[Politics] General Election 2024 - 4th July

[Sid and the Sharknados]

To be honest I’m a little annoyed, because as I’ve repeatedly said (sorry @Sid and the Sharknados ) I am HATING having to vote for traitor Lib Dems solely to get the Tories out, and would rather not be reminded of it to be honest.

I'm not that invested in who you're voting for or why.

If I were you, I'd just read the literature the Conservatives send you and focus on that side of the equation. You could stick it up above your toilet or something.

 

[Jim in the West]

To be honest I’m a little annoyed, because as I’ve repeatedly said (sorry @Sid and the Sharknados ) I am HATING having to vote for traitor Lib Dems solely to get the Tories out, and would rather not be reminded of it to be honest.

If you're really annoyed you could try this: https://www.swapmyvote.uk/

From their blurb:

"Here’s how it works. You sign up with swapmyvote.co.uk and tell them 3 things: your preferred party, the party you’re willing to vote for as part of a swap, and the constituency you live in. You then see a selection of people who could do a swap with you.

So, for example: say you support Labour, but you live in a safe Tory seat. Or even a safe Labour seat. Either way, you voting Labour isn’t going to achieve much. But you’re willing to vote Green as part of a swap. So you enter these preferences on the website.

You then see what swaps are available to you.

The bar chart is very helpful because it shows you how the polls say the parties are currently doing in those constituencies. So you choose one where your swapped vote can make a difference.

So choose one and wait to hear back if they accept your swap.

What’s in it for the Green supporter? Well, they have to choose between voting for a party they don’t support (in this case Labour) as the lesser of two evils, or voting for their own party and in doing so, letting the Tories win. Lots of Green voters wouldn’t want to do that. So by swapping with you, they vote against the Tory candidate and still get (through you) a Green vote towards the national tally. (Over a million people voted Green nationally at the last election.)"

 

[jcdenton08]

If you're really annoyed you could try this: https://www.swapmyvote.uk/

From their blurb:

"Here’s how it works. You sign up with swapmyvote.co.uk and tell them 3 things: your preferred party, the party you’re willing to vote for as part of a swap, and the constituency you live in. You then see a selection of people who could do a swap with you.

So, for example: say you support Labour, but you live in a safe Tory seat. Or even a safe Labour seat. Either way, you voting Labour isn’t going to achieve much. But you’re willing to vote Green as part of a swap. So you enter these preferences on the website.

You then see what swaps are available to you.

The bar chart is very helpful because it shows you how the polls say the parties are currently doing in those constituencies. So you choose one where your swapped vote can make a difference.

So choose one and wait to hear back if they accept your swap.

What’s in it for the Green supporter? Well, they have to choose between voting for a party they don’t support (in this case Labour) as the lesser of two evils, or voting for their own party and in doing so, letting the Tories win. Lots of Green voters wouldn’t want to do that. So by swapping with you, they vote against the Tory candidate and still get (through you) a Green vote towards the national tally. (Over a million people voted Green nationally at the last election.)"

I’d do this but for Labour

 

[Machiavelli]

I'll just leave this here for anyone that thinks things have been going well for the last 45 years and, within that, the final 14 of them:

‘Here comes the sun’: Zadie Smith on hope, trepidation and rebirth after 14 years of the Tories

I used to shock US audiences with my stories of Britain’s excellent, accessible universities and healthcare. Then the Conservatives ruined the country. Now real change is on the horizon

www.theguardian.com

 

[Chicken Run]

Just logged on the thesun.co.uk and dailymail.co.uk (much as it pains me)....great to see that Labour's ads are still festooning their front pages.

View attachment 185066
View attachment 185067

I can’t believe that here we are in 2024 and someone admits to reading The Sun’s website!! And you said ‘logged on’ which suggests you have an account!! Words fail me

 

[Jim in the West]

I can’t believe that here we are in 2024 and someone admits to reading The Sun’s website!! And you said ‘logged on’ which suggests you have an account!! Words fail me

Just to reassure you, I definitely do NOT have an account! Only looked because someone had flagged up the ads a few days ago, and I wanted to check if they were still running. Once you start looking though, it’s compulsive

 

[Chicken Run]

Just to reassure you, I definitely do NOT have an account! Only looked because someone had flagged up the ads a few days ago, and I wanted to check if they were still running. Once you start looking though, it’s compulsive

So if i understand this correctly you’re saying you went on that cesspit of a site because “you wanted to see if the ads are still running “ wow

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

I'll just leave this here for anyone that thinks things have been going well for the last 45 years and, within that, the final 14 of them:

‘Here comes the sun’: Zadie Smith on hope, trepidation and rebirth after 14 years of the Tories

I used to shock US audiences with my stories of Britain’s excellent, accessible universities and healthcare. Then the Conservatives ruined the country. Now real change is on the horizon

www.theguardian.com

Great article

 

[portlock seagull]

I'll just leave this here for anyone that thinks things have been going well for the last 45 years and, within that, the final 14 of them:

‘Here comes the sun’: Zadie Smith on hope, trepidation and rebirth after 14 years of the Tories

I used to shock US audiences with my stories of Britain’s excellent, accessible universities and healthcare. Then the Conservatives ruined the country. Now real change is on the horizon

www.theguardian.com

Magnificent.

