General Election 2024

[Seanm]

I think that's really implausible, just because you don't get to the top of any big organisation unless you can do politics. And he can go to California next Spring -- he's not going to jeopardise everything he's tried to build for just five months. The only rational explanation is that he's calculated that now is the best time for his party, that there's something which he thinks will happen in the second half of 2024 which will make the Conservatives chances worse.

I can believe it. Even our degraded form of politics is at least a *bit* different to politicking in an ordinary organisation: a managed democracy is still a democracy and there are quite a few points where elite manoeuvring comes into contact with the reality of mass politics. Sunak’s problem - Starmer’s too - is that he owes his position entirely to elite manoeuvring: he was hothoused and then dropped into position as the Treasury/City’s place man, he’s never had to persuade anyone beyond a few kingmakers that he has political values, goals and skills and, well, he probably doesn’t.

I think it’s a general problem and one of the reasons that politics is so volatile at the moment: there’s a huge gulf between the professional media-politics class, with the elite stage managing almost everything, but every now and then being forced into contact with democratic reality and just immediately exploding. Thinking here of the Labour leadership contest of 2015 (supposed to have been a shoe-in for someone like Yvette Cooper), the Remain campaign (and its sequel, People’s Vote), Theresa May, Change UK (the Pundits’ Party), now Sunak and soon, surely, Starmer and co.

Good article here on what Sunak and Starmer have in common:

Both feted and gilded, Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are two sides of the same rotten politics | Aditya Chakrabortty

After three days of the election campaign, it’s clear the PM will change – our rotten political system won’t, writes Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

www.theguardian.com

 

[ks.234]

This is copied from @Tony L in the Gaza Thread. If it is inappropriate here, I guess he’s the chap to pull it.

But in the context of what we will be getting after July 4, it is more of this.

The UK should pull its funding from the International Criminal Court

How would we have felt if Britain’s leaders had been indicted alongside leaders of the IRA or if Churchill had been treated in the same way as Hitler?

www.thejc.com

 

[gavreid]

This guy is taking on Phillips in Yardley - good luck to him:

 

[gavreid]

Andrew Feinstein taking on Starmer, another great interview. Just the idea that he might stand a chance...

"A lot of people are questioning where he [Starman] represents his billionaire donors or the people who he is elected to represent"

 

[Seanm]

I mean…

“Which party do you think best represents ‘change’?

Conservatives: 10%
Labour: 34%
Neither: 43%”

x.com

x.com

Public are so far ahead of their supposed representatives it’s not funny. Increasingly difficult to pretend that we don’t live in a managed democracy.

 

[ks.234]

I mean…

“Which party do you think best represents ‘change’?

Conservatives: 10%
Labour: 34%
Neither: 43%”

x.com

x.com

Public are so far ahead of their supposed representatives it’s not funny. Increasingly difficult to pretend that we don’t live in a managed democracy.

Manufacturing Consent - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1921. The beginnings of democracy.

 

[ks.234]

I can believe it. Even our degraded form of politics is at least a *bit* different to politicking in an ordinary organisation: a managed democracy is still a democracy and there are quite a few points where elite manoeuvring comes into contact with the reality of mass politics. Sunak’s problem - Starmer’s too - is that he owes his position entirely to elite manoeuvring: he was hothoused and then dropped into position as the Treasury/City’s place man, he’s never had to persuade anyone beyond a few kingmakers that he has political values, goals and skills and, well, he probably doesn’t.

I think it’s a general problem and one of the reasons that politics is so volatile at the moment: there’s a huge gulf between the professional media-politics class, with the elite stage managing almost everything, but every now and then being forced into contact with democratic reality and just immediately exploding. Thinking here of the Labour leadership contest of 2015 (supposed to have been a shoe-in for someone like Yvette Cooper), the Remain campaign (and its sequel, People’s Vote), Theresa May, Change UK (the Pundits’ Party), now Sunak and soon, surely, Starmer and co.

Good article here on what Sunak and Starmer have in common:

Both feted and gilded, Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are two sides of the same rotten politics | Aditya Chakrabortty

After three days of the election campaign, it’s clear the PM will change – our rotten political system won’t, writes Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

www.theguardian.com

“Two different countries, two different futures,” said Starmer this week. Not according to his own economics. He and Rachel Reeves have sworn themselves to budgetary rules that are practically identical to those currently enforced by Sunak and Jeremy Hunt – which leaves both sides on the hook for huge spending cuts”​

​

Or two cheeks of the same arse as someone once said​

 

[billo]

Andrew Feinstein taking on Starmer, another great interview. Just the idea that he might stand a chance...

"A lot of people are questioning where he [Starman] represents his billionaire donors or the people who he is elected to represent"

This is the one and only strategy The Tories have got to stop being completely humiliated and that is to put off the Labour voter by insinuating that they (politicians ) are all the same . I see several members here are sucking it up. They know their time is up but if they can turn around and say that Labour did not poll as well as expected then they can lick their wounds in a happy place.

