Because The United Kingdom?

[Stuart Galbraith]

Britain's prisons are a mess. There is a one in, one out policy at the moment, release one before you put one in. Yes, that bad.

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

[Der Zeitgeist]

 

[Der Zeitgeist]

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

[DB]

Interesting vote share results.

[TrustMe]

I'm certain that the Partygate affair was the main reason why the Tories got demolished.

[Stuart Galbraith]

17 minutes ago, TrustMe said:

I'm certain that the Partygate affair was the main reason why the Tories got demolished.

There were lots of reasons. They didnt 'get the deficit down' as Camerons winning mantra put it. They didnt deal with the immigration problem. They didnt deal with the shit in the rivers. They didnt deal with the cost of living crisis. Brexit hasnt created the boom in the economy that was promised. They didnt deal with the rise in crime. They didnt deal with NHS waiting lists. They didnt deal with security effectively till after Ukraine was invaded (thats just 2 years after a term in office of 14). Covid was mishandled, as most countries did, but the spectacular disinterest in following the same regulations as the rest of the country created the impression of a 'them and us' mentality, which contrasted with Camerons 'we are all in it together.' There was changing PM on average every 3 years (It was much more often than that at the end). There was the epic failure of the Liz Truss Government, along with the market crash. Then there was D Day, then there was betting on the election... I mean when you get down to it, pick a reason. There are plenty of others to keep it company.

I have to say, im sorry to see Grant Shapps and Penny Mordaunt go, for they were capable ministers, and I hope we will see them back. Glad also Sunak is staying, for he gave a nice speech at his resignation just now. His main fault was stepping on board an already sinking ship.

This is I think, probably the best result. The Conservatives got drubbed, and much deadwood has been purged. But they still have enough seats to sort themselves out, and the LIberal challenge means they will have to. Even more happily, Farage seems to have only got 4 seats. Impressive he got himself into Parliament, but I always believed his gameplan was to present hismelf as the saviour of the Conservative party and propose a merger, perhaps even as leader. Which doubtless he could have done if he had got the 13 seats he was projected at the beginning of the night, and the Conservative position appreciably worse.

The vote share is indeed very interesting. Labour has only 37 percent of the popular vote. Which means they too have to be very careful and perform, or they too will be facing encroachment from the Liberals and maybe even Reform. Though personally, Reform getting a large chunk of the vote, they dont actually seem to be good at pulling in seats. For me, I think their best chance of becoming the third party has been blown. But we shall see I guess.

Edited July 5, 2024 by Stuart Galbraith

[Der Zeitgeist]

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

God, I love my country. We are just so fucking gloriously weird.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/s/PuoIbqxHPZ

[Ivanhoe]

4 hours ago, Der Zeitgeist said:

Y'all surely know that Biden was right there along side him fighting the Japanese at D-Day.

[Der Zeitgeist]

Presumably this is the hound that any remaining Corbynites will be fed to.

 

[Ivanhoe]

3 hours ago, TrustMe said:

I'm certain that the Partygate affair was the main reason why the Tories got demolished.

That seems improbable to me, but it certainly should have earned the Johnson administration a good ol' fashioned country a**-whooping.

The whole COVID response package from Boris and the Boors should have been addressed sooner by the voters.

I found this article;

https://www.timesofisrael.com/from-labour-to-the-day-of-rest-jewish-storylines-feature-in-uk-election/
 

Quote

 

Conservatives are facing backlash for attacking Starmer’s Friday night family time.

Starmer’s family belongs to a Liberal synagogue in north London, and he has spoken in the past about trying to be home with his family on Friday night, the beginning of Shabbat.

 

 

Quote

“Keir Starmer has said he’d clock off work at 6pm if he became Prime Minister,” the party posted on X yesterday. “You deserve better than a part-time Prime Minister.”

Not that I have a full understanding of British politics, but the above statement seems to imply the Tories keep choosing the wrong hill to die on.

 

 

 

[Ivanhoe]

1 minute ago, Der Zeitgeist said:

Presumably this is the hound that any remaining Corbynites will be fed to.

 

I've been wondering where Biden's ex-dogs ended up. Starmer as Ramsay Bolton, I like it. Politics is certainly a dog-eat-dog world.

 

[TrustMe]

27 minutes ago, Ivanhoe said:

I've been wondering where Biden's ex-dogs ended up. Starmer as Ramsay Bolton, I like it. Politics is certainly a dog-eat-dog world.

