2024 UK General Election Thread
Posted: Sat May 25, 2024 7:18 pm
Post stuff about the election here, and vote in the poll!
A group for contestants and lovers of the Channel 4 game show 'Countdown'.
http://www.c4countdown.co.uk/
What is wrong with Kier Starmer.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 6:04 pm I haven't decided who I'm voting for yet. I'm not particularly inclined to vote for Labour under Keir Starmer. I'll have a look to see who's standing in my constituency at some point and make a decision. I certainly don't feel I need to vote for Labour just to keep the Tories out. It's a fairly safe Tory seat, and if it reaches the point where Labour could actually win here, they're definitely going to get a majority in the UK anyway. I tend to think that unless you feel it's critical to vote for the most realistic non-Tory, you should really vote for your favourite. For one thing it enables people to see a more accurate picture of people's views, and the more people that don't vote for the main parties, the more pressure there is for voting reform. Because First Past the Post really doesn't work with more than two parties.
It would be quite nice to see Labour win but for Keir Starmer to lose his seat. Obviously a massive long shot, but the hope is there. It will be interesting to see how well Andrew Feinstein does against him.
There's a lot wrong with Keir Starmer. He's a very authoritarian leader and very much in the camp of politicians that just want to get elected rather than wanting to do any good. I don't think he's particularly left wing. And, perhaps most importantly, he has refused to speak out against anything Israel do. He's a spineless twat. Let's not forget this conversation:Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 2:00 pmWhat is wrong with Kier Starmer.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 6:04 pm I haven't decided who I'm voting for yet. I'm not particularly inclined to vote for Labour under Keir Starmer. I'll have a look to see who's standing in my constituency at some point and make a decision. I certainly don't feel I need to vote for Labour just to keep the Tories out. It's a fairly safe Tory seat, and if it reaches the point where Labour could actually win here, they're definitely going to get a majority in the UK anyway. I tend to think that unless you feel it's critical to vote for the most realistic non-Tory, you should really vote for your favourite. For one thing it enables people to see a more accurate picture of people's views, and the more people that don't vote for the main parties, the more pressure there is for voting reform. Because First Past the Post really doesn't work with more than two parties.
It would be quite nice to see Labour win but for Keir Starmer to lose his seat. Obviously a massive long shot, but the hope is there. It will be interesting to see how well Andrew Feinstein does against him.
He isn't the best Labour MP (Jess Phillips and Angela Rayner are better ) but surely an upgrade from Corbin ?
Nick Ferrari wrote:A siege is appropriate? Cutting off power, cutting off water, Sir Keir?
He went on to say it should be done within international law, but to refuse to criticise Israel at all in that situation shows where he stands. I recommend reading what Feinstein says about him in the link I gave.Keir Starmer wrote:I think Israel does have that right.
Don't forget you have to look forward too. It's not like we vote for who to remove first, then a few weeks later get to choose the winner after some more consideration. Ignore the past, where do we want to be in a year, ten years, and who do we want to get us there? The incumbents are history, don't waste your focus on them.Matt Rutherford wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 6:23 pm Keir Starmer isn't the best by a long shot, however...I was eight when the Conservatives came to power. Having seen what they've done, ranging from education, to austerity, to Brexit, to the pandemic, I just want them gone. Thrown out, humiliated, numbers ground into the dust whilst we all stand around and collectively laugh as the Old Etonians limp away back to Daddy's trust fund to find another job (presumably feeding fossil fuel waste to baby seals)*
Get the Tories out first. Starmer has a litany of issues himself, but first Tories go, and then we see how it goes from there. At least the party (hopefully) in power this time has a manic left-wing fringe rather than a manic right-wing one
*This is mostly a joke-one hopes that's quite evident
I thought they gave the whip back to the racist anti-semiteGavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri May 31, 2024 2:37 pm Labour might need to find a few more with some last minute explusions coming up for not being pro-Israel enough.
