Snap General Election called

[Son of Mathonwy]

Can we call the GE in like 6 months and just get the chaos of a Reform government over and done with

Yeah, it does seem pretty inevitable now.

However, let's hold on: we could get some luck. There's 4 years for Starmer or Farage to fuck up politically or suffer some physically debilitating condition which might give us a way out of that. Or a charismatic star might arise in the Corbyn-Sultana party who will dominate UK politics (I can dream ).

[Son of Mathonwy]

Notice how totally silent the press are about Corbyn's supposed 'antisemitism' . . . while he's usefully ruining Labour's shit.

[Son of Mathonwy]

I missed this last month. Starmer's buying 12 F-35s (as part of a long-term plan to buy a total 138 ), despite this making us reliant on the whims of Trump and any future POTUS who could therefore shut down our air force. Brilliant strategic work from the Grima Wormtongue of the world stage.

It's obvious to most people that relying on Trump is like getting your gas from Vladimir Putin.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... g-warheads

Oh yeah and they bring us a step closer using nuclear weapons.

[Son of Mathonwy]

This is good. There are too many big companies (eg supermarkets) who abuse their power over small suppliers by delaying payments - effectively using their suppliers as interest free credit cards.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -suppliers

[Puja]

This is good. There are too many big companies (eg supermarkets) who abuse their power over small suppliers by delaying payments - effectively using their suppliers as interest free credit cards.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -suppliers

Huh. I... can't see anything wrong with that.

Good job Starmer? That feels wrong to say.

Puja

[Son of Mathonwy]

This is good. There are too many big companies (eg supermarkets) who abuse their power over small suppliers by delaying payments - effectively using their suppliers as interest free credit cards.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -suppliers

Huh. I... can't see anything wrong with that.

Good job Starmer? That feels wrong to say.

Puja

There must a catch somewhere.

[Son of Mathonwy]

The UK public massively overestimate* the number of illegal vs the number of legal immigrants, and the more wrong you are, the more likely you are to want a hard-line policy on migrants.

Only 19% of the public were correct in thinking that there are much more legal than illegal immigrants in the UK, 69% overestimated the proportion of illegals, 32% thought there were much more illegals than legals (the opposite of the truth).

And (not surprisingly, really) the 32% who were most wrong were most in favour (at 55%) of getting large numbers of migrants to leave.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... itics-live

A sane, non-far-right government would see this leads to a simple solution - inform the public! Publicize the facts! This would not pop Farage's bubble instantly (it couldn't be that easy) but it would release the pressure while facts slowly settled into brains. Sure, the fake newsers and racists are too far gone but this would ultimately ruin Farage's (and Jenrick's) shit.

Will Starmer do it?

Not a chance.



* how can this be with our honest media and non-hysterical politicians???

[Puja]

The UK public massively overestimate* the number of illegal vs the number of legal immigrants, and the more wrong you are, the more likely you are to want a hard-line policy on migrants.

Only 19% of the public were correct in thinking that there are much more legal than illegal immigrants in the UK, 69% overestimated the proportion of illegals, 32% thought there were much more illegals than legals (the opposite of the truth).

And (not surprisingly, really) the 32% who were most wrong were most in favour (at 55%) of getting large numbers of migrants to leave.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... itics-live

A sane, non-far-right government would see this leads to a simple solution - inform the public! Publicize the facts! This would not pop Farage's bubble instantly (it couldn't be that easy) but it would release the pressure while facts slowly settled into brains. Sure, the fake newsers and racists are too far gone but this would ultimately ruin Farage's (and Jenick's) shit.

Will Starmer will do it?

Not a chance.



* how can this be with our honest media and non-hysterical politicians???

Instead, he seems to be focussing on caving into Reform's demands that the police reveal the ethnicity and immigration status of criminals "when in the public interest" (ie. when Reform know it's a BAME sex-offender and are kicking up a outrage about it). How does he not get that playing their game will see him lose?

