Off Topic Politics Thread

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Labour’s increased spending on education was notable enough that I had classmates bring it up (clearly having been told by their parents) when I was 10/11 years old. I’m from a true blue Tory area as well so it strikes me as notable that when I was in year 6 people my age knew about this
 
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I do blame the Tories for the state of public service in this country. Under Labour it felt like education mattered, and spending was as high as it has been since the early 1970s. Look properly at any chart of public service spending and you will see that as soon as Tory governments get in, spending drops. This is their ideological position. It is a huge ideological difference between the Conservative party and Labour. It is entirely misleading and misguided to assume they are in any way the same.

I came into teaching under Labour. It felt positive and like I was valued. I had my loans paid off and was given a golden hello. Then the Conservatives got in and told us they couldn’t afford us any more. They established a narrative of the greedy public service worker and set us up in opposition to everyone else. Look at the greedy doctor.
Look at the greedy teacher. Look at the greedy nurse. Their jobs are safe while everyone else is uncertain. It was a clear narrative and it was an expert piece of propaganda that people still regurgitate to me now.

I also fundamentally disagree about the idea of market forces. Other nations manage it because they know paying teachers well pays for itself. There is no better indicator of social mobility than the quality of free education. Our social mobility is worse than at time in a hundred years. Can you see the link?

I was speaking recently to trainee teachers from Germany who were shocked to find their starting salaries were pretty much the same as my final, top of the ladder salary. “How can you grow your economy if you do not get the best teachers?” They said.

Well, look at our economy and ask me which nation is getting it right?

Anyone who forgives the Tories for this mess and equates them to Labour has not been paying attention.

Agree 100%, the Tories are an absolute disgrace. They can find money for their mates, failed projects and spending on vanity projects, but they have continually failed the nation.

Where we are right now as a country genuinely sickens me, and much of it is their fault after all these years in charge. Their party does not serve this country, at all. If this country had any sense there should be riots and protests like the ones in France.

We need two things:
1) Take the money printer out of the hands of government, so they stop debasing the value of peoples labour
2) Elect a party with even a shred of integrity, moral fibre and decency that genuinely wants to improve the country instead of sucking it dry like a parasite.
 
Another Brexit dividend: we've made it so hard for foreign school kids to come to the UK on trips that the schools aren't going to bother.

Bloody foreigners, coming over here with their kids to soak up our culture.

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.ft.com/content/65905653-5c2f-4247-81e3-73140dceae8a?sharetype=blocked

Non-paywalled FT article.

Brexit: what a ****ing triumph.

Vin
Post brexshit my Indonesian wife with Dutch/EU permanent residence needs a visa to enter UK having previously traveled with her EU ID card. **** that! Bollocks to brexshit and all those that sucked up the lies and misinformation from the leave campaign.
 
Post brexshit my Indonesian wife with Dutch/EU permanent residence needs a visa to enter UK having previously traveled with her EU ID card. **** that! Bollocks to brexshit and all those that sucked up the lies and misinformation from the leave campaign.
The lies and misinformation are one thing. But it is the double down and denials / refusal to admit there is any link with with certain issues and Brexit. Suella’s recent example is obviously the most brazen. But you have farage appearing on talking head shows claiming that all the negatives claimed by “project fear” haven’t happened whilst also trying to claim that Brexit has been ruined by compromise. Which is is?
 
Blame the liars, not the lied to.

Vin
I was very quick and keen to blame the lied to in 2016 and it is wrong and not helpful. The misinformation is strong and powerful and the average voter simply does not devote enough time to this kind of thing. I’m not going to get snooty and a claim they are “Ill informed” or the like. There is far more to it

Not least that far more people are prepared to accelt pleasant lies than a harsh truth. And many who voted Brexit had legitimate grievances. Not ones that could be solved by brexit but that is also somewhat missing the point

The sad part is that it is only natural to not want to admit you f’d up. And the bigger the f up the less likely any admission would be

I’m not sure what it would take. I’m not sure even if Boris completed a hostile re-takeover of the Tory party and then came out and held his hands up and said he was wrong in the Brexit campaign and what he promised wasn't feasible and instead things are now worse for reasons (insert long list) that it would be enough for enough people in the public to drop the issue and sign on to steps to re-join the EU

And that is without factoring in the ideologues who refuse to accept what is happening. Or don’t care because they getting enriched by it somehow
 
I was very quick and keen to blame the lied to in 2016 and it is wrong and not helpful. The misinformation is strong and powerful and the average voter simply does not devote enough time to this kind of thing. I’m not going to get snooty and a claim they are “Ill informed” or the like. There is far more to it

