Westminster Politics

Sparky Rhiwabon said:
I wouldn’t be surprised if the state pension became means tested, so that only those with little or no private pension provision gets it.
Click to expand...
That would be taking money off rich people, and the Tories don't do that. Means testing was actually more of a Gordon Brown thing really, and he managed to change the balance of spending in favour of poorer people quite a bit in some ways.
 
Rado_N said:
This is why the Tories manage to ruin the country, they’re pragmatic whilst the left whine about not having the perfect person to vote for so they’ll stay at home and cry about it rather than working towards an end goal.

It’s the same in the US, with the Bernie bros who voted Harambe because Hillary wasn’t good enough for them so they’ll quietly play a role in Trump getting elected, meanwhile the cuntbag GOP play the long game and over 30 years have taken over the judicial system with bible bashing judges and achieved the goal of overturning Roe.
Click to expand...
This is something I've raised in this thread before, the left don't know how to win.

In the last election the Lib Dems and Labour stole votes from each other whilst the Brexit party stood down in seats where it was going to be closely contested. The left don't care about winning, they care about purity and 'being right'. Its morally laudable to say that a LD and Labour candidate might disagree on some things, but in the main they agree on one major thing: the disagree with the Tories. However rather than being pragmatic, they compete over the minor issues rather than focussing on the bigger picture and working together to win a left-wing coalition.

In the 2019 GE the popular vote was almost an even 50/50 split between the left and right parties, but the Conservatives won a thumping majority. In my own constituency the Tory (the only right wing candidate) got 49.5% whilst Labour, LD and the greens combined for 50.5%. People voting LD and the greens might have thought they were doing the right thing, but in reality their votes directly elected the Conservative MP. I cannot fathom the mindset of someone who vote LD or greens in a tightly contested seat.

For the left to win, tactical voting must become the norm.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
I wouldn’t be surprised if the state pension became means tested, so that only those with little or no private pension provision gets it.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure why this would be a bad thing. Why do pensioners with decent private pensions need the state pension any more than people with good salaries need universal creditt? Yes they've paid into it, but this is how social services work: some people pay in more than they take out. In general some of these schemes are not means tested because its more expensive to implement that you'd save, I think that was the case with the winter fuel allowance.

Speaking as someone who wouldn't qualify if it became means tested, I would vote for this.
 
Buster15 said:
Point taken.
But it really is important to stress that the problems you highlighted are most certainly not only in the north.
That kind of situation affects pretty much all towns and cities, maybe outside of inner London.

But because it was primarily done to persuade so called red wall voters, people think that it applies just to the north.
For Levelling Up to mean anything, it has to apply across the whole of the UK.
Click to expand...

Yes of course, I live in the North so I relate it to local situations.
The main thing is for Labour to 'level up' properly in towns and villages outside the main conurbations. Labour Councils in particular, wherever they are, have to do more this time around with regeneration initiatives than just 'tarting up' the area, or running a few projects that last for a while but then become obsolete. That 'patch up' or 'make do and mend' approach has been rumbled (red wall areas again) and they must do it properly next time.
 
slyadams said:
This is something I've raised in this thread before, the left don't know how to win.

In the last election the Lib Dems and Labour stole votes from each other whilst the Brexit party stood down in seats where it was going to be closely contested. The left don't care about winning, they care about purity and 'being right'. Its morally laudable to say that a LD and Labour candidate might disagree on some things, but in the main they agree on one major thing: the disagree with the Tories. However rather than being pragmatic, they compete over the minor issues rather than focussing on the bigger picture and working together to win a left-wing coalition.

In the 2019 GE the popular vote was almost an even 50/50 split between the left and right parties, but the Conservatives won a thumping majority. In my own constituency the Tory (the only right wing candidate) got 49.5% whilst Labour, LD and the greens combined for 50.5%. People voting LD and the greens might have thought they were doing the right thing, but in reality their votes directly elected the Conservative MP. I cannot fathom the mindset of someone who vote LD or greens in a tightly contested seat.

For the left to win, tactical voting must become the norm.
Click to expand...

The reason that didn't happen was mainly on the Lib Dems though and it's hard to claim them as left unless you're using very loose grouping.
 
slyadams said:
This is something I've raised in this thread before, the left don't know how to win.

In the last election the Lib Dems and Labour stole votes from each other whilst the Brexit party stood down in seats where it was going to be closely contested. The left don't care about winning, they care about purity and 'being right'. Its morally laudable to say that a LD and Labour candidate might disagree on some things, but in the main they agree on one major thing: the disagree with the Tories. However rather than being pragmatic, they compete over the minor issues rather than focussing on the bigger picture and working together to win a left-wing coalition.

In the 2019 GE the popular vote was almost an even 50/50 split between the left and right parties, but the Conservatives won a thumping majority. In my own constituency the Tory (the only right wing candidate) got 49.5% whilst Labour, LD and the greens combined for 50.5%. People voting LD and the greens might have thought they were doing the right thing, but in reality their votes directly elected the Conservative MP. I cannot fathom the mindset of someone who vote LD or greens in a tightly contested seat.

