General Election 2024

[Big Tabs]

List here:

Accepted forms of photo ID

You need to show photo ID when voting at polling stations in some UK elections. Find out about the different types of photo ID accepted.

www.electoralcommission.org.uk

Again worth asking everyone with voting age kids, grandchildren etc make absolutely sure they know this. We are all relying on them!

I don’t understand.
I thought I had read in this thread that you don’t vote re: P.R. or is that just not voting for Labour?
confused because of encouraging everyone /kids to vote

apologies if it’s obvious, I just need explanations some times.

 

[Tony L]

I thought I had read in this thread that you don’t vote re: P.R. or is that just not voting for Labour?

I don’t think I’ve ever not voted, maybe the odd local election in That London when I was moving around all over the place, but other than that a full set since I was first able to vote (1983 was my first).

With a couple of tactical exceptions I have only ever voted for PR supporting parties. I fully understand my vote is a waste of my time/insult to my intelligence as I will not receive representation for it, but I still do it as my vote counts on the increasing national tally for PR-supporting parties. It is worth my effort to be recorded in that deliberately disenfranchised statistic. It removes ambiguity. No one can accuse me of being lazy even though I respect those who fully grasp they have no voice in our system and choose not to waste their time with it.

I want to see more young folk voting. They are our only hope for change. The Tory/Labour establishment is just a dinosaur that refuses to die. It needs shooting in both heads.

 

[gez]

Sunak has almost certainly achieved his goals; securing multi-£bn contracts for Infosys, saved his wife millions in tax, even provided bogus covid grants etc, and rolled back the UK’s green climate agenda, all the while flying around all over the place securing business deals in a helicopter at our expense. I remain convinced he is, by far, the most corrupt and devious leader in UK history (at least since widespread voting was introduced). He has taken us all for £bns and left a mess that will take generations to sort out. The only good thing is he looks to have caused huge damage the Conservative Party in the process.

I view Sunak as very different to the usual clueless class-warrior elite curled-out onto Tory benches via Eton and the Bullingdon Club. This one was a real oligarch who somehow wormed his way into Downing St.

I genuinely don't understand why someone in his financial situation would ever enter politics in the first place. Other than for ego/power reasons. I mean the minute he got married he had access to more than enough wealth than he could ever manage to dispose of no matter what lifestyle he chose to lead.

I suppose I just don't understand how anyone who once have accrued stupid levels of wealth in their bank accounts don't just opt out of the shit that is the modern rat race and go live the rest of their lives in some quiet tropical villiage/town and spend life having 12 month long beach/travelling holidays till they die.

 

[Mick P]

I have never missed a vote in my entire life and as such I feel I have earned the right to moan if I so wish to do so.

I am seriously thinking of not bothering for this election but then I loose the moral right to moan. If you don't vote, it's naff to complain. Better to go in and spoil your voting slip than just give up a right that our ancestors fought like hell for. You owe it to them if nothing else, so JFDI and show some respect to them.

So I will probably vote for the raving monster looney party even if it is a total waste of time.

 

[Kirk]

They have not, and under elite establishment rule, will never be given the opportunity to put that to the test. We do not live in a democracy. The gerrymandered FPTP system ensures right-wing minority rule. That is exactly what it was designed to do.

The one thing I keep coming back to is taking personality, smears, and Brexit out of the equation Corbyn’s manifesto was very popular. He was destroyed by events, the establishment and their offshore press barons, his own party, and being a bit of an idiot, but the progressive policies he tried to sell met with approval. They polled well. People do want a more progressive, compassionate and accountable system. We are just not allowed it as the UK is still owned and run by elites.

Back in the day when the militants were trying very hard to take over the country, you could find one of two on the left with the intellectual gravitas and maturity to put forward a decent argument (Benn being one). That left has now morphed into an activist protest movement with little to offer beyond binary arguments, Tweets, outrage and moral imperialism. While activism is important, it's largely a niche industry and not one most voters want to attach their votes to. If JC had been a little less activist, shown a bit more maturity and intellectual rigour, and put together a more rounded manifesto, he might well have won in 2017.

 

[gez]

Sixteen- and 17-year-olds could be given the right to vote if Labour wins the general election, Keir Starmer has confirmed.

Well of course. He knows young people are far more likely to vote Labour. It's not because he really believes in the right of young people to vote. It's just a policy of the same ilk as the conservatives changing constituency boundaries to ensure a higher number of conservative seats returned. A reduction of the voting age will mean a higher percentage of labour voters entering the voter pool. Nothing more nothing less, and everything else he says as for reasons why he wants to do it are 100% disingenuous.

 

[gez]

National Service....I nearly spat my tea out. Let's get back to the good old days. We can bring back rickets and diphtheria as well.

Well they already started on that. TB has been on the rise for over a decade now.

 

[gez]

Hmmm, look at the way Reform is carving up the vote for the uber right wing. Assuming if they did not exist all people voting for them would vote Tory and it's quite a different picture overall.

We need to stop the over 50s (that's me btw) from voting

Even if you combine the votes, it's not actually until you get to the over 60's where the blue vote is larger than the red one. The 50-59 group is still 46 v 34 in favour of red.

 

[paulfromcamden]

So I will probably vote for the raving monster looney party even if it is a total waste of time.

Why not Labour Mick? Serious question. I'd have thought their current direction of travel would be a great match for traditional One Nation Tories.

 

[kensalriser]

Why not Labour Mick? Serious question. I'd have thought their current direction of travel would be a great match for traditional One Nation Tories.

