose death in 2018 led to new benefits guidelines

https://www.theguardian.com/society...ath-after-benefits-cut-loses-case-against-dwp

From 2015:

Call for publication of review into man who killed himself after benefits cut

UK government asked to publish review into case of Tim Salter, one of 60 investigations into suicides linked to benefit changes

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/11/publication-secret-review-benefits-cut-tim-salter

Thousands have died after being found fit for work, DWP figures show

Campaigners demand welfare overhaul after statistics reveal 2,380 people died between 2011 and 2014 shortly after being declared able to work

https://www.theguardian.com/society...ied-after-fit-for-work-assessment-dwp-figures

From 2014:

‘No one should die penniless and alone’: the victims of Britain’s harsh welfare sanctions

David Clapson was found dead last year after his benefits were stopped on the grounds that he wasn't taking the search for work seriously. He had an empty stomach, and just £3.44 to his name. Now thousands of other claimants are being left in similarly dire straits by tough new welfare sanctions

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/03/victims-britains-harsh-welfare-sanctions

All evidence that we are too generous with benefits, apparently.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/apr/24/gb-news-can-still-use-politicians-as-presenters-ofcom

Nigel Farage can host GB News show during election, says Ofcom
Media regulator says no clear consensus among British public to ban politicians presenting on news channels

And the funniest thing I've read today:

The public “felt personally well equipped to identify if a presenter might be trying to mislead them”, according to a focus group conducted by researchers at Ipsos

The irony goes off the charts.
 
Pexbo said:
Getting into government with a huge majority because the country is protesting against the Tories, rather than getting into government on the merit of your own popularity and because the country believes in your policies and have granted you a mandate accordingly.

If Starmer does get in with a huge majority but ultimately Starmer and Labour are deeply unpopular, it will be completely unsustainable.

Currently they are the opposition and are being compared to a deeply unpopular government. As soon as they’re in government they’re held to their own standards and they begin to get polls on their own performance as a government and if they’re polling badly things will get ugly quickly.
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I broadly agree, however I do wonder if the Tories have fecked themselves demographically for a generation.

Broadly speaking, the average voter adopts more right wing positions as they get older, while they accumulate wealth, aquire property and form a family. They have "assets" to conserve. For 20 & 30 year olds currently, budgets are tight, home ownership is often a dream and starting a family is being delayed because of the associated costs. For this generation, this will be the Tories legacy, while the older right wing voters slowly die off.

Labour will of course have no short term fix, but I can't help but think there will be everlasting resentment to the Tories for the above, much like there is for Thatcher. In 10, 20 years time people won't remember the confected culture war issue of today. They will remember how the Tories made their life much more difficult.
 
Phil Jones Face said:
I broadly agree, however I do wonder if the Tories have fecked themselves demographically for a generation.

Broadly speaking, the average voter adopts more right wing positions as they get older, while they accumulate wealth, aquire property and form a family. They have "assets" to conserve. For 20 & 30 year olds currently, budgets are tight, home ownership is often a dream and starting a family is being delayed because of the associated costs. For this generation, this will be the Tories legacy, while the older right wing voters slowly die off.

Labour will of course have no short term fix, but I can't help but think there will be everlasting resentment to the Tories for the above, much like there is for Thatcher. In 10, 20 years time people won't remember the confected culture war issue of today. They will remember how the Tories made their life much more difficult.
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Well said.

The culture war nonsense is the crutch they're using as a desperate hail Mary, hoping it gives them some short term wins. In the long term I think they're resigned to being wiped out, so their own strategy on that front is to sabotage things to the extent the situation becomes untenable for the incoming Labour government, hoping voters are stupid enough to hold them culpable and hence flock back to the Tories in consequent election cycles.
 
Phil Jones Face said:
I broadly agree, however I do wonder if the Tories have fecked themselves demographically for a generation.

Broadly speaking, the average voter adopts more right wing positions as they get older, while they accumulate wealth, aquire property and form a family. They have "assets" to conserve. For 20 & 30 year olds currently, budgets are tight, home ownership is often a dream and starting a family is being delayed because of the associated costs. For this generation, this will be the Tories legacy, while the older right wing voters slowly die off.