Puja

[Danno]

He's ill advised and obsessed with gutting Labour's core. I hate him.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Can you believe this? Unfortunately, yes.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... econdments

[Puja]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... omen-girls

Meanwhile, the Conservatives and Reform UK are increasingly confident in linking immigration to crime. On Sunday, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said asylum seekers with “medieval attitudes” coming to Britain mean he is afraid for the safety of his three young daughters. Last month, Nigel Farage explicitly claimed increased migration was responsible for a rise in the number of rapes and sexual assaults in the UK, pointing to arrivals from – as he put it – “countries in which women aren’t even second-class citizens”. It seems those so-called legitimate concerns now include the fear that asylum seekers are coming over here to rape our women and girls.

It would be easy for the government to dispel such myths by making the facts around sexual violence clear. But when I asked the Home Office if it collects data on criminal offences by asylum seekers, it declined to provide any formal comment. When I asked the Home Office if it would like to put on record that – as was confirmed to me by several refugee and women’s charities – there are no official figures that show asylum seekers are more likely to commit sexual offences than British nationals, it did not respond. It was, however, keen to stress it has just released data about foreign nationals (a term that includes many others who are not asylum seekers) in prisons.

This ambiguity – and outright radio silence – is unhelpful to say the least, but it is also a choice. Tim Naor Hilton, the chief executive of Refugee Action, outlined the facts in black and white. “There is no clear or credible evidence that people seeking asylum commit more crimes, and any data suggesting that must be viewed in the context of systemic bias, including in policing.”

https://goodlawproject.org/gb-news-the- ... a-factory/

But the data that does exist – published by the Child Sexual Exploitation taskforce – shows that 83% of suspects involved with group-based child sexual exploitation called themselves white, with 7% Asian – 2% less than the proportion of Asian ethnic groups in the 2021 census.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ypgg28nvpo

Police have been encouraged to consider disclosing the ethnicity and nationality of suspects charged in high-profile cases, after facing mounting pressure over the details they make public.

Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said the government will want police to release these details in "most cases" in what she welcomed as a positive step.

FIND. THE. MINERALS. TO. CONTRADICT. REFORM. OR. THE. NEXT. ELECTION. WILL. BE. A. REFERENDUM. ON. THE. FICTIONAL. BROKEN-BRITAIN. THEY. ARE. INVENTING.

Or, you know, blame Corbyn for your imminent defeat. Whichevs.

Puja

[Son of Mathonwy]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... omen-girls

Meanwhile, the Conservatives and Reform UK are increasingly confident in linking immigration to crime. On Sunday, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said asylum seekers with “medieval attitudes” coming to Britain mean he is afraid for the safety of his three young daughters. Last month, Nigel Farage explicitly claimed increased migration was responsible for a rise in the number of rapes and sexual assaults in the UK, pointing to arrivals from – as he put it – “countries in which women aren’t even second-class citizens”. It seems those so-called legitimate concerns now include the fear that asylum seekers are coming over here to rape our women and girls.

It would be easy for the government to dispel such myths by making the facts around sexual violence clear. But when I asked the Home Office if it collects data on criminal offences by asylum seekers, it declined to provide any formal comment. When I asked the Home Office if it would like to put on record that – as was confirmed to me by several refugee and women’s charities – there are no official figures that show asylum seekers are more likely to commit sexual offences than British nationals, it did not respond. It was, however, keen to stress it has just released data about foreign nationals (a term that includes many others who are not asylum seekers) in prisons.

This ambiguity – and outright radio silence – is unhelpful to say the least, but it is also a choice. Tim Naor Hilton, the chief executive of Refugee Action, outlined the facts in black and white. “There is no clear or credible evidence that people seeking asylum commit more crimes, and any data suggesting that must be viewed in the context of systemic bias, including in policing.”

https://goodlawproject.org/gb-news-the- ... a-factory/

But the data that does exist – published by the Child Sexual Exploitation taskforce – shows that 83% of suspects involved with group-based child sexual exploitation called themselves white, with 7% Asian – 2% less than the proportion of Asian ethnic groups in the 2021 census.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ypgg28nvpo

Police have been encouraged to consider disclosing the ethnicity and nationality of suspects charged in high-profile cases, after facing mounting pressure over the details they make public.

Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said the government will want police to release these details in "most cases" in what she welcomed as a positive step.

FIND. THE. MINERALS. TO. CONTRADICT. REFORM. OR. THE. NEXT. ELECTION. WILL. BE. A. REFERENDUM. ON. THE. FICTIONAL. BROKEN-BRITAIN. THEY. ARE. INVENTING.

Or, you know, blame Corbyn for your imminent defeat. Whichevs.

Puja

Crazy and depressing. Starmer and McSweeney's strategy is both:

1) Unethical. Obviously, to lie and blame all the ills of society on a scapegoat, weak minority is an appalling thing to do. A clue for the ethically challenged is that Hitler employed the same strategy, as is Trump and all of the rising far-right in Europe.

2) A suicidal strategy for Labour. As has been seen in multiple countries including our own (re the Tories v Reform), this strategy only profits (and generously so) far-right parties, because voters aren't completely stupid and know the real anti-immigrant parties from those who are following a script. It was a disaster for the Tories and it is exactly the same for Labour.

I don't expect Starmer and McSweeney to be troubled by ethics, so let's skip point 1).

Re 2), it seems strange that they just don't seem to get this despite all the evidence, from what is actually affecting them right now. If S & McS were pure pragmatists they would have got this by now. My guess is that a) they are genuinely far-right-leaning, so this strategy is much more natural to them than the liberal approach Starmer espoused when lying to the Labour membership in 2020 and/or b) they are in the pay of the far-right.

McSweeney is the strategist - so he sinks or swims with this - he won't change course.

There is a small chance that a glimmer of pragmatism will get through to Starmer (probably too late) and make him change course. Far more likely will be a token softening of his line in order to try to fool the lefties again. I think he would actually prefer to lose the election than to allow the left of the party back into power.

The only significant hope, therefore, is that the deeply unpopular Starmer is forced out by the Labour MPs AND replaced with a genuinely more left-wing leader.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Right to buy is still making the housing crisis worse:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... port-finds

[Puja]

Polanski wins the Green Party leadership and comes out swinging:



That's a hell of a strident first message after winning the leadership of a national political party. I have to say I quite like it. People are legitimately angry about how broken the country is and how everything has been getting steadily worse for ordinary people, but so far the only politicians interested in speaking to that anger have been Reform and their "solution" of blaming refugees/trans people/the woke.

Hopefully Polanski can break through and harness the anger of decent people to shift the political discourse away from it's continual slide rightwards.

Puja

[Son of Mathonwy]

Polanski wins the Green Party leadership and comes out swinging:

That's a hell of a strident first message after winning the leadership of a national political party. I have to say I quite like it. People are legitimately angry about how broken the country is and how everything has been getting steadily worse for ordinary people, but so far the only politicians interested in speaking to that anger have been Reform and their "solution" of blaming refugees/trans people/the woke.

Hopefully Polanski can break through and harness the anger of decent people to shift the political discourse away from it's continual slide rightwards.

Puja

Great stuff, and a real landslide win. Hope they join forces with Corbyn/Sultana (n my dreams, merge with them). Shame Polanski didn't take over 6 months back, maybe the Greens could have taken the purged Labour and independents in . . . now Your Party wants to build momentum of its own and will almost certainly resist a merger.

[Puja]

Polanski wins the Green Party leadership and comes out swinging:

That's a hell of a strident first message after winning the leadership of a national political party. I have to say I quite like it. People are legitimately angry about how broken the country is and how everything has been getting steadily worse for ordinary people, but so far the only politicians interested in speaking to that anger have been Reform and their "solution" of blaming refugees/trans people/the woke.

Hopefully Polanski can break through and harness the anger of decent people to shift the political discourse away from it's continual slide rightwards.

Puja

Great stuff, and a real landslide win. Hope they join forces with Corbyn/Sultana (n my dreams, merge with them). Shame Polanski didn't take over 6 months back, maybe the Greens could have taken the purged Labour and independents in . . . now Your Party wants to build momentum of its own and will almost certainly resist a merger.

