Off Topic Politics Thread

A woman in Liverpool giving Keir Starmer both barrels. She’s not wrong in what she said either.

https://fb.watch/evz9HmQioM/

 

Good that she is calm under pressure, and able to hide what she is thinking.
Did they need to call a cleaner to her podium?

 

In fairness. she left the stage to go to see how the presenter who fainted was.

 

Apparently the presenter asked a question and it was answered truthfully.

 

In fairness, having heard that the presenter had fainted, I thought her reaction was quite poor. She wants to lead the country yet she looked as though she had almost shat herself, before looking to the right (to Sunak?) as if seeking guidance, before belatedly stepping down from the podium.
Maybe I’m being harsh on her, based on my time working in the care industry and having been a first aider, but I would like to think that I would have been off that podium before the crashing had stopped.

 

The New Statesman putting forward the suggestion that should the Tories not get re-elected, Johnson could become leader of the party again.
If Starmer gets to lead the country, in coalition with others, PR should be the first thing on the agenda.
Sadly, part of me thinks that Starmer will cause such a split in the Labour Party that a new Labour Socialist Party will form, furthest splitting the left of centre vote, gifting victory to the Tories.

https://www.newstatesman.com/quickfire/2022/07/return-boris-johnson-prime-minister?fs=e&s=cl

 

Has any Brexit voting idiot said sorry for ****ing up the start to so many peoples' holidays?

No! Thought not.

I am still waiting for someone to to tell me how I have gained in any practical way from Brexit.

 

I really hope not! Absolutely agree regards PR. Long overdue. We need to modernise the system and allow more power to the voters and encourage it to be worthwhile.

 

I have just watched it in full and she did **** herself

 

One of Viktor Orban's top advisors resigned after he decried race-mixing (which is goddamned hilarious if you know anything about the history of Hungary and the Carpathian Basin) in a speech, calling it "worthy of Goebbels".



Orban is a featured speaker at the Conservative Political Action Committee in the US in a few days.

 

The electoral reform society are worth supporting,
https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/

 

I said a few weeks back that I thought the government were trying to engineer strikes in the rail industry, simply so that they could have their “Thatcher moment”, as they declare war on the “militant unions”.
As we have already seen, the rail unions have negotiated several pay deals with rail companies, ALL below the current rate of inflation (so they’re NOT being greedy) and the only deals the unions cannot seal are those where the government are putting blocks on what the rail negotiators can offer.

The following report explains what Truss wants to do and has a response from Mick Lynch.


AS Tory PM rivals Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak step up their war on workers’ rights, Mick Lynch last night urged downtrodden staff to rise up and take a stand.

The RMT chief accused the pair of being extremists who want to crush unions like Margaret Thatcher did in the 80s and shift the balance of power even further towards bosses.

And he hit back at claims that striking staff are holding the country to ransom, insisting they are being held back by poor pay as inflation soars out of control.

In their battle for a fairer deal as the cost of living crisis continues to bite, RMT members at Network Rail and 14 train operators go on strike today.

It is their fourth day of action in a dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.

The RMT also says London Underground staff will strike on August 19.

Millions of workers are struggling amid pay freezes and paltry rises, sparking unrest across the country.

But rather than lift people out of poverty, Ms Truss vowed the biggest crackdown on union power since Thatcher – making it much harder for staff to strike.

Mr Lynch branded the measures “the most extreme since unions were legalised in 1871”. He added: “We are at a real crossroads, with these anti-union proposals coming on the back of the misery caused by the cost of living crisis.

“It’s time for workers across the economy, whether you’re a member of a union or not, to take a stand before it’s too late.”

Ms Truss, the bookies’ favourite to become Tory leader, pledged to impose the draconian curbs within 30 days of becoming PM. They include:

• Legislating for minimum service levels on key national infrastructure.

• Raising the minimum threshold of support for strikes from 40% of workers to 50%.

• Doubling the notice period for industrial action to four weeks.

• Stopping workers receiving tax-free payments from unions on strike days.

Ms Truss vowed to “stop the unions holding working people to ransom”.

But Mr Lynch said: “Working people are being held to ransom by not being paid enough wages. It’s more of a ransom that you can’t feed your children or pay your bills.

“People are being made almost destitute in some cases. There are private sector and public sector workers who cannot afford to exist in this society. I think Liz Truss, along with Rishi Sunak who didn’t dissent from what she said, are extremists.

“She is on the verge of abolishing effective trade unionism because the thresholds she is seeking to make will make it extremely difficult for anyone to achieve a ballot.” And Mr Lynch warned unions may have to resort to illegal action if she pushes through her curbs.

He said: “If you can’t strike legally through a trade union, maybe you will have to look at other means to press their case.”

Mr Lynch urged Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to publicly condemn the Tory proposals.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham called the Tory plans “a war on the trade union movement and working people”. She said: “At the time of a cost of living crisis, where profiteering not wages is driving inflation, this would-be Prime Minister has instead chosen to return Britain’s workplaces to the 19th century.

“It’s Dickens meets 2022.”

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “This would be an unprecedented attack on one of workers’ most important rights, the freedom to take collective action. And it would severely upset the balance of power between workers and staff.”

More RMT walkouts are planned for August 18 and 20. RMT membership has jumped by 2,500 since the start of the rail dispute.

The strikes form part of a wider “summer of discontent”, with action planned in the private and public sectors.

 

That was my observation. She didn`t know how to react, and looked to Sunak for a prompt.

 

I couldn't like that St B but see it as a Thatcherite style attack on the trade unions designed to curry favour with tory party members.

Mick Lynch would make a far better job of PM than any of the current candidates from any part of the political spectrum.

 

It’s incredible that they have such a profound lack of self-knowledge. THEY have been PERSONALLY responsible for all those things. Just incredible.