| General Election Thread 17:46 - May 22 with 246993 views | loftboy |
This will be the first election that I have no idea who to vote for, will never vote Tory again after the lies during covid where my dad lost his life, don’t trust starmer, would never vote for a bunch of racists like reform , anyone give me a clue?
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| General Election Thread on 22:15 - May 29 with 2192 views | dmm |
| General Election Thread on 22:12 - May 29 by JamesB1979 |
Diane Abbott looked to be shaking quite a bit at times. Is she ok? Or is she just getting old? I didn’t realise she was 70. I admit I’ve never agreed with much of her policies but respect her a lot for what’s she achieved. She should be treated better but I also do think that at 70, why not just step down and take it easy. |
I also noticed her shaking. Earlier this evening I read she hasn't been well but I've no idea what it is. |  | | |
| General Election Thread on 22:30 - May 29 with 2161 views | baz_qpr |
| General Election Thread on 18:59 - May 29 by dmm |
I think Real Politik is turning a lot of people off. They're tired of it and want a far more genuine and principled approach to governing this country.
And do remember, Corbin came very close in 2017. It could be argued that if the Labour party even back then had supported him more, he'd have won. |
I think that is fanciful, in this electoral system. Bottom line is you have to win over 50% of the seats there are no winners made by increasing your vote in your own safe seats you have to win in constiuencies that the other side holds. People dont radically change FPP is won or lost in the centre in a hundred or so constituencies. The two main parties have to be broad coalitions to win but activists are always to the left or right of the public by nature. That means compromise and having to suck up things you might not agree with to get in power to do some of the things you do.
If you want purity of representation then you need PR and multi parties but then in order to have a functioning government you need a coalition and that will also involve compromise.
It is true that you can shift the centre in politics but through cultural shift but that happens slowly over time normally.
Also important to remember that 2017 was as much a Brexit election Hard v Soft as 2019 was and the "bedroom tax" blew up in the Tories face in the campaign. |  | | |
| General Election Thread on 22:37 - May 29 with 2133 views | Rangersw12 |
😎 |  | | |
| General Election Thread on 23:52 - May 29 with 2009 views | PunteR |
Going for a draw. |  |
| Occasional providers of half decent House music. |
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| General Election Thread on 00:25 - May 30 with 1984 views | kensalriser |
| General Election Thread on 23:52 - May 29 by PunteR |
Going for a draw. |
Happy puffing. |  |
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| General Election Thread on 02:15 - May 30 with 1944 views | SydneyRs |
| General Election Thread on 09:22 - May 29 by nix |
Even worse is getting your politics from social media.
I thnk there's an awful lot of sustained campaigning disguised as normal conversation. I also follow a predominantly female forum and nearly every day at the moment there's a political post shoe-horned into a completely irrelevant subject area. For example, someone talking about cheeky f*ckers and there's a post about Cheri Blair getting freebies. It doesn't happen outside of an election, so I really think it's a thing.
It worked really well for Brexit or anti-vaxxing - you just repeat a made up fact ad nauseum and eventually normal people start repeating it as the truth. It's very dispiriting All those people who want to appear in the know or who want to believe they are 'independent thinkers' - for that read conspiracy theorists - lap up all this stuff. |
100%. This is becoming really dangerous. It was rampant a few years ago and with some big elections this year I'd expect it to increase again. The amount of twitter accounts for example that suddenly appeared (supporting both sides) during the last US election and then vanished once it was over was incredible. There have been token efforts to control it but its very much still there.
Facebook started out as just re-connecting with people, sharing holiday photos etc but got super political around the time of the brexit referendum and Trump becoming president. I've seen people on there that were fairly mellow turn into raging fanatics and it has to be down to being on too many pages that are echo chambers. Some seem to spend their lives raging about things online, a pretty miserable existence.
Even local groups usually used for things like recommending trades people and mundane stuff are targeted, sometimes obviously but also in very subtle ways.
