Off Topic Politics Thread

[San Tejón]

What chance do younger generations have, when rents are so high?
In 1975, I rented the top half of a house for the princely sum of £5 per week, which was around 25% of my gross weekly wage. Bear in mind that I was under 21 years old, so didn’t receive the full adult wage for the job I was doing, but I could still afford to rent some rooms and live quite comfortably, when my wife’s wage was included.
The Office of National Statistics say that, in March 2022, the average “regular” pay was £558 per week, which means that they are basing their figures on a basic annual wage of around £29,000.
An annual wage of £29k, presuming a 35 hour working week, puts the hourly rate of pay as £15.94, which is way above the actual minimum hourly wage rate, that is set at £9.50.
So someone on £9.50 per hour, working 35 hours, would earn £332.50 per week, gross.
Average rent per week, outside of London and based on the below figures, would be £260, which is in the region of 78% of the average weekly wage, based on the minimum wage.
Rents are rising quicker than inflation, as a result of a shortage of housing stock, which means, IMO, that we need a government that is brave enough to run with a policy of building a million plus new, affordable homes for the rental market, a government that will reverse the the law that allows social housing to be sold off and a government that will impose stricter rules on landlords with regards to the standard of the property being rented and the amount they can charge in rents.
With so many MPs being landlords, I can’t see my wish being enacted any time soon.

THE average rent asked across Britain, excluding London, has hit a record of £1,126 per month.

Property website Rightmove says the figure is 12% up from a year earlier and 19%, or £177 a month, up from before the pandemic.

Asking rents in London have surged 16% in the last year, pushing the average to a record £2,257 a month.

Rental stock is down 26% on last year while demand is up by 6% although there have been signs of improvement. Rightmove’s Tim Bannister said: “The gap created over the last two years will take time to narrow.”

 

[Bob's mate]

I think the majority of the British public have enough to worry about with galloping inflation, a tanking economy, and huge public and private debt. Good luck trying to distract them into obsessing about transsexuals; I think your obvious diversion tactics are destined to fail tbh.

There is no doubt what the big issues are that affect so many people in this country. I would like to believe that you are not just a keyboard warrior but instead, you are actively engaged in protest, petition, campaign, on first name terms with your MP and actively doing something to fight for change. If you are, then that's great.

Because actively campaigning and protesting to retain the hard fought Rights of Women is something that is really important to me whether it is done locally, nationally or globally. So while successfully campaigning to get the wording of a Bill going through our parliament correctly worded may be of little or no significance to you, for me as a woman, it is a political issue that I take seriously.

Your suggestion that I am somehow employing 'diversion tactics' to get people 'obsessing about transsexuals' is quite frankly risible

 

[Schad]

This thread on Twitter is one of the most fascinating threads I think I've ever found. It shows the polled attitudes of voters, members and MPs for the two main parties. I've honestly been looking at these eight tweets for the best part of an hour pondering the implications.

Just a warning, you'll need to look at the graphs for a little while before it becomes clear what they are doing. There's a great deal of information encapsulated in them but I promise it's worth the time and effort. Once you can read them they are staggeringly informative. They explain so much about British politics.]

Vin

And that's why I'm so dubious that the Red Wall will ever return. In country after country in the west, we've seen the same pattern: the deployment of cultural and social wedge issues on by conservatives as a means to get people to vote against their rational self-interest. They'll keep doing it because it works; they can be wildly out of step with the expressed economic interests of their voters, but if they can gin up enough anger and fear about trivialities, they will win as often as not.

 

[Schad]

There is no doubt what the big issues are that affect so many people in this country. I would like to believe that you are not just a keyboard warrior but instead, you are actively engaged in protest, petition, campaign, on first name terms with your MP and actively doing something to fight for change. If you are, then that's great.

Because actively campaigning and protesting to retain the hard fought Rights of Women is something that is really important to me whether it is done locally, nationally or globally. So while successfully campaigning to get the wording of a Bill going through our parliament correctly worded may be of little or no significance to you, for me as a woman, it is a political issue that I take seriously.

