General Election 2024

[Jim Audiomisc]

So who is this Social Democrat that will revive public services plug the 20 billion pound hole and tax the rich so they don't simultaneously run off with all their money?

They would get my vote.

The question is: In what form is their 'money' (wealth) encapsilated/embodied? Quite often it is ownership of 'shares' of some kind or - quite often - real property. i.e. land and buldings. The advantage of these for the wealthy is the old "Buy land. No-one is making it any more!"

However the potential snag for the ultra-wealthy is that you can't pick up a large Scottish estate and ship it to the Bahamas!

To deal with this we need full and accurate land registration - if necessary based on laws that say the state can decide take ownership of any land whose true benficial owner(s) can't be identified and its case considered.

Scotland has already passed some laws wrt land here that England lacks. e.g. removing the old equivalent of 'leasehold' which is a plague in England. Also the great idea of enabling those who live in a community whose land was owned by a wealthy landlord to organise and get a community buy-out so the people living there can take over ownership.

So there are things we can do - despite the usual chaff thrown up by the press (owned by non-dom ultra-wealthy people).
The idea that we are powerless is one they like to promote. But it isn't actually true.

Again, a parallel with how we meekly pay international companies inflated prices for gas/oil energy rather than have ownership of *our* natural resources... and they take away the profits, leaving our children to pay the extra costs of climate change the companies dodge.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

Labour subscribe to the same parasitic ideals as the Tories.

And the game of Labour/SD/etc all taking turns to be the Tories will continue... until people vote Green. If nothing, in the end the changes in climate impact will make that unavoidable. Just a question of how much we have to suffer and let things get worse before people wake up and realise that. Imperfect as every party may be, one at least is facing the prospects looming.

 

[Woodface]

The betting scandal is really spreading far & wide with many senior people involved, almost certainly at least one cabinet minister & several members of the police! This really is a time of peak grift!

Not read the detail as yet but appears at least one Labour candidate is also implicated.

This really is incredible.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

That’s fine. But in FPTP only Labour or Conservative can win.

Nope. Whoever gets the most votes will win. TBH given how close Labour/LD/Tories are that means voting for any of them is just shuffling the deckchairs a bit so a few people can sit on some-one else's lap.

To deal with reality people will need to face up to voting Green. Break the habit the big parties foster and realise that as more people vote Green, so more will start to see them as a plasuible winner. Vote for what you want. I can't see the point of voting for something you *don't* want... knowing it makes another set of Tories get in again. Vote for what you want, not a pretty rosette colour!

 

[Woodface]

Nope. Whoever gets the most votes will win. TBH given how close Labour/LD/Tories are that means voting for any of them is just shuffling the deckchairs a bit so a few people can sit on some-one else's lap.

To deal with reality people will need to face up to voting Green. Break the habit the big parties foster and realise that as more people vote Green, so more will start to see them as a plasuible winner. Vote for what you want. I can't see the point of voting for something you *don't* want... knowing it makes another set of Tories get in again. Vote for what you want, not a pretty rosette colour!

I do think Green party will get more traction but where are they going to get funds from? Can they even field enough candidates?

The cards are stacked against them.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

I certainly agree that humans need to reduce consumption, of pretty much everything. High interest rates (we don’t have those today) would help achieve that. Lots of tax would too. Maybe some of their policies aren’t so bad in a bid to achieve a lower consumption economy. Can’t see western consumer spending addicts voting for it though.

Need to unpack "consumption" though. Given a reliable source of renewable green energy we can use some of that to "consume" in more renewable ways. Rather than use fossil consumption to fill more and more rubbish dumps.

Entropy does rise, but energy can reverse it locally -and here locally can mean 'on Earth' if we are using an energy flow from outside the Earth. Matter of technology not fate. Will, not inevitability.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

Govts need the golden arrow of consumption to keep getting bigger.

Only because of the delusions of standard economics. In essence, a State Religeon. But faiths come and go, even when the priests try to prevent it and preach to us that we are powerless.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

I do think Green party will get more traction but where are they going to get funds from? Can they even field enough candidates?

The cards are stacked against them.

As their profile rises and reality looms, their numbers - and support - grows. Up to us how quickly it happens.