There's a place for all political arguments if they are based on reason, a genuine belief and conviction about bettering society. But too much these days is blatant dishonesty allowed a free pass by an increasingly compliant media that will publish anything that gets clicks and therefore makes them money. Politicians have picked that up and run with it and the waters are murkier than ever. | | | |
| General Election Thread on 08:49 - May 30 with 1756 views | plasmahoop |
The reason we have mass immigration is that there are millions of brits not working and claiming incapacity benefit. Neither party has faced up to this issue. There has to be a good percentage that arent genuine. There are quite a few in my local area. Thete is undoubtedly a lot of people struggling, but a lot of those on benefits dont seem to be doing too badly | | | |
| General Election Thread on 08:53 - May 30 with 1734 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
| General Election Thread on 08:49 - May 30 by plasmahoop |
The reason we have mass immigration is that there are millions of brits not working and claiming incapacity benefit. Neither party has faced up to this issue. There has to be a good percentage that arent genuine. There are quite a few in my local area. Thete is undoubtedly a lot of people struggling, but a lot of those on benefits dont seem to be doing too badly |
Isn’t it £120 a week or something?
I don’t think people are living like the Kardashians on £120 a week. |  | | |
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| General Election Thread on 08:54 - May 30 with 1713 views | Gus_iom |
| General Election Thread on 08:49 - May 30 by plasmahoop |
The reason we have mass immigration is that there are millions of brits not working and claiming incapacity benefit. Neither party has faced up to this issue. There has to be a good percentage that arent genuine. There are quite a few in my local area. Thete is undoubtedly a lot of people struggling, but a lot of those on benefits dont seem to be doing too badly |
I live on a council estate, and I see a fair bit of it, really pisses me off. At the moment I'm off with a knee injury, self-employed and so get sweet fa in terms of sick benefit, have a big tax/ni bill hanging over me, and yesterday my neighbours were on the piss, no worries, nothing to contribute.....😠 | | | |
| General Election Thread on 09:01 - May 30 with 1691 views | Gus_iom |
| General Election Thread on 08:54 - May 30 by Gus_iom |
I live on a council estate, and I see a fair bit of it, really pisses me off. At the moment I'm off with a knee injury, self-employed and so get sweet fa in terms of sick benefit, have a big tax/ni bill hanging over me, and yesterday my neighbours were on the piss, no worries, nothing to contribute.....😠 |
However....if I look at care work, local authorities are duty-bound to provide a service and , for all their profligacy, do not have the funds to pay care workers well, so you can understand why they use new migrants to do that work.
The migrant issue is huge, it's complex, and we aren't a serious country anymore, and we don't have serious politicians. | | | |
| General Election Thread on 09:02 - May 30 with 1686 views | Gus_iom |
| General Election Thread on 08:53 - May 30 by BazzaInTheLoft |
Isn’t it £120 a week or something?
I don’t think people are living like the Kardashians on £120 a week. |
Mate, if you know how to play the system, there are work-arounds. | | | |
| General Election Thread on 09:06 - May 30 with 1653 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
| General Election Thread on 09:02 - May 30 by Gus_iom |
Mate, if you know how to play the system, there are work-arounds. |
That’s very vague.
I doff my hat to anyone who can turn £600 a month into a Champagne lifestyle. | | | |
| General Election Thread on 09:49 - May 30 with 1559 views | GloryHunter |
| General Election Thread on 09:02 - May 30 by Gus_iom |
Mate, if you know how to play the system, there are work-arounds. |
Sounds shocking. Better vote Conservative to stop this flagrant abuse of the benefits system. Oh -- hang on . . . . |  | | |
| General Election Thread on 09:59 - May 30 with 1530 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
I dunno, the numbers still don’t add up to the party life and even if they did, I do wonder what % of the population is claiming a combination of all those things, especially when you consider that they won’t all be fraudulent. | | | |
| General Election Thread on 10:06 - May 30 with 1499 views | ted_hendrix |
| General Election Thread on 08:54 - May 30 by Gus_iom |
I live on a council estate, and I see a fair bit of it, really pisses me off. At the moment I'm off with a knee injury, self-employed and so get sweet fa in terms of sick benefit, have a big tax/ni bill hanging over me, and yesterday my neighbours were on the piss, no worries, nothing to contribute.....😠 |
I hope things work out for you Mate. |  |
| My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic. |
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| General Election Thread on 10:14 - May 30 with 1847 views | Gus_iom |
| General Election Thread on 09:49 - May 30 by GloryHunter |
Sounds shocking. Better vote Conservative to stop this flagrant abuse of the benefits system. Oh -- hang on . . . . |
Did I say that? There has never been a time I would vote for that party - possibly, I suppose, a candidate who I thought was good, but that's doubtful. | | | |
| General Election Thread on 10:19 - May 30 with 1804 views | Gus_iom |
| General Election Thread on 10:06 - May 30 by ted_hendrix |
I hope things work out for you Mate. |
Cheers Ted, they will.