For the left to win, tactical voting must become the norm.
Click to expand...
On which planet are the Lib Dems left wing?
 
Pexbo said:
They’re basically the BBC. Culturally they are left wing, economically they are right wing.
Click to expand...
So they aren't left wing then, which would explain why a left wing coalition, including the Lib Dems can't and won't work.
 
Raven said:
So they aren't left wing then, which would explain why a left wing coalition, including the Lib Dems can't and won't work.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Labour shouldn’t go near Lib Dem’s.
 
Frosty said:
I mean, maybe. The fact they put out a tweet claiming (even suggesting) that someone on 30k/year could buy a terraced house in London is slightly more concerning.
Click to expand...

Everything the government says is a complete load of b*ll*x - just depends how many gullibles swallow it. You urgently need a massive change.
 
Paul the Wolf said:
They really think the outside world has any confidence in the UK government.
Have they forgotten the £65bn BoE intervention?

You can't wait 2 years to get this lot out.
Click to expand...

Most of the grown ups were frog marched out of the room a while back.

We're not getting a sensible government without an election and they are at least smart enough to know it's turkeys voting for Christmas at the moment.
 
Paul the Wolf said:
They really think the outside world has any confidence in the UK government.
Have they forgotten the £65bn BoE intervention?

You can't wait 2 years to get this lot out.
Click to expand...

They haven't, but they are hoping that most people are not clued in enough to know about how this is all working.
 
Adisa said:

There will be carnage when people start getting their bills.
Click to expand...


The people get the government/rulers they deserve. Even if they think they "didn't vote for it". Yes I include myself in this pain.
 
Frosty said:


Good news for first time buyers buying a terraced house in London on a 30k salary!
Click to expand...

There’s a surprise, your man scully got hammered on question time last night about first time buyers, mortgage rates, disappearing mortgage types etc
Not surprised the spin has started
 


Someone is making themselves look Prime Ministerial. I wonder why?

Isn’t there also some damaging stuff on the way about him and the russian agent?
 
Pexbo said:


Someone is making themselves look Prime Ministerial. I wonder why?

Isn’t there also some damaging stuff on the way about him and the russian agent?
Click to expand...

Might aswell start counting down the days. He'll be back.
 
Surely we won't actually be getting Boris back? Though saying that, the government's conduct has lurched from "it can't get any worse than this, can it?" for the last 12 months at least (some could say years) so let's not rule anything out.
 
Longshanks said:
We don't need wildly transformative stuff done by politicians, wild transformation is fantasy land and it's dangerous and risky.

The majority of the electorate don't like dangerous and risky, the majority of the electorate have families to look after and some assets or debts to service. Wild and transformative is a risk to them, they want to help the more needy but not at a cost to them.
Click to expand...
That's because, "you're alright Jack".
 
sun_tzu said:
Yes she only got 50 mps back her in the first round so she's not exactly got the best base of support

Can see the mps picking the next leader... its actually only quite recently the members have picked

Ids
Cameron
Johnson
Truss

Howard and may were unnaposed I think
Click to expand...
Apparently anyone, even non UK residents living abroad, can become a Conservative member. To me, voting in Truss almost looks like sabotage.

If Russia influenced Brexit (links to funding Farage backer Aaron Banks) and had links to major Tory donors and some of Boris Johnsons close personal friends had familial links to the old KGB, is it not possible that the Tory membership had also been infiltrated?

Just a thought. I have no definitive conclusion on this.
 
slyadams said:
This is something I've raised in this thread before, the left don't know how to win.

In the last election the Lib Dems and Labour stole votes from each other whilst the Brexit party stood down in seats where it was going to be closely contested. The left don't care about winning, they care about purity and 'being right'. Its morally laudable to say that a LD and Labour candidate might disagree on some things, but in the main they agree on one major thing: the disagree with the Tories. However rather than being pragmatic, they compete over the minor issues rather than focussing on the bigger picture and working together to win a left-wing coalition.

In the 2019 GE the popular vote was almost an even 50/50 split between the left and right parties, but the Conservatives won a thumping majority. In my own constituency the Tory (the only right wing candidate) got 49.5% whilst Labour, LD and the greens combined for 50.5%. People voting LD and the greens might have thought they were doing the right thing, but in reality their votes directly elected the Conservative MP. I cannot fathom the mindset of someone who vote LD or greens in a tightly contested seat.

For the left to win, tactical voting must become the norm.
Click to expand...
I agree that tactical voting is necessary if the Tories are to lose. I couldn't understand why Jo Swinson did the total opposite last election and invested more funds to battle Labour constituencies.

More accurately, the Tories are the establishment party, they are the status quo for the rich and powerful. Any party that doesn't threaten or offers to enhance the lives of the rich, the influential and media owners tend to benefit from more postive media coverage. The irony is that if a party supports those 3 groups then the normal working people on basic wages suffer the most.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.