Are political threads allowed?

  • UK may have it's 3rd female PM announced fairly shortly. The likely candidate may be Penny Mordaunt.


    Her support is huge and opposite to Boris Johnson's approach. She's supports the departure of Europe which makes her ideal at the moment, something that Boris was useless at.


    Also like Thatcher, she takes no B.S.

  • UK may have it's 3rd female PM announced fairly shortly. The likely candidate may be Penny Mordaunt.


    Her support is huge and opposite to Boris Johnson's approach. She's supports the departure of Europe which makes her ideal at the moment, something that Boris was useless at.


    Also like Thatcher, she takes no B.S.

    And will be a slightly different flavour of shit from Johnson. Her voting record is terrible on social issues, very much in line with the classic tory mindset of helping the rich by voting for tax breaks for high earners and against mansion tax while voting down any proposals to increase benefits at least in line with cost of living. As disability minister under May she was awful and seemed disinclined to do anything to help disabled people. She's wholeheartedly leapt aboard the Culture War Express and rowing back on comments she previously made regarding gender recognition.


    But it almost doesn't matter who ends up as PM, whether it's PM as PM or someone else as PM who isn't PM. Nothing much will change. Instead of being served a plate of fox turds, we'll be given a bowl of hog's vomit. How the fuck are you supposed to choose between them?


    Yes, many regard her as a sort of Thatcher analogue. I detested Thatcher but compared to what we have now, as objectionable as she was she actually had honour and integrity, both currently absent in much of global politics.


    EDIT: Just seen that her campaign video, which featured people without their permission who've asked to be removed, also mentions nurses while showing footage from a Madrid hospital.


    She'll definitely win.

    Abandon all reason

    Edited 2 times, last by Backdrifter ().

  • Ugh. You'd almost feel for the rare politician that's honest.


    I am curious... Do you think Scotland will make another push for independence and rejoining the EU in years to come?

  • Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will be our next PM. Effectively if not actually our head of state as all the powers of the crown are handed to the PM, ( our monarch is nothing other than a ceremonial figurehead ). They will be elected by around 180,000 conservative party members. I've looked at the U.S democracy and it seems pretty poor to me but UK is much much worse. The vote will probably be fairly close so round about 100,000 will actually put our next PM in power. which is at a guess around 0.2% of the population. As for the choices,.I don't like either of them . Rishi Sunak appears to have an ounce of concern for social justice, where LT has none, ,so I would prefer him . On the other hand he's more likely to keep the Tories in power , so it's a loose loose scenario .

  • Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will be our next PM. Effectively if not actually our head of state as all the powers of the crown are handed to the PM, ( our monarch is nothing other than a ceremonial figurehead ). They will be elected by around 180,000 conservative party members. I've looked at the U.S democracy and it seems pretty poor to me but UK is much much worse. The vote will probably be fairly close so round about 100,000 will actually put our next PM in power. which is at a guess around 0.2% of the population. As for the choices,.I don't like either of them . Rishi Sunak appears to have an ounce of concern for social justice, where LT has none, ,so I would prefer him . On the other hand he's more likely to keep the Tories in power , so it's a loose loose scenario .

    At one point last week Penny Mordaunt was odds on favourite with majority of votes.


    Who ever gets in, I just hope this leader can bring some sort of strength to the economy of UK. Like you I don't like the choices. But hey, who am I to judge what LIES!!! ahead 😂



  • Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will be our next PM. Effectively if not actually our head of state as all the powers of the crown are handed to the PM, ( our monarch is nothing other than a ceremonial figurehead ). They will be elected by around 180,000 conservative party members. I've looked at the U.S democracy and it seems pretty poor to me but UK is much much worse. The vote will probably be fairly close so round about 100,000 will actually put our next PM in power. which is at a guess around 0.2% of the population. As for the choices,.I don't like either of them . Rishi Sunak appears to have an ounce of concern for social justice, where LT has none, ,so I would prefer him . On the other hand he's more likely to keep the Tories in power , so it's a loose loose scenario .

