Political Discussions And Ranting Thread

[TQR 14,386]

28 minutes ago, DCI Frank Burnside said:

If you listen closely you can just about hear a dead hamster flopping about on a spinning wheel.

[DCI Frank Burnside 3,887]

[RoverAndOut 4,746]

OK, so perusing the BBC website tonight and two notable stories from the Tory Party conference jump out:

 

1. Brexit super fan Steve Baker has apologised for ignoring Irish concerns during the Brexit negotiations and wants to include them in improving the Northern Ireland Protocol (if you're not aware, Loony Liz made him a Northern Ireland Minister in her first appointments). Apparently he hears from Unionists that the Good Friday Agreement has been broken because they've had constitutional change (the Protocol) without their consent. He then also points out that some might argue that there had been constitutional change without their consent by leaving the EU despite 56% of Northern Ireland voters voting to stay in. But he swiftly glosses over that and says its time to move on in a spirit of friendship. Sigh... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63111685

 

2. Polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice (who, unlike many of his peers, actually seems to know what he's talking about) has told a fringe event at the Conference that Labour are favourites to win the next General Election and, after 3 weeks in office, Liz Truss is now as unpopular as Boris Johnson was when he was ousted. Which is quite some achievement, I think you'd agree. He also confirmed that if voters remember their anger at the polling booth, Labour are on course for a three-figure majority, but should the bleeding be stanched, in the unlikely event of a hung parliament, the opposition parties are unlikely to prop up a Tory minority government, hence Labour being strong favourites to form the next government. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63110539

[Grim Up North 3,725]

If Liz had planned to do a speech like her hero Thatcher she's rather blown it this morning.

 

Health Warning - for those of you of a delicate political disposition the link sends you to a 30 second clip featuring Margaret Thatcher.

 

Thatcher not for turning

[TQR 14,386]

If she’d really listened, she’d have called a General Election*, then swiftly yeeted herself into the shit-tainted sea.
 

*450k signatures on that petition now.

[Grim Up North 3,725]

1 minute ago, TQR said:

*450k signatures on that petition now.

 

Just as an observational point (I'm not political I think they're all shit and the system they work within makes them shitter).

 

Any govt is elected by max 40% of voters - so in a population of 70 million people it should be possible to get a million people to sign a petition calling for a General Election no matter who is running the country.

Particularly with the obsession with social media - probably two clicks from signing the petition. I wouldn't know I don't do social media either.

[maryportfuncity 10,645]

6 minutes ago, TQR said:

If she’d really listened, she’d have called a General Election*, then swiftly yeeted herself into the shit-tainted sea.
 

*450k signatures on that petition now.

 

 

Just about to watch it go over 450,000 now - how fast it moves in the wake of that u-turn will likely keep us bantering hereabouts today.

[DCI Frank Burnside 3,887]

The lady is for turning

 

 

 

[DCI Frank Burnside 3,887]

He finally copped on but even still how the fuck can Kwarteng stay now. Credibility is in absolute tatters

[msc 18,438]

39 minutes ago, Grim Up North said:

 

Just as an observational point (I'm not political I think they're all shit and the system they work within makes them shitter).

 

Any govt is elected by max 40% of voters - so in a population of 70 million people it should be possible to get a million people to sign a petition calling for a General Election no matter who is running the country.

Particularly with the obsession with social media - probably two clicks from signing the petition. I wouldn't know I don't do social media either.

 

In theory, yes.

 

In actuality, Brits dont tend to sign government petitions these days, here are the most signed ones not destroyed.

 

And about 6 million people signed the 2nd ref petition, only for the government to announce they didn't see petitions as democratic, so you know, a million odd on another will do about the same. This lot will hang on till the bitter end of this parliament. If folk want rid of them, they'll just need to vote then in 2024-ish and not give them another final chance.

[Grim Up North 3,725]

3 minutes ago, msc said:

 

In theory, yes.

 

In actuality, Brits dont tend to sign government petitions these days, here are the most signed ones not destroyed.

 

And about 6 million people signed the 2nd ref petition, only for the government to announce they didn't see petitions as democratic, so you know, a million odd on another will do about the same. This lot will hang on till the bitter end of this parliament. If folk want rid of them, they'll just need to vote then in 2024-ish and not give them another final chance.

 

Yes you're right.

 

There are some good ones on that list that have been ignored - scrapping HS2 for example.

[Bibliogryphon 9,571]

6 minutes ago, msc said:

 

In theory, yes.

 

In actuality, Brits dont tend to sign government petitions these days, here are the most signed ones not destroyed.

 

And about 6 million people signed the 2nd ref petition, only for the government to announce they didn't see petitions as democratic, so you know, a million odd on another will do about the same. This lot will hang on till the bitter end of this parliament. If folk want rid of them, they'll just need to vote then in 2024-ish and not give them another final chance.