Not least that far more people are prepared to accelt pleasant lies than a harsh truth. And many who voted Brexit had legitimate grievances. Not ones that could be solved by brexit but that is also somewhat missing the point

The sad part is that it is only natural to not want to admit you f’d up. And the bigger the f up the less likely any admission would be

I’m not sure what it would take. I’m not sure even if Boris completed a hostile re-takeover of the Tory party and then came out and held his hands up and said he was wrong in the Brexit campaign and what he promised wasn't feasible and instead things are now worse for reasons (insert long list) that it would be enough for enough people in the public to drop the issue and sign on to steps to re-join the EU

And that is without factoring in the ideologues who refuse to accept what is happening. Or don’t care because they getting enriched by it somehow

There's polling evidence (apologies, no source just an article I read) that people are slowly altering their reporting of how they voted. It's similar to polls nowadays regarding the Iraq invasion where the number of people who say they supported it beforehand is completely out of kilter with the numbers at the time. Unfortunately, public opinion isn't enough. The EU isn't going to talk to us about membership until they can be sure a change of government won't lead to a repeat Brexit.

A good, long period in opposition might be what it takes to move the Tory party back into a world where even they can admit EU membership isn't a poisoned chalice.

However, in the meantime, a non-indoctrinaire Labour government will at least negotiate a better, less confrontational relationship with the EU. There are ways to improve things massively without formally rejoining. The EU wants to trade, all we have to do is make it easier.

Vin
 
There's polling evidence (apologies, no source just an article I read) that people are slowly altering their reporting of how they voted. It's similar to polls nowadays regarding the Iraq invasion where the number of people who say they supported it beforehand is completely out of kilter with the numbers at the time. Unfortunately, public opinion isn't enough. The EU isn't going to talk to us about membership until they can be sure a change of government won't lead to a repeat Brexit.

A good, long period in opposition might be what it takes to move the Tory party back into a world where even they can admit EU membership isn't a poisoned chalice.

However, in the meantime, a non-indoctrinaire Labour government will at least negotiate a better, less confrontational relationship with the EU. There are ways to improve things massively without formally rejoining. The EU wants to trade, all we have to do is make it easier.

Vin
Joining the customs union and single market would be a good start. That would probably entail allowing freedom of movement which may well help easing the labour shortages in the EU and the queues at borders.
 
Some tosspot just put a Conservative local election leaflet through my door with a headline asking if I feel safe in the streets given the council is consulting on switching off streetlights after 1am.

I asked him if he felt it was reasonable to lead with law and order when you're the party who reduced police numbers by over 20,000 in the 2010s.

His eloquent response? "Bugger off". He's certainly made me change my mind.

Vin
 
Some tosspot just put a Conservative local election leaflet through my door with a headline asking if I feel safe in the streets given the council is consulting on switching off streetlights after 1am.

I asked him if he felt it was reasonable to lead with law and order when you're the party who reduced police numbers by over 20,000 in the 2010s.

His eloquent response? "Bugger off". He's certainly made me change my mind.

Vin

You mean you let the grubby Tory bastard reach your front door?

They don't get passed my front gate for fear I'll chuck a brick at them.
 
But, but, but this war was caused by the USA, not by those nice Russians.

Vin

Amuses me the whole "it's NATO expansion" argument. The Finns were, by a large majority, against joining NATO. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and the opinion of Finns swung round to the extent that then 73% supported joining NATO. As a direct result of Russia's actions in Ukraine. It's not NATO expansion. It's Russian aggression.
 
But, but, but this war was caused by the USA, not by those nice Russians.

Vin


I’ve not heard anyone make the above claim, you’re attacking a straw man there I think.

To question the sabre-rattling narrative relentlessly pushed by the western media, and to view the current conflict in the context of NATOs eastward expansion, is not to whitewash Putin or justify his aggression. The Russian people, not for the first time in their history, are being led to their destruction by a tyrannical leader.

The USA, not for the first time in it’s history, is pouring arms and money into a conflict they clearly think they understand and can control, but almost certainly don’t and can’t. And the U.K. is offering, once again, to hold America’s coat. Only this time, because the conflict is on the edge of Europe, and not in Vietnam (thank God we stayed out of that one) or The Middle East, we feel especially justified in getting involved. Because this is a just war and we are the champions of freedom and democracy.

But every other war has been justified, and we have always been champions of freedom and democracy, even in the countries we colonised. And as soon as we clear up the charred ruins of Iraq and Syria, we’ll get right down to building freedom and democracy there too, right?

So let’s keep pouring petrol on the fire, that always works. And in the meantime, let’s celebrate the great job out government is doing, stopping the boats full of desperate refugees fleeing those other war zones our arms manufacturers got rich from laying to waste.