 

We have a cat at the moment   

 

https://metro.co.uk/2024/07/04/larry-cat-downing-streets-famous-resident-belong-21160410/

[TrustMe]

32 minutes ago, Ivanhoe said:

That seems improbable to me, but it certainly should have earned the Johnson administration a good ol' fashioned country a**-whooping.

The whole COVID response package from Boris and the Boors should have been addressed sooner by the voters.

I found this article;

https://www.timesofisrael.com/from-labour-to-the-day-of-rest-jewish-storylines-feature-in-uk-election/
 

 

Not that I have a full understanding of British politics, but the above statement seems to imply the Tories keep choosing the wrong hill to die on.

 

 

 

 

The newspapers haven't been to bad towards Starmer in this election, probably because they know that the vast majority  of their readers were anti-tory. 

Going through 5 prime minsters in 5 years is not good for any country. Companies don't want to invest in a country in political turmoil.

[Stuart Galbraith]

37 minutes ago, Der Zeitgeist said:

Presumably this is the hound that any remaining Corbynites will be fed to.

 

Yes, he just appointed Angela Raynor as deputy PM.

No, thats terribly unfair of me. OTOH, she has a reputation of someone you dont want to cross, so yes, the ideal watchdog really.

[Stuart Galbraith]

39 minutes ago, Ivanhoe said:

That seems improbable to me, but it certainly should have earned the Johnson administration a good ol' fashioned country a**-whooping.

The whole COVID response package from Boris and the Boors should have been addressed sooner by the voters.

I found this article;

https://www.timesofisrael.com/from-labour-to-the-day-of-rest-jewish-storylines-feature-in-uk-election/
 

 

Not that I have a full understanding of British politics, but the above statement seems to imply the Tories keep choosing the wrong hill to die on.

 

 

 

Well, speaking as someone who grew up with a father whom was a workaholic and some days I would never even see, I can see entirely what he was getting at. He also has a reputation as a workaholic, but enough to be sensible about his health I hope.

[Ivanhoe]

If HMG requires the PM to be ready at a moment's notice to fix things 24/7/365, trading the PM in for a new one is not going to fix the bigger problem of why the country needs constant PM-level crisis handling. 

One might point out that Boris was indulging in Lockdown Luaus when he was supposed to be handling crises.

If the Tories had any sense, they would be pointing out that Starmer's newfound empathy for Israel is somewhat in conflict with his prior affections for Palestine.

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

10 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

If HMG requires the PM to be ready at a moment's notice to fix things 24/7/365, trading the PM in for a new one is not going to fix the bigger problem of why the country needs constant PM-level crisis handling. 

One might point out that Boris was indulging in Lockdown Luaus when he was supposed to be handling crises.

If the Tories had any sense, they would be pointing out that Starmer's newfound empathy for Israel is somewhat in conflict with his prior affections for Palestine.

 

Thats ALL he ever did. its somewhat ironic that various newspapers decrying Starmer, saying he is going to make time for his children,  never raised a single word against Bojo's excesses.

Im still getting tweets on my feed saying we have just hours left to save Britain, we would all get £2000 tax if Labour win, all our newborn will be sacrificed to Cthullu if Labour win... ok, I exaggerate there, slightly. But the stuff being posted was utterly hysterical, and this was part of it.

Its worth pointing out that Starmers wife is Jewish, so the dailies are going to have a real issue claiming he is anti semitic. Im sure some will try of course.

https://www.thejc.com/news/politics/the-jewish-traditions-that-starmer-could-bring-to-downing-street-y4hi1zqo

Edited July 6, 2024 by Stuart Galbraith

[Rick]

I have not followed Britain's elections, but have listened to the brief radio coverage of it in the U.S. by N.P.R. which called the losing party "conservative" and the winning party "moderate" liberal using, I presume, U.S. terminology of conservative and moderate liberal. 

[Stuart Galbraith]

As said, its a mistake to use American parlance when discussing British poliical parties. Yes, broadly they started from the same position, but have developed in different directions. Our LIberals were Whigs, which begat your Whig party, which begat your Republicans. Our Labour party started from the left of that (probably the extreme wing of your Democrats that exists today), but developed roughly towards the middle ground, despite recent efforts to drag it to the fring. Both Labour and the Liberals fight the middle ground. The Conservatives, whom started to the right of your Whigs/Republicans, also tried to fight to the centre ground, but got dragged to the right by a fear of encroachment of right wing parties, originally UKIP and now reform.

Well you wanted an answer, if you want an easy answer there is always wikipedia I guess.

[sunday]