General politics discussion thread

[westlondonmist]

Tories more than doubled their seats, Labour are now 3rd in a country they held until 2007. That is a massive disaster.

[Dead Mike]

The strangest thing to me is the UKIP gains in Wales. The Welsh will reject the Tories until they put on a purple tie & up the hatred for the gays, then they're electable!?!

 

Neil Hamilton FFS!!

[The King Of Swing]

Tories more than doubled their seats, Labour are now 3rd in a country they held until 2007. That is a massive disaster.

Labour were always getting trashed in Scotland. I'm surprised that anyone was expecting otherwise and honestly I don't see what they can do to turn that around before 2020.

 

The huge England losses that people expected or hoped for didn't materialise and it looks like they have won the London Mayor vote.

 

I'm not saying Labour did well, just that it wasn't bad enough to push Corbyn out the door yet.

 

Fucking UKIP in Wales though. Ugh it's little wonder my faith in democracy is at an all time low.

[unfitfinlay]

Still haven't slept. :-( Kept checking the results and then it was time for college.
 
Losing the majority was gutting but, realistically, it could be far worse. I like the Greens and, I respect that they had an actual campaign about why people should vote for them, rather than "The SNP are going to win anyway and we want seats" which seemed to be Solidarity and Rise's entire argument for splitting the Pro-Independence Vote. At one point, I was a bit worried that we might have to rely on the Lib Dems so, aye, I'll take the Greens.
 

Labour were always getting trashed in Scotland. I'm surprised that anyone was expecting otherwise and honestly I don't see what they can do to turn that around before 2020.

Aye. For all people are saying "I can't believe anyone voted Tory", I can't understand why anybody in Scotland voted for Labour. Independence is still the biggest issue in the country and the Tories have been smart enough to embrace the Union, while Labour have tried to back off and jump on the fence after getting humped last year. If I was a Unionist, I'd definitely have more confidence in Ruth Davidson fighting my corner than I would Kezia who, god bless her, is just crap. She's a perfect example of everything that's wrong with the modern Labour Party actually. No backbone, no firm beliefs of her own, just says what she thinks the voters want to hear, even if it contradicts stuff she's said previously. Not surprising that she was the only Party leader that had to rely on the list to get back in.

 

It's hilarious, and totally predictable, that it's being blamed on Corbyn though. The poor fucker's got no chance has he?

Edited May 6, 2016 by unfitfinlay

[westlondonmist]

 

Tories more than doubled their seats, Labour are now 3rd in a country they held until 2007. That is a massive disaster.

Labour were always getting trashed in Scotland. I'm surprised that anyone was expecting otherwise and honestly I don't see what they can do to turn that around before 2020.

 

 

I knew they would come 2nd but that does not make it okay for Labour. Labour can turn it around but I just think that they need to be more central.

 

I agree with unfitfinlay about modern Labour being spineless. Unsure what they believe in, which is why I could not vote for them in the elections and my girlfriend who has previously been strong Labour would not. She believes there the people in power are too extreme left or spineless people like Andy Burnham who just bend over for whoever is leader. The people with a spine like Yvette Cooper refused to be in the cabinet, she actually does not seem to be the complete cunt her husband is. 

 

London is generally Labour in General Elections and in councils so odds were always against Tories. People can say Corbyn needs to be given a chance but I really do believe he would stand fuck all chance in a General Election even though Tories have been shit in the last 12 months. 

Edited May 6, 2016 by westlondonmist

[Carbomb]

It's not being spineless to support your leader. Like him or not, Corbyn isn't fair-weather; he's outlined his policies, and has stuck to them, regardless of the ridicule he's drawn for it. Yvette Cooper and all those other Blairites should fuck off and join the Lib Dems if they feel so aggrieved that Labour's moved to the left. Nobody said a fucking word when they toed Blair's line, why should they get praise for refusing to follow Corbyn?

 

I don't get this narrative that Labour needs to be centrist. They've been centrist since the early 90s, and look where they are now. To blame their being voted out and the hammering they toom in 2015 on being socialist/leftist is ludicrous - they haven't even had a chance yet!