I don't know whether Your Party will even make it to the starting line. There's a few rifts opening up as they fail to deal with the culture war bollocks effectively - I like Corbyn as an individual MP or a principled protestor, but he's just not competent at media relations, avoiding obvious rhetorical traps, or at the kind of strong leadership/cat-herding required to be in charge of a political party.

I was impressed with Polanski's answer in his press conference yesterday when someone asked, "We know your own stance on trans rights, but how do you plan to lead a party that could be divided already?"

"I don't think we're divided; I think we have a really, really strong common cause here - tackling the climate crisis, protecting nature, and also protecting people's human rights. Trans rights are human rights and I'm really pleased that, as a party, we have been through a democratic debate several times now which has been settled in recognising that we're an inclusive, progressive party.

"Now, I'm really aware of a quote that's going around New York at present [coined by Socialist Mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani], which is 'If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 things, let's work together. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 things, please see a psychiatrist.'

"You don't need to agree with me on everything. There are red lines though - we are a broad church party, but broad churches still have walls. And human rights are one of those walls, and actually it's brilliant to quote one of our recently elected deputy leaders [Mothin Ali, who has faced questions over what his professional level of support for LGBTQ+ rights would be, given his personal faith is not supportive] because I love the line - he said, 'The same people who hate the LGBTQ community are the same people who hate the Muslim community.'

"And I'm also aware of this non-insignificant moment, that the Green Party now has a Jewish leader and a Muslim deputy leader and we've had this discussion - we recognise that anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are two sides of the same coin and ultimately, when communities ask for solidarity, including the trans community, the only response - the only authentic response - is to give that solidarity."

Excellent answer - not accepting the divisive framing of "Does everyone in the party agree on this wedge issue and what are you going to do with the ones that don't" and instead reframing it as, "We don't all need to agree and all hold the same personal beliefs - we're all going in the same direction and that direction involves everyone having human rights." I loved the line about "broad churches still have walls" - that's the bit that Corbyn's never been great at.

Puja

[Stom]

What's going to be interesting is funding, and whether they are capable of using their funding better than mainstream parties (which shouldn't be hard). Look at how Reform have used their funding, for instance.

To put it in perspective, the Tories generated £3.8m in funding last year, while the Greens got £107,000...

(Labour got £1.4m, and Reform £336k).

[Son of Mathonwy]

What's going to be interesting is funding, and whether they are capable of using their funding better than mainstream parties (which shouldn't be hard). Look at how Reform have used their funding, for instance.

To put it in perspective, the Tories generated £3.8m in funding last year, while the Greens got £107,000...

(Labour got £1.4m, and Reform £336k).

Given those numbers it is incredible that Labour haven't overhauled political funding. A lot of that Tory funding will shift to Reform over the next few years, if it hasn't already.

[Mikey Brown]

They’ve seriously called it “Your Party”? Christ.

I like Corbyn as an individual MP or a principled protestor, but he's just not competent at media relations

That pretty much sums up my stance.

Listened to him in a podcast a while back when asked about neoliberalism and he kept saying he preferred to refer to it as “the politics of the sharp elbow”. His explanation made sense, but it was such an idiotic attempt to push a term that could never possibly catch on with normal people.

[Son of Mathonwy]

They’ve seriously called it “Your Party”? Christ.

Nah, that's just a placeholder while they decide on it democratically. They're taking suggestions. I have submitted one .

[Which Tyler]

They’ve seriously called it “Your Party”? Christ.

Nah, that's just a placeholder while they decide on it democratically. They're taking suggestions. I have submitted one .

Party McPartyface?

[Son of Mathonwy]

They’ve seriously called it “Your Party”? Christ.

Nah, that's just a placeholder while they decide on it democratically. They're taking suggestions. I have submitted one .

Party McPartyface?

How did you . . .? Have you hacked my Your Party account???

[Which Tyler]

Revealed: organiser of campaign to fly Union Jacks and England flags on Britain's streets was previously jailed over a plot to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country

[Which Tyler]

[Which Tyler]

Thanks Nigel
https://bsky.app/profile/wohyeahwohyeah ... xosiobnc2x