HelloThere

How woke of them.

Isn’t he the one who beat the shit out of his ex?

Gang of Four One

Aaaand it appears to be dead already.

Cos they’re mad.

If anyone actually believes the greens are meaningfully left wing then I have a bridge co-operative you can join.

They’re just crusties who had a wash.

I mean, there’s a whole bunch of reasons, but I don’t think it’s simply stupidity.

Some people didn’t learn the critical thinking skills you have, some may well have “lost their job to an immigrant” (and not realise that it was actually their boss that fired them because they can exploit someone more vulnerable than them). Some are scared of change, some are suspicious of “outsiders” and haven’t actually met any, and when they do realise everyone is just people.

And some are just dirty fucking racists, and they are absolutely stupid.

Presuming you’re asking in good faith…

Because working class - read: poor and routinely fucked over - people have been repeatedly lied to that the reason they must remaining living in poverty and dying young is because of people receiving £49.18 per week.

Not the bosses, landlords, or billionaires, to whom 49 quid is a cheap lunch.

Does anyone else find a bit odd to phrase basic labour rights as ‘perks’?

Yeah that’s a better way of phrasing it.

It always comes across to me as a very american thing, specifically trying to make something feel older than it actually is.

I’m something like HelloThere XV because the firstborn son in my family has had the same name since at least the 1700s - even across language when we got forcibly relocated for sheep.

Would my future son be XVI? Sure - but they won’t have the actual numerals.

A - UK uses Trident, an American launch system, so it’s likely that any attack against America by the UK would somehow be disabled

B - that’s not how MAD works. If France, or the UK, launched anything nuclear the retaliation would be immediate and immense.

C - why try to invade 11 million canadians when there are only a few tens of thousands of greenlanders? If an intra-NATO war happens, that’s the more likely one imo.

So, 15 years instead of the usual 20?

I mean, this is so over the top, but I kinda love it as an idea.

Yeah. Sure.

Super stupid bought a five cent bag…

Thanks!

The idea that Farage could ever be PM is laughable.

If come 2029 it looked like a realistic possibility then the level of tactical voting and vote swapping across Lab, LD, and Greens would be even more than 2024.

If Reform ever get more than 25-30 seats I’ll do a Paddy Ashdown and eat my hat.

Starmer has always felt to me like there is two versions of him. The stuff he as A Person believes and values - which is best displayed through his work before politics - and Starmer, The Politician, who understands that to change things you must first be in power.

The Person is well documented through his legal career, clearly someone who values human rights, due process, is against the death penalty, has no problem with prosecuting celebrities and politicians, etc. If he never entered parliament, I doubt anyone could claim he’s a tory.

But as Starmer, The Politician, it’s clear he’s willing to modify what he says and offers as a platform depending on the audience. He isn’t a populist - clearly - but it would be denial to claim his platform hasn’t changed between winning the Labour leadership, and the 2024 general election. I think it’s pretty obvious that he adopted a platform he thought would win the leadership, and then switched to one that would win at a general election.

What interests me is how much of The Person remains behind the moderation of The Politician.

Reading the 2024 manifesto, there is a lot of good Labour policy in there. Removing the VAT exemption on private schools is not really a financial decision (as it is being presented by The Politician) but a values judgement that rich people should not get subsidies for luxury goods or services. The same goes for non-doms.

I also think there is a thread of that thinking in the winter fuel payment decision. I absolutely think setting the bar at pension credit is too low, but people like my parents who have workplace pensions in addition to state absolutely do not need to be given hundreds of pounds a year to help with bills they can already easily afford.

The same also goes for landowners complaining about no longer paying diddly squat inheritance tax on land. Is the line too low? Possibly. Is the principle wrong? Absolutely not.

See also lords reform, nationalisation of the railways, infrastructure investment, decarbonising electricity, and a bunch of other stuff.

But if you look at how The Politician talks about a lot of this stuff, it is absolutely presented in ways which are clearly aimed at the Daily Mail, etc. How successful that strategy will be over time will be interested - and I suspect is flawed - but the actions really do matter more than the words.

That is not to say that I think everything is perfect, I don’t. I continue to be a trustee and volunteer at my local foodbank because of the system still being fundamentally broken, and I don’t think The Politician will be the person to fix that. But, I do think some progress is being made in some areas.

In my country liberal appointed judge

In France, like every other sane country, judges are not political appointees.

The Judiciary has statutory protection from the Executive. This is explained in literally the first sentence on the English-language wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_of_France

Thanks, so it’s cleaner rather than clean. Makes sense.