Your suggestion that I am somehow employing 'diversion tactics' to get people 'obsessing about transsexuals' is quite frankly risible

Again, I live in a country where this has been effectively a settled issue as a matter of law for five years. Women have lost no rights here. For everyone who isn't trans, life has continued on exactly as it did before. For those who are trans, they've gained a bit of legal protection. It's fine. Everything's just peachy. The only bad thing to come out of it was Jordan ****ing Peterson.

This is 100% a manufactured panic in order to do precisely what Vin noted: to get people to vote out of fear for a party that does nothing for their interests. If you disbelieve me, look at some of the past statements by Conservatives who are now so very concerned in such a very sincere way.

 

[The Ides of March]

You still here? I thought you had left the board in a hissy fit.

Hissy Fit Meaning

Definition: An outburst of anger, often in a childlike manner.

Just taking a timely and reflective timeout after throwing all the toys out of the pram!

 

[Bob's mate]

They're having difficulty discussing a very new, nuanced subject full of potential pitfalls, a subject where language matters greatly to a group of people who have been marginalised and, to some extent, mistreated.

Is it genuinely your position that having some (IMO) pretty understandable difficulty on that subject warrants not accepting their comments on, say, the cost of living, the state of public services or the NHS?



On the second point, I've looked for news on the grassroots campaign but I can't see it. Could you link to your source, please?

Vin

My position is to repeal the GRA . The fact that Sir Keir intends to reform the GRA, making it so much easier for men to obtain a GRC, makes it impossible for me to vote for him or the Labour party.

There are a number of grassroots movements- Standing for Women, Women's Rights Network to name a couple. Most were started in the past few of years with numbers growing steadily -there are groups in most counties in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

They are not affiliated to any political party and are self-funded.

https://www.standingforwomen.com/

Standing for Women usually gather at the Reformers Tree in Hyde Park. In the past couple of months, the meetings have taken place in other cities and have been met with some angry protesters. In Bristol, the protest became so aggressive, the gathered women had to be locked in pub by the police for their own safety

Last year, over 1000 women attended the FiLia conference weekend in Portsmouth Guildhall -speakers included the Greenham Common Women, Joanna Cherry MP, Zemzem Mohamed, Vaishnavi Sundar and if you are old enough to remember, the women who flour bombed the Miss World Competition back in 1970.

https://www.filia.org.uk/

Portsmouth Councillor (at the time) Claire Udy, organised a protest in Guildhall Square with the most marginalised people. Language, eh!

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[It'sOnlyAGame]

Sadly, by doing that and, effectively, removing yourself from the democratic process, you now have no say in anything to do with governing the country.
I remember, when I first started working, I was taken along to a union meeting by my boss, who, very much like my dad was a firm believer in workers rights. Out of around 400+ members, there were probably 50 people there (a good turnout I was told) but the items out forward were (even to my 19 year old slightly left of centre self) ridiculously left wing - management were described as “scum” (I was one of them as was my boss, who spoke eloquently about the fact that most management DO care, but was shouted down)
The motion to ballot for industrial action was passed easily and my boss and I were verbally abused - even though we were members of the same union.
Afterwards I spoke to him while we were having a drink and expressed my surprise at how radical the union seemed. His answer? When the vast majority of the members cannot be bothered to turn up or stand for election, you let the radicals in as they WILL take the time to attend and vote. By being apathetic you let the extremists make the decisions. That has stuck with me and I will
NOT be led by the right (or left) wing media telling me the things they want me to know - if the vast majority of voters had actually bothered to read widely and listen to more views instead of those pushed by the billionaire media owners, this country wouldn’t be in the mess it it.
Until we get rid of the FPTP political system, we won’t get a true democratic system.
As for voting - I’ll vote for whichever party is likely to oust my local conservative MP as it is hugely important that the voters of this country show them that their policies and actions have been deplorable. As Vin says, don’t fall into the trap of believing all the “woke” **** about different parties. It’s purely to smear anyone who isn’t rightwing and will let these bastards run rings around us for years.

Hi Dave, how are you?

I agree with you about making your voice heard when in a Trade Union (I was a committed union member for 35yrs) but I think my situation with abstaining in the GE is a little different. I know that there is little chance of a party representing all of the electorate's views and that compromises are sometimes needed but if there are elements in all the parties policies that you cannot accept, where do you go? I have been given the opportunity to vote but have opted out because I would still be represented by someone I didn't want.
You, on the other hand have taken up your opportunity to vote but are also represented by someone you didn't want.

For clarity, the line above is a gentle leg pull but I really can't see the point of using my vote for someone I don't agree with just to endorse the democratic process.

 

[- Doing The Lambert Walk]

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[- Doing The Lambert Walk]

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[St. Luigi Scrosoppi]

It is so exciting. The small group people who brought you the inept, lying and incompetent Boris Johnson, the worst PM we have ever had, are about to be asked to choose his successor. If you think the short list contains a bunch of thoroughly unpleasant people you should see the ghastly Tory Party members who will make the choice. Why do you think these few candidates are making such far right claims for what they will do if the end up as Party Leader. The Tory Party has moved much further to the right than the general population. Those of us who occupy the middle ground have no one to vote.

 

[Shandy_top_89]

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Realistically the final three are already decided, it'll either be Mordaunt, Sunak or Truss.

IMO it will be Mordaunt if she makes the final two.

Sunak v Truss would be much closer, but it feel like a 60/40 in favour of Truss to me.

 

[StJabbo1]

There's no liking these threads with prospective leaders discussed. They are all so ****ing dismal. Never mind, Mrs Jabs birthday we'll have a drink by the canal and home for pie, beans and chips and a glass of wine or two.

 

[Bob's mate]

Again, I live in a country where this has been effectively a settled issue as a matter of law for five years. Women have lost no rights here. For everyone who isn't trans, life has continued on exactly as it did before. For those who are trans, they've gained a bit of legal protection. It's fine. Everything's just peachy.

Really? Meet Canadian Jessica Yaniv.

Jessica has filed at least 15 complaints of discrimination on the grounds of gender identity after a number of beauty salons refused to wax 'her' balls.

In October 2019, the Tribunal ruled against Yaniv and ordered her to pay $6,000 in restitution split equally among three of the service providers. The ruling was critical of Yaniv, with Tribunal Member Devyn Cousineau stating that she "targeted small businesses, manufactured the conditions for a human rights complaint, and then leveraged that complaint to pursue a financial settlement from parties who were unsophisticated and unlikely to mount a proper defence."

She also said Yaniv had likely made respondents "feel uncomfortable or awkward for her own amusement..."

As for the Township of Langley Fire Department....

https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/yaniv-and-his-local-fire-department

 

[StJabbo1]

Really? Meet Canadian Jessica Yaniv.

Jessica has filed at least 15 complaints of discrimination on the grounds of gender identity after a number of beauty salons refused to wax 'her' balls.

In October 2019, the Tribunal ruled against Yaniv and ordered her to pay $6,000 in restitution split equally among three of the service providers. The ruling was critical of Yaniv, with Tribunal Member Devyn Cousineau stating that she "targeted small businesses, manufactured the conditions for a human rights complaint, and then leveraged that complaint to pursue a financial settlement from parties who were unsophisticated and unlikely to mount a proper defence."

She also said Yaniv had likely made respondents "feel uncomfortable or awkward for her own amusement..."

As for the Township of Langley Fire Department....

https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/yaniv-and-his-local-fire-department

There's nowt so strange as folk.

 

[Gregm1988]

There's nowt so strange as folk.

That’s not the idiom. Was the change deliberate?

 

[StJabbo1]

That’s not the idiom. Was the change deliberate?

Is it not? Could have been a Freudian slip.

 

[Gregm1988]

Is it not? Could have been a Freudian slip.

Maybe they are used interchangeably. But the one I know of uses the Q from the acronym of the group under discussion.

 

[StJabbo1]

Maybe they are used interchangeably. But the one I know of uses the Q from the acronym of the group under discussion.

Yes, understood, wouldn't want to cause offensive.

 

[ChilcoSaint]

Penny Mordor is now the odds-on favourite across all online betting sites, which is frankly terrifying.

 

[Archers Road]

Everyone from Yorkshire is a bit queer iirc.