Labour will of course have no short term fix, but I can't help but think there will be everlasting resentment to the Tories for the above, much like there is for Thatcher. In 10, 20 years time people won't remember the confected culture war issue of today. They will remember how the Tories made their life much more difficult.
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A personality like Thatcher would win an election by a landslide in the political doldrums we have now, for either side.

I dont think the Tories will feel many long lasting effects. In 10 years Labour will be getting long in the tooth and the Tories should have a roster of fresh faces and ideas. People forget, and they grow up a bit as they leave their 20s behind. That leads to a more pragmatic view of politics.
 
11101 said:
A personality like Thatcher would win an election by a landslide in the political doldrums we have now, for either side.

I dont think the Tories will feel many long lasting effects. In 10 years Labour will be getting long in the tooth and the Tories should have a roster of fresh faces and ideas. People forget, and they grow up a bit as they leave their 20s behind. That leads to a more pragmatic view of politics.
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I'm impressed. That last part is condescending even by your standards.
 
11101 said:
A personality like Thatcher would win an election by a landslide in the political doldrums we have now, for either side.

I dont think the Tories will feel many long lasting effects. In 10 years Labour will be getting long in the tooth and the Tories should have a roster of fresh faces and ideas. People forget, and they grow up a bit as they leave their 20s behind. That leads to a more pragmatic view of politics.
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People do forget, but I do think the way the tories have savaged us all (especially the young) won’t be forgotten by a large number of people, with old ‘pragmatic’ tories dying off they will lose a huge amount of voters.
 
11101 said:
A personality like Thatcher would win an election by a landslide in the political doldrums we have now, for either side.

I dont think the Tories will feel many long lasting effects. In 10 years Labour will be getting long in the tooth and the Tories should have a roster of fresh faces and ideas. People forget, and they grow up a bit as they leave their 20s behind. That leads to a more pragmatic view of politics.
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Disagree. People traditionally become more conservative because they become home owners, have children, build savings etc etc and it’s about protecting what they have. The Tories have gone a long way to fecking up that natural progression and more and more people in their 30s, 40s and beyond will have no natural inclination to become more conservative because they have no wealth to protect.

I’m nearing my 40s, a homeowner with children and savings and I have absolutely zero inclination to move to the right because I can see how damaging the lack of socialism has been to the foundations of this country. It’s about a few getting rich and the rest getting nothing. feck that and feck you.
 
Berbasbullet said:
with old ‘pragmatic’ tories dying off they will lose a huge amount of voters.
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'Waiting to fill dead men's shoes' what a political slogan for the 21st Century.

I truly hope the young have a better aspiration for future government than that ;)
 
Berbasbullet said:
People do forget, but I do think the way the tories have savaged us all (especially the young) won’t be forgotten by a large number of people, with old ‘pragmatic’ tories dying off they will lose a huge amount of voters.
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People said the same thing after 2 decades of Thatcher and Major but 13 years later couldn't wait for more Tories. After Blair and Brown Labour were supposed to be finished forever but here we are waiting for a Labour government. Is it really going to be any different this time? I don't think it will.


Pexbo said:
Disagree. People traditionally become more conservative because they become home owners, have children, build savings etc etc and it’s about protecting what they have. The Tories have gone a long way to fecking up that natural progression and more and more people in their 30s, 40s and beyond will have no natural inclination to become more conservative because they have no wealth to protect.

I’m nearing my 40s, a homeowner with children and savings and I have absolutely zero inclination to move to the right because I can see how damaging the lack of socialism has been to the foundations of this country. It’s about a few getting rich and the rest getting nothing. feck that and feck you.
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A lot of young people with nothing will be inheriting a lot of something in the next 10 to 20 years. I reckon we'll see how quickly getting a few quid changes people's feelings toward wealth sharing.
 
11101 said:
A lot of young people with nothing will be inheriting a lot of something in the next 10 to 20 years. I reckon we'll see how quickly getting a few quid changes people's feelings toward wealth sharing.
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With a decimated NHS? The majority of people’s inheritance will be used to pay for care long before they see a penny of it.

My partner’s gran was one of a generation who bought her house for 5 figures and it’s now worth half a million. She’s been in a care home for the last couple of years and there isn’t expected to be any capital left in the home when she does finally pop her clogs. If you think that’s purely an anecdote you’re grossly mistaken.
 
