Off Topic The Politics Thread
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The actual taxi story is vastly different to what you may have read in the scumbag press....
French taxi driver charged with theft after David Lammy dispute - BBC News
I actually read about it on the BBC website.....not everyone apart from you is addicted to the Mail or GBN....
The items announced yesterday were a bizarre collection of triviality and lack of detail. Felt like Starmer (and the EU) were desperate to make an announcement about something. I'd much prefer that a thorough policy agreement is announced, but I guess some positive steps
I'd have liked a much more far-reaching deal, too. It's a start though, and they're going to meet each year going forward, but if Farage, Johnson et al are going to call any arrangement to mitigate the disaster of Brexit a 'betrayal', Starmer might as well have gone the whole hog and sought to rejoin the Single Market.
I think it's patently obvious, despite Starmer's repeated denials, that we are being lined up to rejoin. There will be more of these mini resets and if Labour recover in the polls he may even have the confidence to make it a manifesto pledge for the next election and if current polls are accurate that may be to his advantage...
Nobody would believe anything he put as a manifesto pledge anyway
I really doubt we’d make the formal application to go back at least for a generation. There’d just be too much backlash and obvious meat for Reform or whatever they’ll be called in ten years when it’s far easier to just chip away at de facto rejoining in a way the average bloke in the street won’t know about. Labour will get hammered on the left by supposed independents (sectarians) so it would be total suicide to go into the next election promising a referendum. They’d lose far more voters than they’d gain and as it stands they can’t afford to lose many.
Most Leave voters are dead now - a poll out the other day showed that only 20% now think Brexit was a good idea. We won't have another referendum, but Starmer will continue to rebuild some of the bridges burnt by Brexit. He should confront Reform rather than running scared of them. It's easy for Farage to pick up votes in local elections, but when it comes to a GE he's going to come under some proper scrutiny, which I don't think he'll withstand. He should be constantly asked to explain what he thinks we've gained from Brexit and in particular why immigration went through the roof after we 'took back control'.This is a man who campaigned for Trump and calls JD Vance a personal friend. He's said that Putin is the politician he admires the most in the World and that the West provoked his invasion of Ukraine. He also wants to replace the NHS with a US-style insurance system. All of this is wildly unpopular with the average UK voter.
Starmer is Farage’s best chance of success at the next election. He’ll have to defend his record, Farage doesn’t have a record to defend, plus he’s a much better speaker. Most voters actively hate Farage, but a lot more actively love him than Starmer has. And in our wonderful system the next winner will probably get even fewer votes than Labour did last time.
Farage comes across as a better speaker because he's rarely properly challenged. When he is, he loses his rag.
As you say, Labour will have to defend its record at the next GE, but Reform will also have to come up with a manifesto. Early indications are that their policies could result in a Truss-style meltdown if implemented. I'm sure Labour will be able to point to significant improvements in the NHS and this could be successfully contrasted with Reform's privatisation plans. Also, the Trump effect - seen recently in Canada, Australia and Romania - could damage Farage significantly.
If Labour don't win next time round, the next government will almost certainly be a coalition. Lab/Lib most likely in my opinion.
Apparently there was vote rigging in Eurovision
Only banana republics and European competitions think allowing people up to 20 votes each is a good thing
Only banana republics and European competitions think allowing people up to 20 votes each is a good thing
His other big announcement was a U turn on docking winter fuel allowances for pensioners. Except that no details were provided of exactly who would benefit or when because it has to wait until the next ‘fiscal event’ ie the budget in the autumn and depends on Rachel Truss’ staggering management of the economy and public finances.
In other words the entire thing is not about pensioners but about fobbing off the Parliamentary Labour Party, some of whom are beginning to wonder what being a Labour MP actually means, with some meaningless bollocks. The only good thing about it was that Badenoch clearly didn’t understand what had been said.
After listening to and thinking about none of the songs I voted for Israel about half a dozen times until the automated message from Graham Norton got a bit much. Eurovision voting has always been both incredibly unimportant and political. Only now are actual governments considering it worthy of comment.