 

Why should anyone vote for a centrist Labour? Take that ground and the only difference that makes is that people won't vote for them because they don't trust them to run the economy. At least a left-wing Labour is proposing something different. If they are going to take a beating (and I don't think this is decided yet), they can at least do it as themselves rather than being Red Tories.

Edited May 6, 2016 by Carbomb

[SuperBacon]

The LondonHasFallen hashtag is amazing

[PunkStep]

Good fucking god, the London mayoral election really has prompted some downright disgusting responses over social media. I've had to stay off Twitter today because it's just infuriating. A combination of stupidity, ignorance and downright racial hatred is too much.

Edited May 7, 2016 by PunkStep

[Briefcase]

Might just be me but it isn't half annoying reading the whole 'Khan is the first Muslim Mayor' on both the positive & negative side of the press. 

 

Religion shouldn't even brought into this, the guy should be judged on his job not his religion/background.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I disagree with that to an extent, as there's a context where it's appropriate. It's a badge of honour that a city overcame the horrendous, media encouraged campaign of hate and voted for Sadiq Khan to be our representative.

 

But, yes, in 85% of cases it's being pointed out with almost a hint of 'we'll let you make your own minds up' and that's annoying. The news shouldn't be that he's a Muslim, it should be that London couldn't give the slightest shit.

Edited May 7, 2016 by d-d-d-dAz

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Only had PCC election here in sunny Lincolnshire. It seems our top 2 choices were a chinless Tory and a ukip woman who lied about her son getting wounded in Afghanistan. Chinless Tory won, but it just means that he gets to arrange the deckchairs on the Titanic. Lincs police face such a budget shortfall that in 2017 they will probably have to axe 225 officers out of 1130. So commission that.

[Guest]

Labour need to fund credibility across the uk. Admit mistakes, apologise for things like voting for austerity, and be a strong political opposition. Sky news yesterday had a massive hard on for corbyn to get punted, so he must be doing something right

[d-d-d-dAz]

Apologising for supporting austerity measures in the past is beyond risky.

 

In a world where the SNP was only 1/3 as popular, they could take that position and rely on seats up North and in Scotland to form the basis of their being a leading partner in a progressive coalition.

 

But, with Scotland essentially a write off, a solidly anti-austerity platform will strangle them down south. It'll be important in England, particularly the south, that they are seen to be trusted with the economy. It's not a convenient truth for the Left, but it's true nonetheless. Working class people, those not bothered by politics, have shifted and now even they see a political truth in the need for 'fiscal responsibility'.

 

John McDonnell, weird as this is to say, is playing a much smarter game than Corbyn. He's genuinely promoting a platform of radical, democratic socialist economics, whilst not straying too far away from the 'political truth' of the deficit, or the need to make tough choices.

 

I've never really rated him, as he's always seemed such an abrasive character, but he's a lot better at playing the game than Corbyn. In retrospect, if he hadn't burnt so many bridges, he'd have made a much better leader.

 

I still think the Corbyn experiment is more to do with shifting the centre of gravity within the party, democratising it's processes and changing its stance on issues such as human rights, civil liberties etc. I think even his team accept that he'll eventually have to hand it over to someone from the softer left, who can unify the party in the eyes of the public, yet still build on Corbyns platform. Lisa Nandy seems the obvious choice right now.

 

It was telling after the local elections, when Diane Abbot (who was championing the results as a victory for Jeremy) was asked whether she thinks Corbyn would be the next prime minister she answered 'I think there'll be a Labour government in 2020.'

Edited May 7, 2016 by d-d-d-dAz

[JNLister]

I don't quite get the surprise at UKIP winning seats in Wales. They got 13.6% in Wales for the General election when people knew they were likely wasting their vote, so if anything they underperformed by getting 12% in the list votes this time. It's just that 12% in a proportional system gets you a bunch of seats.

[PunkStep]

That's a good point Lister, but that wouldn't give the media an angle as interesting as the one they've gone with. Much like the Daily Mail and The Sun harping on about how disastrous Labour's results were, when in fact the outcome wasn't as bad a people were expecting for them.