True, but, entirely realistically, who else can win? If we didn't have FPTP, or the system that we do, then there'd be other candidates multitudes better. Where I am, Labour or (less likely) Lib Dem are least worst ones whose vote wouldn't be (in effect) a proxy votes for Conservatives by taking a vote away from their biggest opposition. Starmer is not who I think will take us in the best direction in a year, ten years time. However, he is one of two who will set that direction, and of those two, by the far the least two.Ian Volante wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 12:39 pmDon't forget you have to look forward too. It's not like we vote for who to remove first, then a few weeks later get to choose the winner after some more consideration. Ignore the past, where do we want to be in a year, ten years, and who do we want to get us there? The incumbents are history, don't waste your focus on them.Matt Rutherford wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 6:23 pm Keir Starmer isn't the best by a long shot, however...I was eight when the Conservatives came to power. Having seen what they've done, ranging from education, to austerity, to Brexit, to the pandemic, I just want them gone. Thrown out, humiliated, numbers ground into the dust whilst we all stand around and collectively laugh as the Old Etonians limp away back to Daddy's trust fund to find another job (presumably feeding fossil fuel waste to baby seals)*
Get the Tories out first. Starmer has a litany of issues himself, but first Tories go, and then we see how it goes from there. At least the party (hopefully) in power this time has a manic left-wing fringe rather than a manic right-wing one
*This is mostly a joke-one hopes that's quite evident
By that logic, it makes more sense to vote for your own personal/local key issues, and let the big picture take care of itself. We only get a say in our own area anyway.Matt Rutherford wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2024 4:03 pmTrue, but, entirely realistically, who else can win? If we didn't have FPTP, or the system that we do, then there'd be other candidates multitudes better. Where I am, Labour or (less likely) Lib Dem are least worst ones whose vote wouldn't be (in effect) a proxy votes for Conservatives by taking a vote away from their biggest opposition. Starmer is not who I think will take us in the best direction in a year, ten years time. However, he is one of two who will set that direction, and of those two, by the far the least two.Ian Volante wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 12:39 pmDon't forget you have to look forward too. It's not like we vote for who to remove first, then a few weeks later get to choose the winner after some more consideration. Ignore the past, where do we want to be in a year, ten years, and who do we want to get us there? The incumbents are history, don't waste your focus on them.Matt Rutherford wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 6:23 pm Keir Starmer isn't the best by a long shot, however...I was eight when the Conservatives came to power. Having seen what they've done, ranging from education, to austerity, to Brexit, to the pandemic, I just want them gone. Thrown out, humiliated, numbers ground into the dust whilst we all stand around and collectively laugh as the Old Etonians limp away back to Daddy's trust fund to find another job (presumably feeding fossil fuel waste to baby seals)*
Get the Tories out first. Starmer has a litany of issues himself, but first Tories go, and then we see how it goes from there. At least the party (hopefully) in power this time has a manic left-wing fringe rather than a manic right-wing one
*This is mostly a joke-one hopes that's quite evident
In short, the choice is in this election is akin between being punched in the stomach or bisected with a chainsaw. I'm gonna take the stomach and hope for the best
You can put a fag paper between most of the policies of the main 2 parties so Farage represents a choice of the centre right/far rightGavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2024 5:54 pm Well he's standing in Clacton. I don't see him winning more than that one!
But I'm not sure Reform will do better than UKIP used to in terms of actually winning seats.
Were we watching the same debate? Sunak came across as a petulant child, with little more to his armoury than "tax tax tax". I certainly don't think Starmer cruised, but he came across far better than Sunak to me.Callum Todd wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 7:00 am Agreed Sunak outperformed Starmer, although both came across fairly poorly.
It was a lose/lose question really. If he said yes, then people would be saying he didn't believe in public services; if he said no (as he did), people were going to take the stance you have.Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2024 9:55 pm Sunak clearly won that debate. Starmer looked rattled, especially when he said he would not go private for ideological reasons even for a family member. It is a ludicrous position to take - to be a bed blocker when you can afford private healthcare is letting your country down because of your own ideological purity.
https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/ ... -snap-pollElliott Mellor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 7:34 amIt was a lose/lose question really. If he said yes, then people would be saying he didn't believe in public services; if he said no (as he did), people were going to take the stance you have.Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2024 9:55 pm Sunak clearly won that debate. Starmer looked rattled, especially when he said he would not go private for ideological reasons even for a family member. It is a ludicrous position to take - to be a bed blocker when you can afford private healthcare is letting your country down because of your own ideological purity.
Sunak seemed by far the most rattled and certainly the most insincere. I'd be extremely surprised if the majority of the audience thought he won that.
Starmer comes out ahead on 7 of the 10 individual components there (and often by a fairly large margin) so I'm not sure how they're claiming this as a Sunak win.Martin Hurst wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 8:36 amhttps://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/ ... -snap-pollElliott Mellor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 7:34 amIt was a lose/lose question really. If he said yes, then people would be saying he didn't believe in public services; if he said no (as he did), people were going to take the stance you have.Rhys Benjamin wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2024 9:55 pm Sunak clearly won that debate. Starmer looked rattled, especially when he said he would not go private for ideological reasons even for a family member. It is a ludicrous position to take - to be a bed blocker when you can afford private healthcare is letting your country down because of your own ideological purity.
Sunak seemed by far the most rattled and certainly the most insincere. I'd be extremely surprised if the majority of the audience thought he won that.
I would assume "they" are claiming a Sunak win as he got more votes on the "Who do viewers think won tonight's debate?" question.Elliott Mellor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 8:54 amStarmer comes out ahead on 7 of the 10 individual components there (and often by a fairly large margin) so I'm not sure how they're claiming this as a Sunak win.Martin Hurst wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 8:36 amhttps://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/ ... -snap-pollElliott Mellor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 7:34 am
It was a lose/lose question really. If he said yes, then people would be saying he didn't believe in public services; if he said no (as he did), people were going to take the stance you have.
Sunak seemed by far the most rattled and certainly the most insincere. I'd be extremely surprised if the majority of the audience thought he won that.
That's probably because humans have inherent biases and different stances based upon their political beliefs. Where one stands depends upon where one sits. There aren't an awful lot of people who are truly politically impartial, and so you get a distribution of people with rather more at opposing ends and comparatively few in the middle.Martin Hurst wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 9:14 amI would assume "they" are claiming a Sunak win as he got more votes on the "Who do viewers think won tonight's debate?" question.Elliott Mellor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 8:54 amStarmer comes out ahead on 7 of the 10 individual components there (and often by a fairly large margin) so I'm not sure how they're claiming this as a Sunak win.Martin Hurst wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 8:36 am
https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/ ... -snap-poll
I think it is quite funny that every comment on every forum I have seen on the debate today from Tory lovers says "Sunak won the debate, I can't believe anyone thinks otherwise" and from Tory haters says "Starmer won the debate, I can't believe anyone thinks otherwise", with anyone subjective shot down.
I think certainly now with social media etc. a lot more people nowadays have stronger political views which over time and with the continual effectiveness of divisiveness tactics has led to a lot more polarisation (hence the rising of far left and far right movements which used to be "home" only for a handful of loon elements which had little real impact).Elliott Mellor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 9:50 amThat's probably because humans have inherent biases and different stances based upon their political beliefs. Where one stands depends upon where one sits. There aren't an awful lot of people who are truly politically impartial, and so you get a distribution of people with rather more at opposing ends and comparatively few in the middle.Martin Hurst wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 9:14 amI would assume "they" are claiming a Sunak win as he got more votes on the "Who do viewers think won tonight's debate?" question.Elliott Mellor wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 8:54 am
Starmer comes out ahead on 7 of the 10 individual components there (and often by a fairly large margin) so I'm not sure how they're claiming this as a Sunak win.
I think it is quite funny that every comment on every forum I have seen on the debate today from Tory lovers says "Sunak won the debate, I can't believe anyone thinks otherwise" and from Tory haters says "Starmer won the debate, I can't believe anyone thinks otherwise", with anyone subjective shot down.
Damning him with faint praise.Paul Worsley wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 4:09 am I think Sunak ran rings round Starmer. The Conservatives could win as many as 100 seats on July 4th.
Sunak could have answered every question with "fuck you all" and there would still be people who would say he won the debate (and similarly for Starmer). To me, Sunak had very little in his weaponry - regurgitating the same few points over and over again, even when they were demonstrably inaccurate. Starmer came across a bit better I thought, and at least seemed to show a bit more human emotion as opposed to being a robot. Starmer landed quite a few blows with regards to how you can't just ignore the last 14 years (especially when the tories love to dig up historic information when trying to criticise Labour.) It's very difficult to say "we have a future plan, we're very trustworthy!" when the recent track record of the party is exactly the opposite.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 2:48 pm I'd say it was a bit of a car crash all round, including the debate structure, which seemed arbitrary and disjointed at times. Sometimes it was "Answer this question, but don't elaborate and then we'll move on." What's the point?