 

I think the U-Turn actually is the result of the only real way that this Government can be ended prematurely

 

If enough Tory MPs rebelled and the Government couldn't get its fiscal package through and they followed through on their threat to remove the whip from any who vote against it the technical majority might vanish

[Toast 16,131]

2 hours ago, msc said:

This lot will hang on till the bitter end of this parliament. If folk want rid of them, they'll just need to vote then in 2024-ish and not give them another final chance.

 

How much of the country will they have sold off to their donors by then?

[TQR 14,386]

Further proof that all of the 2019 Tory intake combined wouldn’t have enough brains to make one complete idiot.

 

 

[msc 18,438]

17 minutes ago, Toast said:

 

How much of the country will they have sold off to their donors by then?

 

Too much, regardless!

[TQR 14,386]

An MP has called for a General Election. I’ll give you a moment to guess who…

 

 

 

 

 

…nope, you’re wrong.

[Bibliogryphon 9,571]

31 minutes ago, TQR said:

An MP has called for a General Election. I’ll give you a moment to guess who…

 

 

 

 

 

…nope, you’re wrong.

 

 

This is a very selfish call

 

She clearly doesn't want her own plans to be dismantled by a Conservative Government whereas if they are rolled back by Labour she can complain that her vision was never allowed to flourish.

 

 

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,218]

......in other news.

Wee Jimmy got booed when she arrived in Dunfermline today. 

[Charlotte's Controller 195]

Rumour has it that there will be a talking bobble head Barbie based on the PM.

To be marketed as a reminder of what we had in the last days of the Conservative government the as yet unconfirmed phrases may include.

 

I will deliver.

We will cut taxes.

I don’t have the detail on that at the moment.

The chancellor is responsible for the budget.

The Bank of England is responsible for interest rates.

It’s Putin’s fault.

Finally a long silent pause. 
 

Whilst the last one might indicate a lack of functionality it is backed up by the vacant looking expression which is said to speak volumes.

[Toast 16,131]

13 minutes ago, Charlotte's Controller said:

the last days of the Conservative government

 

If only.

[Toast 16,131]

This poem by Philip Larkin was prescient.  This is exactly what they are planning.

 

GOING, GOING

 

I thought it would last my time -
The sense that, beyond the town,
There would always be fields and farms,
Where the village louts could climb
Such trees as were not cut down;
I knew there'd be false alarms

In the papers about old streets
And split level shopping, but some
Have always been left so far;
And when the old part retreats
As the bleak high-risers come
We can always escape in the car.

Things are tougher than we are, just
As earth will always respond
However we mess it about;
Chuck filth in the sea, if you must:
The tides will be clean beyond.
- But what do I feel now? Doubt?

Or age, simply? The crowd
Is young in the M1 cafe;
Their kids are screaming for more -
More houses, more parking allowed,
More caravan sites, more pay.
On the Business Page, a score

Of spectacled grins approve
Some takeover bid that entails
Five per cent profit (and ten
Per cent more in the estuaries): move
Your works to the unspoilt dales
(Grey area grants)! And when

You try to get near the sea
In summer . . .
It seems, just now,
To be happening so very fast;
Despite all the land left free
For the first time I feel somehow
That it isn't going to last,

That before I snuff it, the whole
Boiling will be bricked in
Except for the tourist parts -
First slum of Europe: a role
It won't be hard to win,
With a cast of crooks and tarts.

And that will be England gone,
The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,
The guildhalls, the carved choirs.
There'll be books; it will linger on
In galleries; but all that remains
For us will be concrete and tyres.

Most things are never meant.
This won't be, most likely; but greeds
And garbage are too thick-strewn
To be swept up now, or invent
Excuses that make them all needs.
I just think it will happen, soon.

[Summer in Transylvania 2,173]

56 minutes ago, Charlotte's Controller said:

Rumour has it that there will be a talking bobble head Barbie as PM.

Fixed that for you. An improvement on Truss, at least. 

[maryportfuncity 10,645]

Petition for general election is barely 10,000 short of half a million as of a few seconds back. Anyone seen one of the true biggies - like BBC - reporting it? I've seen Metro, Independent and Bloomberg on it today.

 

 

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/619781?fbclid=IwAR1O0LgirDavx780pIhx6So93_4oZEi4Nnc19MLN2EV5zFyibBDcVukSaw4

[Toast 16,131]

52 minutes ago, maryportfuncity said:

Petition for general election is barely 10,000 short of half a million as of a few seconds back. Anyone seen one of the true biggies - like BBC - reporting it? I've seen Metro, Independent and Bloomberg on it today.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/619781?fbclid=IwAR1O0LgirDavx780pIhx6So93_4oZEi4Nnc19MLN2EV5zFyibBDcVukSaw4

 

Interesting that it says "Parliament will consider this for a debate".  Now that means the whole House, doesn't it, not just the Government.

[DCI Frank Burnside 3,887]

Inside Nadine Dorries brain. I'll take a guess: