UK Politics Thread

I had a young Tory activist at the door on Saturday. I was polite, but ranted at him for 10 minutes, starting of with Austerity and Brexit, and ending with the rise of the Nazis in 1930s Germany. He clearly had instructions to leave if there was no point staying, but I just kept on at him.

I did say that even though I should probably be their target voter, they seem to be actively targetting racists and transphobes. I think that's the issue, they've lost anyone with half a brain, and are trying to appeal to the "red wall" Brexit fannies. The polls published this week showing that the left/right split is now largely down to age and not class, mirrors the figures in Scotland for independence.

Should never have put a number near it. There’s a way to do the green thing and it be low cost, develop skills etc.

i've just realised by the end of this year this forum will be on its fourth prime minister. *this* forum. the one built *literally* yesterday when reedpop shuttered our respective forums literally five minutes ago.

i'm struggling to do the maths but I think i was 30 before there'd been four uk prime ministers in my life

I'd quite like to have a Tory activist come to the door, not seen one since 2010. I suspect a council estate in Islington isn't really their stomping ground. As an almost 40 year old with a professional job, I would in theory be a target Tory voter but I can't think of anyone I despise more. I'm not sure getting mortgaged out to my eyeballs more than my parents ever did to live in a small flat next to a drug dealer, is really where they imagine "we" are meant to end up. But yknow they've really fucked the economy the last 14 years.

Yeah there's just less money in the budget since 2021 and borrowing is loads more expensive. Always the risk with putting actual numbers on things so far out instead of just saying "invest shit loads" Note: shit loads is relative to whatever we can afford at the time in the future I can't predict.

Though whenever they don't people just have a go at them for having no policy, right and left wing people.

I can’t really understand why they haven’t said ‘thanks to the conservatives fucking the economy we can no longer put firm figures on certain projects but rest assured this is still just as much of a priority as when it had a number next to it’.

Unless they have and nobody heard them.

They definitely have said in the past that they can't keep to pledges made before the Tories tanked the economy. Fairly certain they have said it specifically about the green pledges, as well as generally.

Other than all journalists habit of just latching on to a number and forgetting nuance. The economy is like a family credit card...

It's sometimes hard to tell if Labours comms team are shit or just the media landscape is way harsher. As the right wing press are openly hostile but the left wing press has a tradition of being quite independent and critical. The Guardian is not a blind Labour cheerleader the way the Torygraph is for the Tories.

So the 28bn figure no matter where you get yours news is liable to have critical journalists.

Then there's the likes of Novara etc, who are partisan but more in a Corbyn way.

Can we leave Novara alone? They're actually fairly good, fairly thorough in their facts and do some good journalism. 

We need to stop referring any left wing view/policy as Corbynism as evidenced by my previous posts. Left wing economic policies and social justice policies do not = Corbyn.

The client media are already pitching it as they have scrapped the policy entirely, even though that's clearly not what is happening.

The Tories (on gov.uk, from what I could see) put out some analysis of Labour's uncosted policies. It should be a tap in to point out why some things are no longer deliverable as envisaged 3 years ago.

It's kind of why I ignore policy announcements until a manifesto lands. So much can change before then. Tricky as they have to say something as otherwise no-one knows what they stand for.

Exactly. I also don't pay all that much attention to manifestos early on. You generally just have to get a feel for where things are at, in general. Some leaders turn out better than expected and some worse so.

You got a manifesto? Put it to the test-o!

Fucking tune, that

Just caught that. Clocked that Tory darling Mordaunt has told him to check himself before he wrecks himself.

Though he's already wrecked.