Will be back at work on Monday, against Dr's orders.... | | | |
| General Election Thread on 10:21 - May 30 with 1785 views | Watford_Ranger |
It has its flaws but UBI is a policy I’m a big fan of. Replaces a lot of the admin associated with various benefits including pensions and removes the argument of work not paying when it’s below a certain level. Whenever it’s considered there’s a huge backlash though. | | | |
| General Election Thread on 10:22 - May 30 with 1781 views | Gus_iom |
| General Election Thread on 10:21 - May 30 by Watford_Ranger |
It has its flaws but UBI is a policy I’m a big fan of. Replaces a lot of the admin associated with various benefits including pensions and removes the argument of work not paying when it’s below a certain level. Whenever it’s considered there’s a huge backlash though. |
Absolutely with you on this, mate. | | | |
| General Election Thread on 10:27 - May 30 with 1748 views | loftboy |
| General Election Thread on 10:21 - May 30 by Watford_Ranger |
It has its flaws but UBI is a policy I’m a big fan of. Replaces a lot of the admin associated with various benefits including pensions and removes the argument of work not paying when it’s below a certain level. Whenever it’s considered there’s a huge backlash though. |
Not heard of UBI, what does it stand for? | |
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| General Election Thread on 10:28 - May 30 with 1738 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
Fine, but I’m really curious as to how many people are in the category of getting more benefits than a minimum wage job?
Anecdotally I don’t know any. Those family members and friends that do claim so are genuine and struggle. I certainly won’t begrudge them a drink or a packet of fags.
There is a lot in that link below, but taking the state pension and other and pandemic related UC away those numbers seem quite low AND on the decline.
I don’t think we should form policy by what we see when we look over our neighbour’s fence. It’s got to be based on hard numbers I think.
I’d rather see us tackle the Amazons and Ubers of the world.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statistics-august-2023/ben | | | |
| General Election Thread on 10:29 - May 30 with 1735 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
| General Election Thread on 10:27 - May 30 by loftboy |
Not heard of UBI, what does it stand for? |
Universal Basic Income | | | |
| General Election Thread on 10:31 - May 30 with 1717 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
| General Election Thread on 10:21 - May 30 by Watford_Ranger |
It has its flaws but UBI is a policy I’m a big fan of. Replaces a lot of the admin associated with various benefits including pensions and removes the argument of work not paying when it’s below a certain level. Whenever it’s considered there’s a huge backlash though. |
There is a huge debate on the Left about UBI and many would rather see UBS which is Universal Basic Services.
Personally I don’t know which is better, but I’d welcome either or both as a more efficient and ethical way to distribute wealth. [Post edited 30 May 10:33]
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| General Election Thread on 10:32 - May 30 with 1700 views | SheffieldHoop |
Didn't we just spend a year trialing UBI during Covid? Isn't that what caused all the inflation, and our mortgages going up? |  |
| "Someone despises me. That's their problem." Marcus Aurelius |
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| General Election Thread on 10:34 - May 30 with 1693 views | Northernr |
I know it's not either or, and I know it's frustrating going out and slogging away for miniscule reward every day while other people scrounge (my first job was a sub-£15k annual salary with a 75 mile round commute on the M1), but it does always surprise me how much anger, coverage, chat this "benefits scroungers" stuff generates versus the fraud and the money being stripped out of the country at the top end through tax dodging, non-dom status etc by the super rich. Or the vast amounts of fraud around Covid, furlough, PPE - Michelle Mone and her like, who are sailing around on yachts never mind sitting around drinking Strongbow Dark Fruits all day. Quick £21bn lost to fraud in that alone they reckon. Or Charlotte Owen getting a lifetime gig in the House of Lords at 28 at our expense for reasons I couldn't possibly speculate on.
I mean, look at the money that's been stripped out of the water industry over decades, and the state of it now. We're 14 pages into this thread (which has gone pretty much as expected to this point) and nobody's really talking about how, in 2024, when we flush our toilet it goes in the bloody Thames!! Let's go for a nice walk by the river darling, we might see your tampon again. You go to the beach with your kids and your beer sht from the night before is there waiting for you. And those companies have bled billions out of that industry rather than invest in its infrastructure.
I don't know, isn't that more important, more financially damaging, to our country than somebody on a council estate with a big TV?
It makes me a lot angrier anyway. So much so that I've got involved in the thread when I swore to myself I wouldn't.
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