Westminster Politics

Paul the Wolf

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Exactly.
The Rwanda plan is just a gimmick. A gimmick by an interestingly desperate government.
Even yesterday, despite the freezing seas, more small boats attempted the channel crossing.

The chances of being one of the 500 per year who could be sent to Rwanda are tiny in the extreme.

The people traffickers are not stupid (how many have actually been caught) and will very quickly find out the numbers sent to Rwanda and assure their customers that the deterrent has passed, assuming it is indeed a deterrent in the first place.
And of course, the UK has signed up to a returns agreement with that country. Something Sunak conveniently omits to mention.
Two of the people trafficker leaders have been found. One in Ilford and one in Wolverhampton. There were almost no small boats prior to Brexit. Another thing they supposedly knew what they were voting for. No-one will be sent to Rwanda. But if they are, the UK can say goodbye to their trade agreements.
 

Jericholyte2

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To anyone, ANYONE who even dares to suggest that this small boats gimmick is anything close to the nation's priority I simply have two words - Bronson Battersby.
 

Mr Pigeon

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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Step One - say something dumb
Step Two - accept that you made a mistake and grow as a person avoid the mistake, blame others, try and change the subject, continue ranting until people give up talking to you so you can claim you've "won"
 

Pexbo

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What a gormless cnut.

He’s shown his dislike for Brexit and the Tory contempt for Ireland and the EU in general. He no doubt also feels that diplomatically we aren’t really worth the effort compared to when we were a powerful EU leader.

Trump on the other hand will be there to facilitate all the disaster economic vulturing that Brexit was designed for.
 

TheGame

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He’s shown his dislike for Brexit and the Tory contempt for Ireland and the EU in general. He no doubt also feels that diplomatically we aren’t really worth the effort compared to when we were a powerful EU leader.

Trump on the other hand will be there to facilitate all the disaster economic vulturing that Brexit was designed for.
Trump didn't give a toss about a trade deal last time he was in. They only want right wing nutjobs in Government.
 

Pexbo

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Trump didn't give a toss about a trade deal last time he was in. They only want right wing nutjobs in Government.
Trump didn’t give a toss about economic policy with the UK. Neither does Rees Mogg. Their mates and donors very much care about access to food and health markets.
 

Smores

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The problem with neoliberalism is you eventually run out of housing.

At this rate Labour might become the centre/centre-right party with another party becoming the established centre-left opposition.
 

Mr Pigeon

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The dad too, just knowing, unable to protect him.

Broken me tbh
The mum's comments today have set me off a bit though - saying it's the social worker's fault that her son is dead because they didn't force entry into the house on January 2nd. The mum hadn't been in contact with her ex to check in on her 2 year old son since before Christmas.
 

Pexbo

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At this rate Labour might become the centre/centre-right party with another party becoming the established centre-left opposition.
Or the Overton window has shifted so far right that right wing Labour are the left wing party still?
 

Sweet Square

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At this rate Labour might become the centre/centre-right party with another party becoming the established centre-left opposition.
Will be interesting to see what happens to Labour polling with the under 50’s once it gets into government and does nothing.
Or the Overton window has shifted so far right that right wing Labour are the left wing party still?
Is there genuinely a difference in policy between the Labour right and the tories ?
 

Smores

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Or the Overton window has shifted so far right that right wing Labour are the left wing party still?
A depressing thought but probably true right now.

It'll depend on if the link between age and moving right is broken as seems to be the case. If this generation are done with the Tories and there's less of an ongoing shift right, with the issues facing humanity a left wing party might be the more prevalent voice of opposition in GE 2029.

OR our AI robot overlords will have already put Starmers head on a pike. Hard to call.
 

Murder on Zidanes Floor

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The mum's comments today have set me off a bit though - saying it's the social worker's fault that her son is dead because they didn't force entry into the house on January 2nd. The mum hadn't been in contact with her ex to check in on her 2 year old son since before Christmas.
Yeah the mum is a state
 

Pexbo

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Will be interesting to see what happens to Labour polling with the under 50’s once it gets into government and does nothing.

Is there genuinely a difference in policy between the Labour right and the tories ?
Zero. the difference is that Labour claim they will end cronyism - have to see if that’s true when they get into power. The fact so many Labour MPs have the same corporate donors and second jobs as Tories makes me very skeptical.
 

Pexbo

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And all the money Thatcher got from the sales was spunked on tax cuts to bribe people into voting for her. It could have been invested in more social housing for a win-win situation but the ideological cow couldn't care less about where people might live in the future.
 

Sweet Square

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Zero. the difference is that Labour claim they will end cronyism - have to see if that’s true when they get into power. The fact so many Labour MPs have the same corporate donors and second jobs as Tories makes me very skeptical.
The only way I can make sense of Labour current plans is they genuinely think they are morally better than the tories and this is all that is needed to somehow make the country better.
 

Ekkie Thump

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Come on man. Everyone here seems to be saying this.

Labour had shitloads of policies signed off at conference. Tracker from conference onwards (including summaries). They’ve just aligned them to 5 key missions. Latest Refresh

I can accept anyone reading it, and shooting it to pieces. Whether that’s because they don’t go far enough, are too centrist or whatever. For me, there’s a lot of good in there, some great, and the pursuit of the Missions and policies for a decade would leave this country back on its feet, looking forward.