 

[gavreid]

This is the one and only strategy The Tories have got to stop being completely humiliated and that is to put off the Labour voter by insinuating that they (politicians ) are all the same . I see several members here are sucking it up. They know their time is up but if they can turn around and say that Labour did not poll as well as expected then they can lick their wounds in a happy place.

I'd love Labour to wake up on 5th July leaderless. Not that anyone would notice, the party compares unfavourably to a vacuum.

To plagiarise Rowan Atkinson, If the whole Party could be likened to a compost heap, and I think it can, then Starmer would be the biggest weed growing out of it! I think he's the sort of man people emigrate to avoid... I spurn him as I spurn a rabied dog!

 

[gavreid]

Owen Jones talks to George Monbiot about Neoliberalism. What is it?

 

[paulfromcamden]

I mean…

“Which party do you think best represents ‘change’?

Conservatives: 10%
Labour: 34%
Neither: 43%”

That's a little unfair. You just have to look at Brexit to see how the Conservative Party have brought about massive change in this country.

 

[ks.234]

Owen Jones talks to George Monbiot about Neoliberalism. What is it?

​

“Capitalism's greatest problem, which it is always seeking to solve, is called democracy. And capitalism was getting along just fine before most adults led the vote. And when most adults led the vote, they started using it to say, well, you know, we don't want to be exploited.​

​

And ever since then, capitalism has been trying to fix this problem. And it wasn't particularly good at it, but neoliberalism has given it the solution and it's now become extremely good at fixing this problem and indeed at surviving and expanding even within the nominally democratic”​

 

[Bjork67]

Am just going to vote conservative then. Whats the point eh. Might as well stab screwdrivers in our eyes.

 

[gavreid]

Do what you want! Unfortunately I've only got one of Starmer's cronies to vote for...

 

[ks.234]

“If you talk about this word, beginning with N, neoliberalism, the eye rolling starts, oh, what is neoliberalism? It's not a thing. This is just some pretentious set of jargon that you leftists, you devious leftists have come up with.”​

From The Owen Jones Podcast: A Masterclass On The Mess We're In w/. George Monbiot, 23 May 2024

‎The Owen Jones Podcast: A Masterclass On The Mess We're In w/. George Monbiot on Apple Podcasts

‎Show The Owen Jones Podcast, Ep A Masterclass On The Mess We're In w/. George Monbiot - 22 May 2024

podcasts.apple.com

This material may be protected by copyright.

 

[droodzilla]

That's a little unfair. You just have to look at Brexit to see how the Conservative Party have brought about massive change in this country.

That was Farage. Credit where credit's due.

 

[hifinutt]

This guy is taking on Phillips in Yardley - good luck to him:

good luck to him , Jess Phillips is a brilliant MP .

 

[hifinutt]

one shocking fact i note is that although Reform will be standing 630 candidates in the UK , they had to stump up their own 500 quid deposits because last year Reform only had 255, 000 in Donations . Just contrast that to the millions the Taxi guy Addison Lee owner gave to the conservatives . Reform face an uphill struggle there

 

[paulfromcamden]

one shocking fact i note is that although Reform will be standing 630 candidates in the UK , they had to stump up their own 500 quid deposits because last year Reform only had 255, 000 in Donations . Just contrast that to the millions the Taxi guy Addison Lee owner gave to the conservatives . Reform face an uphill struggle there

The Conservatives got Addison Lee and Reform got Lee Anderson.

One's a money spinning commercial operation that anyone with sufficient funds can rent. The other is a car service.

 

[mandryka]

I can believe it. Even our degraded form of politics is at least a *bit* different to politicking in an ordinary organisation: a managed democracy is still a democracy and there are quite a few points where elite manoeuvring comes into contact with the reality of mass politics. Sunak’s problem - Starmer’s too - is that he owes his position entirely to elite manoeuvring: he was hothoused and then dropped into position as the Treasury/City’s place man, he’s never had to persuade anyone beyond a few kingmakers that he has political values, goals and skills and, well, he probably doesn’t.

I think it’s a general problem and one of the reasons that politics is so volatile at the moment: there’s a huge gulf between the professional media-politics class, with the elite stage managing almost everything, but every now and then being forced into contact with democratic reality and just immediately exploding. Thinking here of the Labour leadership contest of 2015 (supposed to have been a shoe-in for someone like Yvette Cooper), the Remain campaign (and its sequel, People’s Vote), Theresa May, Change UK (the Pundits’ Party), now Sunak and soon, surely, Starmer and co.

Good article here on what Sunak and Starmer have in common:

Both feted and gilded, Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are two sides of the same rotten politics | Aditya Chakrabortty

After three days of the election campaign, it’s clear the PM will change – our rotten political system won’t, writes Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

www.theguardian.com

There's a simpler (and hence IMO preferable) explanation.. The Energy Price Cap has come down -- and it'll go up again in Autumn. The country's not in recession, but only just so who knows how it will go over the next six months? Rwanda is still a possibility. The NHS is running less chaotically now that warmer weather is here.


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