I hope you're right but don't share your optimism sadly. I'm concerned that things are still going to get worse before they get better. Worrying times.
I'm not sure blind populism will ever hit the level of public popularity it has in the US. But I think FPTP leaves us open to a populist government on a very low share of the vote, the system can't handle a split across multiple parties and could produce a freak result. Say Reform, the Lib Dems and Greens continue to grow, you could end up with a Reform majority with something stupid like 28% of the vote and it would cause serious social division if a party with that kind of agenda gets in on such a low level of popular support. I mean Labour are in with just 33% right now. For what its worth though, my (extremely premature) feeling is that our next gov may be some kind of Lab Lib arrangement, I dont see the Tories recapturing many Lib Dem seats with Badenoch and Jenrick in charge and Labour do have room to fall and still remain within 50-60 seats of a majority.
Turns out the “Al Qaeda manual” wasn’t an Al Qaeda manual, but a US military investigation into jihadists including Al Qaeda. The CPS have yet to determine if this warrants motivation to commit a terrorist act.
This was the moment where we saw the real Labour government," our political editor Beth Rigby said in reaction to the budget. During the election, Labour was talking about "menial" tax rises and spending commitments compared to what was announced today. But it is now "a government in victory that is bold and confident about the decisions they are making". "To put it into context, this budget, in terms of tax and spend, is £74bn in spending by the end of this parliament, £41bn in tax rises," she explained. "I have done a number of budgets - I have never seen anything like it, and I've done this for 15 years. It is the biggest budget I have ever covered." This is so enormous' Beth went on to say while Rachel Reeves talked about choices, Rishi Sunak gave the counter-argument, which was: "This was not laid out in the manifesto." She noted that when she herself interviewed Sir Keir Starmer during the election at the Sky News Leaders Event in Grimsby, he said there were "no plans" to raise taxes beyond those that they had set out, but "now look where they are". "These are massive tax rises that were not signposted in the manifesto, and the Labour government will try and pin the blame on the Conservative Party," Beth said "But this is so enormous - you can't help but come out of this budget and think, this is a Labour government that had a different agenda in the run-up to the election, that it didn't level with the British people about. "And I think that is going to be the conversation in the coming days."
I'm not sure how this is possible, there were many on here insisting there were no lies in the Labour manifesto. Maybe they weren't lies, they were just untruths.
Turns out that it was possibly an Al Qaeda manual. Why are people desperate to disprove the fact that this looks like it may indeed be a terrorist act. I find it strange behaviour. Having initially said the stabbings were “not currently being treated as terror-related”, Merseyside police on Tuesday charged Rudakubana with possessing a study of al-Qaida’s training manual and producing a biological weapon, ricin. The Southport attack has not been declared a terrorist incident, however.
But police have said it's NOT a terrorist act and until they say otherwise, that should be enough for everyone.
No they haven't, they said they don't known yet, that it is being investigated. Which is why he is being charged tomorrow in Westminster courts with two new offences.
Just seen that, and no that shouldn't necessarily be enough for everyone. I get that being charged with isn't the same as proven they were, but the case has clearly moved forward based on evidence that suggest that this is now a possible terrorist act.
This is set to be the most radical Labour Government since Clement Attlee, but if you'd been following closely then you'd have known to expect that. And anyone paying attention certainly knew to listen to those tax and borrowing commitments Labour politicians didn't rule out. Personally I'm delighted that we finally have a Chancellor of the Exchequer who is genuinely interventionist, after several decades of failed laissez faire capitalism which has left the country on it's arse. All our public services are starved of investment, and make no mistake; every penny that this government raises through tax and borrowing, will go straight into restoring those services, and be invested in the collective interests of the country as a whole. In 5 years time we'll know whether it has worked. If it hasn't, and ordinary working people aren't feeling the benefits, Labour will be punished at the ballot box, probably to the delight of the Faragists. In the meantime, it's going to be an interesting few years.
I generally agree with some of your sentiment here, and this could all play terribly into Nigel's hands. I also didn't pay attention to the Attlee piece, I said on here many times I don't tend to get too involved. Also, I'm not sure that sending the money to the NHS, education etc won't stop it being wasted as a large % will be frittered away, as is the usual way with public procurement and waste in public services, I'd have like Labour to do something about that. Currently what they have done is like putting paper around a sieve in a Bid to stop water leaking out. But my post was about lies that Labour told to get into No. 10, and they did tell lies. Btw, I'm not suggesting others don't lie in politics, but the case here was manifesto lies, that people here denied. Do they have the self respect to admit that this was erroneous?
The only thing that really concerned me was the National Insurance changes. Businesses are going to have to pay A LOT more and while they have indeed frozen income tax, NI etc for employees, a lot of people are still going to be worse off as companies axe pay rises, increase redundancies and generally cut costs.
They will never, ever admit they were duped. “Oh we all knew this was coming..” blah blah blah. They will say anything to deny the truth that labour completely lied and are as bad as the conservatives. This board is a labour cult
You'll be on here every day spouting bollocks about how useless Labour are, but in the meantime we now have an actual Labour Government, who will be judged on their record (the Tories having finally been judged on theirs). So we'll see.