But politically engaged people, trotting out the line ‘Labour only offer “we’re not the Tories” and don’t have any policies’… Nah.

They’re standing on a pile of fully costed intent, and suggesting otherwise is just enabling the Tories. There’s a reason that these policies aren’t promoted. The Press.
Out of that giant morass of bullet points and ambiguities what would you say are the top 5 headline policies that will define a Starmer government?

I managed to divine nine or ten contenders that seem to contain at least some concrete proposals, some of which might even have their own subclauses:
  • £28bn Green Prosperity Plan (implementation towards the end of the next parliament and highly dependent upon state of economy).
  • Minimum wage to be remodelled as a "genuine living wage" and updated to reflect a yet to be defined standard under the remit of the Low Pay Commission
  • Repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act and other 2022 anti-strike legislation, although this seems to be up in the air
  • Introduce a points based immigration system.
  • Introduce the 'Take Back Control Act', similar to the Conservatives, allowing local authorities to take more control over areas like industrial strategy and transport (bit short on detail).
  • Reduce the voting age to 16 (not sure if this is set in stone)
  • Renationalise the railways as and when contracts expire.
  • Free breakfast clubs and the overseeing of toothbrushing.
  • 13k more community police officers (or PCSO's); halving knife crime in 10 years.
  • 8.5k more mental health staff
There's an enormous amount of guff in the link you provided. Lots of meaningless platitudes like "break down the barriers to opportunity" and "unlock the potential of" or amorphous and materially lacking indications of future endeavours: We learn that Labour will "develop plans which will see", "develop policies to ensure", "set out a clear roadmap for" "deliver a long term plan that" and "introduce standards that will." It all sounds very exciting and yet despite its verbosity is very slight on fundamental detail.

My main takeaway is that that page is going out of its way to sound like it's a lot more than it actually is.


Edit: I confess I did try to read it all but my eyes started to involuntarily glaze over on many more than one occasions.
 
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Sweet Square

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Out of that giant morass of bullet points and ambiguities what would you say are the top 5 headline policies that will define a Starmer government?

I managed to divine nine or ten contenders that seem to contain at least some concrete proposals, some of which might even have their own subclauses:
  • £28bn Green Prosperity Plan (implementation towards the end of the next parliament and highly dependent upon state of economy).
  • Minimum wage to be remodelled as a "genuine living wage" and updated to reflect a yet to be defined standard under the remit of the Low Pay Commission
  • Repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act and other 2022 anti-strike legislation, although this seems to be up in the air
  • Introduce a points based immigration system.
  • Introduce the 'Take Back Control Act', similar to the Conservatives, allowing local authorities to take more control over areas like industrial strategy and transport (bit short on detail).
  • Reduce the voting age to 16 (not sure if this is set in stone)
  • Renationalise the railways as and when contracts expire.
  • Free breakfast clubs and the overseeing of toothbrushing.
  • 13k more community police officers (or PCSO's); halving knife crime in 10 years.
  • 8.5k more mental health staff
There's an enormous amount of guff in the link you provided. Lots of meaningless platitudes like "break down the barriers to opportunity" and "unlock the potential of" or amorphous and materially lacking indications of future endeavours: We learn that Labour will "develop plans which will see", "develop policies to ensure", "set out a clear roadmap for" "deliver a long term plan that" and "introduce standards that will." It all sounds very exciting and yet despite its verbosity is very slight on fundamental detail.

My main takeaway is that that page is going out of its way to sound like it's a lot more than it actually is.


Edit: I confess I did try to read it all but my eyes started to involuntarily glaze over on many more than one occasions.
Yep. Also to take any of these policies seriously would mean ignoring all the pledges Starmer has dropped since becoming leader.

There’s just no evidence Labour will keep to any promises. The guy is running on not believing in this

 
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Balljy

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The mum's comments today have set me off a bit though - saying it's the social worker's fault that her son is dead because they didn't force entry into the house on January 2nd. The mum hadn't been in contact with her ex to check in on her 2 year old son since before Christmas.
It sounds like the social worker called the police on the 2nd anyway, so on face value it sounds like they did a decent job. It makes me wonder what the police did with it though if they knew there was a 2 year-old involved.
 

Mr Pigeon

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It sounds like the social worker called the police on the 2nd anyway, so on face value it sounds like they did a decent job. It makes me wonder what the police did with it though if they knew there was a 2 year-old involved.
Not only did they call the police but they canvassed neighbours, checked in two days later and called the police again, and then found the landlady to get access to the house and then discovered the two bodies. And now they're off work, presumably seeing professionals to work through the trauma. But according to mother of the fecking year it's all the social worker's fault.

I'll admit it riles me up more than it should simply because I don't want to think about the poor kiddo.
 

Balljy

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Not only did they call the police but they canvassed neighbours, checked in two days later and called the police again, and then found the landlady to get access to the house and then discovered the two bodies. And now they're off work, presumably seeing professionals to work through the trauma. But according to mother of the fecking year it's all the social worker's fault.

I'll admit it riles me up more than it should simply because I don't want to think about the poor kiddo.
Yeah, it's awful. I can't look at the picture of the kid on the BBC, it's one of those horrible stories that has so many what-ifs and the most distressing outcome.