Westminster Politics

Sweet Square

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Long (but good) thread on why we should all ignore Matthew Goodwin:

Cheers. Quite a bit I don't know in there. Goddwin does the standard right wing ''populist'' thing which is to act like neoliberalism wasn't supported by the people he calms are now rejecting it(Tbh they don't seem to be rejecting it that much as the tories are always winning elections). The tory voter who is complaining about immigrate boats today is the same tory voter that put Thatcher in office to destroy the unions(In exchange for high house prices).

Then he does the other act which is pretending that a retired homeowner with a northern accent who's dad used to work in the coal mines, is the real working class rather than a black londoner in their 20's currently working at Starbucks(People can slag off ''commie, liberal elitist'' Corbyn but in the last election, the labour party ran on wanting to teach about the crimes of the British Empire and it won the majority of the working vote, along with pretty much everyone under the age of 45)

Then there's just pure shite like ''British culture''(Meaningless term), the idea that David Cameron/Osborne cared about progressive in the cities or this random 15% of the population who are trying to change the country into their image(Anti semitism alarm is going off).

So yeah, might be better if he sticks to eating books.
 

UweBein

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"British culture" - meaningless term?
Interesting. You speak like the Brits are still living up there in them trees.
 
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Long (but good) thread on why we should all ignore Matthew Goodwin:

I have to admit I merely skimmed through it, but my impression was that it's more a criticism of his language and apparemt bias, and not his methodology? I might have got that wrong though.
He describes a lot of the dire political hinterland very accurately and that there is no real alternative to the two party system ever emerging until new positions are taken within that hinterland.
I feel his 'sense' is reflective of how things are right now, whether we agree with it or not.
I had never heard about him before today, and I don't live in Britain, but my ideologue radar didn't immediately go off. I feel like it's quite symptomatic of the current information landscape that you find it accurare and others call it ideologically driven nonsense. I don't know what to think now :lol:
 

Frosty

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I have to admit I merely skimmed through it, but my impression was that it's more a criticism of his language and apparemt bias, and not his methodology? I might have got that wrong though.


I had never heard about him before today, and I don't live in Britain, but my ideologue radar didn't immediately go off. I feel like it's quite symptomatic of the current information landscape that you find it accurare and others call it ideologically driven nonsense. I don't know what to think now :lol:
I have some personal knowledge of him.

This tweet is indicative:


He is a member of the Free Speech Union and that Daily Mail article is pushing a clear agenda.

That's fine. That's what academics do. I have zero problem with that.

I have a problem with Goodwin and others who present themselves as neutral actors who are impartial whilst fighting a culture war that is distracting from the real issues faced by millions of people living in the UK.
 

dumbo

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It's amazing the number of groups and number of people in these groups who are trying so hard to normalise this weirdo shit.

The cruelty and illegality isn't surprising but seeing long standing media organisations and Conservative politicians contorting themselves to be like yep this is ok, is mad.

These Tories are so, so much like the Nazis in their bizarre grotesquery. Their oddball posturing and wacko mythologies makes them the spit of their 1930s counterparts.
 

Maticmaker

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I had never heard about him before today, and I don't live in Britain, but my ideologue radar didn't immediately go off. I feel like it's quite symptomatic of the current information landscape that you find it accurare and others call it ideologically driven nonsense. I don't know what to think now :lol:
Then my advice is to adapt a mind set like everyone else (seems to do) that 'your truth' is the only real truth... and start from there. Also to continual refer to others who don't agree with you as ..at best 'Muppets'... or at worse 'Morons'. However beware this almost always never works in convincing people they are wrong and you are right and can lead you to self doubt or maybe just to wonder why others cannot see or understand that you are right.

*The posts in the Red caf are full of these practical examples... :rolleyes::confused::lol:
 

Superden

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Priti Patel alluding to corruption when discussing party gate and Boris and sue gray on a gb news clip earlier. How about someone from the left accuse her to her face if her corrupt ppe dealings. Then the world would cave in with outrage at the sheer audacity of accusing her.

The left need to start throwing punches the way the right do.
 

Pexbo

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Priti Patel alluding to corruption when discussing party gate and Boris and sue gray on a gb news clip earlier. How about someone from the left accuse her to her face if her corrupt ppe dealings. Then the world would cave in with outrage at the sheer audacity of accusing her.

The left need to start throwing punches the way the right do.
The left aren’t allowed to get their hands dirty like that. It’s a moral outrage when they do.