 

[HangletonGull]

Can someone give me a prediction on how many seats labour will win please

 

[Chicken Run]

Can someone give me a prediction on how many seats labour will win please

1000

 

[hans kraay fan club]

The only bit that worries me is that after the worst government in living memory there are STILL people who will vote Conservative - it’s madness! They have been appalling - the last 5 years in particular.
Please think about what you’re doing!

There is an entire generation who are simply brainwashed to fear a COMMUNIST / SOCIALIST (as any moderate centrist is inevitably painted by their choice of self-interested print media) government.

I dropped my 86 year old in-laws to the airport this morning - off to Ireland to see family for a week. On the way we passed a petrol station, and FIL remarked that he had "filled up yesterday, because STARMER will have put up fuel duty by the time we get back".

We all sit and laugh at the absolute nonsense scare-mongering that the Tories have sunk to in this campaign - but sadly (as part of a wider, drip drip of this bullshit) it genuinely has an effect.

 

[Audax]

Regardless of anyone’s specific political leanings on here, a ‘super’ majority with a small potentially ineffective opposition is surely damaging to the UK’s democracy?

Whilst it’s clearly time for a change, and the Tories have brought a lot of this on themselves, will five years of Starmer ‘Carte Blanche’ really make the UK a better place?

That's not how it works in the UK. There is no such thing as a "supermajority", except in a couple of very specific situations (one of which the Tories repealed, which was the Fixed Terms Act that required a two thirds majority to call an early election).

Starmer's Labour with what the Tories are scaremongering to be a "supermajority" will have exactly the same opportunity to pass/repeal legislation as if they had a majority of just 10. The size of the majority makes zero difference to their ability to make changes.

 

[pb21]

Starmer's Labour with what the Tories are scaremongering to be a "supermajority" will have exactly the same opportunity to pass/repeal legislation as if they had a majority of just 10. The size of the majority makes zero difference to their ability to make changes.

Yes and no.

If the majority was 10, he would effectively require 100% of Labour MP's support, from all wings. The bigger the majority the less Labour MPs he needs on his side to get stuff through.

 

[Audax]

Yes and no.

If the majority was 10, he would effectively require 100% of Labour MP's support, from all wings. The bigger the majority the less Labour MPs he needs on his side to get stuff through.

Well yes, but as we saw with the recent Tory large majority ... the larger your majority, the larger the individual factions within the party are. If Labour gets divided as badly as the the Tories have been over the last few years, it doesn't matter how big the majority is ... there will always be a faction large enough to create trouble. I suspect, however, that a certain degree of candidate grooming to fit the Starmer vision has taken place and we won't see factional infighting during the next term. In which case ... majority of 10, or majority of 200, doesn't really matter.

 

[Machiavelli]

There is an entire generation who are simply brainwashed to fear a COMMUNIST / SOCIALIST (as any moderate centrist is inevitably painted by their choice of self-interested print media) government.

I dropped my 86 year old in-laws to the airport this morning - off to Ireland to see family for a week. On the way we passed a petrol station, and FIL remarked that he had "filled up yesterday, because STARMER will have put up fuel duty by the time we get back".

We all sit and laugh at the absolute nonsense scare-mongering that the Tories have sunk to in this campaign - but sadly (as part of a wider, drip drip of this bullshit) it genuinely has an effect.

And to add to the accurate comments on the fabled 'super-majority' by @Audax, it's worth adding that one of the only things still on the statute book that requires two-thirds* of parliament to vote for is reform of the media. We can but hope. Labour will probably get two-thirds of parliament but miss that opportunity.

* which, constitutionally, is as close to a 'super-majority' as you can get

 

[medwayseagull reborn]

The last Yougov MRP poll of the election drops at 5 pm for those interested.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Well yes, but as we saw with the recent Tory large majority ... the larger your majority, the larger the individual factions within the party are. If Labour gets divided as badly as the the Tories have been over the last few years, it doesn't matter how big the majority is ... there will always be a faction large enough to create trouble. I suspect, however, that a certain degree of candidate grooming to fit the Starmer vision has taken place and we won't see factional infighting during the next term. In which case ... majority of 10, or majority of 200, doesn't really matter.

It does matter.

A 200 majority gives him absolute carte blange, there will never be a large enough opposing faction within his own party. A majority of 10 means there absolutely will. It makes a huge difference.

 

[US Seagull]

I found this video a quite interesting summary of the years of Tory rule:

 

[US Seagull]

It does matter.

A 200 majority gives him absolute carte blange, there will never be a large enough opposing faction within his own party. A majority of 10 means there absolutely will. It makes a huge difference.

100% this. A small majority gives every fringe clique in the party an effective veto over everything and anything they don't like. That is a recipe for gridlock and getting nothing done (some may see that as a good thing, personally I don't)