Although our resident Tories have adopted the coping strategy of arguing there's no difference between Labour and Tory, you can bet that once they arrive in the polling booth they will revert to tribal loyalty.

Also, I've always considered 'One Nation Toryism' to be a piece of marketing spin. It's a con. They're still Tories and they still vote to enact all the hateful legislation of Tory governments.

 

[Somafunk]

I genuinely don't understand why someone in his financial situation would ever enter politics in the first place. Other than for ego/power reasons. I mean the minute he got married he had access to more than enough wealth than he could ever manage to dispose of no matter what lifestyle he chose to lead.

I suppose I just don't understand how anyone who once have accrued stupid levels of wealth in their bank accounts don't just opt out of the shit that is the modern rat race and go live the rest of their lives in some quiet tropical villiage/town and spend life having 12 month long beach/travelling holidays till they die.

His father in law more than likely had something to do with it, look at lil rishi cosying up to Modi and forging closer UK/India ties despite what Modi is doing by clearly targeting Muslims in India,

All rishi wants is a pat on the head and told he’s a “good boy”

 

[Seanm]

Although our resident Tories have adopted the coping strategy of arguing there's no difference between Labour and Tory, you can bet that once they arrive in the polling booth they will revert to tribal loyalty.

Also, I've always considered 'One Nation Toryism' to be a piece of marketing spin. It's a con. They're still Tories and they still vote to enact all the hateful legislation of Tory governments.

Yep, complete con.

 

[TheFlash]

I think the header "Tory conscription policy is a ludicrous, desperate stunt" nails it for me.

 

[TheFlash]

Because we have a massive problem with too many people wanting to be doctors, nurses, teachers, prison officers, police officers etc, and we really need to get those numbers down?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1794837181657493854

I think we will find lots of politicians being very vocal about "actively considering" lots of things over the next few weeks...

 

[ks.234]

Why not Labour Mick? Serious question. I'd have thought their current direction of travel would be a great match for traditional One Nation Tories.

I would argue that One Nation Toryism is closer to the past war social democratic consensus than what overthrew it in the 70’s. One Nation Tories were sympathetic to full employment and the Welfare state and the neoliberalism that overthrew it was antithetical to social democracy as well as the social and economic imperatives of One Nationism

It seems to me that there are significant tensions between Thatcherism and One Nation Tory.

That said, the current direction of travel is a continuation of the Thatcherite project, Reeves narrative is very Thatcher, so should appeal to Thatcherites.

 

[Mick P]

Although our resident Tories have adopted the coping strategy of arguing there's no difference between Labour and Tory, you can bet that once they arrive in the polling booth they will revert to tribal loyalty.

Also, I've always considered 'One Nation Toryism' to be a piece of marketing spin. It's a con. They're still Tories and they still vote to enact all the hateful legislation of Tory governments.

You are soooooo wrong.

There is nothing wrong with tribal loyalty as long as the leadership deliver what the supporters want.

Unfortunately Rishi is failing miserably and Kier is saying all the right things. Rachel Reeves is the spitting image of George Osborne and she's got the makings of another Maggie and I am really beginning to like her.

The latest lash up of a glorified conscription is now the last straw.

I am seriously considering voting Labour in the GE.

 

[ks.234]

You are soooooo wrong.

There is nothing wrong with tribal loyalty as long as the leadership deliver what the supporters want.

Unfortunately Rishi is failing miserably and Kier is saying all the right things. Rachel Reeves is the spitting image of George Osborne and she's got the makings of another Maggie and I am really beginning to like her.

The latest lash up of a glorified conscription is now the last straw.

I am seriously considering voting Labour in the GE.

Labour supporters who are voting for Starmer hoping for change from the hated Tories should read this. The only change Labour will offer is more Osborne and more Thatcher, more austerity and more privatisation.

 

[wulbert]

I suppose I just don't understand how anyone who once have accrued stupid levels of wealth in their bank accounts don't just opt out of the shit that is the modern rat race and go live the rest of their lives in some quiet tropical villiage/town and spend life having 12 month long beach/travelling holidays till they die.

Me too. I don't understand them. I have concluded that people like Sunak (who don a sweaty business suit every morning in order to accumulate another lifetime's worth of cash, that they can never spend) are mentally ill. They have become dazzled by money and have completely lost touch with what it means to be a human being. He, and those like him, have actually gone mad in a very real sense.

For that reason, I think people like Sunak, and all other oligarch types, should be pro-actively kept well away from any democratic process. There should be massive legal firewalls erected around our democratic process, media and government specifically designed to keep out billionaires and protect society from their baleful and endangering influence. They are not sane and rational people.

 

[ks.234]

Starmer has just described himself as a “socialist” to Chris Mason.

Satire is now dead

 

[Tony L]

Today’s LOL is Tory MP Lucy Allen has been suspended for supporting Reform in her seat.

In a surprise to absolutely no one Sky News are platforming elite public school far-right extremist Richard Tice right now to gloat. Zero parliamentary seats won, two councillors, yet never off our TV screens.

….the fascist shithead is quoting the bloody Henry Jackson Society to justify Zionist genocide now.

PS I sincerely hope Labour stick to their pledge to tax private schools fairly. We really need to do something about the truly vile people these entities churn out into our politics. They have been ruining this country with their entitlement, ethnic exceptionalism and bigotry for centuries. They need to be viewed as a pathway to radicalisation.