France,.apparently has a centrist President who has defied all logic and managed to unite the entire country ........ against him!
Starmer may have a personal agenda against Diane Abbot, and/or a desire to been seen more centrist, but in this particular case I felt that after he has committed the Labour party to clean up its act on anti-Semitism which was a hard line in the sand, he had no other course of action. He is also showing the difference between Labour and Conservatives how they deal with complaints by immediate action. You could argue they pick and choose what complaints they take action upon. As for FPTP - I agree a mature democracy should offer more choice, but these turkeys are not voting for that christmas.
Can but hope the next election brings about a result where parties that have a manifesto promise for parliamentary reform hold the balance of power. That's both houses by the way and reversing any attempts to curtail the judiciary from clipping the government's wings as, for example, spaffer Johnson trying to prorogue parliament whilst lying to the Queen.
Which in turn is partially the result of the French left failing to get its **** together. Macron is deeply unpopular, but in their runoff system all he needs to be is not-Marine-le-Pen, which is the only bar he can reliably clear. Had a left/center-left candidate reached the runoff (and Melenchon was close despite being a very polarizing figure) there's every chance they'd have won, but nope...had to split that vote six different ways.
For all the Tory corruption and scandals, I would still prefer them in power over any party that contains this calibre of individual. The victim mindset of the woke is a cancer on society.
You are surprisingly late on this. And have missed that Labour have withdrawn the whip from her for these comments. I’m intrigued as to what your bar for “calibre of individual” is. As there are some extremely odious characters in the Tory party. But you prefer them? You prefer a party with someone who targets legal asylum seekers and tries to brand them as illegal migrants (the opposite to what they are) and wants to (illegally) send them to Africa - who they have kept in post as a minister over a party with someone who has gone too woke when it comes to oppression politics but has been punished for it and might be removed Baffling to me - but this is where personal opinions come in I guess. You seem to think people who are “too woke” are actually top of the pile in terms of who is worst (even when not in a position of power or influence). Or at least that is implied. Rather than those in power doing actual harm or trying to Indeed I was flummoxed to see some right wing commentators defending abbot and using this as a stick to beat Starmer with. Desperation tactics I assume since they have pretty much nothing on him
The alt right rhetoric of the tories far outdoes the foot in mouth statement by Diane Abbott. She apologised immediately and had the whip removed unlike the odious Raab when confronted by the reality of his behaviour, does he still have the tory whip? Yes he does should he? No, so say many from his own party. When comes to racist quotes the abominable Johnson is the undisputed champion. "absolutely ridiculous" that "people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes". "It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies." Writing about a prospective trip by then-PM Tony Blair to the DRC, Johnson stated: "No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird." Re Barrack Obama: "The part-Kenyan president has an ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender." +++ The current corrupt incompetent incumbents are demonstrably unfit to govern.
The only version of the labour party that has any chance of winning any election with the current demographic of the UK is new labour. New Labour more closely resembles the views of the country than any other party and is the only chance of making positive change. If this stupid bun fighting between factions of the incredibly broad church that is the labour party continues it only allows for perpetual Tory victories. Whether people like it or not, deeply held left wing views are not popular enough in the UK to win elections in this country and that has been the case for nearly 50 years.
100%. We already give away far too much money in taxes. The far left of the Labour Party will just promise to give away even more money and rack up more debt, as usual. Unfortunately the conservatives will also do this, except it will go in their mates pockets. There is no party that wants to operate the country in a sustainable way that will help the general population. Funny how they are all so quick to take from the public, yet it takes them decades to get anything useful done. Bunch of utter pricks, the lot of them.
I have often said that my politics sit ever so slightly right of centre. To be honest they are probably not, but probably 'New Labour'. I think many are in my position too.
Chilco, if this is a Conservative-produced leaflet, aimed at Conservative-voting Norwich people, telling them that they don't need ID to vote, it would seem to be shooting themselves in their collective feet. The only value this leaflet could have (to the Conservatives) is if (m)any Labour voters take notice of it, which probably won't happen. Even in Norwich.
We the income earners from middling to high levels of compesnsation pay a large amount of tax. The excessively wealthy pay **** all. We need to reduce the income burden and tax companies and wealth at least at the rate people do. Corporation tax at or below 20% is a massive ****ing middle finger to anyone working smart/ hard to improve upon their socio-economic status. The absence of a wealth tax is frankly shocking and the first thing that should be introduced. The extremes of both parties have routinely proved they are incapable of winning or running government. It is mind blowing people complain the battle ground lurches centrally when it is clear that will be the position we get most positive impact on society and as a country. The Corbyn Vs Boris era was a ****ing shambles and an embarrassing era for the majority of us that are sensible people.
This position is very typical of the population at large, either side of the centre. The Tories only just regained power in 2010 as they differed very minorly from Blair, and Cameron was a much more effective communicator than Brown. It is the coup of the right wing of the Tories to take prominence that is scariest. In broad daylight they have replaced every sensible person in the Tories to the point they are barely distinguishable from UKIP today. Older traditional Tories should be embarrassed that they failed to notice the shift over the past 13 years.
Where do you get this nonsense from? We don’t give away a penny in taxes. We contribute to our society through taxes. That is a totally different thing. We also pay less tax per person in the UK as a percentage of our earnings than the other successful European economies. The Germans, the Scandinavians and even the French pay more. Paying taxes is right. Even that famous hippy Jesus Christ said men should pay their taxes. Taxation does not stifle the economy. Poorly spent tax money does. Other countries are able to use their tax money to run efficient public transport, pay doctors, nurses, teachers etc., decent money and grow their economies. If anything our issue is, as EasyBreezer rightly pointed out, that we fail to tax the wealthy enough money. The poor and middle earners are the whipping boys of taxation. Why? Not because they pay too much, but because those who earn vastly more pay too little.
We should start with a massive tax on second and unoccupied homes. That includes the people who own huge property stock to use as buy-to-let. It staggers me this isn’t done already.