    To be fair though, exactly the same thing happens with the Labour Party. Blair handed the keys to Brown without any public say, in a pre-planned action. Brown then went on to borrow around £2500 a year for every man, woman and child in the country for the next 2 years when the international credit crunch happened, in order to hide the effects of it and buy the next election. It didn't work, of course, but we are still stuck with the debt. We are now borrowing to pay the interest! Perhaps the answer would be to make the party who borrows responsible for the debt. Maybe then we'd see some more responsible borrowing, rather than pushing us down the road of Greece, Italy and others. ;)


    As for Truss, my issue with her is she is a foot-in-mouth merchant, just like Boris. She doesn't seem to have a handle on what's going on around her and just says stuff before thinking about it. Rishi, on the other hand, seems like he has a plan.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • To be fair though, exactly the same thing happens with the Labour Party. Blair handed the keys to Brown without any public say, in a pre-planned action. Brown then went on to borrow around £2500 a year for every man, woman and child in the country for the next 2 years when the international credit crunch happened, in order to hide the effects of it and buy the next election. It didn't work, of course, but we are still stuck with the debt. We are now borrowing to pay the interest! Perhaps the answer would be to make the party who borrows responsible for the debt. Maybe then we'd see some more responsible borrowing, rather than pushing us down the road of Greece, Italy and others. ;)


    As for Truss, my issue with her is she is a foot-in-mouth merchant, just like Boris. She doesn't seem to have a handle on what's going on around her and just says stuff before thinking about it. Rishi, on the other hand, seems like he has a plan.

    yes its the same, i did make a point about my distaste for the tories but mainy my point was about the terribe state of our democracy and that our pm is in effect our unelected head of state

  • yes its the same, i did make a point about my distaste for the tories but mainy my point was about the terribe state of our democracy and that our pm is in effect our unelected head of state

    The PM is elected, whether by the electorate as a whole or by the party members in this case. Remember under the Westminster system you vote for the party, not the leader. The Westminster system of cabinet government is not perfect but in my view it is far preferable to the American system with its all powerful Senate and Supreme Court which currently represent the minority of the population.


    Having said that I prefer Australia's system of electing a party leader which is by the members of Parliament, nobody else.

  • The PM is elected, whether by the electorate as a whole or by the party members in this case. Remember under the Westminster system you vote for the party, not the leader. The Westminster system of cabinet government is not perfect but in my view it is far preferable to the American system with its all powerful Senate and Supreme Court which currently represent the minority of the population.


    Having said that I prefer Australia's system of electing a party leader which is by the members of Parliament, nobody else.

    Every government we've ever had represents the minority of the country due to our cockeyed voting system. Our PM is not elected by the people, we only vote for our constituency MP. Our PM is in effect our head of state and any head of state should be elected. Our actual head of state , The Queen, has handed virtually all powers of the crown to the PM. We have the bizarre system where they lie, cheat, have govt breakdown but still remain in power with no one to hold them to account or able to get rid of them except their own Party, the one they are in charge of. We have crisis after crisis in this country and our Queen sits back and does nothing because she is not elected and her one and only interest is maintaining the Royal Family.

  • Every government we've ever had represents the minority of the country due to our cockeyed voting system. Our PM is not elected by the people, we only vote for our constituency MP. Our PM is in effect our head of state and any head of state should be elected. Our actual head of state , The Queen, has handed virtually all powers of the crown to the PM. We have the bizarre system where they lie, cheat, have govt breakdown but still remain in power with no one to hold them to account or able to get rid of them except their own Party, the one they are in charge of. We have crisis after crisis in this country and our Queen sits back and does nothing because she is not elected and her one and only interest is maintaining the Royal Family.

    It's really sad that, this voting system within the party is done internally and not thrown to the public. If feels to me we're getting more into Sh*t every day, week and years to come.


    From what I've seen my preference would of been Penny Mordaunt as she appears to have got guts and determination, unfortunately she got voted out. Liz Truss from what I've seen could not even handle a kids party without disruption and getting lost. Who's left after this, remains to be Rishi Suna, who he himself lacks credibility and cannot even find Scotland. What hope has Britain got and I'm sure Margaret Thatcher would be turning in her grave right now.


    We need the other parties to be strong and throw opposition against the leaders, because at the moment we're living against a self destruct button very soon.


    As for the Queen, her only hope is to unite the Royal family as even this under her realm has fallen apart quite recently. All she's got to look forward to, is her afternoon teas and cucumbers sandwiches followed by a glass of gin.

  • Every government we've ever had represents the minority of the country due to our cockeyed voting system. Our PM is not elected by the people, we only vote for our constituency MP. Our PM is in effect our head of state and any head of state should be elected. Our actual head of state , The Queen, has handed virtually all powers of the crown to the PM. We have the bizarre system where they lie, cheat, have govt breakdown but still remain in power with no one to hold them to account or able to get rid of them except their own Party, the one they are in charge of. We have crisis after crisis in this country and our Queen sits back and does nothing because she is not elected and her one and only interest is maintaining the Royal Family.