Full list of all Green Party candidates at the general election

Find out who's standing for the Greens in your area

bright-green.org

 

[Alex S]

Nope. Whoever gets the most votes will win. TBH given how close Labour/LD/Tories are that means voting for any of them is just shuffling the deckchairs a bit so a few people can sit on some-one else's lap.

To deal with reality people will need to face up to voting Green. Break the habit the big parties foster and realise that as more people vote Green, so more will start to see them as a plasuible winner. Vote for what you want. I can't see the point of voting for something you *don't* want... knowing it makes another set of Tories get in again. Vote for what you want, not a pretty rosette colour!

I will probably vote Green. I am not expecting them to win, and nor are they. Nonetheless, I agree with you, the more votes they get in this election the better and that sets them up better in five years time. I was simply stating the fact that only Labour can win this election in FPTP.

 

[Woodface]

As their profile rises and reality looms, their numbers - and support - grows. Up to us how quickly it happens.

Full list of all Green Party candidates at the general election

Find out who's standing for the Greens in your area

bright-green.org

Well its not happened yet, unfortunately people tend to react more to short term problems, Gen Z may well be very different though.

 

[paulfromcamden]

The betting scandal is really spreading far & wide with many senior people involved, almost certainly at least one cabinet minister & several members of the police! This really is a time of peak grift!

Not read the detail as yet but appears at least one Labour candidate is also implicated.

This really is incredible.

The Graun describes the Labour candidate as an "expert in political crisis management".

Just as well I guess..

 

[Somafunk]

Just had my first labour leaflet through the door, they are lying. The latest poll from electoral calculus shows the SNP winning in this area on 42%, Labour on 37%, tories on 21%.
Perhaps labour were winning before the election was called, but to show a poll carried out on the 10 May 2024 on a recently printed leaflet (printed after the election was called) stating that according to latest polling that the Labour Party are winning perfectly sums up the Labour Party to me, slimy lying shapeshifting ****s

 

[Bob McC]

Tory scum misquoting and lying about a Martin Lewis comment now.

Election latest: Sunak attacks Doctor Who star - as Martin Lewis takes on Tories over social media clip

Rishi Sunak has hit out at Doctor Who actor David Tennant, but the Tories are also under fire from another British TV favourite - Martin Lewis. It comes as the election gambling scandal rolls on, and ahead of the prime minister's final head-to-head debate with Sir Keir Starmer.

news.sky.com

 

[mandryka]

"I'm sure you believe everything that you're saying, but I'm saying if you believed something different you wouldn't be sitting where you're sitting."

A priori, the downward pressure on journalists to tow a line surely exists. However there may also be an upward pressure, a pressure from the consumers of journalism.

I'm not a journalist, so I don't have any first hand experience. Andrew Marr is, and I was rather interested in his account of the ethos in the Telegraph in this youtube

 

[droodzilla]

A priori, the downward pressure on journalists to tow a line surely exists. However there may also be an upward pressure, a pressure from the consumers of journalism.

I'm not a journalist, so I don't have any first hand experience. Andrew Marr is, and I was rather interested in his account of the ethos in the Telegraph in this youtube

Also, horizontal pressure.

 

[mandryka]

Also, horizontal pressure.

Yes. There's a sociological concept of habitus -- Pierre Bourdieu.

 

[paulfromcamden]

Tory scum misquoting and lying about a Martin Lewis comment now.

Election latest: Sunak attacks Doctor Who star - as Martin Lewis takes on Tories over social media clip

Rishi Sunak has hit out at Doctor Who actor David Tennant, but the Tories are also under fire from another British TV favourite - Martin Lewis. It comes as the election gambling scandal rolls on, and ahead of the prime minister's final head-to-head debate with Sir Keir Starmer.

news.sky.com

I see from that link Sunak is also having a pop at David Tennent.

Literally any distraction will do at this stage. Truly desperate stuff.

 

[Jamie]

Got a leaflet today from Racist UK, took great delight it tearing across Farage's face, into little bits then in the recycling bin.

 

[gintonic]

2nd Tory leaflet today, so that is Shapps 2, Green 1, and nowt else

 

[MVV]

The nice thing about Reform is the damage they are doing to the Conservative vote. I know some will consider them a threat in some way but I've always known they are there and always have been. Better in plain sight rather than under a stone.