As for a winner, I don't think either of them really "won", but I'd certainly disagree with those saying that Sunak definitely won. He got quite a lot of mileage early on from saying Labour would tax everyone an extra £2000, but eventually Starmer rubbished that, and yet Sunak carried on with it, so I think that ultimately backfired. Sunak tried to make Starmer look weak by taking on the role of the adjudicator and demanding he answer specific questions, and Starmer was often a bit rubbish at dealing with them. But Sunak had nothing to say about the 14 years of failure and how he had to avoid talking about the Tories' record, and he would deflect by trying to corner Starmer.
It did all seem a bit strange having this debate before the manifestos are out.
I thought he could have said "It's a poor indictment of the Conservatives that this question needs to arise, and I'm determined to change that... "
This is close enough to my take.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Wed Jun 05, 2024 2:48 pm I'd say it was a bit of a car crash all round, including the debate structure, which seemed arbitrary and disjointed at times. Sometimes it was "Answer this question, but don't elaborate and then we'll move on." What's the point?
As for a winner, I don't think either of them really "won", but I'd certainly disagree with those saying that Sunak definitely won. He got quite a lot of mileage early on from saying Labour would tax everyone an extra £2000, but eventually Starmer rubbished that, and yet Sunak carried on with it, so I think that ultimately backfired. Sunak tried to make Starmer look weak by taking on the role of the adjudicator and demanding he answer specific questions, and Starmer was often a bit rubbish at dealing with them. But Sunak had nothing to say about the 14 years of failure and how he had to avoid talking about the Tories' record, and he would deflect by trying to corner Starmer.
As a shop worker , I can see he is right about how blaze (can't find the accent ) shoplifters are these daysCallum Todd wrote: ↑Sat Jun 08, 2024 7:03 am It was at least a novelty to see a candidate give shoplifting advice on live national TV.
The Greens are also for it but I think the thought of Carla Denyer agreeing with Farage on anything would stick in her craw.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sat Jun 08, 2024 11:03 pm I find it funny that Farage supports proportional representation. Obviously he needs to for his party to get seats, but it's very much counter to what he stands for generally. He believes in things great British traditions (like First Past the Post) and not "woke" or progressive policies, which surely proportional representation is.
Future Labour Prime Minister in ditching socialist principles shock !!Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2024 4:27 pm Starmer is such a slimy twat, accusing the Tories of producing a "Jeremy Corbyn style manifesto". It was just the Labour manifesto, and Starmer was in the shadow cabinet at the time. Corbyn didn't personally produce it, and he wouldn't have been able to get away with putting in a load of "far left" policies anyway. This is just zero-principles Starmer just trying to score points by bashing the losing Labour party of the past, which he was part of. Absolute dickhead.
How do you define socialism? Remember, this wasn't a "Corbyn manifesto" and certainly wasn't as socialist as it might have been if he was in sole charge. Starmer just doesn't want to get on the wrong side of the newspapers. Parties are generally to the right of the views of the voters, but if they go any further left, the Murdoch press gives them a roasting. If people don't know whose policies they're looking at, they suddenly become socialist! I wouldn't call Starmer centre left anyway.Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2024 5:55 pmFuture Labour Prime Minister in ditching socialist principles shock !!Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2024 4:27 pm Starmer is such a slimy twat, accusing the Tories of producing a "Jeremy Corbyn style manifesto". It was just the Labour manifesto, and Starmer was in the shadow cabinet at the time. Corbyn didn't personally produce it, and he wouldn't have been able to get away with putting in a load of "far left" policies anyway. This is just zero-principles Starmer just trying to score points by bashing the losing Labour party of the past, which he was part of. Absolute dickhead.
Socialism hadn't worked since the 1970s
It's took the PLP nearly 40 years to get it.
Then they tried again 10 years ago or so but they now realise that centre left is where its at
These nicknames are so original, it must have taken you ages to think them up.Marc Meakin wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2024 7:34 pm If you remember back in 1997 the Sun backed B Liar and that was the final hurdle overcome.
It shows you how bad the Tories are when Kier Starmer who probably isn't even the 5th best Labour politician is going to outdo 1997.
It's true to say this mirrors Brexit in so much as people are voting against the status quo rather than what is being offered instead.
Though I'm guessing it will be closer to 13% than 3%
Anyway , Gev , what do you think about the Fib Dems manifesto ?