    So you wouid prefer the American system and have a directly elected PM, How would that work? How would an MP be elected to Parliament and then elected as Prime Minister?

  • So you wouid prefer the American system and have a directly elected PM, How would that work? How would an MP be elected to Parliament and then elected as Prime Minister?

    I guess they wouldn't have an MP elected as PM, as USA president is not a current senator or congressman, but as for preferring the American system, with a person chosen by the electorate, look how well that has worked out for the US. Trump? Biden, W, to name but three. Among other issues with that system is that you have to be incredibly rich to qualify. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it shouldn't be a qualification, or a bar.

    Ian


    Putting the old-fashioned Staffordshire plate in the dishwasher!

  • I guess they wouldn't have an MP elected as PM, as USA president is not a current senator or congressman, but as for preferring the American system, with a person chosen by the electorate, look how well that has worked out for the US. Trump? Biden, W, to name but three. Among other issues with that system is that you have to be incredibly rich to qualify. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it shouldn't be a qualification, or a bar.

    Just to point out the obvious, only one of the 3 you mentioned were really chosen by the electorate, Trump and W lost the popular vote.


    On the topic, I wonder who the candidates will be in 2024. Biden will be seriously old for running a campaign. I can see DeSantis or the like coming out on top in the republican primaries. But who on the Dems side? Warren or Buttigieg maybe?

  • Just to point out the obvious, only one of the 3 you mentioned were really chosen by the electorate, Trump and W lost the popular vote.


    On the topic, I wonder who the candidates will be in 2024. Biden will be seriously old for running a campaign. I can see DeSantis or the like coming out on top in the republican primaries. But who on the Dems side? Warren or Buttigieg maybe?

    How about this for an idea? A Republican and Democrat must run on the same ticket, guaranteeing that something gets done for the people and not the party.


    My first choice for running mates would be Joe Manchin (Democrat) and Susan Collins (Republican). They are both as close to being each others' party as you can get. And I don't care which one runs for President.


    Together, they just might get something done.

  • How about this for an idea? A Republican and Democrat must run on the same ticket, guaranteeing that something gets done for the people and not the party.

    Not so sure. They have a similar arrangement in Northern Ireland with a first minister and deputy first minister, where the first minister comes from the party with the largest Republican or unionist share of the vote, and the deputy from the largest party of the other stripe (even if that party wasn't the second biggest overall). The idea is to force opponents to work together. Since the start the first minister has been a unionist, but in the last elections a Republican party won the biggest share of the vote, and do you think there's a Republican first Minister now? Not a chance. The largest unionist party refused to form a government. In addition, there have been months and years long stretches where the government ceased functioning because of impasses. I'm not convinced Dems and the GOP would be any better.


    I'm also very cynical and believe that, rather than 'party first', US politicians are bought and paid for, and it's actually 'lobbyist first'. I think this is presently true more for repubs than Dems, but look at the situation that's been created. Dems control all three branches of government and are losing on all the major issues their supporters - and the majority of the electorate by most polls - care about. Minority views on abortion, gun control, the climate, healthcare provision etc prevail. And in any debate or argument repubs in future elections can say 'how is it our fault, we weren't even in power '. It's an appalling situation and the Dems need to grow a backbone rapidly. I question whether they have it in them to overcome the poison of vested interests.

    • Official Post

    So you wouid prefer the American system and have a directly elected PM, How would that work? How would an MP be elected to Parliament and then elected as Prime Minister?

    I'd like to point out that there are other voting systems besides the UK and the US systems.

    They patch some of the issues with UK and US systems, but, of course, they also bring their own disadvantages.


    (actually, I am surprised to see how many different basic voting systems there are, according to wikipedia)

  • I'm heartened by this story of a 19 year old texan activist who was shamed by the insectoid suspected pedophile Matt Gaetz for being ugly and overweight. She used the high profile insults to raise over 100k for abortion rights 😆.


    https://twitter.com/thelilynew…xbNfgS3uJJo5PVuZlnfA&s=19


    Edit: update, she has raised 400k now. She also challenged him to stop this Twitter fighting nonsense, and asked when they can settle their differences like adults: an arm-wrestle. She's brilliant.