Tory Scum.
 

finneh

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The Tories just can't resist giving a big tax cut to the very (as far as I'm concerned) wealthy, every single budget. This time in tax relief on pension contributions, just when everyone else's tax is actually going up because of the continued freezing of personal allowances. The excuse is to stop surgeons retiring early, which they could have addressed by raising surgeon's wages or increasing their government pension contributions, ie without giving every very high earner in the country a big tax cut. But they're Tories, that's what they do.

I doubt if they'll have to wait until 2025 either.
Remember the Tapered Annual Allowance applies so people earning £360k+ per annum still only get tax relief on £10k pension contributions per annum (admittedly up from £4k per annum previously). Between £260k and £360k you "lose" £1 of tax relief for every £2 earned.

It would be very difficult to get tax relief on a pension pot above the £1.073m pre-budget limit whilst only getting relief on £10k per year.

It's a tax cut on the upper middle classes (and middle classes in London) rather than the very wealthy. Although "very wealthy" is subjective of course.
 

TwoSheds

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Remember the Tapered Annual Allowance applies so people earning £360k+ per annum still only get tax relief on £10k pension contributions per annum (admittedly up from £4k per annum previously). Between £260k and £360k you "lose" £1 of tax relief for every £2 earned.

It would be very difficult to get tax relief on a pension pot above the £1.073m pre-budget limit whilst only getting relief on £10k per year.

It's a tax cut on the upper middle classes (and middle classes in London) rather than the very wealthy. Although "very wealthy" is subjective of course.
£360k a year is very wealthy and it's a symptom of a broken economic system that that isn't necessarily thought of as being the case. If you're earning 10x the average salary, by anybody's view you should be considered very wealthy. I think when that law was proposed in Switzerland it was that nobody at a company should earn more than 12x what the lowest paid worker earned. I think the more recognised number might be 20x. Either way, you're well on your way towards that.
 

finneh

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£360k a year is very wealthy and it's a symptom of a broken economic system that that isn't necessarily thought of as being the case. If you're earning 10x the average salary, by anybody's view you should be considered very wealthy. I think when that law was proposed in Switzerland it was that nobody at a company should earn more than 12x what the lowest paid worker earned. I think the more recognised number might be 20x. Either way, you're well on your way towards that.
The point was just that people on £360k per annum wouldn't benefit from the change. It's people on £125k - £250k who'll benefit the most (especially those with large, usually public sector, pensions on top).
 

TwoSheds

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The point was just that people on £360k per annum wouldn't benefit from the change. It's people on £125k - £250k who'll benefit the most (especially those with large, usually public sector, pensions on top).
So in other words ministers and MPs with 2nd jobs. Great.
 

Sparky Rhiwabon

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The Tories have been steadily rising in the polls the last few months. Don’t forget that they won the last election at a canter on the Brexit vote, and that’s exactly who they’re aiming at winning back with these anti-immigrant policies.
 

Bert_

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The Tories have been steadily rising in the polls the last few months. Don’t forget that they won the last election at a canter on the Brexit vote, and that’s exactly who they’re aiming at winning back with these anti-immigrant policies.
They've also disenfranchised a good portion of the population that would vote against them in future elections. I saw the first advert today (a billboard) informing me that ID will be required before you can vote in the May elections. Spoke to many friends/family recently that have no idea it will be a thing from May elections onwards. Weird the adverts start appearing so close to the elections that anyone who doesn't have ID probably won't be able to get it (i.e. buy it as no free ones available [edit - unless you're a pensioner]) until after the election.
 

UweBein

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The Tories have been steadily rising in the polls the last few months. Don’t forget that they won the last election at a canter on the Brexit vote, and that’s exactly who they’re aiming at winning back with these anti-immigrant policies.
Especially if they bring people in numbers over to Rwanda, it will be a problem for Labour to win.
 

cyberman

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The Tories have been steadily rising in the polls the last few months. Don’t forget that they won the last election at a canter on the Brexit vote, and that’s exactly who they’re aiming at winning back with these anti-immigrant policies.
What?
 

TwoSheds

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I'd love to believe these numbers. If the Greens could get more than just the one MP in and the Tories were crushed we might even have a fighting chance at getting some growth in the economy and putting some type of dent in our climate targets over the next few years...
 

Fully Fledged

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Priti Patel alluding to corruption when discussing party gate and Boris and sue gray on a gb news clip earlier. How about someone from the left accuse her to her face if her corrupt ppe dealings. Then the world would cave in with outrage at the sheer audacity of accusing her.

The left need to start throwing punches the way the right do.
They don't have the media behind them. There would be wholesale condemnation for such a statement.