11101 said:
A lot of young people with nothing will be inheriting a lot of something in the next 10 to 20 years. I reckon we'll see how quickly getting a few quid changes people's feelings toward wealth sharing.
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WHO? What world do you live in that won’t see end of life care not eat every single penny of property equity? Those numbers just don’t work anymore. That time is just gone.
 
Tory duty on Ofwat protects profits over reducing sewage pollution, experts say
The Conservatives have pushed through a duty on the water regulator to prioritise growth, which experts have said will incentivise water companies to value their bottom lines over reducing sewage pollution.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ts-over-reducing-sewage-pollution-experts-say
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Also
Labour MPs voted with the government, and it is understood this is because they did not want to be accused of being “anti-growth”.
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:lol:
 
Labour voters - The tories are trying to destroy the country before leaving office so Labour can’t fix anything when in power.

Labour MP’s - It’s actually very smart to help the tories destroy the country!
 
Pexbo said:
I’m nearing my 40s, a homeowner with children and savings and I have absolutely zero inclination to move to the right because I can see how damaging the lack of socialism has been to the foundations of this country. It’s about a few getting rich and the rest getting nothing. feck that and feck you.
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I could not agree more, I'm in my 50s also a home owner with children and savings, I find the older I get the more I move to the left, for exactly the same reasons. Like many others, I've watched as the Tories have wrecked this country, schools, NHS, legal aid, immigration, Brexit, social services, councils, etc the list goes on and on, there's very little in the UK that isn't broken and people are being conned into more and more division with the spiteful and hateful politics of fear.

Feck that.
 
Pexbo said:
With a decimated NHS? The majority of people’s inheritance will be used to pay for care long before they see a penny of it.

My partner’s gran was one of a generation who bought her house for 5 figures and it’s now worth half a million. She’s been in a care home for the last couple of years and there isn’t expected to be any capital left in the home when she does finally pop her clogs. If you think that’s purely an anecdote you’re grossly mistaken.
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£5.5 trillion is expected to pass between generations over the next 30 years with the peak occuring 10 years from now i.e. when we are talking about the next government likely getting stale. By far the biggest wealth transfer in history. You might know somebody who will spend it all on care but unfortunately that's just not how it's going to be for many people.
 
11101 said:
£5.5 trillion is expected to pass between generations over the next 30 years with the peak occuring 10 years from now i.e. when we are talking about the next government likely getting stale. By far the biggest wealth transfer in history. You might know somebody who will spend it all on care but unfortunately that's just not how it's going to be for many people.
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wat
 
When the tories bring up old economic times such as the famous banking crash, why don't other parties remind them of black Wednesday?
 
Are Labour in danger of having a policy today? Presumably only because they got to do a bit of flag shagging in there with Great British Railways but still.
 
Labour have pledged to renationlise the railway system within 5 years.

Did this just get announced? I literally saw it scrolling on the news.
 
11101 said:
£5.5 trillion is expected to pass between generations over the next 30 years with the peak occuring 10 years from now i.e. when we are talking about the next government likely getting stale. By far the biggest wealth transfer in history. You might know somebody who will spend it all on care but unfortunately that's just not how it's going to be for many people.
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Just to point out that this is people's money, savings, investments and houses which have been worked for and in the main, taxes including IHT paid for.

It is not the government money and they should keep their fing thieving hands off.
 
Rolandofgilead said:
Labour have pledged to renationlise the railway system within 5 years.

Did this just get announced? I literally saw it scrolling on the news.
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"Labour is also not planning to nationalise rail freight companies or rolling stock companies."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68889345

They have to do this to make any sort of difference.

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/publica...t-why-its-time-to-take-control-of-uk-rolling/

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog...-first-step-of-many-labour-will-need-to-take/
 
Buster15 said:
Just to point out that this is people's money, savings, investments and houses which have been worked for and in the main, taxes including IHT paid for.

It is not the government money and they should keep their fing thieving hands off.
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Tbf the majority of it probably belongs to those who inherited great wealth from their parents because inequality is rife. But yes, the people who would get clobbered would almost certainly not be those people.
 
Is there a thread for Scottish politics knocking around? Just watched Hamza Yousaf's press conference and keen to hear thoughts on what happens next up in Holyrood.
 
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